Vaguely related to my everyone is wrong about everything post recently - a Tedx talk that (kind of) addresses the issue of why people are so misinformed, and what might be done about it – Does the media have a duty of care?.

The summary;

In this thoughtful talk, David Puttnam asks a big question about the media: Does it have a moral imperative to create informed citizens, to support democracy? His solution for ensuring media responsibility is bold, and you might not agree. But it's certainly a question worth asking ... (Filmed at TEDxHousesofParliament.)

Framed in the context of the Paisley snail and laws around duty of care, its ultimately a discussion of the role of the media in building an informed democracy.

Personally, I tend to share Kevin Kelly's optimistic view ¹ that, while technology creates new problems, the benefits of the ones that we adopt outweigh the problems that they create. Which means that I do have a belief that things will get better.

But when it comes to the question of how media/communications will lead to a more informed electorate, able to make better decisions about what to do with their power, and a shift of power to those people (as opposed to the politicians, media, corporations etc.)

Its not that I don't see it as a goal. I just don't see a likely path towards it.

Better expressed in his book "What Technology Wants", but I can't find a suitable link. ↩

Some Random Nerd