Battle For Public Opinion

The online landscape created by social media and widespread internet access has formed an environment where information can come from anywhere and anyone. The key is how to win the public court of opinion in order to validate your information. 

One factor that contributes to the verdict, is the attention factor. Are people actually paying attention to this information? There is a lot of information on the internet that goes under the radar simply because it missing the 'algorithm', or doesn't grab the attention of the public and isn't pushed into circulation by social media sites. There is also plenty of information that does get pushed onto many feeds that is false, but is gaining traction and therefore is more valid in the public's eye. Seeing that others, even those we do not know, are believing a piece of information makes us more inclined to initially also believe it as fact, especially if we don't do any further searching. 

Another factor is AI and artificially altered information. Now that AI is being incorporated into most social media sites and search engines, more and more AI created images, voices, and texts are popping up and being passed off as true fact. Even recently, in the Kendrick vs. Drake discourse that occurred this past week, a song was made by Drake using the AI generated voices of many famous rap legends like Snoop Dogg, who was unaware of the song before its release. Also, several AI met gala looks were trending, initially passing off as real photos, like Katy Perry's two looks which were proven fake as she was not even there. Even though these are seemingly harmless examples, technology being used this way in order to mislead the public into believing information can be very dangerous in the grand scheme of things. 

Finally, the constant access we have to the internet influences public opinion. Being able to go online and search for information or anything and anyone you want requires an abundance on information available online. This has lead to sites like wikipedia, which provides information on practically everything. The thing is pretty much anyone can go in and edit, add, or delete information on wikipedia. This leads to lots of misinformation or joke sites that some may not catch on to. Additionally, being able to go online and voice our opinions, repost, dislike, or comment anytime of the day adds to the mob mentality of public opinion and the anonymity factor of online communication. 

All of these factors can lead to the spread of mass misinformation on social sites, especially those with young demographics. Doctored text messages and edited photos have already encouraged mass waves of hate to content creators on social media showing the effect tech and the pubic opinion has. It seems that all you need to win public opinion is to have as many people believing the information as possible, even if it isn't true. In the long run this can cause a lot of distrust between each other online, in terms of what we post and claim as true. This could also have lasting effects on democracy if doctored/AI generated content is spread about potential candidates that can drastically harm their campaign. 

The mass spread of information can lead to a concept called 'cancel culture', or when a mass amount of people online decide to effectively 'cancel' or stop watching/consuming/buying a creators content for various reasons, like past or present behavior, a post, a whistle blower, who they associate with, etc. This has become very common in recent years especially since influencers have now been around for over ten years, and now have content that may not be politically accurate for current times still available on their accounts. Also, there is much more expected from content creators and public figures, as we now are more aware of the impact their content can have and the amount of people it can potentially reach. Cancel culture shows how information, sometimes fake or doctored, can cause mass shifts in public opinion of trends, brands, people and more.

Some ethical consideration should be taken into account by companies and everyday people when tying to appeal to public opinion. Firstly, because our posts and actions on the internet do not just go away and can cause potential issues in the future depending on the content. Also, we need to take more care in insuring that our information is correct and we are not just trying to appeal to the attention factor. While gaining the attention factor can help with public opinion, once misinformation is spread, public opinion can instead turn the other way, or lasting damage can be done in the information is not corrected. Giving credible information also gives the individual or business/organization credibility in the future.