Nolan Higdon Explained

Birth Name:Nolan Higdon
Birth Date:3 November 1983
Birth Place:Owensboro, Kentucky, U.S.
Alma Mater:University of California, Davis, B.A. 2009, San Diego State University, M.A. 2012, San Francisco State University, Ed.D. 2017

Nolan Higdon (born November 3, 1983) is a critical media literacy scholar and media personality. He is also an author and university lecturer of history and media studies. Higdon has been a lecturer at University of California, Santa Cruz[1] and California State University, East Bay.[2] Higdon is considered an expert in critical media literacy,[3] digital culture,[4] higher education,[5] journalism, fake news, and news media history.[3] Higdon is frequently featured as an expert voice in documentaries and news outlets such as ABC,[6] CBS,[7] CNBC,[8] NewsNation,[9] NBC,[10] New York Times,[11] PBS,[12] and the San Francisco Chronicle.[13]

Life

Higdon's education focused on History, Latin American Studies, and Critical Media Literacy Education.[1] In the 2010s, Higdon began writing for Project Censored. One of his first pieces to garner attention was a biography of internet personality Alex Jones.[14]

In 2019, Higdon co-wrote United States of Distraction Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It), with Mickey Huff. Higdon and Huff argue that the implementation of neoliberal policies in the 1970s created weaknesses in the U.S. news media system that Donald Trump exploited. They argued that a dramatic transformation of the U.S. media and education system were needed to strengthen American democracy. The text was lauded by progressives[15] and criticized by conservatives.[16]

In The Anatomy of Fake News (University of California Press, 2020), Higdon argued that the U.S. has always wrestled with fake news. Rather than panic, democracies can mitigate the influence of fake news by making critical news literacy education available to the citizenry.[17] Higdon warned that treating government regulation and censorship as a solution to fake news empowers corporations and government to determine what is true and what is false for citizens.[17] Robin Blom mostly lauded Higdon for making “a convincing argument throughout the book about the need for critical approaches in news literacy education.” However, Blom lamented that “Higdon doubled down on using fake news. Whether he is talking about hoaxes, propaganda, or petty lies…The consistency is praiseworthy, but it also brings us back to square one: What is the actual value of the phrase in public discourse when applied to such a wide range of communication forms?”[18] Wayne Journell celebrated Higdon's history of fake news arguing that it “provides much-needed context for those struggling to understand both the complexities of fake news and how we arrived at the misinformation era we find ourselves in.” Journell wrote “Higdon is at his strongest when providing historical context.” However, Journell's “main criticism” of the book was Higdon's “underlying assumption that consumers of information want accurate information.”[19]

In The Podcaster's Dilemma: Decolonizing Podcasters in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), Higdon and Nicholas L. Baham III surveyed a 100 podcasts to determine how media makers are using podcasting as a space of decolonization.[20] In a review of The Podcaster's Dilemma, University of Toronto’s L. Dugan Nichols said Higdon and Baham “excel at categorizing the gamut of subversive podcasting, informing readers how the hosts of various shows “confront dominant ideologies” (p. 6) through inquiry, criticism, and “cultural reformulation” (p. 6)—which entails the telling of narratives from a subaltern position.” However, Nichols summation of the text was mixed, “Ultimately, The Podcaster’s Dilemma contains ambiguities and omissions that prevent a more nuanced exploration into the world of leftist podcasting. However, academics conducting research in this area would be remiss to neglect this book. It is an essential read for anyone seeking insight on the resistant potential of a digital medium.”[20]

Views

Higdon regularly publishes op-eds on media, education, and politics.[21] [13] [22] [23]

Education

Much of Higdon's work focuses on calling for critical media literacy education to adopted more widely in U.S. schools. In 2023, he warned that schools need to be more proactive in designing and adopting critical media literacy as the rapid innovation in AI in creating complications that beg for critical media literacy education such as deepfakes.[24] [25]

Politics

Higdon has been a critic of partisanship and routinely criticizes the policies and positions of both the Democratic Party and Republican Party. Higdon's work often centers hyperpartisanship as the biggest threat to democracy.[26] [27] Higdon has accused news media of fostering hyper-partisanship to maximize profits. He claims that news media's hyperpartisan approach to reporting conceals where both the Democratic Party and Republican Party agree such as electoral denialism,[28] federal production of reproductive rights,[29] [30] and free speech.[17] As a result, news audiences end uninformed or misinformed.[17]

