Failures in the Marketplace of Ideas: Misinformation, Disinformation and the Affordable Care Act

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Date
2015-06-03
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
A healthy democracy requires an informed citizenry with access to accurate information. There is evidence that misinformation is prevalent in our society on topics of public policy. This paper examines how citizens become misinformed and if the media and political elites might be contributing to the problem. This paper examines misinformation in context of the theory of democracy as a marketplace of ideas where the truth, given a free and open encounter with other ideas, will prevail. Given the existence of misinformation, this research asked what market failures might be prohibiting the truth-seeking function of the marketplace from work properly. This research answers these questions using case studies, comparative analysis, and analysis of public polling data. The research concludes that misinformation is both present and persistent on an important topic of public policy, the Affordable Care Act. This paper finds five marketplace failures that allow misinformation to proliferate: weakened or divided countervailing institutions, press responding to economic incentives over accuracy, dishonest political speech as a result of short office tenure, a lack of punishment mechanisms for dishonest political speech, and a polarized, niche media bubble.
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Keywords
misinformation, disinformation, health care policy, the Affordable Care Act, ACA, lies, framing
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