Alan Miller: How to Know What to Believe
Alan Miller, NLP’s CEO and founder, was interviewed by the Aspen Institute for its Disinfo Discussions digital series. In the conversation, Alan examined the role of news literacy and education as an effective countermeasure to the spread of mis- and disinformation. “We don’t tell people what to think. We are giving them the tools to develop how to think… All sources, even the most credible sources, combine news and opinion, advertising. They’re all, in some way, potentially flawed. Bias creeps in and mistakes are made – it’s inadvertent. So, we really want to give people the ability to make those judgments for themselves and to decide, ‘Should I trust this? Should I share this? Should I act on it?’.”
Listen to the full interview here.
Alan also was a guest on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour podcast, where he spoke to the former public interest lawyer and presidential candidate about the benefits of being news-literate. In response to Nader’s question about how young people classify themselves based on their political beliefs, Miller said, “When people tend to see their news and information through prisms of red and blue, they see the world in terms that are more black and white. And they close themselves off from ideas that contradict their beliefs and let their emotions overwhelm reason and evidence…I think it’s critically important that we encourage them to both have the skills to determine what’s credible, to be mindful about what they’re consuming, but also to get a wider array of sources and to challenge their beliefs.”
Listen to the full interview here.