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A Double-Edged Sword: How Modern Media Affect the Populism Culture?

Nowadays, many media outlets try to delve into far-right concepts. This requires working with a populistic agenda. And it seems even the most credible and unbiased news agency may dance to populists' tune: Although they do not intend to promote far-right agendas, they have become intermediaries, which has come in handy for clever populists.

One of the most prominent exploiters of traditional media, the Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, has consistently benefited from this approach. During the last elections in Hungary, Orban repeatedly talked about European crises to sow the seeds of fear in Hungarian society. Once those narratives were introduced, various media outlets, including the most credible, disseminated them. Although media outlets did so unwittingly, some sociologists discerned an upturn in Orban's rating among Europeans.

It does not boil down to just traditional media. Populists have also mastered various social media. For example, a Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu used TikTok during presidential elections. Although some experts believed that Georgescu wouldn't be a strong competitor, he achieved a formidable result by promoting his agenda via TikTok. The EU institutions and governments found such use of TikTok unfair and harmful to democracy. Moreover, the Romanian intelligence shed another light on this case. It turned out there was a Russian footprint. Ultimately, the government decided to conduct another round of elections due to a cryptic procedure of the first round.

Since populists all over Europe have demonstrated their acumen in using both traditional and social media, EU institutions and local authorities are considering countermeasures. According to an anonymous EU parliamentarian familiar with the matter, key legislative bodies are working on an effective strategy that would leverage radicals' use of media outlets. Although there are no voices on banning platforms like TikTok, some dignitaries believe it would be useful to censure certain content.

Despite all the danger, coming from an increasing use of media platforms to promote an anti-EU agenda, the majority of Europeans consider populists ill-prepared leaders. "It is only natural they gain traction in this chaos, but they won't be good enough in the long run", said a citizen of Germany who has been attending the anti-far-right demonstrations for months.

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Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his soon resignation. On January 6th, the PM of Canada Justin Trudeau decided to drop his office, making a public announcement. It happened against the backdrop of the tough economic situation, the migration crisis, and the departure of his close ally in the government. Also, the impending Trump inauguration made an impact. Canada has been going through a turbulent period for a while. The current government struggles with inflation and a growing unemployment rate. Although some measures were taken, the country has not made a significant step towards overcoming its major problems. According to recent polls, conducted by the Institute of Public Opinion, a high percentage of Canadians do not believe Trudeau's cabinet is able to navigate Canada out of the crisis. Moreover, policymakers attached to PM's party, are experiencing internal divisions over key issues. Having experienced public outrage on the current policymaking, the Minister of Finance had resigned just before Trudeau's announcement. Some experts say such incidents will happen in the government even more, considering Trudeau has left his position in the Liberal Party as well as the chair of PM. So far, many citizens of Canada have expressed their satisfaction with upcoming changes. "We've been messing around with this crisis for too long. It's time to change things", said Amelia from Vancouver. Such a scene has paved the way for right-wing parties, which have become heavyweights in the new opposition. According to some political analysts, there is a likelihood that one of its representatives could take over the PM's chair in the next elections. Yet it is early to jump to unambiguous conclusions: the elections will take place in the Autumn, and until then, the Liberals have to nominate a new leader.

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We live in the diverse world: hundreds of cultures, nations with reach background, controversial points of view, etc. Yet, despite all the differences between people, we are still human beings. In a bid to create a better world for everyone, we should aspire to establish proper relationships between each other. Only by overcoming anger towards someone who is not like us, we would be able to have build a place, filling with friendliness and compassion. So, it spills into a salient question: How to build a good rapport? Although it might sound like a pipe dream, still by aiming this goal, people could enhance their own lives. I would suggest a few options, which could pave the way for this arduous, but still doable goal: 1. Understanding others I reckon it is always easier to hate other cultures rather than put an effort to comprehend it. People's anger does not usually require some intellectual efforts or something akin to this. However, giving up to superficial and lurid emotions is a simple way.

2. By understanding others, people could start showing more respects. Just to make a case for it, a century ago, many nations were fighting each other due to their differences, wishing for territorial and cultural expancies. Being leaded by such values, nations cause two World Wars. Having suffered them, they learned something important: to prevent wars, it is necessary to cooperate.

3. Arguably it has not stopped all the conflicts. There are still many regional battles all over the globe, poverty and food shortages at some spots, religious clashes. Nevertheless, it is not at the same scale as it used to be. Step by step, people get around to finding some tradeoffs between them. It is not easy to create peace everywhere, establish overwhelming comprehension. However, people are learning. By trial and error, we can do better on our way to a robust rapport.

