"How the Rise of the Daily Me Threatens Democracy"

Would you like to subscribe to the "Daily Me"--a newspaper personalized to include topics that interest you? In his editorial, Cass Sunstein, a legal scholar and professor, gives reasons for why this would be a bad choice for you and democracy.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Media in a Democracy, Daily Me, The Newspaper Is Dying, Facebook Photos Sting, Abolish high school football, Facing Consequences, Time to raise the bar, New Michigan Graduation Requirements, Why I Hate Cell Phones, Editorial Cartoons, Let's Hear It for the Cheerleaders, Girl Moved to Tears, In Depth, but Shallowly, Advice to Youth, The War Prayer, Gambling in Schools, How to Poison the Earth
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. forum
    a public meeting or assembly for open discussion
    This behaviour is reinforced by the rise of social networking forums, collaborative filtering and viral marketing.
  2. deluge
    fill or cover completely, usually with water
    Candidates in the US presidential race can construct information cocoons in which readers are deluged with material that is, in their eyes, politically correct.
  3. squelch
    suppress or crush completely
    Aside from increasing extremism, discussion had another effect: it squelched diversity.
  4. inclination
    an attitude of mind that favors one alternative over others
    The result is group polarisation, which occurs when like-minded people speak together and end up in a more extreme position in line with their original inclinations.
  5. corroborate
    establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
    The second reason is that when people find their views corroborated, they become more confident and so are more willing to be extreme.
  6. contrary
    in an opposing direction
    Many popular bloggers link frequently to those who agree with them and to contrary views, if at all, only to ridicule them.
  7. niche
    a position well suited to the person who occupies it
    To a significant extent, people are learning about supposed facts from narrow niches and like-minded others.
  8. contempt
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    A high degree of self-sorting leads to more confidence, extremism and increased contempt for those with contrary views.
  9. constructive
    emphasizing what is laudable or hopeful or to the good
    Yet given people's new power to create echo chambers, the result will be serious obstacles not merely to civility but also to mutual understanding and constructive problem solving.
  10. inexorable
    impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, or reason
    The Daily Me leads inexorably also to the Daily Them.
Created on Fri Nov 14 12:32:18 EST 2014 (updated Sun Nov 16 00:38:56 EST 2014)

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