UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — It's easy to blame algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) for the rise in misinformation and the fraying of America’s social fabric. But what if the real problem is people, not technology? New work from Penn State Professor Ray Block Jr. explores this dynamic and how individuals and community groups can effectively balance diverse sources of information.
Block is a professor of political science and of African American studies at Penn State and the Michael D. Rich Chair in Countering Truth Decay and RAND Corporation. He is the lead author on the paper "Rebalancing the Information Ecosystem and Renewing Shared Societal Commitments for Information Use," published by RAND.
Block's scholarly work includes community organizing and social identity. He discussed the information ecosystem and his broader research on American democracy in this Q&A and on a recent episode of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s Democracy Works podcast.
Q: What is the information ecosystem?
Block: We use the term to describe the really delicate relationships between producers of information, consumers of information and platforms or outlets for information. We believe that information is social. In other words, in order for information to transfer, there are people sending and receiving and making sense of things, the place where all of that is happening is what we're referring to as the information ecosystem.
And like any ecosystem, the information ecosystem is delicate. When things become off in the ecosystem, it can have rippling effects throughout all of the many parts of that ecosystem. We believe that information related issues in the ecosystem can be thought of as threats to the ecosystem. We care about those threats, and we care about sharing ideas that might help us to do something about those threats.
Q: How would you assess the health of America’s information ecosystem?
Block: There was a period of time when my focus [as part of RAND’s Countering Truth Decay Project] was on stopping threats from being too threatening. However, I would say that the proverbial toothpaste is out of the tube at this point. The goal now is to figure out what to do going forward as people who care about democracy. Fortunately for us, democracy is what people decide it is and we have the power to make it work.
Q: What does this work look like in practice?
Block: My co-authors and I think that human interaction and preserving certain norms and standards when it comes to human interaction are extremely important. The way forward is more up to us than I think a lot of people would care to believe, and it starts at the local level. The decisions we make in neighborhoods and communities can help us because that's where the trust is highest. It's where we can learn to be less polarized, where we can develop higher standards for information; how we receive it and how we share it.
Q: What role do influencers and content creators play in the information ecosystem?
Block: The number of content creators is growing and we as scholars and researchers need to gain a better understanding of the environment they’re working in. For example, how do they balance the need to be professionally viable with the need for information integrity? Do those things have to conflict with each other? Are there ways that creators can support one another? If so, how do we create avenues where creators can be viable in a market that's very important to a lot of people, and do so in a way that allows them to keep their voice and information integrity.
Q: What can individuals do to contribute to a healthy information ecosystem?
Block: We can strengthen our ecosystem through everyday choices, like supporting local journalism and participating in community activities. Don't ever give up on the idea that small efforts at the local level aren't important. I think they add up. Collective small actions can ultimately strengthen democracy from the ground up. Democracy is what we do. It's not something written on a piece of paper. It's not a building. Those things help to symbolize and to commemorate what democracy is, but ultimately, it's what we do and the decisions we make. And I’ll never give up on people.