Credibility collapse is driving a trust collapse that will drive a democracy collapse

Can a new credibility system help rebuild trust online (and off)?

This article is part of a series of thinking examining modern media and our civic life including my new book For ALL the People coming Feb 23, 2021.

Democracy is a system of faith: our institutions and process work when we imbue them with belief and trust. Misinformation (unintentionally false content) and disinformation (intentionally, nefariously false content) have always been part of our daily information consumption, but the information landscape we live in moves faster and at a volume well-beyond what humans can cognitively handle effectively. And in 2020, according to NewsGuard, unreliable sources nearly doubled their share of information from 2019. Discerning true from false, healthy from unhealthy, productive from nefarious is fundamental to our ability to understand the world and for democracy to function. But in our current media systems, both mis and disinformation are thriving and occupy a larger percentage of the available information than ever.

We used to rely on gatekeepers and institutions to dictate credibility, but they have lost power and control in a new landscape where we are all creators and distributors of content. The systems of distribution and discovery we rely on for storytelling, for entertainment, for news, for information are fundamental to culture and to democracy but have no…