Kathleen Hall Jamieson on the resilience of American democracy

Minnesota native Kathleen Hall Jamieson was back — virtually — in her home state last week to talk about the prospects for improving American civic life and public discourse. She's the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the co-founder of FactCheck.org

Jamieson says we all need to be exposed to what she calls "a factually certifiable world."

“Our biases increase the likelihood that we're uncritical about anything we're predisposed to believe,” she said adding that the resilience of our democracy depends on people seeing the world accurately so they are less likely to be susceptible to deceptions and misinformation.

The era of “Walter Cronkite” — the one trusted media voice — has passed by, Jamieson said.

“There is no longer a voice that has the trust of the American people,” she said.

We need to search for credible and trusted voices. If you share things on social media, Jamieson points out, “every one of us is a Walter Cronkite to some other people!” She urges extreme caution to be sure you are not passing along information that is not factual or true.

“Familiarity increases perception of accuracy,” so don’t be easily fooled. As for fact-checking, Jamieson says we need to do more than “chase distortion. We need to find the underlying deceptions.”

Communication, at its most basic level, needs to be about what’s “consequential.”

University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs moderated the discussion hosted on Feb. 18 by the University of Minnesota Humphrey School.

Use the audio player above to listen to the program.

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