The Reckoning: What price will mainstream and social media pay for what happened at the Capitol?
In this edited version of Best of the Week, Mumbrella founder and editor-at-large Tim Burrowes argues that recent events will lead to a reckoning for the past behaviours, and future regulation of social media, while traditional media will also have to answer tough questions.
There are certain television moments that will always stay with me.
Bucks Fizz winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981. Coming home from school and watching the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986. Seeing Gareth Southgate miss the vital penalty against the Germans in Euro 96. Coming back from lunch into the Hospital Doctor magazine newsroom to find everyone crowded around an old TV, just as the plane hit the second tower in 2001. Watching Kevin Rudd’s apology for the Stolen Generations in the B&T newsroom in 2008. Staying indoors all day on a holiday in Noosa in 2016 while streaming the BBC’s Brexit coverage on an iPhone.
And now, watching the CNN anchors try to stay in control as they narrated the most dangerous moment for Western democracy that will occur in any of our lifetimes. Hopefully.
The storming of the United States Capitol will be the fulcrum on which the future of the world’s social media platforms pivots. In the coming months, there will be a reckoning for the past behaviours, and future regulation of social media. And traditional media will have hard questions to answer too.
