In American political scientist Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone, Putnam addresses the issue that television has on civic engagement. The passive stimulation of watching television gives the viewer the illusion of being civically engaged, but in reality they are just sitting still, staring at a television screen. However, since the book’s publication in the year 2000, there have been huge advancements involving the Internet and social media. Television, while still relevant, has lost its metaphorical ‘top spot’ as a mass media giant. The Internet is a much more interactive, participatory medium, and there are several examples of Internet activity having major real-world effects.
This week’s editorial will explore the ways in which Western culture is affected by mediums such as social media. Does Putnam’s research still hold ground in the 21st century world? If watching consistent entertainment television results in less civic engagement in a community then what kind of civic effects might being on social media produce?
Social media is a medium that is based on real-time emotional reactions, visual entertainment, and the creation of an online persona. Plus it can spread information faster than any other medium. All of these elements can combine into a complicated, extremely powerful force that we are only beginning to understand the true scope of. It can manipulate elections, help or harm candidates, galvanize protests, change public points of view, and spread awareness for certain events. Plus, it can be accessed and added to by anybody. Television, on the other hand, can only be accessed by those who work for the broadcast company. Therefore, the Internet is a much more egalitarian medium for citizens. But it also means that information that is ill-informed or even completely false is much more likely to spread across it.
Because of the inherently more participatory structure that the internet has, as opposed to television, we can expect the relationship to be much more complicated. This complication between the internet extends not just for civic engagement in general but has acute effects on areas such as mental health, fan mobilization, learning, community building, and countless other matters.
The internet is a less passive place than television. For content to succeed on the internet, particularly on social media, it must pass multiple litmus tests by the community, lest it invoke an internet sub-community that rallies against it. Those wishing to spread their message must be more careful on the internet than a television interview, particularly politicians. Putnam’s Bowling Alone does bring up some good points, but its analysis looks somewhat outdated with the rise of the internet, a medium that may look similar to TV on the surface, but in reality is actually quite different.
Journalism 2.0 