Bridge Building
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 3.13.25
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To break out of our information silos — our “bespoke realities” — and begin actively participating in the depolarization of media, we must first focus on building bridges.
The partisan divide has been growing for decades, which has led U.S. adults to seek news only from outlets that align with their existing beliefs. The result is a fragmented media landscape that perpetuates an idea that we are more polarized than we are in reality.
When we are primed for confrontation, we are less willing to change our beliefs. When we are not open to new perspectives, we are less capable of thinking objectively and collaborating effectively.
Our polarization is not a result of our nature, but is a symptom of our media system’s gamification of our attention. Rage bait and controversy drive clicks and engagement, increasing profits for corporate social networks and legacy media outlets that survive on advertising revenue. Major networks are incentivized to push whatever skewed narrative is supported by their owners, partners, editors, and audience.
If we fail to solve this critical issue, our ability to solve increasingly difficult problems, grow as a society, and increase the global standard of living will be greatly limited. Fortunately, we now have the technological capability to create a new media system.
Aemula is building this new media system by cultivating a community capable of building bridges. By connecting independent journalists directly to paid subscribers, we can remove outside influence from our media ecosystem. We can empower readers to freely discover nuanced perspectives from independent writers so they can come to their own conclusions. We can incentivize real people to share real news.
This week, we highlight writers who are focused on building bridges between ideological communities, supporting the mission of depolarizing today’s media.
Builders
Written by the Builders Movement, a network committed to overcoming toxic polarization and solving our toughest problems together.
“If enough people adopt a Builders Mindset, we can replace our toxic “us vs. them” culture with one of curiosity, compassion, courage, and creative innovation.
It won’t be easy. The incentives in our media, social algorithms, and politics reward and amplify the conflict entrepreneurs working overtime to divide, diminish, and destroy.
Our approach is to reach and teach people at scale with powerful content, equip them with new skills and innovative tools, and mobilize the growing Builders movement with grassroots civic programs to hold political leaders accountable for being Builders.
It’s time to take action. Join us. Be a Builder.”
Additionally, this week’s Builders newsletter featured an Aemula shoutout!
“Many people think news and social media systems contribute to polarization. Here are a couple new platforms trying to shift incentives and reduce toxicity:
A new way to do news: Aemula is a decentralized platform for independent journalism. Check out Aemula.”
Better Conflict Bulletin
Written by journalists and researchers Jonathan Stray, Nabeel Khan, and Eve Sneider.
“Maybe you call it polarization, or the culture war, or maybe just the fight for our democracy, but none of these really covers the sprawling dysfunction of our politics. Let’s face it: we’re fighting, and it’s turning ugly.
Our mission is to:
clarify the most controversial issues in a calm, empathetic, and evidence-based way
cover the people and organizations who are finding better ways to navigate the culture war
support those who work across divides, regardless of their politics
Our purpose isn’t to end the conflict, because we believe that conflict is part of how societies change for the better. Instead we ask: what would it mean for this conflict to be better? We cover the latest conflict research, and spotlight those who are succeeding in crossing political divides. We aim to be one part realpolitik and one part idealism.
We are not apolitical. We do make hard calls when we think someone needs to concede in the interest of moving forward. We aren’t impartial, but multi-partial: we want to help everyone get what they want, if that's possible. And when conflict does escalate, we want to contain the contest of force so that fewer people get hurt.”
Beyond Intractability
Written by Guy and Heidi Burgess, a husband and wife team of Ph.Ds who have been studying, teaching about, and practicing conflict resolution for over 40 years.
“Beyond Intractability is an online knowledge base focused on helping people in all walks of life better deal with difficult, long-lasting, and intractable conflicts. While some of BI's material is applicable to interpersonal conflicts, most of our focus is on larger scale conflicts—those tearing apart communities, nations, and international relations.
Three beliefs guide our efforts.
Destructive Conflict is the Most Serious Threat to Our Common Future. It ruins personal lives, prevents us from solving common problems, and underlies dystopian trends toward authoritarianism, chaos, and large-scale violence.
Conflict Problems Are Extraordinarily Multifaceted and Complex. Successfully addressing the many challenges posed by destructive conflict will require a very large-scale effort that mobilizes the full range of human ingenuity.
We All Have a Role to Play In Promoting More Constructive Conflict. Community and societal-level conflict cannot be solved by one side over-powering another, nor can they be solved by leaders dictating a prescribed solution. Everyone has to be involved by changing their own behaviors, hopes, and expectations so that together we can forge a community or a nation in which we all want to live.”
Interested in cross-posting your content to Aemula? Reach out to writers@aemula.com to get started! With cross-posting, you can:
Instantly expand your audience
Increase your earnings
Maintain full ownership of your work
Plus, you will have the opportunity to access community resources and grants to support the content you want to create! Cross-posting comes with no costs, no obligations, and you can stop or remove your content at any time.
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If you want to support any of the writers we spotlight in our Substack, we highly encourage you to subscribe to their individual publications. If you want to support independent journalism more broadly, we offer both paid and free subscriptions for you to stay informed!
All Substack subscription revenue is reinvested directly into the independent journalism community.
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We would love to hear your thoughts on our mission in the comments!
