Social networks pose very complex challenges to governments. Those who want to sell news have become very good at creating clickbait on negative news, knowing that we are naturally more sensitive to this kind of news. Social media discourse also contributes to exaggerating minority positions. Even scientific knowledge, which is one of the factors informing good government policy, can be challenged that way, as we have seen during the pandemic. Even more worrying, social media has a feedback effect on traditional media and mainstream politicians are tempted to join in the populist drive. What can be done to counter this trend?

Answers by Emiliano Grossman, a researcher at Sciences Po’s Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics. His research focuses on political  life  institutions in Europe and more specifically in France. 

Additional resource

Emiliano Grossman, Media and Policy Making in the Digital Age, Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 25, pp. 443-46

Recorded on 14th September 2023.
Conversations with Sergei GURIEV  is a podcast by Sciences Po. Hélène NAUDET supervised the production of this series. The Sciences Po audio department produced and mixed it. 

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