Former President Barack Obama on Monday criticized the current media environment for its role in preventing healthy, civic debate by reinforcing consumers' opinions rather than challenging them.
Obama, speaking at the University of Chicago for his first public appearance since leaving office, cited a series of "daunting" problems that he said the country could solve if not for its "politics and civic life." The media, according to Obama, combined with factors like gerrymandering and "money in politics," has further polarized American politics.
"Because of changes in the media, we now have a situation in which everybody is listening to people who already agree with them," Obama said at an event the university billed as a "conversation on community organizing and civic engagement."
"We now have a situation in which everybody is listening to people who already agree with them," Obama continued.
The former president added that consuming such media allows Americans to "further and further" reinforce "their own realities to the neglect of the common reality that allows us to have a healthy debate, and then try to find common ground and actually move solutions forward."