OF DATA, COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

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Written by schuftan@gmai.com   
Friday, 10 November 2017 21:47

 

OF DATA, COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

 

In development work, there is a tendency to confuse political discourse with technical knowledge, enhancing the power of select experts over a) political actors/activists, and b) over the empirical knowledge of the wider population (Nadia Lambek, Jessica Duncan)

 

1. Since the use of quantitative measurements can be a means to a biased end, data and evidence from the social sciences can be used for regressive ends, especially depending on what is measured. The question for human rights (HR) activists is: Can we, without the economic clout or the power to mobilize citizens, use the fruits of measurement as valuable advocacy tools to promote progressive change in public policies? (Bill Jeffries)

 

2. I do not deny: While measurement is a key component of understanding and addressing development progress, I do want to point out that there are limitations associated with indicator-based measurement tools (think SDGs) including:

 

 

3. Emphasizing the quantification of change can thus lead to mistaking means (using quantitative measures for reporting or tracking social change) for ends (reporting or tracking qualitative transformations). This is often used to stir emotions…* (Think Trump)

*: The Oxford Dictionary added the word post-truth and defined it as the situation in which objective facts or data influence less than calls to emotions and to personal beliefs. There thus is a ‘true truth’ and an ‘emotional truth and the latter can be said to be a lie-transformed-by-an-emotion as long as it becomes the belief of a majority.

 

4. A wider variety of data and news sources was supposed to be the safeguard of a rational age. However, studies repeatedly show that when confronted with diverse information choices, people rarely act like rational, civic-minded automatons. Instead, we are influenced by preconceptions and biases, and we usually do what feels easiest; we gorge on information that confirms our ideas, and we shun what does not. (think human rights) If we see something we do not like, we can easily tap away to something more pleasing. Then we all share what we found with our like-minded social networks, creating closed-off, shoulder-patting circles online. This creates an ecosystem in which the truth value of the information does not matter. All that matters is whether the information fits in our narrative. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/technology/how-the-internet-is-loosening-our-grip-on-the-truth.html?_r=1

 

From data to communications

 

Optimism in the world of today can only mean a lack of ‘true truth’ information. (Albino Gomez)

 

5. In this era of exploding communications, let me here just quote a couple of respectable opinions:

 

 

From communications to the news media

Today, achieving a TV appearance has become a sign of elegance and status… (U. Eco)

6. Best here as well is to quote some more respectable opinions:

 

 

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

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All 400+ Readers are available at www.claudioschuftan.com

 

Postscript/Marginalia

George Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Aldous Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture. (Andrew Postman)

 

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