Trash TV making people dumber

BATTLE FOR WORLD / NIEMAN LAB | July 30, 2019: The article highlights that the growing stream of fake news reporting is negatively affecting the public. 

“They used accessible language. And that can potentially be very powerful.” A raft of new research released shows that watching junky cable and other lowbrow TV is actually making people dumber – literally lowering their IQs and will make public discourse continuingly difficult. Maybe this is the plan? To degenerate the public into feuding gangs? 

“The language codes that were popularized by TV also made people much more susceptible to the populist party because they used very simple language,” said Ruben Durante, one of the research’s coauthors.

Today’s information technologies particularly social media, virally spread disinformation, cybersecurity breaches, and terrorist propaganda. People are being put on the edge into fear and snappy.

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