By Holland Cooke
Consultant
In “When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows” (Scribner) cognitive scientist Steven Pinker unpacks a deceptively simple idea: Society runs on common knowledge. Not just what people know individually, but what they know OTHERS know-they-know.
Read that again, aloud. It describes the invisible wiring that drives humans to coordinate, trust, cooperate, and sometimes revolt.
If that sounds abstract, it shouldn’t. Radio and television are the most powerful common knowledge machines ever invented. And in an era when media fragmentation has turned audiences into isolated microtribes, broadcasters who understand Pinker’s point gain a strategic advantage.
Broadcasting creates the “Shared Reality” communities run on
When a radio or TV station says, “Schools are closed,” that’s not just information. It’s a signal that everyone else in town heard the same thing. That shared certainty is what lets a community move in sync. Pinker reckons that this is the essence of coordination: people don’t just act on facts – they act on what they believe others believe.
This is why broadcasters remain indispensable during storms, emergencies, elections, and civic moments. Digital platforms can inform individuals. Only broadcasting can inform everyone at once, and – crucially – make it known that everyone else heard it too.
Trust and legitimacy flow from common knowledge
Pinker notes that institutions derive their authority from shared understanding. Money works because everyone knows everyone else accepts it. Laws work because everyone knows everyone else knows the rules.
Local broadcasters occupy that same psychological space.
A trusted anchor or morning host doesn’t just deliver news – they confer legitimacy. When they say, “Here’s what’s happening,” they’re not merely reporting; they’re establishing the community’s shared frame of reference. In a fragmented media world, that’s gold.
Dueling Realities: FOX News vs MSNow
Inside each bubble, people know what everyone-like-them knows. When national narratives clash, local broadcasters become the last shared reality left.
Local radio and TV, by contrast, still operate in the realm Pinker describes: weather, schools (and EVERYTHING ELSE that triggers a parent’s concern), roads, emergencies, local elections, shared rituals and routines. These are not ideological. They’re lived. Local broadcasters still produce the kind of common knowledge that makes a town function. Cable networks and partisan talk radio produce the kind that makes a tribe feel coherent.
Local broadcasting is still where a community becomes a community.
Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn