I think it is fair to say that until recently, media had been a domain of the state, then it became a private form of enterprise, but in both cases, we labeled it „Mass Media“.
Now, in large part because of the digital revolution and the internet, we are witnessing a shift from mass media to „Social Media“. This shift clearly spells out a major loss for some big players in the „Mass Media“ domain. First victims were the video rentals, now movie theaters and newspapers are dying, nobody uses CD’or DVD’s anymore, TV is losing ground, the public broadcasters can only survive because they are largely state funded. Right now, multiple streaming platforms like Netflix are all the rage, combined, of course, with social networks, like Facebook or Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg recently had to remind Congress that Facebook is not a media company: ‘I consider us to be a technology company’. But one has to add that while Facebook in public says it is not a publisher, in court, Sonal Mehta, a lawyer for Facebook, even drew comparison with traditional media: “The publisher discretion is a free speech right irrespective of what technological means is used. A newspaper has a publisher function whether they are doing it on their website, in a printed copy or through the news alerts.” So, in court, Facebook all of a sudden wanted protection for the right to free speech granted. Whenever there is a threat that a power loses its prerogative of definition and interpretation about the common ground of a society, it panics and spins out of control. All common ground, a prerequisite for solidarity and cohesion, could easily be constructed, when there was basically only one platform - state media - to show it’s mildly critical point of view on certain matters. In the Digital Habitat, common ground becomes a free flow of signs, made out of instrumental currents and cultural codes that are embedded in networks. In its extreme, there is a plethora of floating signifiers, that can stop anywhere at any time. Fake? Real? Fact? Opinion? Angle X , Pespective Y, Point of View Z ? It's like not passing the microphone around in a town hall meeting but having everybody talking into their own microphone at the same time. Yet, the overwhelming and downright intrusive omnipresence of the media seems to make it impossible to think any experience outside of the media. So, yes, Mr. Zuckerberg, mediatization is a procedure that is informed and determined largely through technology, but it is more than that. It is the fact that the technology you develop enables your company to determine what is being shown and what is not. You are not like, say, CISCO, producing routers and servers. It's not like the New York Times was claiming "We're just selling paper with ink on it!" Only those who have the technological means at their disposal can partake in any mediated (vulgo: public) discourse, and that makes you a media company. I think we have to clearly draw some parallels here with the firearms and guns industry. Can any company in this industry seriously claim that they are simply in the tech business? While the emergence of new media does not eliminate face-to-face communication, any non-mediated (immediate) interpersonal communication cannot be, however, what it was before. You can go to the next street corner and proclaim whatever you have to say, but this amounts to someone who would still use his fists in a fight against somebody holding a gun. Or, as some former guerrilla fighter once said in a German courtroom: "I may have the better arguments, but you, your honor, are the master of the microphones. You can turn them on and off as you please." That would be a fair description of the business Facebook and other social media companies are in. The business of hosting and moderating public debates. With 2.38 billion monthly active users.
24 Comments
11/19/2019 09:34:11 am
no it is not all about technology but technology has almost occupied it
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AuthorThomas Behrens Visual Communication is not only taking part in the digital transformation - actively and passively - he will also reflect on it. Hence the blog. Archives
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