Slow media: how to renew debate in the age of digital authoritarianism
Faced with the stress of social media and a 24-hour news cycle, we need to step away and consume slow media instead, says Christian Fuchs in this crossposting from The Conversation. What would that look like? Fuchs suggests it means bringing together live television and the internet via a non-commercial video platform.
The rise of a new global, digital and mobile form of capitalism has, since the 1970s, accelerated the pace of our lives. We produce more, consume more, make more decisions and have more experiences. This acceleration is driven by the underlying principles that “time is money”, “time is power” and “life is short”.
In the realm of media and communication, we are confronted by fast-paced global flows of information on the internet that we constantly access from everywhere via our smartphones, laptops and tablets. Commercial platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are digital tabloids that circulate high-speed flows of often superficial information that is consumed with short attention spans. The primary goal of social media’s information acceleration is the sale of targeted ads. And digital authoritarianism, fragmented publics, fake news, bots, filter bubbles and a narcissistic “me” culture have all proliferated alongside this high-speed communication.
Today’s social media are in fact anti-social media that undermine political communication and understanding. In 2019, a House of Commons committee inquiry into disinformation and fake news concluded that the negative implications of social media should “allow more pause for thought”.
