'Angertainment', algorithms and the online outrage industry

Political advisor Ed Coper on the cold-blooded machine that is feeding angry people angry content online to make them even angrier, and what we can do about it.

Ed Coper is a political advisor and communications consultant who has worked for the Australian Labor Party, and for progressive lobby groups.

Over the past few years, he has noticed what everyone else has - people on both sides of the divide becoming increasingly vocal and angry about their politics online.

While there's no shortage of things to get outraged about in today's world, no matter where you lie on the political spectrum, Ed argues our rage is being monetised cold-bloodedly by social media platforms.

This digital, online machine has planted us in what he calls the era of 'angertainment', where an entire outrage industry is harvesting our worst impulses with algorithms that deliberately trigger the caveman switch in our brains that keeps us alert for potential threats.

But there is an antidote.

Ed says we need to understand this machine in order to build guardrails that preserve democracy, heal divisions and protect future generations from the "angry clowns" who currently rule the attention economy.

Angertainment is published in Simon and Schuster.

This episode of Conversations explores politics, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, divisive society, social cohesion, left versus right, attention spans, war, Trump, Putin, Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, elections, World War 3, the future, chronically online, rage bait, internet trolls, keyboard warriors, content farming, bots, Russia, Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Get Up, populism, political ideology, transgender issues, attention economy, MAGA, the woke left, polarised society, family violence, violence against women, misogyny, entertainment industry, Hollywood, nihilism, conservatives, progressives.

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