Angertainment & Slopulism with Ed Coper

Angertainment & Slopulism with Ed Coper

From Betoota Talks by The Betoota Advocate

May 17, 2026 · 48 min · Season 10 · Episode 35

About this episode

The episode discusses Ed Coper's book 'Angertainment' and its implications on society regarding algorithms and outrage media.

Ed Coper’s new book Angertainment is the starting point for this week’s conversation about algorithms, outrage media and what it’s all doing to society. The book makes a straightforward case: social media doesn’t just reflect our worst impulses, it monetises them. Algorithms reward anger because anger drives engagement. That creates an ecosystem where rage-bait thrives and serious journalism struggles to compete. Outlets like The Betoota Advocate sit comfortably in that ecosystem. Their "conservative rural news" that looks like a duck and quanks, is often circulated by people who don’t always check before they share. Funny, maybe. Harmless, no. When "conservative rural news" content spreads at the same velocity as real reporting, public trust in the whole media landscape takes the hit. The deeper issue is what this does to how people relate to each other. When your information diet is curated by an algorithm optimised for outrage, your perception of the world, and the people in it, gets distorted. That has consequences for communities, for political discourse, and for democracy. We talk through Coper’s framework and ask what, if anything, can…

People in this episode

Guest: Ed Coper

Topics covered

  • algorithms
  • outrage media
  • social media
  • public trust
  • political discourse
  • democracy

Keywords

  • Angertainment
  • algorithms
  • outrage
  • social media
  • journalism
  • public trust
  • democracy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Betoota Advocate

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