Cultural Pessimist View on new media

Question 1

More info is not necessarily good - Information Overload

Answer 1

Information overload = too much data or info on something

media users cannot properly process all the info and feel overwhelmed and fatigued

users may become angry which can lead to negative side effects
EG leaving nasty comments on blogs

constant news feeds can lead to society being ‘distracted by the news’

rather than than taking time to look at one thing in depth we look at multiple things at face value or just on a surface level

As a result we end up with a shallower understanding of the world.

Question 2

More info is not necessarily good - repeated content

Answer 2

There may be more info, news channels and blogs etc

but a lot of the content is just copied, recycled or modified slightly
EG Love Island UK and Love Island Australia & different news channels reporting on the same stories or the same stories being reported on BBC News channel and website

this dumbs-down audiences (EG shorter attention spans) and exposes them to repeated representations

Gerbner Cultivation Theory - these repeated representations form the basis of our constructed identities and we come to believe that they are true

can result in negative stereotyping in society.

Question 3

More info is not necessarily good - fake news

Answer 3

some of the info may just be fake news

this can cause a moral panic and create folk devils (Cohen)

which may lead to a deviancy amplification spiral (Wilkins)

more info sources make it more difficult to verify the sources

Fake news can be deliberately misleading serve political and corporate ends
EG Vote Leave Campaign

Question 4

More info is not necessarily good

Answer 4

• information overload
• fake news
• repeated content

Question 5

Domination by media conglomerates - Ownership of web servers and search engines

Answer 5

Large conglomerates have invested hugely in new media in the last decade
EG Apple, Google etc

they now not only control access to social media sites
But also search engines & the web servers which store our info

This means they can choose which info the public knows and what is hidden / kept from them

Question 6

Domination by media conglomerates - deplatforming

Answer 6

There are examples of people being deplatformed without warning or reason on social media

EG Congresswoman Taylor Green = banned from Twitter for spreading her beliefs and perceived untruths about the covid-19 vaccine

Typically these are people who hold radical views that go against socially accepted norms and values

Suggests that these companies determine who can express what on social media

So marginalised groups might be able to blog and have a say
BUT
you’ll only be able to find them if these companies allow you

Question 7

Domination by media conglomerates - free space

Answer 7

The internet is not a free space which allows for the free development of individual expression

It has come to be controlled by a handful of big tech conglomerates

EG Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook

Question 8

Reinforcing elite power - politics vs entertainment

Answer 8

politics is much less visible than entertainment on the internet

This distracts the public and prevents them from questioning political figures or mainstream ideologies

Distracts the public from political slip ups

Question 9

Domination by media conglomerates

Answer 9

• Free space
• Deplatforming
• Ownership of web servers and search engines

Question 10

Reinforcing elite power - censorship

Answer 10

The most radical views on the internet are censored via sites’ community guidelines

some of the most radical have been deplatformed
EG Andrew Tate

results in an echo chamber

Question 11

Reinforcing elite power - political advertising campaigns

Answer 11

Mainstream political parties now run sophisticated advertising campaigns

using big data to manipulate the public into voting for them

EG Trump’s campaign and the Brexit campaign

Question 12

Reinforcing elite power - Surveillance

Answer 12

An ex CIA analyst claimed in 2015 that the British security services had the technology to access the info stored on people’s smartphones.

Question 13

Reinforcing elite power - political bias

Answer 13

Larger political parties have more money to spend on advertising to keep their biased info at the top of internet search engines like Google.

Question 14

Reinforcing elite power

Answer 14

• Political bias
• Surveillance
• Political advertising campaigns
• Politics vs Entertainment
• Censorship

Question 15

Increasing Consumption & Commercialisation - Too much advertising

Answer 15

It is hard to read some news sites because of the sheer amount dedicated to advertising
EG The Independent

So people do not read the news and are therefore not informed

Question 16

Increasing Consumption & Commercialisation - companies using data

Answer 16

companies (EG Amazon) use the data we collect to find out our preferences & selol it to advertising companies

Therefire they can target ads at users more effectively

Thus manipulating them to buy products that they wouldn’t normally

EG 1/3 of all Amazon purchases are a result of ‘reccomendations’

Question 17

Increasing Consumption & Commercialisation - Sphere of Consumer Consumption

Answer 17

The internet has turned into a sphere of consumer consumption

Most of what we see is trying to sell us something

very little is now available for free or for pure entertainment

nothing is producede with thought and creativity - driven by profit (pluralist link)

Question 18

Increasing Consumption & Commercialisation

Answer 18

• Sphere of consumer consumption
• companies using data
• Too much advertising

Question 19

Echo Chambers - increased polarisation and conflict

Answer 19

Social media has led to more polarisation and conflict

social networks are increasingly isolated from each other in ‘bubbles’ or ‘echo chambers’

EG TikTok constructs the FYP to be specific to what each user wants to see or enjoys seeing

People find others with the same views as them & they all follow each other & just reinforce their own views on the world

People are now less likely to see viewpoints / ideologies that challenge their own

As a result we have a polarisation of opinion
EG Brexit

Question 20

Increase in global and local connection = organised crime

Answer 20

the internet has increased people’s ability to connect both locally and globally

This makes it easier for organised crime to commit phishing, sell drugs online etc

EG 4Chan = a largely anonymous online community who organised collective trolling and hacking just for the lols