Understanding (Perceptions of) Emerging Information Ecologies

Abstract

The communication field is undergoing a fundamental transformation, driven by at least three interrelated factors. One is the emergence of only a handful technology platforms as powerful information gatekeepers for both producers and users of informational content. These platforms include not only social media companies like Meta and Twitter but also distribution and vendor platforms, such as Netflix or Amazon. All of them rely on business models that—informed by behavioral, digital trace, and a host of other microand meso-level consumer data—algorithmically tailor or microtarget information based on consumer preferences. A second and related transformation facing our field is the fading out of “mass communication” as a meaningful concept. The golden age of journalism, during which mostly middle-aged White men “broadcast” news to hundreds of millions of Americans, has been over for a while. “Post-broadcast democracy,” a term coined by political scientist Markus Prior, foreshadowed many of the challenges that have arisen from “narrowcasting,” that is, the increasing audience fragmentation that was partly a motivation for and partly a result of the advent of cable television. MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow summarized cable TV’s philosophy of segmentation both succinctly and depressingly during her Theodore H. White lecture at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center in 2010: