Apr 1
Amherst Cinema Amherst, MA
TicketsEthan Zuckerman
Associate Professor of Public Policy, Information and Communication, UMass Amherst
Don't Look Up— Seeing is (not) believing: Navigating mis/disinformation in an era of fake news and digital discourse
Program Description
French sociologist Edgar Morin coined the term "polycrisis" to explain what happens when multiple complex problems intersect, making each harder to solve. Climate change interconnects with rising global inequality, which intertwines with democratic deconsolidation, making each harder to solve. Woven through this polycrisis is mistrust, our loss of faith in institutions meant to help us, doubt that we know—or can know—what's really going on. Can we find a way to wrestle with complex crises so that doubt does not paralyze us into inaction?
Ethan Zuckerman from UMass Public Policy, Communication and Information invites us to look at DON'T LOOK UP through the lens of weaponized doubt... and overconfidence in our own abilities to communicate.
Film Synopsis
Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.
Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), an astronomy grad student, and her professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system. The problem: it's on a direct collision course with Earth. The other problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. With the help of Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), Kate and Randall embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill), to the airwaves of The Daily Rip, an upbeat morning show hosted by Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry). With only six months until the comet makes impact, managing the 24-hour news cycle and gaining the attention of the social media obsessed public before it's too late proves shockingly comical -- what will it take to get the world to just look up?! — Rotten Tomatoes
Photo courtesy of Netflix
About the Speaker
Ethan Zuckerman is associate professor of public policy, information and communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and director of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure. His research focuses on the use of media as a tool for social change, the use of new media technologies by activists and alternative business and governance models for the internet. He is the author of Mistrust: How Losing Trust in Institutions Provides Tools to Transform Them (2021) and Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection (2013)., and co-author with Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci of The Illustrated Field Guide to Social Media, forthcoming on MIT Press.