Jorge's Blog

Photo: Anna Keibalo via Pexels · Pexels License A headline can do a remarkable amount of work in very few words. It can tell us what happened, identify someone responsible, signal urgency and suggest how we ought to feel about the story. It can also make an interpretation sound like an established fact. One useful moment for me occurs when I notice that a headline has led me towards a conclusion before I have read the article. That is not evidence of deliberate manipulation. Headlines have limited space, and editors have real decisions to make. But it is a reason to notice where the words end and my own inference begins. When I use the phrase “epistemic communication”, I mean something quite practical: paying attention to how claims acquire the appearance of knowledge as they move between people. The headline tells me what to look at. I still need to decide what the evidence allows me to conclude. A report is not t...

Photo: Max Bonda via Pexels · Pexels License I studied journalism long before I became interested in psychology, adult education and the questions about communication that occupy so much of my attention today. At the time, I probably thought of journalism as preparation for a particular profession. Looking back, I am beginning to appreciate something else: it also taught me a way of approaching information. What deserves attention? What needs explaining? What can be left out without losing something important? And how do we turn a great deal of material into something another person can actually follow? Those questions have followed me much further than I might once have expected. Journalism taught me that communicating more information is not necessarily the same as communicating better. The discipline of choosing One of journalism's most useful lessons is that information has to be organised. A report ca...

Photo: Macourt Media via Pexels · Pexels License C ommunication often begins with something we can control: the words we choose, the explanation we give, the image we publish. What happens afterwards is much less tidy. Psychology has made me increasingly curious about that second part. Once a message reaches another person, it encounters attention, emotion, trust, memory and judgement. I have started to realise that some of the most useful questions about communication begin precisely where control over the message ends. Communication often begins with something we can control, but what happens afterwards is much less tidy. From message to encounter Attention is now one of the first places I prefer to look. A message can be clear and accurate yet barely register if something else is competing for attention. Research on selective attention is a useful reminder that processing is selective rather than an exhaustive re...

H ow do people decide what to believe? Why does misinformation spread so easily? Why do news stories persuade some audiences, alienate others, and disappear entirely for others? And what happens to democracy when journalism, culture, psychology, and algorithms all collide in the same information environment? These are the questions that drive the article   "Psychology, Culture, Journalism, and Democracy: A Critical Literature Review of Their Intersections in the Digital Age" . This piece offers an interdisciplinary review of how cognitive processes, cultural values, media systems, and digital technologies interact to shape public knowledge and democratic life today. At its core, the article argues that journalism is not only a communicative institution. It is also a psychological and cultural institution. News is never just “information”. It is interpreted through identity, emotion, trust, social belonging, and the mental shortcuts we all use to make sense of a complex world....

Photo: Thirdman via Pexels · Pexels License A report about a failing public service can tell us something essential. It can expose a gap between what people need and what an institution provides. But once the problem is clear, I sometimes find myself wanting another part of the story: has anybody tried to address it? That question does not cancel the first. It follows it. I wrote about solutions journalism when this blog was quite new. Looking back, I think I was trying to describe why the second question interested me. I did not want journalism to become more comforting. I wanted it to reveal more of what was actually happening. Showing what is wrong is necessary. Asking what has been tried may make the account more complete. A response is part of the story Take a hypothetical report about a long waiting list. The first questions might be how many people are waiting, how long they wait and what explains the delays. Those are important ...