Free Speech and Censorship

Higdon claims to be an anti-censorship personality and free speech advocate.[31] [32] [33] He has been highly critical of both the Democratic Party and Republican Party for using fake news as a proxy to censor individuals and organizations.[17] Higdon has argued that the Twitter Files reveal that the government – regardless of the party in power – engages in censorship by proxy when they pressure Big Tech to censor content.[17] [34] [35] [36] Higdon wrote "Those interested in protecting Constitutional rights and resisting this intolerance on college campuses today should not necessarily count on liberals to help them. Indeed, it is difficult to take liberal commitments to Constitutional rights seriously when they have been gleefully supporting censorship. Similarly, it is abundantly clear that many conservatives have very limited, ideologically circumstantial commitments to civil rights and free expression."[37] Higdon has been highly critical of the news media's coverage of Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter. He argues that when it comes to free speech, to focus on Musk is to miss how the entire industry of Big Tech manipulates and exploits users.[7] [9] [13] [38] [39] [40] Michael Rectenwald concluded that the critiques of Elon Musk demonstrated that Higdon was anti-free speech[41]

Media

Higdon is highly critical of Big Tech.[10] He claims that Big Tech spreads propaganda to convince audiences that it is an industry motivated by altruism, but in reality, it is just another greedy and corrupt industry that swindles people.[22] [9] [13] Higdon has accused Big Tech of concealing efforts to swindle and exploit schools with altruistic motives such as donating chrome books to schools.[12] Higdon and co-author Allison Butler from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in USA Today explained “Schools are becoming the testing ground for new surveillance technologies in large part because compulsory education makes the vast majority of young people in America a captive audience. Often introduced under the guise of safety, surveillance technologies collect copious amounts of data, beyond what might be needed for educational purposes.”[21]

