discuss how one can overcome partisanship and form beliefs more objectively

Overcoming Partisanship

In Part II of the assignment, you will think about how one can combat partisan tendencies, specifically how partisanship can affect someone’s engagement with media and authorities, and how a good critical thinker will debias themselves and engage with media. Your Part II essay must be, at least, 1,200 words (do not write significantly more than this).  In Part II of the assignment, you will be thinking about how the media sources someone selects. And the authorities they choose to trust can harden partisanship. And further negatively impact one’s ability to form true beliefs. In this section, you are beginning to discuss how one can overcome partisanship and form beliefs more objectively.

The second half of “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles ” will help inform your essay, along with the articles below. First, I want you to watch the video “The moral roots of liberal and conservatives (Links to an external site.)” and read (and take careful notes on) “The Moral Stereotypes of Liberals and Conservatives: Exaggeration of Differences across the Political Spectrum. ” These resources demonstrate thinking outside of the echo chamber and epistemic bubble [For what it is worth, I don’t actually agree with several of the conclusions made, but I still think they are good examples of non-bias thinking].

Consequently, watch the videos, “Media and the Mind (Links to an external site. The Dark(er) Side of Media (Links to an external site.),” “Media Skills (Links to an external site.),” and “Future Literacies (Links to an external site.).” Take notes on these videos, as they provide background on one of the issues at the heart of this part of the assignment.  After reflecting on all of the sources above, carefully read and take detailed notes on “False Polarization: Debiasing as Applied Social Epistemology .” Note: this is a complex, sophisticated article. You will need to take your time reading it (and probably take lots of breaks).

 Further Guidelines

It is very important, though, to understand the arguments and outline the article thoroughly. When you’ve made your way through it, go back to the second half of “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles ,” where the author discusses the solutions for overcoming bias. Lastly, read the (relatively simple) chapter, “Care and Feeding of Mediated Me .” Take careful notes on this chapter, as well. I expect your essay to cover the debiasing strategies from the “False Polarization” article, the escaping strategies of the “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles” article, and the strategies for evaluating media sources in the “Care and Feeding of Mediated Me” chapter. An excellent essay will incorporate ideas from the other resources I provide in this section, as well

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