Friday, October 12, 2018

oakland note about constitutional law



A seed—for an oak, let’s say—is to be known through the growth that results. No two oaks look alike because environmental happenstance is different for each. The origin provides for un-templated adaptation. The seed is a potential for generativity whose exact result cannot be predicted by analysis of the genome. Mutation happens and survives because mutation can be adaptive. Genomes that allow for adaptive mutation are superior to genomes that do not.

So, too, for constitutional law. A constitution initiates rules for a game of political evolution that also provides for changing the rules as time requires. There is evolution, and a point in that evolution—an era, let’s say—becomes the basis for understanding the beginning which has evolved.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

identity mirroring compels viral-ity
among filter bubbles


This is § d of “Section 3: Fake views exploit the appeal of valid drama.”


A message (posting, Tweet, Instagram, etc.) “goes viral” by media users who are seeing their earlier choices of source preferred via “Likes,” “Follows,” and clicks that have unwittingly caused a data profile of preferences. News/views feeds imply (or trope) a sphere of source value that altogether (across sources) mirrors one’s online identity or medial personality that has been built through “Likes,” etc. Thereby, duplicitous sources employ their access to data archives to play into “potential pathways of influence, from increasing cynicism and apathy to encouraging extremism“ (source A) inasmuch as identity comfort prevails over interest in validity. Frivolous and casual attention is easier than astute and deliberative attention:

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

fake views as narrative mode of fakery throughout markets


This is § c of “Section 3: Fake views exploit the appeal of valid drama.”


The “genre” of fake news tropes a more general issue of fakery in media—”junk media,” it’s called, which is hardly new: Unreliable sourcing (“the more general problem of misinformation” [source A]) is as old as “tabloid” press, now commonly as “low-quality information online” [A]. Media “vehicles” have been serving dramatically hyped content/products for as long as there has been marketing.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

“fake news”


This is § a of “Section 3: Fake views exploit the appeal of valid drama.”

news: “a report of a recent event, new information, fresh tidings” (Merriam-Webster Unabridged online).

But that standard definition doesn’t indicate the most defining aspect of news: the report or the information is allegedly important. Reporting as news implies a claim of urgency. The report is not only confidently evidential, but the act of reporting can be credibly postured as a sharing of importance or urgency about something confidently evidential (not just dramatically appealing). The medium may posture itself as a reliable source of importance, thus being a news medium.