 How do we know what we know (again)? ◦ Attitudes and beliefs ◦ Four categories of beliefs 

 How do we know what we know (again)? ◦ Five kinds of beliefs 

 Links between the psychological and the social ◦ Perception, cognition, and knowledge  ◦  Operator game  Fallibility of eyewitness testimony  A general lack of

 Science under attack! ◦  One person’s fact…  The challenge of a 24-hour media culture ◦  Manipulating images and information to distort or mislead

 More niches than ever before  We can indulge our biases  We can confirm existing beliefs  But more connections can lead to less information! ◦ “closeted view of the world” ◦ “seeking out others who share our view”

 Cognitive dissonance ◦  Selective exposure, defined ◦ Brock and Balloun experiment  We’re not just limited to those who share our geographic location…  Not just the “hard” news…  Not just information, but people, too!

 of the message ◦ Lowin’s experiment, and who is more picky  Weak and strong consonant messages  Weak and strong dissonant messages ◦ harbor greater partisan selectivity in their news sources  Right-leaning blogs tend to cite other right- leaning blogs. Left-leaning blogs are more open…  It’s not that Liberals don’t…

 Creating a competing narrative  Using media fragmentation ◦   Social networks to spread information

 Democrats and Republicans viewed the ads in different ways  Two competing versions of reality! ◦  “Shared truths”  Limited exposure to these messages to the “believers”

 Why?  1 st article appeared 3 months after the 1 st press conference ◦  Front door and other doors… ◦

 ◦ Going to outlets where you were more likely to reach those who already agree with your message  ◦  Selective exposure and ignoring the “facts”  The future ◦ 501 (c) (3) ◦ 501 (c) (4)