Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

The Structural Roots of Misinformation in the American Media System

Sun, May 27, 14:00 to 15:15, Hilton Old Town, Floor: M, Mozart I

Abstract

Discourses about new digital technologies’ democratic potential often de-emphasize communication systems’ policy roots and normative foundations. An abiding faith in technological liberation and a tendency to naturalize market forces has discouraged the kind of public policy planning that is necessary to contain corporate capture of core information systems. This discursive orientation at least partly explains why American society allowed platform monopolies such as Facebook to obtain such tremendous and unaccountable power. It also helps explain why there have been such meager policy responses to the ongoing journalism crisis. The debased media system that has resulted from these policy failures helped create a fertile landscape for various kinds of misinformation to thrive. This presentation will reflect on the structural roots of what I refer to as the "misinformation society" and propose policy reforms to help address various media failures.

Author