EMPOWERVERSE

@jorgebscomm for @empowervmedia T wo acts of political violence. Two of the world's largest democracies. Two years and two days apart . On January 6, 2021 , supporters of Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol. On January 8, 2023 , supporters of Jair Bolsonaro stormed the Presidential Palace, the National Congress, and the Supreme Federal Court in Brasília — simultaneously, and live on social media. These were not coincidences of the calendar. A new paper from EMPOWERVERSE  titled Democratic Rupture and Media Psychology: A Critical Comparative Analysis of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrection and the January 8, 2023 Brazilian Federal Buildings Attack , argues that they were locally embedded expressions of the same structural moment: one in which social media affordances , political disinformation, and authoritarian populist leadership converge to make anti-democratic collective violence not just possible, but psychologically foreseeable. "Democrac...

@jorgebscomm for @empowervmedia H How do people decide what to believe? Why does misinformation spread so easily? Why do news stories persuade some audiences, alienate others, and disappear entirely for others? And what happens to democracy when journalism, culture, psychology, and algorithms all collide in the same information environment? These are the questions that drive our latest article, Psychology, Culture, Journalism, and Democracy: A Critical Literature Review of Their Intersections in the Digital Age . This interdisciplinary review explores how cognitive processes, cultural values, media systems, and digital technologies interact to shape public knowledge and democratic life in contemporary societies. Journalism as a Psychological Institution At its core, the article argues that journalism is not only a communicative institution. It is also a psychological and cultural institution. News is never merely information. It is interpreted throug...