Introduction
I love it when we have presentations, as I know I will learn something new. Everyone did so well, and each group introduced a new topic to me. The few things that I noticed and took away were media consolidation, echo chambers, confirmation bias, propaganda, mismal and disinformation, and propaganda.
My Question
These presenters were good, but I noticed something while the presentation continued. I gathered that Echo chambers are an environment where people only encounter information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. These sounded very similar, and I am confused about the difference. I was going to ask about these in class, but I was sick that day, and my voice was practically gone, so I looked it up. I found an article on the National Library of Medicine that I’ll cite below that says the difference: “confirmation bias (reinforcing one’s attitudes and beliefs) and echo chambers (i.e., hear their voice).” So this, to me, says confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out information that confirms your existing beliefs actively. At the same time, an echo chamber is an environment where you are only exposed to information that reinforces your beliefs. This background makes the difference more clear.
My Comments
Again, my class always has engaging presentations, and I always have little comments hyping them up. For the Propaganda person, I have to say I Like the image usage; I feel like it reflects the topic itself as most tatics use images and posters to have a response. The classmate talking about mal and disinformation, the part where he says Brad Pitt is dead, was funny. As you said, if he passed and his movie came out, that wouldn’t make sense. This was a great way to show false information.
Conclusion
The presentations helped me clarify the difference between confirmation bias and echo chambers: confirmation bias involves actively seeking information that supports our beliefs, while echo chambers are environments that reinforce them. Alternative media plays a key role in breaking these cycles by offering diverse perspectives and challenging biases. Supporting independent media ensures a more informed and critical public discourse in an era of widespread misinformation. Alternative media fosters a more open exchange of ideas, promoting better media literacy and accountability.
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Modgil, S., Singh, R. K., Gupta, S., & Dennehy, D. (2021, November 20). A confirmation bias view on social media induced polarisation during covid-19. Information systems frontiers : a journal of research and innovation. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8604707/#:~:text=While%20the%20effects%20of%20SMIP,%2C%20hear%20their%20own%20voice).
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