digital media essay conclusion

Screen time: Conclusions about the effects of digital media are often incomplete, irrelevant or wrong

Professor of Communication, Stanford University

Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, and Psychology, Penn State

Professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine, Stanford University

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Nilam Ram receives funding from National Institutes on Health.

Thomas Robinson receives funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Stanford Maternal & Child Health Research Institute and Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University.

Byron Reeves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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There’s a lot of talk about digital media. Increasing screen time has created worries about media’s impacts on democracy , addiction , depression , relationships , learning, health , privacy and much more. The effects are frequently assumed to be huge, even apocalyptic.

Scientific data, however, often fail to confirm what seems true based on everyday experiences. In study after study , screen time is often not correlated with important effects at a magnitude that matches the concerns and expectations of media consumers, critics, teachers, parents, pediatricians and even the researchers themselves. For example, a recent review of over 200 studies about social media concluded there was almost no effect of greater screen time on psychological well-being. A comprehensive study of adolescents reported small effects of screen time on brain development, and no relationship between media use and cognitive performance. A review of 20 studies about the effects of multitasking with media – that is, using two or more screens at the same time – showed small declines in cognitive performance because of multitasking but also pointed out new studies that showed the opposite.

As communication , psychological and medical researchers interested in media effects, we are interested in how individuals’ engagement with digital technology influences peoples’ thoughts, emotions, behaviors, health and well-being.

Moving beyond ‘screen time’

Has the power of media over modern life been overstated? Probably not, but no one knows, because there is a severe lack of knowledge about what people are actually seeing and doing on their screens.

Individuals all around the world are now all looking at pretty much the same screens and spending a lot of time with them. However, the similarities between us end there. Many different kinds of applications, games and messages flow across people’s screens. And, because it is so easy to create customized personal threads of experiences, each person ends up viewing very different material at different times. No two people share the same media experiences.

To determine the effects of media on people’s lives, whether beneficial or harmful, requires knowledge of what people are actually seeing and doing on those screens. But researchers often mistakenly depend on a rather blunt metric – screen time.

Reports of screen time, the most common way to assess media use, are known to be terribly inaccurate and describe only total viewing time. Today, on a single screen, you can switch instantly between messaging a neighbor, watching the news, parenting a child, arranging for dinner delivery, planning a weekend trip, talking on an office video conference and even monitoring your car, home irrigation and lighting. Add to that more troublesome uses – bullying a classmate, hate speech or reading fabricated news. Knowing someone’s screen time – their total dose of media – will not diagnose problems with any of that content.

A media solution based only on screen time is like medical advice to someone taking multiple prescription medications to reduce their total number of pills by half. Which medications and when?

Complex and unique nature of media use

What would be a better gauge of media consumption than screen time? Something that better captures the complexities of how individuals engage with media. Perhaps the details about specific categories of content – the names of the programs, software and websites - would be more informative. Sometimes that may be enough to highlight problems – playing a popular game more than intended, frequent visits to a suspicious political website or too much social time on Facebook.

Tracking big categories of content, however, is still not that helpful. My one hour of Facebook, for example, could be spent on self-expression and social comparison; yours could be filled with news, shopping, classes, games and videos. Further, our research finds that people now switch between content on their smartphones and laptops every 10 to 20 seconds on average. Many people average several hundred different smartphone sessions per day. The fast cadence certainly influences how people converse with each other and how engaged we are with information. And each bit of content is surrounded by other kinds of material. News read on Facebook sandwiches political content between social relationships, each one changing the interpretation of the other.

A call for a Human Screenome Project

In this era of technology and big data, we need a DVR for digital life that records the entirety of individuals’ screen media experiences - what we call the screenome , analogous to the genome , microbiome and other “omes” that define an individual’s unique characteristics and exposures.

An individual’s screenome includes apps and websites, the specific content observed and created, all of the words, images and sounds on the screens, and their time of day, duration and sequencing. It includes whether the content is produced by the user or sent from others. And it includes characteristics of use, such as variations in how much one interacts with a screen, how quickly one switches between content, scrolls through screens, and turns the screen on and off.

Without knowledge of the whole screenome, no one – including researchers, critics, educators, journalists or policymakers – can accurately describe the new media chaos. People need much better data – for science, policy, parenting and more. And it needs to be collected and supported by individuals and organizations who are motivated to share the information for all to analyze and apply.

The benefits from studying the human genome required developing the field of genomics. The same will be true for the human screenome , the unique individual record of experiences that constitute psychological and social life on digital devices. Researchers now have the technologies to begin a serious study of screenomics, which we describe in the journal Nature . Now we need the data – a collective effort to produce, map and analyze a large and informative set of screenomes. A Human Screenome Project could inform academics, health professionals, educators, parents, advocacy groups, tech companies and policymakers about how to maximize the potential of media and remedy its most pernicious effects.

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What's Next? How Digital Media Shapes Our Society

A summary of Professor Leah A. Lievrouw's most recent book, which explores the rapidly changing role communication plays at the center of human experience and endeavor.

UCLA Information Studies Professor Leah A. Lievrouw’s first academic job was at Rutgers University in the late 1980s. One day, a colleague, a media effects researcher, was talking with her in her office and said, “Well, you know this new media stuff, it’s kind of interesting, but really it’s just a fad, isn’t it?”

That “new media stuff” has been the centerpiece of Lievrouw’s research ever since and today is central to many of the economic, social, political and policy challenges that confront the globe.

“My interest is in new technologies, communication information technologies and social change, and how change happens for good and ill. It’s really a sociological take. I’m more interested in what’s going on at the whole society or whole community level,” Lievrouw said. Professor Lievrouw joined the UCLA Department of Information Studies in 1995 and in 2005 co-edited “The Handbook of New Media” (Sage Publications), with Sonia Livingston of the London School of Economics. The book became a central resource for study of the field and is still used in classrooms and cited in research.

“It was really a big comprehensive survey with leading people in the field who were working on this research, right across various sub-fields and different topics,” Lievrouw said. “For a long time and in some circles still it is kind of the definitive capture of what the field was like and what the issues were at the moment.”

With changes in technology and communication rapidly occurring with ever larger impact, Lievrouw and her colleagues began talking about not just an update, but a whole new book.

Lievrouw decided to move forward and eventually linked up with Brian Loader, a professor at the University of York in the United Kingdom and editor-in-chief of the journal Information, Communication and Society, to serve as co-editor.

The book draws together the work of scholars from across the globe to examine the forces that shape our digital social lives and further our understanding of the sociocultural impact of digital media.

Routledge Handbook of Digital Media and Communication

“As of this writing, as the world undergoes breakdowns in social, institutional, and technological systems across every domain of human affairs in the wake of a biological and public health crisis of unprecedented scale and scope, such a framework for understanding communicative action, technology, and social forms has never been so apt or so urgently needed.” - Routledge Publishing

Mirroring the approach of the earlier “Handbook of Social Media,” the book is organized into a three-part framework exploring the artifacts or devices, the practices and institutional arrangements that are central to digital media, and draws the connections across the three elements.

The book explores topics such as the power of algorithms, digital currency, gaming culture, surveillance, social networking, and connective mobilization. As described in the introduction by Routledge, the “Handbook delivers a comprehensive, authoritative overview of the state of new media scholarship and its most important future directions that will shape and animate current debates.”

“I really like that again this seems to be a pretty definitive state-of-the-art kind of look at what is going on with these technologies,” Lievrouw said. “This has perhaps a more critical edge than we had 20 years ago, because we have begun to see the downsides of digital media as well as all the upsides that everyone had such hopes about. What makes me really happy is that this volume kind of pulls back a bit and takes a bigger stock of the issues and challenges. We have a few chapters that I think are just really definitive, written by some of the very best people on the planet. We were very lucky to recruit such a terrific lineup of people.”

Professor Lievrouw refers to a series of essays on critical topics in the book by leading experts such as Paul Dourish exploring Ubiquity or the everywhereness of digital media; Veronica Barrasi, writing about youth, algorithms, and political data; and Julie Cohen, writing about the nature of property in a world driven by social media and more.

“In her chapter, Cohen asks, what’s the nature of property? Every aspect of our behavior or of our beliefs is constantly kind of being pulled away from us, appropriated and owned by outfits like Google and like Facebook. They now consider this their proprietary information, and we’ve not had that before in the world really, certainly not on this scale. I think that’s worth exploring,” Lievrouw said.

Timing is everything, and the new book is emerging at a time of particular relevance and questioning about digital media.

“The book has happened to come out at a moment when there’s so much skepticism, and so much worry,” Professor Lievrouw said. “What’s interesting is that the worry is in the scholarly community too and has been for a little while.

“We’re in that moment where we are having to look, not only at the most egregious and outrageous behaviors, opinions, and disinformation, and all the kinds of things that have come out from under the rocks. And the system itself is rather mature at this point, so the question becomes, ‘Where is it going to go? What do we do next? Is it just more incursion, more data, more surveillance, more circulation of stuff?’ And we are doing it without editing, without gatekeepers. And we should never forget about the impact of places like Facebook, Google, Amazon. “It has changed social structure.

It has changed cultural practices. It has changed our perception of the world fundamentally. And I think it’s not just the technology that did this, it’s the way we built it.

“I think we are entering a period of reckoning about these technologies, the whole complex of people involved in the building and operation of platforms and different kinds of applications, especially data gathering. Data has come to the center of the economics of this thing in a way that it hasn’t before. This is a good moment to reassess what works, what has been emancipatory, what has been enabling for people, how the diffusion of these technologies, and the adaptation of their use, is impacting different places and different cultures all over the world.

“Every thoughtful researcher in this area I know is turning this over in their head, saying, ‘How did we get to this point? What happened here?’ I think what this book can help us understand not only where we are right now, but also to think about what could be next, and what can we do to repair this. Right now, I don’t think anybody has a solid answer for that. If they do, it’s an answer they don’t like.”

Excerpt from Introduction

No longer new, digital media and communication technologies—and their associated infrastructures, practices, and cultural forms—have become woven into the very social fabric of contemporary human life. Despite the cautiously optimistic accounts of the potential of the Internet to foster stronger democratic governance, enable connective forms of mobilization, stimulate social capital (community, social, or crisis informatics), restructure education and learning, support remote health care, or facilitate networked flexible organization, the actual development of digital media and communication has been far more problematic. Indeed, recent commentary has been more pessimistic about the disruptive impact of digital media and communication upon our everyday lives. The promise of personal emancipation and free access to unlimited digital resources has, some argue, led us to sleepwalk into a world of unremitting surveillance, gross disparities in wealth, precarious employment opportunities, a deepening crisis in democracy, and an opaque global network of financial channels and transnational corporations with unaccountable monopoly power.

A critical appraisal of the current state of play of the digital world is thus timely, indeed overdue, and required if we are to examine these assertions and concerns clearly. There is no preordained technological pathway that digital media must follow or are following. A measure of these changes is the inadequacy of many familiar concepts— such as commons, public sphere, social capital, class, and others—to capture contemporary power relations or to explain transitions from “mass society” to networked sociality—or from mass to personalized consumption. Even the strategies of resistance to these transitions draw upon traditional appeals to unionization, democratic accountability, mass mobilization, state regulation, and the like, all part of the legacy of earlier capitalist and political forms.

How then to examine the current digitalscape? Internet-based and data-driven systems, applications, platforms, and affordances now play a pivotal role in every domain of social life. Under the rubric of new media research, computer-mediated communication, social media or Internet studies, media sociology, or media anthropology, research and scholarship in the area have moved from the fringe to the theoretical and empirical center of many disciplines, spawning a whole generation of new journals and publishers’ lists. Within communication research and scholarship itself, digital technologies and their consequences have become central topics in every area of the discipline—indeed, they have helped blur some of the most enduring boundaries dividing many of the field’s traditional specializations. Meanwhile, the ubiquity, adaptability, responsiveness, and networked structure of online communication, the advantages of which—participation, convenience, engagement, connectedness, community—were often celebrated in earlier studies, have also introduced troubling new risks, including pervasive surveillance, monopolization, vigilantism, cyberwar, worker displacement, intolerance, disinformation, and social separatism.

Technology infrastructure has several defining features that make it a distinctive object of study. Infrastructures are embedded; transparent (support tasks invisibly); have reach or scope beyond a single context; learned as part of membership in a social or cultural group; are linked to existing practices and routines; embody standards; are built on an existing, installed base; and, perhaps most critically, ordinarily become “visible” or apparent to users only when they break down: when “the server is down, the bridge washes out, there is a power blackout.” As of this writing, as the world undergoes breakdowns in social, institutional, and technological systems across every domain of human affairs in the wake of a biological and public health crisis of unprecedented scale and scope, such a framework for understanding communicative action, technology, and social forms has never been so apt or so urgently needed.

Two cross-cutting themes had come to characterize the quality and processes of mediated communication over the prior two decades. The first is a broad shift from the mass and toward the network as the defining structure and dominant logic of communication technologies, systems, relations, and practices; the second is the growing enclosure of those technologies, relations, and practices by private ownership and state security interests. These two features of digital media and communication have joined to create socio-technical conditions for communication today that would have been unrecognizable even to early new media scholars of the 1970s and 1980s, to say nothing of the communication researchers before them specializing in classical media effects research, political economy of media, interpersonal and group process, political communication, global/comparative communication research, or organizational communication, for example.

This collection of essays reveals an extraordinarily faceted, nuanced picture of communication and communication studies, today. For example, the opening part, “Artifacts,” richly portrays the infrastructural qualities of digital media tools and systems. Stephen C. Slota, Aubrey Slaughter, and Geoffrey C. Bowker’s piece on “occult” infrastructures of communication expands and elaborates on the infrastructure studies perspective. Paul Dourish provides an incisive discussion on the nature and meaning of ubiquity for designers and users of digital systems. Essays on big data and algorithms (Taina Bucher), mobile devices and communicative gestures (Lee Humphreys and Larissa Hjorth), digital embodiment and financial infrastructures (Kaitlyn Wauthier and Radhika Gajjala), interfaces and affordances (Matt Ratto, Curtis McCord, Dawn Walker, and Gabby Resch), hacking (Finn Brunton), and digital records and memory (David Beer) demonstrate how computation and data generation/capture have transfigured both the material features and the human experience of engagement with media technologies and systems. The second part, “Practices,” shifts focus from devices, tools, and systems to the communicative practices of the people who use them. Digital media and communication today have fostered what some writers have called datafication—capturing and rendering all aspects of communicative action, expression, and meaning into quantified data that are often traded in markets and used to make countless decisions about, and to intercede in, people’s experiences. Systems that allow people to make and share meaning are also configured by private-sector firms and state security actors to capture and enclose human communication and information.

This dynamic is played out in routine monitoring and surveillance (an essay by Mark Andrejevic), in the construction and practice of personal identity (Mary Chayko), in family routines and relationships (Nancy Jennings), in political participation (Brian Loader and Veronica Barassi), in our closest relationships and sociality (Irina Shklovski), in education and new literacies (Antero Garcia), in the increasing precarity of “information work” (Leah Lievrouw and Brittany Paris), and in what Walter Lippmann famously called the “picture of reality” portrayed in the news (Stuart Allan, Chris Peters, and Holly Steel). Many suggest that the erosion of boundaries between public and private, true and false, and ourselves and others is increasingly taken for granted, with mediated communication as likely to create a destabilizing, chronic sense of disruption and displacement as it is to promote deliberation, cohesion, or solidarities.

The broader social, organizational, and institutional arrangements that shape and regulate the tools and the practices of digital communication and information, and which themselves are continuously reformed, are explored in the third part. Nick Couldry starts with an overview of mediatization, the growing centrality of media in what he calls the “institutionalization of the social” and the establishment of social order, at every level from microscale interaction to the jockeying among nation-states. There are essays that present evidence of the instability, uncertainty, and delegitimation associated with digital media; reflections on globalization; a survey of governance and regulation; a revisitation of political economy; and the trenchant reconsideration of the notion of property. Elena Pavan and Donatella della Porta examine the role of digital media in social movements while Keith Hampton and Barry Wellman argue that digital technologies may, in fact, help reinforce people’s senses of community and belonging both online and offline. Shiv Ganesh and Cynthia Stohl show that while much past research was focused on the “fluidity” or formlessness of organization afforded by “digital ubiquity,” in fact contemporary organizing is a more subtle process comprising “opposing tendencies and human activities, of both form and formlessness.”

Taken together, the contributions present a complex, interwoven technical, social/cultural, and institutional fabric of society, which nonetheless seems to be showing signs of wear, or perhaps even breakdown in response to systemic environmental and institutional crises. As digital media and communication technologies have become routine, even banal—convenience, immediacy, connectedness—they are increasingly accompanied by a growing recognition of their negative externalities—monopoly and suppressed competition, ethical and leadership failures, and technological lock-in instead of genuine, path breaking innovation. The promise and possibility of new media and digitally mediated communication are increasingly tempered with sober assessments of risk, conflict, and exploitation.

This scenario may seem pessimistic, but perhaps one way to view the current state of digital media and communication studies is that it has matured, or reached a moment of consolidation, in which the visionary enthusiasms and forecasts of earlier decades have grown into a more developed or skeptical perspective. Digital media platforms and systems have diffused across the globe into cultural, political, and economic contexts and among diverse populations that often challenge the assumptions and expectations that were built into the early networks. The systems themselves, and their ownership and operations, have stabilized and become routinized, much as utilities and earlier media systems have done before, so they are more likely to resist root-and-branch change. They are as likely to reinforce and sustain patterns of knowledge and power as they are to “disrupt” them.

In another decade we might expect to find that the devices, practices, and institutional arrangements will have become even more integrated into common activities, places, and experiences, and culture will be unremarkable, embedded, woven into cultural practices, standardized, and invisible or transparent, just as satellite transmissions and undersea cables, or content streaming and social media platforms, are to us today. These socio-technical qualities will pose new kinds of challenges for communication researchers and scholars, but they also herald possibilities for a fuller, deeper understanding of the role communication plays at the center of human experience and endeavor.

This article is part of the UCLA Ed&IS Magazine Summer 2021 Issue. To read the full issue click here .

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Social Media Essay: A Full Guide

In an era where a single tweet can spark a global conversation and an Instagram post can redefine trends, it's fascinating to note that the average person spends approximately 2 hours and 31 minutes per day on social media platforms. That's more than 900 hours a year devoted to scrolling, liking, and sharing in the vast digital landscape. As we find ourselves deeply intertwined in the fabric of online communities, the significance of understanding and articulating the dynamics of social media through the written word, particularly in an essay on social media, becomes increasingly apparent. So, why embark on the journey of crafting an essay on this ubiquitous aspect of modern life? Join us as we unravel the layers of social media's impact, explore its nuances, and discover the art of conveying these insights through the written form.

Short Description

In this article, we'll explore how to write an essay on social media and the purpose behind these narratives while also delving into a myriad of engaging topics. From the heartbeat of online connections to the rhythm of effective storytelling, we'll guide you organically through the process, sharing insights on structure, approach, and the creative essence that makes each essay unique. And if you're seeking assistance, pondering - ' I wish I could find someone to write my essay ,' we'll also furnish example essays to empower you to tackle such tasks independently.

Why Write a Social Media Essay

In a world buzzing with hashtags, filters, and the constant hum of notifications, the idea of sitting down to craft an essay about social media might seem as out of place as a cassette tape in a streaming era. Yet, there's something oddly therapeutic, almost rebellious, about pausing in the midst of 280-character wisdom to delve deeper into the why behind our digital existence.

So, what is social media essay, and what's the purpose of writing it? Well, it's more than just an exercise in intellectual curiosity. It's a personal journey, a reflective pause in the ceaseless scroll. While writing the essay, we gain the power to articulate the intangible, to breathe life into the pixels that dance across our screens. It's an opportunity to make sense of the chaos, to find meaning in the memes, and perhaps, in the process, to uncover a bit more about ourselves in this digital wilderness.

Let's face it - our online lives are a fast-paced carousel of memes, viral challenges, and carefully curated selfies. So, why bother wrestling with words and paragraphs in a world where brevity is king? The answer lies in the art of unraveling the digital tapestry that envelops us.

There's a magic in articulating the dance between the profound and the mundane that occurs within the confines of our screens. An essay becomes a lens, focusing our attention on the subtleties of social media dynamics – the inside jokes that become global phenomena, the ripple effect of a well-timed retweet, and the silent conversations unfolding in the comment sections.

6 Key Tips for Crafting a Social Media Essay

Now that we've set sail into the realm of essays on the digital landscape, it's only fair to equip ourselves with a few trusty tools for the journey. Think of these tips as your compass, helping you navigate the sometimes choppy, often unpredictable waters of crafting an essay on social media.

• Embrace Your Authentic Voice: Just like your favorite Instagram filter can't hide the real you, your essay should reflect your genuine thoughts and feelings. Don't be afraid to let your unique voice shine through – whether it's witty, contemplative, or a delightful blend of both.
• Dive into the Details: Social media isn't just about the grand gestures; it's the small, often unnoticed details that weave the most compelling narratives. Explore the minutiae of your online experiences – the peculiar hashtags, the quirky bios, and the unexpected connections that leave a lasting imprint.
• Craft Your Hashtag Haiku: Much like poetry, brevity can be your ally in social media essays. Think of hashtags as haikus – succinct, impactful, and capable of conveying a universe of meaning in just a few characters. Choose them wisely.
• Engage with the Comments Section: The comments section is the lively pub where digital conversations unfold. Dive in, clink glasses, and engage with the diverse perspectives swirling around. It's in these interactions that the real magic happens – where ideas collide, evolve, and sometimes, transform.
• Navigate the Memescape: Memes are the folklore of the digital age, carrying tales of humor, irony, and cultural resonance. Don't shy away from exploring the memescape in your essay. Unravel the layers, decipher the symbolism, and appreciate the humor that often holds up a mirror to society.
• Be Mindful of the Clickbait Pitfalls: While clickbait might be the flashy neon sign on the digital highway, it's essential to tread carefully. Ensure your essay isn't just a sensational headline but a thoughtful exploration that goes beyond the surface.

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Social Media Essay Structure

In the age of viral tweets and digital conversations, tackling the essay format is more than just stringing words together—it's about creating a roadmap. As we navigate this landscape of likes and retweets, understanding the structural foundations becomes key. So, let's cut through the noise and explore the practical aspects of how to write a social media essay that mirrors the rhythm of our online experiences.

Form an Outline

Now that we've acknowledged the importance of structure in your essay, the next step is to build a solid roadmap. Think of it like planning a road trip; you wouldn't hit the highway without a map or GPS, right? Similarly, creating an outline for your essay gives you a clear direction and ensures your thoughts flow smoothly.

So, whether you decide to order an essay online or tackle it yourself, here's a simple way to go about it:

Introduction (Where You Start):

• Briefly introduce the topic.
• State your social media essay thesis or main idea.
• Example: 'Let's begin by introducing the impact of social media on modern communication, focusing on its role in shaping opinions and fostering connections.'

Body Paragraphs (The Journey):

• Each paragraph should cover a specific social media essay argument and point.
• Use examples or evidence to support your ideas.
• Example: 'The first aspect we'll explore is how social media amplifies voices. For instance, hashtags like #ClimateAction mobilize a global audience around environmental issues.'

Transitions (Smooth Turns):

• Guide your readers from one point to the next.
• Ensure a logical flow between paragraphs.
• Example: 'Having discussed the amplification of voices, let's now shift our focus to the influence of social media in spreading information.'

Counter Arguments (Addressing Detours):

• Acknowledge different perspectives.
• Counter Arguments with evidence or reasoning.
• Example: 'While social media can be a powerful tool for connectivity, critics argue that it also contributes to the spread of misinformation. Let's explore this counterargument and analyze its validity.'

Conclusion (The Destination):

• Summarize your main points.
• Restate your thesis and leave a lasting impression.
• Example: 'In conclusion, social media serves as both a bridge and a battleground of ideas. Understanding its nuances is crucial in navigating this digital landscape.'

Creating an outline for your essay not only streamlines the writing process but also ensures your readers embark on a clear and organized journey through your insights on social media. If you're exploring more options, you might even want to buy thesis for more convenience.

Make a Social Media Essay Introduction

Begin your introduction by presenting a concise overview of the key theme or topic you're addressing. Clearly state the main purpose or argument of your essay, giving readers a roadmap for what to expect. Integrate social media essay hooks like a relevant statistic, quote, or provocative question to capture attention.

For instance, if your essay is about the impact of social media on personal relationships, you might start by mentioning a statistic on the percentage of couples who met online.

Social Media Essay Body Paragraph

Structure each social media essay body paragraph around a specific aspect of your chosen topic. Start with a clear topic sentence that encapsulates the main idea of the paragraph. Provide concrete examples, data, or case studies to support your points and strengthen your argument. Maintain a logical flow between paragraphs by using effective transitions.

If your essay focuses on the positive effects of social media on business marketing, dedicate a paragraph to showcasing successful campaigns and how they leveraged different platforms.

Social Media Essay Conclusion

In your conclusion, succinctly recap the main points discussed in the body paragraphs. Reinforce your thesis statement and emphasize its broader implications. Rather than introducing new information, use the conclusion to leave a lasting impression on your readers. Consider prompting further thought or suggesting practical applications of your findings.

For instance, if your essay examined the impact of social media on political discourse, conclude by encouraging readers to critically evaluate the information they encounter online and actively engage in constructive conversations.

Proofread and Revise

In the process of writing social media essay, proofreading and revising are indispensable steps that can significantly enhance the overall quality of your work. Begin by meticulously checking for grammatical errors, ensuring that your sentences are clear and concise. Pay attention to the flow of your ideas, confirming that each paragraph seamlessly transitions into the next.

During the proofreading phase, keep an eye out for any inconsistencies in tone or style. This is an opportunity to refine your language and ensure that it aligns with the intended voice of your essay. Look for repetitive phrases or unnecessary words that might detract from the clarity of your message.

As you revise, consider the effectiveness of your hook. Does it still resonate as strongly as you intended? Can it be tweaked to better captivate your audience? A compelling hook sets the tone for your entire essay, so invest time in perfecting this crucial element.

Furthermore, don't hesitate to seek feedback from peers or mentors. Another perspective can provide valuable insights into areas that may need improvement. Fresh eyes often catch nuances that the writer might overlook. Alternatively, you might also explore the option to buy coursework for additional support.

Social Media Essay Topics

In the vast realm of social media, where every like and share contributes to the digital narrative, choosing the right essay topic becomes a crucial compass for exploration. Let's explore thought-provoking topics that not only capture attention but also invite insightful discussions on the intricacies of our interconnected world.

Impact on Society:

• The Role of Social Media in Redefining Friendship and Social Bonds
• How Has TikTok Influenced Global Pop Culture Trends?
• The Impact of Social Media on Political Polarization
• Social Media and Mental Health: Exploring the Connection
• The Evolution of Language on Social Media Platforms
• Examining the Influence of Social Media on Body Image
• Fake News and Its Proliferation on Social Media
• Social Media and the Rise of Influencer Marketing
• The Intersection of Social Media and Dating Apps
• Has Social Media Narrowed or Expanded Cultural Perspectives?
• The Role of Social Media in Fostering Global Communities
• The Influence of Social Media on Consumer Behavior
• Analyzing the Impact of Social Media on News Consumption
• The Rise of 'Cancel Culture' on Social Media Platforms
• Social Media and Its Role in Spreading Disinformation
• The Impact of Social Media on Language and Communication Skills
• Social Media and its Influence on Political Movements
• The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Sleep Patterns
• Social Media and the Accessibility of Educational Resources
• The Cultural Significance of Memes on Social Media

Individual and Identity:

• The Impact of Social Media Addiction on Personal Relationships and Intimacy
• Self-Expression and Authenticity on Social Networking Sites
• Social Media and Its Influence on Teenage Identity Formation
• The Role of Social Media in Shaping Beauty Standards
• Navigating Online Dating and Relationships in the Social Media Age
• The Impact of Social Media on Parenting Styles
• Social Media and Its Influence on Body Positivity Movements
• The Perception of Success: Social Media's Role in Achievement Culture
• Social Media and the Construction of Online Persona vs. Real Self
• Social Media and Its Influence on Lifestyle Choices
• The Role of Social Media in Shaping Career Aspirations
• The Intersection of Mental Health Narratives and Social Media
• The Impact of Social Media on Self-Esteem and Well-Being
• How Social Media Influences Gender Identity and Expression
• Exploring the Concept of Digital Detox in the Social Media Era
• The Role of Social Media in Shaping Cultural Identity
• The Connection Between Social Media and Impulse Buying
• Social Media and Its Influence on Dietary Choices
• Balancing Privacy and Self-Disclosure on Social Media
• The Impact of Social Media on Friendships Over Time

Digital Activism and Advocacy:

• The Effectiveness of Hashtag Movements in Promoting Social Change
• Social Media and Its Role in Amplifying Underrepresented Voices
• The Impact of Social Media on Global Environmental Activism
• Online Activism: The Evolution from Clicktivism to Concrete Action
• The Role of Social Media in Advancing LGBTQ+ Rights
• Social Media and Its Impact on Anti-Racism Movements
• Analyzing the Challenges of Digital Advocacy in Authoritarian Regimes
• Social Media and the Global Fight Against Cyberbullying
• The Intersection of Social Media and Mental Health Advocacy
• Examining the Role of Social Media in Humanitarian Campaigns
• Crowdsourcing for Change: How Social Media Fuels Fundraising
• The Challenges of Digital Activism in the Age of Information Overload
• Social Media and Its Impact on Disability Advocacy
• The Role of Social Media in Combating Gender-Based Violence
• Online Petitions and Their Influence on Policy Change
• Exploring the Intersection of Social Media and Animal Rights Activism
• The Impact of Social Media on Indigenous Rights Advocacy
• Digital Advocacy and Its Role in Healthcare Reform
• Social Media's Influence on Youth Activism
• Navigating Challenges in Allyship on Social Media Platforms

Privacy and Ethics:

• The Implications of Facial Recognition Technology on Social Media
• Social Media Platforms and the Ethics of User Data Collection
• The Role of Social Media in Combating Deepfakes
• Balancing Freedom of Speech and Moderation on Social Media
• Social Media and the Challenges of Regulating Disinformation
• Ethical Considerations in Targeted Advertising on Social Media
• The Impact of Social Media Algorithms on User Behavior
• Social Media and the Right to Privacy: Where to Draw the Line?
• The Influence of Social Media on Political Manipulation and Propaganda
• Data Security Concerns in the Era of Social Media
• The Ethics of Social Media Influencer Marketing
• Social Media and Its Role in Combating Cyberbullying
• The Impact of Social Media on Juror Bias in Legal Cases
• Exploring the Ethics of Incorporating Social Media Usage in Hiring Decisions by Employers
• Social Media and Its Role in Combating Hate Speech
• Balancing Personalization with Privacy in Social Media Websites
• The Influence of Social Media on Public Perceptions of Law Enforcement
• Social Media and the Challenges of Content Moderation
• Addressing Online Harassment: Ethical Considerations for Platforms
• The Responsibility of Social Media Platforms in Protecting User Privacy

Future Trends and Innovations:

• The Future of Social Media: Emerging Platforms and Trends
• The Role of Augmented Reality (AR) in Shaping the Future of Social Media
• Virtual Reality (VR) and Its Potential Impact on Social Media Engagement
• The Rise of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and Social Media
• Social Media and the Evolution of Live Streaming Culture
• The Impact of Voice Search and Voice Assistants on Social Media
• Social Commerce: The Future of E-Commerce Through Social Media
• Exploring the Influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Social Media
• The Role of Blockchain Technology in Enhancing Social Media Security
• Social Media and the Integration of Virtual Influencers
• The Future of Social Media Content: Short-Form vs. Long-Form
• The Influence of User-Generated Content on Future Social Media Trends
• Social Media and the Adoption of 5G Technology
• The Potential of Gamification in Shaping Social Media Engagement
• The Impact of Social Media on the Future of Work and Remote Collaboration
• Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media and Mental Health Apps
• The Influence of User Privacy Concerns on Future Social Media Developments
• Social Media and the Role of Ephemeral Content in Communication
• The Intersection of Social Media and Virtual Events
• Predicting the Next Wave of Social Media Influencer Trends

If these topics piqued your interest, you'll likely find persuasive essay topics equally fascinating! Dive into our article for a variety of options that might just spark your curiosity and inspire your next writing venture.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Mainstream Media — The Shift from Print to Digital Media

The Shift from Print to Digital Media

• Categories: Mainstream Media

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Words: 701 |

Published: Jan 25, 2024

Words: 701 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The rise of print media, the emergence of digital media, implications for journalism ethics and standards, the role of journalists in the digital age, the role of social media in shaping public opinion and journalistic standards, the challenges of misinformation and fake news in the digital age, the need for updated ethical guidelines in the digital era, the responsibility of journalists in upholding ethical standards, the importance of transparency and accountability in digital journalism.

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DartWrite Digital Portfolio Project

Dartmouth's home for digital writing portfolios

Digital Essay Project (Assignment Example)

Tina Van Kley has asked her Writing 5 students to re-mediate a research essay as what she calls (borrowing from Dan Cohen) a "digital essay." Students radically reshape and rewrite their projects for a public, online audience. They work toward the early drafts by exploring public writing on the web, noticing how the conventions of academic writing are both harnessed and changed in public online writing.  Students draft and complete the project as a single page on their portfolio sites. You can see an example of student work from winter 2019: https://journeys.dartmouth.edu/rayhcrist22/digital-essay/

Tina has shared a copy of the assignment text as it appeared in a recent class:

Project 3: Digital Essay

Your final project is to adapt your topic and research for Project 2 for a new, broad audience and digital medium, using your Dartmouth WordPress site.

Historian and New Media scholar Dan Cohen defines the digital essay (or – more controversially – “blessay”) as “a manifestation of the convergence of journalism and scholarship in mid-length forms online.” He cites the kind of thoughtful, informed writing found at places like The Atlantic’s website (Links to an external site.), Longform.org (Links to an external site.), and The New Yorker (Links to an external site.), or hear on NPR shows and podcasts like the investigative pieces on This American Life (Links to an external site.). We will read and listen to examples of such work to discuss the genre and its features. Some characteristics of the digital essay, as developed by Cohen (Links to an external site.):

• Mid-length: more ambitious than a blog post, less comprehensive than an academic article. Written to the length that is necessary, but no more. If we need to put a number on it, generally 1,000-3,000 words.
• Informed by academic knowledge and analysis, but doesn’t rub your nose in it.
• Uses the apparatus of the web more than the apparatus of the academic journal, e.g., links rather than footnotes. Where helpful, uses supplementary evidence from images, audio, and video—elements that are often missing or flattened in print.
• Expresses expertise but also curiosity. Conclusive, but also suggestive.
• Written for both specialists and an intelligent general audience. Avoids academic jargon—not to be populist, but rather out of a feeling that avoiding jargon is part of writing well.

Additional characteristics:

• The writer is often "present" in the piece, via use of first-person pronouns and/or anecdotes.
• Digital essays look different from traditional academic essays. Rather than titles, they have headlines and sub-headlines that give the motive and/or thesis. Paragraphs are often much shorter, and spacing is used strategically for online consumption, which prioritizes speed, efficiency, and high degree of skim-ability.

As with Projects 1 and 2, Project 3 is argumentative, but the approach taken should be exploratory and questioning, as implied by Cohen’s phrase “conclusive but also suggestive.” The imagined audience is anyone who might find your site in a search related to your topic, i.e., general but willing to read something that would take 45 minutes to an hour to read.

Basic Requirements:

• Use WordPress site
• 1,000-3,000 words in length
• Includes both visual and/or aural content that is integrated with the writing
• Includes at least 2 primary and at least 3 secondary sources (at least 2 of which should be scholarly)
•  Is the essay clearly addressed to a broad audience?
• Does the essay make appropriate use of the digital medium (e.g., includes a/v content, hyperlinks, etc.), or does it look like a typical academic essay copied and pasted onto a web page?
• Are digital elements (such as video, audio, images, etc.) incorporated effectively into the writing, and captioned, cited, or linked to appropriately?
• Does the essay identify the most appropriate source materials and methods for researching the topic?
• Is the essay’s thesis persuasive? Is it supported with convincing evidence and analysis?
• Is the essay organized, and does it include sufficient background for audiences unfamiliar with the topic?

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Conclusion: The Media We Need

• Published: December 2019
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The conclusion drives home the argument that commercial journalism has failed to meet society’s communication needs that are required to support democracy. Therefore, we need non-market models for journalism. As well as advocating for a new public media system, the conclusion describes the policies and politics that are necessary to build such a system and discusses what these new public newsrooms would actually look like. In addition to calling for journalist- and community-owned and controlled news outlets, it argues that we need to frame this as a social democratic policy program that aims to entirely remake existing news organizations while also creating entirely new ones.

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1 Pre-production

Introduction.

Before you start shooting video or recording audio, it is important to determine what your documentary media project will be like. Specifically, you will need to determine whether you want your documentary to be audio- or video-based, and you will also need to plan out roughly what the structure and content of the documentary will be, as well as what questions you will use in your interviews (if any).

Audio or video

One aspect to consider is whether your documentary will be audio-based or video-based. Each format has advantages and disadvantages.

Audio: pros and cons

There are a number of advantages to choosing to create an audio documentary rather than a video documentary:

• You will not need video-related recording equipment such as cameras or tripods
• The file sizes of your recordings will be much smaller
• Audio files take much less time to render compared to video files

However, one disadvantage of creating an audio-only documentary is that there is no possibility of showing images that are related to the research topic and might provide information or make the documentary more meaningful, such as graphs, diagrams, or images of the community involved in the research or of objects that are important to the community.

Video: pros and cons

As with audio, using video involves both advantages and disadvantages.

One of the most salient advantages is that video allows you to use visuals to illustrate or provide information, or to show images that can help to make the information in the documentary more meaningful. For example, a video-based documentary could include graphs or diagrams, or shots of research participants or community members.

Multimodal versatility

Another advantage is that video-based documentaries, depending on how they are structured, can be effective whether they are consumed in video or audio format, and so can be more versatile than audio-based documentaries. That is, the audio track of a documentary could be an effective standalone documentary in its own right if the audio provides functionally the same information as that in the video track. For example, if the video track of the documentary has a lower third that shows the name and title of a speaker, a way of replicating this in the audio would be to have the speaker introduce themselves by saying their name and title.

This versatility has a number of benefits.

First, the documentary can be uploaded to both video-based and audio-based multimedia platforms (for example, video sharing and podcast platforms). Second, the documentary can be consumed by the target audience in multiple ways: either by sitting down and watching it as a video, or by listening to it in podcast format while doing other things (such as commuting or doing things around the house).

By contrast, while converting a video documentary to an audio documentary can involve minimal to no effort, converting an audio documentary into a video documentary can be significantly more difficult.

Disadvantages

While the possibilities for conveying information or engaging the audience are greater with video, video-based documentaries also come with a number of potential trade-offs.

If you create a video-based documentary, you may need to use more types of equipment in addition to microphones, such as tripods or cameras. However, video equipment does not need to be prohibitively expensive or hard to acquire; you can use smartphones or webcams to record footage if you decide to go down the route of creating a video documentary. For example, the following documentary short about stuttering (which is called “Getting the Words Out”) uses footage recorded remotely from webcams:

Software-wise, footage that includes both a video track and an audio track tends to have a larger file size, and it can take a long time for editing software to render your documentary if it is very long or if the computer you are using is not very powerful. However, these may not be issues for you if you have adequate space on your hard drive, if you have access to a computer powerful enough to do video editing, or if your documentary media is short enough that it does not take much time to render.

Final thoughts

Whether you choose to create an audio-based or video-based documentary depends on your particular situation.

For example, while visuals can be a useful part of any documentary, to the extent to which the inclusion of visuals matters may depend on the topic you are discussing. For research on a topic that is mainly sound-based, such as phonetics or music, video may not be as important. On the other hand, for a topic in which physical objects play a more prominent role, such as archaeology, then video may be preferable, as it would allow you to display the objects in question.

Additionally, the choice of what type of documentary to create can depend on what resources are available to you and what constraints you are under. If you are looking to create a documentary that has fewer requirements in terms of equipment and software, then you might consider creating an audio-based documentary. If convenience or resource-related constraints are less of an issue, then you might consider creating a video-based documentary because of its versatility and its increased potential for engaging and informing your audience.

Format: Single-part vs multi-part

Another aspect to consider is how the documentary will be released:

• Will it be an ongoing project (such as a continually updated podcast) or a one-off project?
• Will the documentary have one part, or will it be released in multiple parts?

Single-part documentaries

A single-part documentary may be useful if you want the knowledge you are planning on disseminating to be consumed in a single sitting. For example, if the research involved consists of a single psychological study, then covering the main aspects of it may not require much of footage, and creating a multi-part series may not be necessary.

If you create a single-part documentary, you can always produce follow-up documentaries later if you need to. If you have created a documentary about research you did with a community and later conduct different research with the same community, you can create a second documentary about this other research. An example of a “sequel” documentary is The Not So Secret Life of the Manic Depressive: 10 Years On , which follows up on, and was released 10 years after, the 2006 documentary Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive , which is about bipolar disorder.

Multi-part documentaries

A multi-part documentary with a set number of parts may be useful if your topic has multiple subparts, each of which could have a separate full-length documentary devoted to it. These subparts may be different aspects of the same research, or different studies about the same topic. Choosing to create a multi-part documentary could be useful if there is too much material to fit into a single documentary.

An example of a multi-part documentary is the documentary series The Story of English , which has nine parts, each devoted to a different aspect of the English language.

Participants in the documentary

Before you start shooting footage of the people who will be in the documentary, you first need to decide who will appear in the documentary. Some possibilities include:

• Community members (if your research involves a specific community)
• Research participants
• People who have been impacted by the research or might be in the future
• Researchers

Depending on the subject of your documentary, an individual may belong to more than one of these categories. For example, a community member may also have participated in the research, and they may also be someone who has been affected or will be affected by the results of the research.

Community members, research participants, and people who may be affected by the research may be able to talk about:

• What interested them about the research
• Why they decided to participate (if they did)
• How they think the research might be relevant for them personally or for people they know

The community members you choose to include in your documentary could be research participants, but you may find it beneficial to include other community members as well. For example, Wolfram (2016) notes that including “respected community leaders and personalities” can be a way of being “to be respectful of social hierarchies within the community” (Wolfram, 2016, p. 797).

The documentary could also include clips of researchers. These researchers could be your co-authors (if any), but they could also be external researchers who have done work on a similar or related topic. Researchers could provide context by talking about how your research is related to similar research that has been done in the field. For example, a documentary about the archaeology of Roman artefacts in the UK could include clips of researchers talking about the relation between British Roman artefacts and Roman artefacts from elsewhere in Europe.

Who you are able to include in the documentary may depend on your academic status. If you are a student who is creating a documentary media essay as part of a class, what sorts of guests you would be allowed to include in your documentary depends on what sort of collaboration your instructor has indicated is permissible. Additionally, if you are a student, the research your documentary will be based on may consist of primary and secondary sources rather than original research, meaning that there would not be any research participants as such you could interview. Both these factors would limit who you can include in your documentary, or even if you can include any interviewees.

Beyond the question of whether you are a student or a researcher, who you are able to include in the documentary can also depend on your resources and contacts. For example, you may be unable to record new footage of certain individuals due to factors such as geographical distance, lack of internet connectivity, or conflicting schedules.

However, even if these restrictions apply to you, there are still ways to include individuals from the categories above in your documentary.

For example, if you wanted to include clips of a researcher in your documentary but you cannot film or record them, they may have given a talk (such as a TED Talk) or lecture about a topic related to your documentary. In this case, you may be able to use clips of that talk in your documentary.

Similarly, you may be able to find freely licensed videos of research participants or community members talking about the topic which you may be able to incorporate into your documentary. For example, if you are creating a documentary about ADHD, you may be able to find freely licensed videos of people with ADHD discussing their experiences with the condition (such as by using the Creative Commons filters on YouTube or Vimeo).

For sections where you do not have or can’t find footage of community members or research participants, you may be able to include quotes by community members or research participants taken from primary and secondary sources you have used in your research. For example, a study looking at the perceptions of people who stutter about stuttering might contain many quotes from study participants that you could use in your documentary by reading them as a voiceover.

You can also get participants’ thoughts on the research during or just after the research process by asking the participant whether they would be comfortable agreeing to an interview or providing written responses about the research. This question could be incorporated into your consent form or survey (if your research consists of a survey), and if any participants agree to it, you could then either interview them (in which case you would have footage of the participant) or provide them with a survey containing questions related to the topic of the research (in which case you would receive written responses).

Another possibility, if you want to include an individual’s thoughts in the documentary but are unable to record them in-person or on a live call, is to ask the individual questions via email and either (a) ask them to record themselves reading the answer, or (b) record yourself reading their responses.

You will need to determine how the content in your documentary media project will be structured.

One possible way of structuring a documentary is to have a three-part structure that goes as follows:

• Provide background (or have a participant or community member do so) as to what the research is about and what the purpose of the research is
• Show how the research took place and what it entailed
• If the documentary involves research participants or community members: Show participants or community members talking about their views about the research (e.g. why they got involved, why they find it interesting or important, and how it is relevant to them)

Conclusion:

• Reiterate the significance of the research (or have a participant or community member do so)
• Describe what research might be done on the topic in the future, or how the research you have just described could be implemented to affect change

On the other hand, if you are planning on disseminating knowledge through something like a podcast episode, the structure may be slightly different. The episode would likely still have three parts, but it would differ in that the intro could start with theme music, and the main body of the episode could consist of an entire interview with different people rather than fragments of multiple interviews. The structure of such a podcast episode could look like this:

• Start with theme music
• Introduce yourself, the name of the documentary (or series, if it is a multi-part series), and what the documentary is about

Main content:

• Introduce the interviewee and ask them questions about their views about the research (e.g. why they got involved, what the research entailed, why they find it interesting or important, and how it is relevant to them)
• Thank the interviewee for their time
• Reiterate the significance of the research (or have the interviewee do so)

Take the following example. A study by Mackenzie et al. (2015) looked at differences in /l/ velarization in Newfoundland English (that is, it looked at how the back of the tongue is raised towards the velum (hence, “velarized”) by different speakers of Newfoundland English.) A documentary short about this research could feature both the researcher and the research participants and have a structure like the following:

• A clip plays of a research participant speaking.
• The audio of the clip is lowered in volume and a voiceover starts in which a researcher describes the topic of the research (and explains what /l/ velarization is) and talks about how the participants for the study were selected.
• The researcher then explains how for some speakers, /l/ can be both velarized and non-velarized, while for other speakers, /l/ is pronounced in a non-velarized way in all contexts. The researcher gives some examples of words where this difference can be heard.
• The researcher’s voiceover ends, and a clip plays involving a participant saying a passage containing words in which there are both velarized and non-velarized /l/s.
• The researcher explains how the presence of variation of the /l/ is related to whether the particular dialect is an Irish English variety or not. The researcher explains how the pattern of velarization in Newfoundland English differs from that in most other North American varieties.
• A research participant talks about (for example) the Irishness of their background or the community they grew up in
• The researcher summarizes the findings of the study (it reveals variation in the pronunciation of /l/ within Newfoundland)
• A research participant talks about how their pronunciation of /l/, as a component of their speech, is a part of their identity

There is another possible way of structuring a documentary short about the study that does not involve any narration or contextualization on the part of the researcher:

• A clip plays of a research participant speaking
• The audio of the clip fades out and transitions to a clip of the participant speaking about why they decided to participate in the research and what the research entailed
• A clip plays of a participant (the same one or a different one) talking about what they learned about their own speech, and whether they find it is relevant to their identity in any way (such as how it distinguishes them from other North American English speakers)
• A clip plays of a participant talking about any experiences in their life where they noticed people in different regions pronouncing /l/s differently
• A clip plays of a participant talking about why they find the research interesting or relevant

Using a narrative-based structure like this one allows the documentary media essay to cover much, if not all, of the same topics as the non-narrative structure while allowing the speakers who are part of the study to speak about their own variety of English. In this way, information about the variety will be provided by the speakers of that variety themselves rather than by an external researcher.