Selected bibliography

Selected publications

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Nolan Higdon . University of California Santa Cruz . February 11, 2022.
  2. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . History Department . California State University, East Bay . 11 February 2022.
  3. Web site: Riggio . Olivia . Not All Media Literacy Programs Are Created Equal—and Most Have Yet to Be Created . FAIR . 15 December 2020 .
  4. Web site: Fogarty . Morgan . Is Elon Musk Owning Twitter A Bad Idea? . FAIR. 16 April 2022 .
  5. Higdon . Nolan . Being on the Outside of the Inside of the Ivory Tower: Nontenured Part-Time Faculty's Attitudes Toward Their Colleagues and Management . Journal of Education Human Resources . 2023 . e20220014 . 10.3138/jehr-2022-0014 . 255881365.
  6. Web site: President Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin - CSU professor offers his take . ABC7.
  7. Web site: Lee . Mary . Looming staff cuts create tense atmosphere around Twitter . CBS. 3 November 2022 .
  8. Web site: Leonhardt . Megan . MIDDLE-AGED MILLENNIALS Only 12% of older millennials would run for political office—far fewer than any other generation . CNBC. 9 June 2021 .
  9. Web site: Entin . Brian . Jassin . Liz . American oligarchs: Inside the minds of this country's wealthiest people . NewsNation. 2 July 2022 .
  10. Web site: Mathai . Raj . Raj Mathai A Closer Look at Facebook's Whistle-Blower's Testimony . NBC.
  11. News: Bromwich . Jonah Engel . Wertheim . Bonnie . Does Bigfoot Have a Soul? A Radio Host's Audience Ponders . The New York Times . 20 February 2017 .
  12. Web site: Hartmann. Tom . Did Big Tech Make Big Money Spying on Your Kids Featuring Nolan Higdon . Tom Hartmann YouTube Channel.
  13. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . Zuckerberg interview with Joe Rogan was public relations propaganda . San Francisco Chronicle . 2 September 2022 .
  14. Web site: Barrett . Kevin . Project Censored's Nolan Higdon defends his critique of Alex Jones_on The Kevin Barrett Show . Kevin Barrett’s TRUTH JIHAD RADIO . 28 October 2013 . 16 February 2022.
  15. Web site: Stockwell . Norman . What's Wrong with the Media . The Progressive . October 2019 .
  16. Web site: Hardy . Michael . Book Review: Scapegoatting The Media Ignores Other Major Problems in American Politics . Texas Observer . 11 July 2019 . 16 February 2022.
  17. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education . UC Press . US Press . 14 January 2023.
  18. Blom . Robin . Book Review: The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education, BY Nolan Higdon and The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation, by Rainer Greifeneder, Mariela E. Jaffé, Eryn J. Newman, and Norbert Schwarz (Eds.) . Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly . 2021 . 98 . 3 . 968–971 . JMCQ . 10.1177/10776990211021795 . 236300196 . 14 January 2023.
  19. Journell . Wayne . Review: The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education, by Nolan Higdon . California History . 2022 . 99 . 3 . 74–76 . UC Press . 10.1525/ch.2022.99.3.74 . 251336097 . 14 January 2023.
  20. Nichols . L. Dugan . Book Review: The Podcaster's Dilemma: Decolonizing Podcasters in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism, by Nicholas L. Baham III & Nolan Higdon . Television & New Media . 2023 . 24 . 7 . 842–845 . 10.1177/15274764221146187 . 255706534. free .
  21. Web site: Butler . Allison . Higdon . Nolan . Strangers are spying on your child. And schools are paying them to do it. . USA Today.
  22. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . Elon Musk and the oligarchs of the 'Second Gilded Age' can not only sway the public – they can exploit their data, too . The Conversation. 27 April 2022 .
  23. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . Chris Cuomo's comeback tour: Elite lapdogs are always welcome Cuomo's return after being exposed as a propagandist shows how corporate media types aren't held accountable . Salon . 5 August 2022.
  24. Higdon . Nolan . Seeing isn't believing: From Gaza to US politics, deepfake videos are peddling fake news. USA Today.
  25. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . Boyington . Ben . Has Media Literacy Been Hijacked? . Project Censored . 19 March 2019.
  26. Hedges . Chris . The Chris Hedges Report: Mickey Huff & Nolan Higden on the Disappearance of Democratic Debate and Dialogue in America . Scheer Post . 7 January 2023 .
  27. Web site: Shields . Lauren . Dr. Nolan Higdon discusses hyper-partisanship, sensationalism in the media, and the weaponizing of "fake news." . UC Press . PropWatch . 14 January 2023.
  28. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . Huff . Mickey . Election denial and the Big Lie . Salon. 31 October 2022 .
  29. Web site: Novielli . Carole . ANALYSIS Division grows among pro-abortion organizations: 'No one's able to say how bad it is' . The Live Action . 8 July 2022 .
  30. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . Huff . Mickey . Defund the Democrats . Salon . 3 July 2022.
  31. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . How "media literacy" became the new "fake news" . Salon. 14 October 2022 .
  32. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . Media gets it wrong on Elon Musk and Twitter . Salon. 23 April 2022 .
  33. Web site: Higdon . Nolan . The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education . UC Press.
  34. Web site: Scott . Mike . Lecturer of history and media studies, Nolan Higdon, on how to agree to disagree . AM560.
  35. Web site: Hedges . Chris . Why Americans can't debate politics anymore The Chris Hedges Report . RealNewsNetwork.
  36. Web site: Project Censored . Real News Netowrk . THE LONG SILI-CON: POWER & CENSORSHIP IN THE DIGITAL ERA BY TRNN AND PROJECT CENSORED . RealNewsNetwork . 5 May 2021.
  37. Higdon . Nolan . The Bi-Partisan Hypocrisy on Campus Censorship The Response to Recent College Protests Reveals Conservatives and Liberals are Hypocrites when it comes to Civil Rights . SarcasticScholar. 8 November 2023 .
  38. Web site: Twitter Deal on Hold? . NBC.
  39. Web site: Elon Musk's bid for Twitter poses threat to Democracy, says CSU professor . KRON. 22 April 2022 .
  40. Web site: Phan . RSuzanne . ABC News: Quick Bite #:1 To Censor or Not to Censor Twitter--Prof Nolan Higdon, CSU East Bay . YouTube.
  41. Web site: Rectenwald . Michael . Elon Musk's Twitter Gambit and What It Means to the 'Clique in Power' . Ron Paul.
  42. Web site: The Media and Me . Kirkus Reviews . en.
  43. Journell . Wayne . Goldman . J. . Review: The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education, by Nolan Higdon . California History . 1 August 2022 . 99 . 3 . 74–76 . 10.1525/ch.2022.99.3.74 . 251336097 .
  44. Blom . Robin . Book Review: The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education, by Nolan Higdon and The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation, by Rainer Greifeneder, Mariela E. Jaffé, Eryn J. Newman, and Norbert Schwarz (Eds.) . Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly . September 2021 . 98 . 3 . 968–971 . 10.1177/10776990211021795 . 236300196 .
  45. Web site: United States of Distraction F. Kirkus Reviews . en.
  46. Guldin . Rachel . United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It) . Democratic Communiqué . 1 September 2021 . 30 . 1 . 10.7275/5pm7-z291 . 239760949 . 1555-8967.
  47. Burns . Karpani . 'United States of Distraction,' a book review . San Francisco Bay View . 7 May 2020 .

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