On Wed, Nov 2, 2016 at 6:52 PM, James Salsman jsalsman@gmail.com wrote:
Do you think a comparison of the effects of bias in individual candidates' articles to the effects [of] systemic bias towards trickle-down austerity economics and the social implications thereof in light of the WP:MEDRS-grade source at http://talknicer.com/ehip.pdf ["Income inequality and health: A causal review" by Pickett & Wilkinson: "The body of evidence strongly suggests that income inequality affects population health and wellbeing"] might produce a helpful indication of where counter-advocacy efforts would best be focused?
I know you didn't ask, but in my opinion, that sentence works better as *un poème concret*.
One "formal" answer to your question would draw on the research you cited, and use the ideas there to specify editorial and other attentional and effort investment policies.
Viz., "Notable topics have attracted attention over a sufficiently significant period of time."
This is quite clearly a "trickle-up" policy: things become notable because of all of the aggregated attention. We can imagine a sort of crisis point at which background noise transforms into a conscious perception. I suspect that's probably a mistaken metaphor, and that consciousness is more like mycorrhizae, like or the Hawkin-Ahmad theory of neurons, in which "the majority of the patterns recognized by a neuron act as predictions by slightly depolarizing the neuron without immediately generating an action potential." So, yes, there is a crisis point but it's not the only interesting thing.
Any massive inequality (income, attention, political perspective) points to a potential crisis. If one wanted to put forth a general policy, it might be to look for what happens before the crisis. For example we could study Psy's 17th single, "Korea" (the 18th being "Gagnam style"), and notice how it anticipates a "breakthrough" both lyrically and in the cinematography of its music video. Or for an example closer to home, look at how your sentence above was coiled like a snake ready to strike.
Still, I think (especially given the examples you've mentioned) it is also important to avoid false comparisons. E.g. what relative weight should be given to Hillary Clinton's email server vs Donald Trump's treatment of women, or what have you. On this point I think Bergson's theory of "false problems" repays study. http://hadideeb.com/journal/2016/7/24/bergson-false-problems.html