Beyond recording footage of research participants or community members for your documentary project (as may be the case if you are a student), there are other ways to incorporate views of research participants, community members, or other relevant individuals. As mentioned in the previous section, sources of material can include:

• Freely licensed videos (such as TED Talks) involving individuals (such as community members or researchers) talking about the topic
• Studies containing written quotes by participants on the topic of the study
• Individuals’ written responses in email exchanges (for example, you could email a researcher and ask them to provide an answer to a question to include in your documentary)
• Written responses within a survey administered during or after the research process

Though a documentary is not a written document, you can still incorporate written responses or written quotes within your documentary by showing them on the screen while reading them as a voiceover. For example, if it is necessary for the documentary short to only involve footage of the researcher, without any of the participants (this might be the case if none of the participants are available for an interview), but the particiapnts can provide responses via email, the short could still include the participants’ thoughts. The structure for the short might look something like this:

• A voiceover starts in which a researcher describes the topic of the research (and explains what /l/ velarization is) and talks about how the participants for the study were selected.
• The researcher reads a written response by a research participant in which they describe (for example) the Irishness of their background or the community they grew up in
• The researcher reads a written response by a research participant in which they describe how their pronunciation of /l/, as a component of their speech, is a part of their identity

Each of the narrative structures above involves clips with different types of people:

• The researcher and one or more research participants
• One or more research participants
• The researcher alone, plus written responses from research participants

Which of these structures you decide to choose depends on the specifics of your situation. You might even decide to tweak these structures or use a different structure altogether: for example, if your topic is not one that involves community collaboration or human participants, you might create a narrative documentary that consists entirely of a voiceover involving you, without any research participants.

This section contains steps to creating your “script” (though I hesitate to use that word because we often think of documentaries as not being scripted). What you create here contains everything that a director would need to begin making your story into an audio-visual experience.

Steps #1 and #2 should be pretty easy. #3 and #4 will take some creativity. Keep in mind that these steps do not have to be followed sequentially. It is better to treat them iteratively – meaning you will go back and forth between them as many times as you wish. Once you get going, you’ll figure out when to move to another step (i.e. maybe you hit a wall, maybe you’ve said all of you can say for now).  Practice moving back and forth and revising what you have written at each step as necessary.

Remember: everything that goes into a doc video is intentional! The video is a construction of the maker. Nothing should be accidental or unplanned.

1. Your Research Community of Practice

Who is in your Community of Practice that helps set the context for understanding the meaning of your research? Try to list significant members, locations, activities that define this “community.”

2. Synopsis

Along with your supervisor, determine which key ideas of your research are most important in communicating. For each one, write 1 sentence telling us why you included it.

Create a list of these key ideas. How do they relate back to the community of practice components you identified in #1?

3. Your Storyboard

Create a short storyboard. Again, aim for making a connection to the community of practice components.

(For background information: this article describes what a storyboard is and how to create one.)

4. Your Shot List

Create a short shot-list. By now, you should be putting things together – thinking of concrete visuals and sounds that connect to your community of practice and the key ideas you wish to communicate.

(For background information: this article describes what a shot list is and how to create one.)

Other things to consider

How are you going to explain more theoretical or abstract ideas clearly ? Remember that you’re making a documentary video, not a PowerPoint presentation, so your old friend, bulleted text, is not available. You need a different toolset that fits into the language of documentary media. For example, the YouTube channel Benedict uses a clever and very satisfying method to explain statistics visually: cardboard cutouts.

Also, are you going to use a narrator’s voice? Ideally, you would not, since this could be problematic when it comes to authenticity, depicting the source of the knowledge, and goals such as engaging your audience and making the content meaningful. That is to say, you should avoid using a disembodied voice of a researcher or of someone who is not involved in the story.

Interview questions

Since a documentary involving community collaboration will involve getting the thoughts of community members or research participants, a significant part (or even the entirety) of the final content of the documentary may consist of responses to interview questions rather than pre-scripted material. As a result, it is important to think about what sorts of questions you will be asking the people you are interviewing.

The questions will need to elicit responses that (1) are relevant to the topic of your documentary, and (2) consist of full sentences that can stand on their own even without the context of the questions they are a response to.

Questions that might be useful for obtaining responses for the intro of your documentary include:

• How did you find out about the research?
• What made you decide to participate in the research?
• What was the research about?

Questions that might be relevant for the main body of the documentary include:

• When you were taking part in the research, what did that involve, and what sorts of things did you have to do?
• What do you find interesting or important about the research?
• What did you learn as a result of taking part in the research?
• How is the research relevant to you?

Questions that might be relevant for the conclusion of the documentary include:

• Do you know anyone who might be affected by the results of the research, and if so, who?
• Is there any way the findings of the research could be implemented in your community, and if so, how?

Sources cited

Larsson, R. (2017). My Story or Your Story? Producing Professional Digital Stories on Behalf of Researchers . In G. Jamissen, P. Hardy, Y. Nordkvelle, & H. Pleasants (Eds.), Digital Storytelling in Higher Education (pp. 167–184). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51058-3_12

Mackenzie, S., De Decker, P., & Pierson, R. (2015). /l/-darkness in Newfoundland English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 137(4), 2414. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4920801

Further resources

The following video is a presentation on creating narrative films based on research:

• Royal Roads University. (2022, February 28). From Rigor to Dissemination, Acts in Narrative Research and Storytelling [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFbyxqxQBWo

The following are written resources that discuss how to use narrative structure when creating a documentary:

• Desktop Documentaries. (n.d.) Documentary Structure: The Three-Act Documentary . https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/documentary-structure.html
• Fezza, AJ. (2021, July 22). Tips For Short Documentary Filmmaking . The Film Fund. https://www.thefilmfund.co/tips-for-short-documentary-filmmaking
• Leighfield, L. (2022, June 13). How to Write a Documentary Script: Expert Storytelling Tips . Boords. https://boords.com/blog/how-to-write-a-documentary-script-expert-storytelling-tips
• MasterClass. (2021, August 11). Ken Burns Shares 7 Tips for Structuring a Documentary . https://www.masterclass.com/articles/ken-burns-shares-tips-for-structuring-a-documentary
• Peedom, J. (2019, August 18). Understanding Narrative Structure in Documentary . World Nomads. https://www.worldnomads.com/create/learn/film/understanding-narrative-structure-in-documentary
• Tames, D. (2014, November 17). Four approaches to structuring micro-documentaries . Kino-eye.com. https://kino-eye.com/2014/11/17/structuring-micro-docs/
• Wielechowski, B. (n.d.) 7. Plot. In  Introduction to Narrative Journalism . https://oer.pressbooks.pub/narrativejournalism/chapter/chapter-6-plot/

The following are videos which delve into the process of interviewing people for a documentary and give tips on how to ask interview questions:

• Bone, M. (2021, March 29). How To Interview BETTER: Documentary, Podcast, & Corporate [Video].  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KF8Bl27EnI
• Videomaker. (2019, August 2). How to Ask Great Documentary Interview Questions  [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qddEATeRpcI

Digital Media Essays for Research and Communication Copyright © by Paul De Decker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Traditional Media vs. New Media

Need to write an old media vs. new media essay? Find here an A+ example! It studies the evolution of traditional to new media, explains how Internet has replaced newspapers, and gives examples.

Introduction

• Old vs. New Media

The Evolution of Traditional to New Media

Lots of people are now talking about new media as opposed to old or traditional media. However, there is still some uncertainty as regards the distinction between new and old media. Flew (2008) notes that the idea of ‘newness’ is rather subjective and relative as television and the Internet have become accessible almost simultaneously in such countries as India or China.

Other researchers suggest a particular distinction between new and old media based on the use of the Internet and digital technology (Salman et al., 2011). Noteworthy, researchers agree that the distinction between the two types of media is less important than the convergence of these types (Collins, 2013).

It is possible to state that the three standpoints are correct to a certain extent and it is possible to combine them. Thus, the distinction between old and new media is a bit blurred but still meaningful even though the two types of media are likely to converge into the third type.

Despite close connection between the two types of media, it is possible to draw the distinction between them. Logan (2010, p. 4) claims that new media “incorporate two-way communication” and are associated with computing (e.g. the Internet, social networks), while old media do not require computing (radio, print newspapers, TV). This standpoint can be easily illustrated.

