NEW MEDIA CHALLENGES LECTURE NOTES
Index
Lecture 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
Lecture 2: Technological determinism or social construction in the information age....................................... 2
Lecture 3: always on. Multitasking and performance ...................................................................................... 9
Lecture 4: An Introduction to Online Privacy ................................................................................................ 13
Lecture 5: Personalization, Privacy and Paradoxes........................................................................................ 20
Lecture 6: Democratic backlash of the Digital Revolution ............................................................................. 26
Lecture 7: Political Communication and Social Media ................................................................................... 32
Lecture 8: Learning from Fake News ............................................................................................................. 42
Lecture 9: Extremism and Conspiracy Beliefs ................................................................................................ 49
Lecture 10: Extremism, Populism and (Mis)information ............................................................................... 60
Lecture 11: A Network Economy: Online Business Models in the Age of Information.................................... 66
Lecture 12: E-persuasion and e-profiling ....................................................................................................... 74
Lecture 13: Social contagion on social media: How behaviors may spread across online networks ............... 82
Lecture 14: Media literacy and digital citizenship ......................................................................................... 90
Lecture 15: Focus on the individual processing of media............................................................................... 98
Lecture 16: Staying healthy in an online environment ................................................................................ 103
Lecture 17: Correcting misinformation, striving for the (im)possible ........................................................... 109
Lecture 1: Introduction
How society changed and how we deal with these changes.
- Graphs: what patterns are there?
Trends:
- Push to pull: consumers choosing from large offering of media content
- Dissolving media boundaries
- Increasing interactivity
- Content creation by consumers à not only journalists anymore
1
,Lecture 2: Technological determinism or social construction in the information
age
The power of technology?
- Advances in technology bring about changes (for good or for worse)
- However, is the force of technology that strong?
- Or do people have influence on what technology looks like?
“The medium is the message” - Marshall McLuhan
- Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)
- Canadian philosopher in the field of media-studies and media-theory
- Founder of the concept “Global Village” (1959, so, far before Internet or the WWW)
- Most famous quote: “The medium is the message”
o “The medium is the message because it is the medium that shapes and
controls the scale and form of human association and action. The content or
uses of such media are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form
of human association. Indeed, it is only too typical that the “content” of any
medium blinds us to the character of the medium.” (Understanding Media:
The Extensions of Man, 1964, p.9).
§ Associations = how people are organized. Medium has impact on the
meaning of the message and thereby on the behavior of people.
According to McLuhan
- Not the effect of the content of messages, but the effect of the medium itself should
be the focus of study.
- it is the medium itself that shapes and controls ‘’the scale and form of human
association and action”
- there will be “new age media” that will influence how people think, act, and perceive
the world
This fits in the 1960’s which was a very progressive time for technology. A lot of
developments. The idea of McLuhan fits in this time. Massage = not clear how this
originated, maybe just a typo. Printing error gets us thinking. Medium needs a message in a
certain way. No definite answer. But a time of a lot of experimenting.
- Wheel is extension of a foot
- Book = extension of the eye.
- Electric circuitry = central nervous system extension
Electronic circuitry can be seen as artificial extensions to our body and central nervous
system (McLuhan)
- Allow people to do things, extension of neural system.
o Vibral à you think it is buzzling, people get used to the buzzling. You feel it so
often, so it is printed in your brain. High of FOMO à you get the feeling it is
vibrating when it’s not.
- McLuhan’s reasoning can be perceived as “technological deterministic”
- A deterministic theory claims that events, including moral choices, are determined
completely by previously existing causes.
- Technological determinism assumes that a society's technology determines the
development of its social structure and cultural values.
2
, It drives effects. Mobile phones affect how we behave.
Criticism on technological determinism
- Technological determinism is not perceived to be a very accurate view of the way in
which we interact with technology
- "The relationship between technology and society cannot be reduced to a simplistic
cause and-effect formula.
- It is, rather, an 'intertwining', whereby technology does not determine but "operates,
and is operated in a complex social field" (Murphie & Potts, 2003).
- Prominent alternative is the theory about the Social Construction of Technology
(SCOT).
- SCOT research argues that the path of innovation and its social consequences are
strongly, if not entirely, shaped by society itself through the influence of culture,
politics, economic arrangements, regulatory mechanisms and the like.
- "What matters is not the technology itself, but the social or economic system in
which it is embedded" (Langdon Winner).
