Reducing Polarization in Our Society

Media literacy is emerging as a critical academic discipline to enhance our ability to responsibly examine, create and share media. LJCDS is committed to developing a world-class media literacy program to help students navigate the complex media landscape, recognize their biases and identify credible sources.

Earlier this year, we invited Vanessa Otero to campus. Vanessa and her team of trained analysts at Ad Fontes Media examine and categorize news content with an overarching goal to decrease the polarization in our society. She spoke with faculty/staff and parents along with classes in the Middle and Upper School.

The world today is complicated. Technological advancements have ensured that we are more connected than ever before. A simple hashtag (#) can create a movement with an international reach. Yet in many ways, we have never been more disconnected. We can interact with one another on an unprecedented scale.

Understanding why people choose a particular position on an issue could provide clues to help us reduce polarization in our society. It is widely accepted that group affiliation is a strong driver of how we approach challenging issues. As soon as we identify as a member of one group or another, partisan identity can make us more accepting of information that supports our beliefs and more critical of information that contradicts them.

Vanessa shared that our group affiliations are nuanced, and often our decisions come from our moral values. Additionally, for a specific issue, it seems that only a small subset of values becomes relevant to which position we choose. For example, of those who agree with forgiving student loans, the moral values that determine that position may include empathy, forgiveness or compassion. These are all wonderful values. Those who disagree with loan forgiveness may focus on individual responsibility, hard work or accountability. Again, these are good values. Furthermore, people who do not support student loan forgiveness may support universal health care because for this issue, the values of respect, human dignity or caring may be most important to them. People approach each issue with specific values in mind.

We bring guest speakers to our campus to expose ourselves to different perspectives that may advance our point of view. After Vanessa’s visit, we suspect more people are eager to learn about the moral values that shape a person’s position on an issue. We can easily disagree with a policy position, but it is much harder to disagree with individual values. Like Vanessa Otero, LJCDS is looking for ways to make the world a better place.

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