Facebook, Disinformation and Democracy w/ Prof. Stanley

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we are excited to one again interview Don Stanley, an award-winning instructor who teaches design, social media, and digital marketing courses for the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication. Don also owns a digital consultancy firm, 3Rhino Media, that provides design and digital marketing services to clients throughout the United States. With Facebook (now Meta!) facing questions from both sides of the political spectrum -- we wanted to get Prof. Stanley’s take on the revelations unleashed by former FB product manager Frances Haugen. Internal company documents suggest that high level FB executives like Mark Zuckerberg were not only aware of evidence showing that its platforms sowed the seeds of divisive politics, but their own internal studies also indicated that Instagram can contribute to mental health issues, particularly among teenage girls. We also talked more broadly about the role that social media plays in our current information environment and the implications for the future of democracy. As always, we thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Stanley, and hope you will too.