How falsehoods spread

While I was scanning through Business Contact's, a Dutch publishing company, guide for the upcoming months, I added one book in particular to my wish list. On Rumors. How falsehoods spread, why we believe them, what can be done by Cass R. Sunstein. And I'm particularly interested in the story aspect of this book.

Cass R. Sunstein is Profesoor of Law at Harvard Law School and head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House.

In On Rumors he states that people are being misled all the time. Cunning rumor propagators try to damage reputations of the government, companies and individuals. Sunstein writes about real world examples and behavioral studies in order to explain why certain rumors are so wildly and widely spread.

In certain aspects Sunstein's book seems to be very controversial concerning the American First Amendment. Some blogs (like Giovanni's World, Lady Libertas, David Drake) claim that his influential place in the White House will create new laws about publishing opinions, truths and commentary online. In other words: censorship.

I'm curious.

Tour de France & Avignon Theatre Festival

A few years ago I took a closer look at the relation between sports and antique theatre. My observations were largely focused on stadium sports both indoor and outdoor in which the modern stadium functions as a ‘squared’, a duplicated antique amphitheatre.

Art connoisseur and curator Jan Hoet touches the subject in today’s edition of De Standaard. Hoet is writing a daily column during the Tour de France and defines the Tour as France’s largest street theatre.

In his words and my translation: “In arts and culture everyone is focusing on the Avignon Theatre Festival. And they’re absolutely right, but France’s largest street theatre has started more than two weeks ago. With professional actors providing an indescribable spectacle and a hard to match public interest.”

You can expect more about cycling and narrativity soon.

Why stories...

Stories dominate everyone's life.

In his essay The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes a concept called 'the narrative fallacy'. When confronted with a world full of facts, we create stories around these facts. We need stories. We even need them to remember facts and ideas. Chip and Dan Heath, respectively professor at Stanford University and a renowned consultant/researcher, explain that stories are one of the key elements to make ideas stick, as they meticulously explain in Made to Stick.

Blame it on my education in literature but during the last years the topic grabbed my attention stronger than ever before. Working as editor-in-chief for a few sports show on Belgian national television I got fascinated by the different ways journalists report a story. I started collecting information at random without having a clue where to start.

This blog is my attempt to save my thoughts, to share my ideas and to start a digital conversation with you. And digital conversations are – in my eyes – modern, frequently used forms of stories.

You're always welcome to join this conversation.