The great Post Office scandal
We are sure some of you will have been watching the dramatisation of the Post Office scandal on ITV, Mr Bates vs the Post Office. The series has made the plight of the innocent postmasters a public talking point.
What some of you may not know if that there was an extensive investigation into this massive miscarriage of justice in 2020 by BBC Radio 4. There was also a book The Great Post Office Scandal published in 2021 by Nick Wallis, who was the investigator in the Radio series. So, if TV dramatisation is not your favoured way of learning about a subject, then do pop in and order a copy.
The current outrage at the treatment of Post Office employees due to a slick media production does make us think about the influence of the media in our lives. How in todays world ‘facts’ presented in film seem to be far more engaging and real than those presented in podcasts or books. We also wondered why a fault with a computer system was ignored and believed to be accurate, whereas people were not listened to and isolated from others in the same plight. Lots of questions and so we thought we would recommend some books that might help understanding of some of the complexities the media, computing and AI.
Perhaps a revisit of Naom Chomsky’s Media Control, originally published in the wake of 9/11 . Maybe you could dip into The Misinformation Age and how false beliefs spread where philosophers of science, Cailin O’Connor and James Weatherall, argue that social factors, rather than individual psychology, are what’s essential to understanding the spread and persistence of false beliefs. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence is a timely and accessible interrogation of the technology that seems poised to either elevate or destroy us. Or for a peek into possible futures, why not try AI 2041 Ten visions for our future. Just some ideas to help make some sense of things.
