This is an automatic English translation of the Dutch original.
Are we really as polarised as we make ourselves out to be online? How are we framed or influenced online? SIDN Fonds has approved our application to get a better grip on polarisation.
Post-X Society, Albeda College and the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision have submitted a project to the SIDN Fonds, which has now been approved. Its aim is to counter negative polarisation among young people in secondary vocational education in the Netherlands (MBO). The tools being developed encourage participants to understand how ideas and opinions are selected, framed and presented online, and how this can influence polarisation.
Another important goal of the project is to shed light on the effects of algorithmic amplification. Building on the report “Online Ontspoord” by the Rathenau Instituut, the project offers insight into how digital platforms select certain expressions. For this, a new, AI-based assessment tool is being developed. A social media simulator will also be deployed, along with accompanying workshop materials.
By making the effect of online mechanisms open to discussion, the project aims to boost young people’s capacity to reflect on influence and opinion-forming.
Finally, the project aims to develop the new perspectives and frames that foster positive dialogue: “We see that we live in an era in which our understanding of a “shared reality” is strongly shaped by digital media. These media, however, contain mechanisms that can create a distorted picture. Through this initiative we want to bring these manipulations to light, encourage critical thinking and enable young people not only to consume online media wisely, but also to create more inclusive and more positive narratives. Our aim does not stem from a desire to restore a “shared reality”, in so far as it ever existed at all in the pre-digital era, but to develop skills that let us cope in a post-reality society, by embracing the hybridisation of the online and offline world and therefore striving for a better public debate.”