Technological determinism vs. Social construction of technology
- Technological determinism
o Technology determines societies’ development, structure and cultural values
versus
o Social Construction of Technology (SCOT: Pinch & Bijker, 1984)
§ Technology does not determine human action, but human action
shapes technology and its uses
§ In order to understand how technology is used, we should understand
how that technology is embedded in its social context.
Examples:
- The development of the format of newspaper articles (technological deterministic
approach)
versus
- The development of the bicycle as we know it (SCOT-reasoning)
The format of newspaper articles
- Typical example of a news article:
o Inverted triangle:
o First line mentions “who, what, where, when”
o Followed by some more details
o And finished by even more detailed information
- This is different from other text such as novels:
o Slowly setting the scene
o Building tension
o Taking time to introduce characters
o Plot in the end
3
, - This news article structure is convenient for the reader
o Scan the paper for interesting topics
o Then decide whether to continue reading or not
o But, was that also the prime reason for this format?
In the 18th and early 19th century, newspaper articles had no headlines.
- Articles looked like short stories
- The telegraph might have shaped newspaper stories!
o During American Civil War (1861 – 1865) newspapers in the west received
news from agencies in the east, mostly using the telegraph to transmit the
stories
o Telegraph-lines were constantly being cut or otherwise unstable
o Following the “conventional narrative” à risk of losing the bulk of
information if transmission is cut
o Without the core information, there was no “news-value” for newspapers,
thereby no reason to buy the paper as a customer
So, the format of newspaper articles now can be shaped by the telegraph:
- Newspapers adopted the format of headline with relevant information
- Followed by “less important” details
- A clear example of how technology drives communication
- In other words: following the logic of technological determinism, more than social
construction
The success of the bicycle
- Is the success of the bicycle as we know it caused by its technical superior chain-
drive?
o It illustrates how forces in society caused technology.
Is the success of the bicycle caused by its technical superior chain-drive? (it IS technically
more advanced and robust). Maybe not: in the beginning the penny-farthing was much more
popular: Macho young male drivers valued the high-speed and specular riding of the high
wheel. Chain-driven “safety bicycle” was perceived as boring. Clear example that is more
social factors that makes it a success. Clear example that you could be wrong by only looking
at the technological factors.
4
Index
Lecture 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
Lecture 2: Technological determinism or social construction in the information age....................................... 2
Lecture 3: always on. Multitasking and performance ...................................................................................... 9
Lecture 4: An Introduction to Online Privacy ................................................................................................ 13
Lecture 5: Personalization, Privacy and Paradoxes........................................................................................ 20
Lecture 6: Democratic backlash of the Digital Revolution ............................................................................. 26
Lecture 7: Political Communication and Social Media ................................................................................... 32
Lecture 8: Learning from Fake News ............................................................................................................. 42
Lecture 9: Extremism and Conspiracy Beliefs ................................................................................................ 49
Lecture 10: Extremism, Populism and (Mis)information ............................................................................... 60
Lecture 11: A Network Economy: Online Business Models in the Age of Information.................................... 66
Lecture 12: E-persuasion and e-profiling ....................................................................................................... 74
Lecture 13: Social contagion on social media: How behaviors may spread across online networks ............... 82
Lecture 14: Media literacy and digital citizenship ......................................................................................... 90
Lecture 15: Focus on the individual processing of media............................................................................... 98
Lecture 16: Staying healthy in an online environment ................................................................................ 103
Lecture 17: Correcting misinformation, striving for the (im)possible ........................................................... 109
Lecture 1: Introduction
How society changed and how we deal with these changes.
- Graphs: what patterns are there?
Trends:
- Push to pull: consumers choosing from large offering of media content
- Dissolving media boundaries
- Increasing interactivity
- Content creation by consumers à not only journalists anymore
1
,Lecture 2: Technological determinism or social construction in the information
age
The power of technology?
- Advances in technology bring about changes (for good or for worse)
- However, is the force of technology that strong?
- Or do people have influence on what technology looks like?
“The medium is the message” - Marshall McLuhan
- Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980)
- Canadian philosopher in the field of media-studies and media-theory
- Founder of the concept “Global Village” (1959, so, far before Internet or the WWW)
- Most famous quote: “The medium is the message”
o “The medium is the message because it is the medium that shapes and
controls the scale and form of human association and action. The content or
uses of such media are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form
of human association. Indeed, it is only too typical that the “content” of any
medium blinds us to the character of the medium.” (Understanding Media:
The Extensions of Man, 1964, p.9).
