I was in college when I first came across the phrase “marketplace of ideas” in reading assigned for a class. If we instead view markets, as economists like Joseph Schumpeter and Friedrich Hayek did, as dynamic and evolutionary processes fueled by the exchange of information, then we might take the metaphor as a sign of great hope for social media as a positive force in our political exchanges. Others might say the metaphor has never been more apt, that we are witnessing “market failures” in our public discourse that must be regulated away by governments.īoth groups fall victim to the trap currently laid in the vast majority of Econ 101 textbooks, which teach a dialectic between an idealized perfect market and market failures that must be regulated away. On the surface, problems we experience today, like trolls, fake news, and the power of large corporations controlling social media platforms, might be seen as calling the marketplace metaphor into question.
A BUMPY ROAD TO ACTION RESEARCH FREE
The marketplace of ideas, that famous metaphor suggesting that the truth will emerge in a forum of free speech and public debate, is failing and must be fixed.
The view that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are corroding our public discourse has become increasingly accepted wisdom, the starting point for a debate rather than the debate itself.