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Scam and what can be done

According to the report of Global Anti-Scam Alliance , people all over the world got scammed on the amount of over $1 trillion. And only 4% of victims have recovered their losses.

Chiefly, scam-related incidents occur through phone calls and text messages. Popular platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp remain primary tools for fraudsters. Despite the fact that many victims have a university degree, yet a good number of people are vulnerable to fraud attacks due to unawareness.

Here are some takeaways, based on F-Secure Living Secure survey:

1. 34% of people have experienced cyber scams during the past 12 months;

2. 85% of people received a digital scam attempt;

3. 80% of respondents worry about their online safety;

4. 54% of cyber scams are conducted via email;

5. 7 in 10 people say that they don’t know who to trust online.

Taking into account this data, it can be concluded that the main reason of the fraudsters' success is illiteracy of their targets. Especially, it is tangible in the context of advanced technologies.

For instance, the use of AI has signigicantly increased the number of cases, related to the scam. Seeing that criminals are able to create diverse images, video or of that ilk with AI, it ease their process of scamming, spicing it up even more.

Nevertheless, the situtation could be improved by steps that would enable people to understand when they become fraudsters' targets. These include:

Protecting personal information - do not share it if it's unnecessary;

Double-check a source - it is crucial to make sure who contacts you and why;

Indentifying red flags - messages that have some sense of "urgency" are often exploited by scammers.

In addition, governments and banks should be more involved in improving of the scam-literacy of its citizens and clients. People could be served up with some short courses, which would delve into the most popular scam schemes, while banks could be more diligent regarding suspicious money transactions. By thorough cooperation of people and different institutions, the whole situation could be enhanced.

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AI (Artificial Intelligence) has deeply rooted in people's lives. One can encounter it almost everywhere - from our phones to places like universities, stores, different public services, etc. It seems some take it for granted, since the world has recently entered the 5th industrial revolution (IR), which includes a broad use of advanced technologies, including AI. Nevertheless, it might be a double edged sword.

Our world is pretty diverse. Countries have different level of development, access to resources, intellectual potential, and so forth. Taking these conditions into account, it can be inferred that the 5th IR, as well as advance of AI, might not serve all involved parties equally.

For instance, on one side there is Canada - a thriving country with plenty of resources and specialists. On the other hand, there are many developing countries such as Brazil or Jordan, which might not benefit from AI in the same way as Canada or countries akin to it. The environment and the level of education are different. Also, even if Brazil and Jordan are able to provide decent education within High Tech field, yet thousands of people would opt for Canada as a place to work and impact, because it can offer way more.

Despite all the disadvantages of AI, such as menace of the higher rate of unemployment, or even its potential to overthrow mankind as someone can think, AI still can significantly ease mundane life. It can simplify all the bureaucracy, existing almost everywhere. Also, it could accelerate finding solutions for some of global problems people face every day. Not to mention that AI is a great educational tool. It all depends on how one uses and applies AI's key abilities. So, it looks like even the developing countries could take advantage of exploring and investing in AI at the same level as the developed ones. In order to shore up their positions, these countries really want take a glance at leaders in AI implementation. According to recent Stanford University index of AI innovations, top-5 key participants consist of the US, China, France, Germany and Canada. Hence, these leaders could be requested for some assistance, their background could come in handy. And, likewise, the developed country might be interested in such collaboration. For instance, it could help to push the process of globalisation. In addition, by using the assistance of their partners, 5 aforementioned pioneers could speed their own progress up.

Each part could take the most of the AI advancement. It just requires multirateral efforts and willingness for mutual progress.

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After a row of unsuccessful matches, Barcelona finally achieved a positive outcome

"Blaugrana" faced an away game against Mallorca on Tuesday. Although guests had had dark times before this game, having lost 3 matches, they were able to solidify their position in the standings. The match ended with Barcelona's landslide victory: 1 - 5. At the beginning of the game, Mallorca had a few good chances to score, and actually got one point, while Barca's players weren't vigilant enough. The first half wound up with an equal score 1 - 1. | Nevertheless, having done some changes during the break, Barcelona's coach popped up the dynamic of the game of his team, and as a result, Barcelona scored 4 balls. After this match, Barcelona holds the first line in the standings with 37 points, while the gap between it and its closest chaser is 4 points. The next game will take place on 7th of December. Barcelona is going to play against Real Betis, which also gained victory in its last game.