§ Associations = how people are organized. Medium has impact on the
meaning of the message and thereby on the behavior of people.
According to McLuhan
- Not the effect of the content of messages, but the effect of the medium itself should
be the focus of study.
- it is the medium itself that shapes and controls ‘’the scale and form of human
association and action”
- there will be “new age media” that will influence how people think, act, and perceive
the world
This fits in the 1960’s which was a very progressive time for technology. A lot of
developments. The idea of McLuhan fits in this time. Massage = not clear how this
originated, maybe just a typo. Printing error gets us thinking. Medium needs a message in a
certain way. No definite answer. But a time of a lot of experimenting.
- Wheel is extension of a foot
- Book = extension of the eye.
- Electric circuitry = central nervous system extension
Electronic circuitry can be seen as artificial extensions to our body and central nervous
system (McLuhan)
- Allow people to do things, extension of neural system.
o Vibral à you think it is buzzling, people get used to the buzzling. You feel it so
often, so it is printed in your brain. High of FOMO à you get the feeling it is
vibrating when it’s not.
- McLuhan’s reasoning can be perceived as “technological deterministic”
- A deterministic theory claims that events, including moral choices, are determined
completely by previously existing causes.
- Technological determinism assumes that a society's technology determines the
development of its social structure and cultural values.
2
, It drives effects. Mobile phones affect how we behave.
Criticism on technological determinism
- Technological determinism is not perceived to be a very accurate view of the way in
which we interact with technology
- "The relationship between technology and society cannot be reduced to a simplistic
cause and-effect formula.
- It is, rather, an 'intertwining', whereby technology does not determine but "operates,
and is operated in a complex social field" (Murphie & Potts, 2003).
- Prominent alternative is the theory about the Social Construction of Technology
(SCOT).
- SCOT research argues that the path of innovation and its social consequences are
strongly, if not entirely, shaped by society itself through the influence of culture,
politics, economic arrangements, regulatory mechanisms and the like.
- "What matters is not the technology itself, but the social or economic system in
which it is embedded" (Langdon Winner).
Technological determinism vs. Social construction of technology
- Technological determinism
o Technology determines societies’ development, structure and cultural values
versus
o Social Construction of Technology (SCOT: Pinch & Bijker, 1984)
§ Technology does not determine human action, but human action
shapes technology and its uses
§ In order to understand how technology is used, we should understand
how that technology is embedded in its social context.
Examples:
- The development of the format of newspaper articles (technological deterministic
approach)
versus
- The development of the bicycle as we know it (SCOT-reasoning)
The format of newspaper articles
- Typical example of a news article:
o Inverted triangle:
o First line mentions “who, what, where, when”
o Followed by some more details
o And finished by even more detailed information
- This is different from other text such as novels:
o Slowly setting the scene
o Building tension
o Taking time to introduce characters
o Plot in the end
3
, - This news article structure is convenient for the reader
o Scan the paper for interesting topics
o Then decide whether to continue reading or not
o But, was that also the prime reason for this format?
In the 18th and early 19th century, newspaper articles had no headlines.
- Articles looked like short stories
- The telegraph might have shaped newspaper stories!
o During American Civil War (1861 – 1865) newspapers in the west received
news from agencies in the east, mostly using the telegraph to transmit the
stories
o Telegraph-lines were constantly being cut or otherwise unstable
o Following the “conventional narrative” à risk of losing the bulk of
information if transmission is cut
o Without the core information, there was no “news-value” for newspapers,
thereby no reason to buy the paper as a customer
So, the format of newspaper articles now can be shaped by the telegraph:
- Newspapers adopted the format of headline with relevant information
- Followed by “less important” details
- A clear example of how technology drives communication
- In other words: following the logic of technological determinism, more than social
construction
The success of the bicycle
- Is the success of the bicycle as we know it caused by its technical superior chain-
drive?
o It illustrates how forces in society caused technology.
Is the success of the bicycle caused by its technical superior chain-drive? (it IS technically
more advanced and robust). Maybe not: in the beginning the penny-farthing was much more
popular: Macho young male drivers valued the high-speed and specular riding of the high
wheel. Chain-driven “safety bicycle” was perceived as boring. Clear example that is more
social factors that makes it a success. Clear example that you could be wrong by only looking
at the technological factors.
4