Thus, newspapers and television are rather one-way sources of information. Viewers do not often participate in the creation of the programs. Admittedly, there are call-ins but the amount of participation is still irrelevant. When it comes to newspapers, they are not created by the readers.

Each piece of news is told by a journalist. Readers can only write letters or call the newspaper and it is the editor who decides whether to add the commentary to the next issue or not. However, it is necessary to note that at the era of newspapers and television there was no need in such two-way channels. People strived for news and they simply wanted to be aware of the latest events in the world.

Remarkably, people of the twenty-first century seek for networking and they want to feel connected. Boyd and Ellison (2008) stress that networking has become very popular as people feel certain empowerment. Thus, online resources are characterized by the immediate feedback (Ryan, 2010). Users post their commentaries and express their opinions on a variety of issues (Newman, 2011).

Moreover, people affect media’s agendas, so-to-speak. Jenkins (2006) mentions the story of a teenager who unintentionally caused the start of anti-American demonstrations and almost caused legal actions against himself. Internet users also feel their own relevance with the help of blogging. Keen (2010) emphasizes negative effects of such empowerment.

The researcher argues that blogging along with various applications available online makes people distracted from some really important things. Keen (2010, p. 55) articulates the idea that ‘democratized’ media only leads to the future where “everyone is an author, while there is no longer any audience”.

The present distinction is based on the degree of collaboration between producers of content and consumers. Van Dijk (2006) introduces a structural component of the distinction between new media and old media stating that the former are structurally different (i.e. two-way) from the latter (i.e. one-way).

It is also possible to differentiate between the old and new media focusing on their ‘popularity’. As far as old media are concerned, they are seen as somewhat outdated and they are declining. For instance, researchers note that there is certain decrease in newspapers circulations in many countries (Cervenka, 2005). Younger generations prefer searching the net to reading print newspapers.

Television is also losing points steadily. At the same time, the Internet and especially social networks are becoming more and more popular. Popularity of the Internet is due to its accessibility and multi-functionalism (O’Reilly, 2005). Internet users are attracted by the variety of options offered.

Thus, users can communicate, express opinions, share files, create certain communities, find information, etc. It is possible to state that this distinction is also relevant. Hence, it is possible to note that the distinction between old and new media is based on two dimensions, popularity and structure.

Remarkably, some researchers claim that there is a distinction based on the form. Chun (2005) notes that new media require computing and digital technology (unlike old media). Nevertheless, such media as online newspapers and digital TV are becoming increasingly popular. Some call these new media, but it is somewhat inaccurate. It is more appropriate to talk about the third type of media or the convergence of the two types.

Thus, Skoler (2009) states that the two types of media can facilitate each other. For instance, the author argues that social media can help develop such old media as newspapers. The researcher notes that people can continue telling stories and reporting about things they see, but it is journalists’ job to process the information and present the most relevant news only (Skoler, 2009).

This convergence of social networks and newspapers can be beneficial for both as the former get the air of confidence and the latter have access to almost unlimited sources of information.

French (2011) also claims that convergence of different types of media is beneficial for the development of the very concept of media. The researcher stresses that the so-called old media are now becoming digitalized. People have online newspapers and digital TV. They also keep using social networks and other applications. This helps people remain up-to-date and connected.

Thus, it is possible to state that the distinction between old and new media is becoming totally blurred as the third type of media occurs. It is possible to call it global, digital, collaborative and old and new media can be a characteristic of the twentieth century.

To sum up, it is possible to note that the distinction between old and new media can be based on several features. The most relevant distinction is based on the structural component and popularity. Thus, new media are characterized by computing and connectedness while old media do not possess these features.

However, it is also necessary to note that even this distinction is becoming somewhat blurred due to the changes taking place in the society of the twenty-first century.

Newspapers and TV are now digitalized and these media start being more collaborative (i.e. customers are getting involved in the process of creation of the products). This collaboration is beneficial for the media as well as the development of the society. People are now ready to collaborate and interact, which is crucial for the globalized world of the twenty-first century.

Reference List

Boyd, D., & Ellison, N. (2008). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 13 (1), 210-230.

Cervenka, A. (2005). Roles of traditional publications and new media. Innovation Journalism, 2 (4), 121-230.

Chun, W. H. K. (2005). Did somebody say new media? In W.H.K. Chun & T. Keenan (Eds.), New media, old media: A history and theory reader (pp. 1-12). New York: Routledge.

Collins, R. (2013). New bad things . Huffington Post . Web.

Flew, T. (2008). Introduction to new media. In T. Flew (Ed.), New media: An introduction (pp. 1-20). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

French, K. (2011). Emerging convergence. The Hub . Web.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide . New York: New York University Press.

Keen, A. (2010). Why we must resist the temptation of web 2.0. In B. Szoka & A. Marcus (Eds.), The next digital decade: Essays on the future of the internet (pp. 51-56). Washington: Techfreedom.

Logan, R. K. (2010). Understanding new media: Extending Marshall McLuhan . New York: Peter Lang.

Newman, N. (2011). Mainstream media and the distribution of news in the age of social discovery. Reuters Institute . Web.

O’Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0 . Web.

Ryan, J. (2010). The web! In J. Ryan (Ed.), A history of the internet and the digital future (pp.105-119). London: Reaktion.

Salman, A., Ibrahim, F., Abdullah, M.Y.H., Mustaffa, N., & Mahbob, M.H. (2011). The impact of new media on traditional mainstream mass media. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 16 (3), 1-11.

Skoler, M. (2009). Why the news media became irrelevant: And how social media can help. Nieman Reports . Web.

Van Dijk, J. (2006). The network society: Social aspects of new media . London: Sage.

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IvyPanda. (2019, July 4). Traditional Media vs. New Media. https://ivypanda.com/essays/old-media-and-new-media/

"Traditional Media vs. New Media." IvyPanda , 4 July 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/old-media-and-new-media/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Traditional Media vs. New Media'. 4 July.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Traditional Media vs. New Media." July 4, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/old-media-and-new-media/.

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The Link between Social Media Usage and Depression: a Comprehensive Analysis

This essay about the impact of social media on mental health explores how platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter influence our well-being. It discusses the dual aspects of social media, highlighting both its potential for fostering connections and its role in increasing feelings of isolation and inadequacy. The essay emphasizes the need for digital literacy, healthy online habits, and reducing the stigma around mental health to mitigate the negative effects of social media and enhance its positive impacts.

How it works

In our contemporary digital era, the complex relationship between immersion in social media and mental well-being, especially the emergence of depression, remains a captivating area ripe for exploration. What once began as a groundbreaking channel for global interaction has gradually transformed into a labyrinthine digital realm filled with meticulously crafted images, status updates, and instant communication. While social media platforms offer various advantages, such as fostering connections and enabling self-expression, their darker aspects have increasingly come to the forefront of discussions.

The connection between excessive social media usage and depression presents a multifaceted landscape. On one hand, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter act as pillars of social validation and support, fostering a sense of interconnectedness and soliciting affirming feedback. However, this digital fabric of connectivity can also sow seeds of isolation and inadequacy, especially when individuals find themselves trapped in the comparative whirlwind of measuring their lives against the seemingly flawless narratives of others.

The ubiquity of social media, with its constant stream of updates and notifications, can fuel feelings of unease and tension. The pervasive fear of missing out (FOMO), amplified by a relentless flood of social activities showcased online, can plunge individuals into a vortex of self-doubt and exclusion. Furthermore, the relentless pursuit of an unattainable standard of perfection online can lead to what psychologists refer to as “social media-induced perfectionism,” where individuals feel compelled to project an airbrushed version of themselves, resulting in increased stress and self-blame.

Moreover, the enticing allure of social media, characterized by endless scrolling and compulsive checking of notifications, can disrupt sleep patterns and detract from real-world interactions. The dopamine rush triggered by each like, share, or comment reinforces the habit-forming nature of these platforms, making it challenging for individuals to disconnect and engage in offline activities essential for mental well-being.

While links have been established between heavy social media use and depressive symptoms, it is essential to understand the nuanced dynamics at play. Not all avid social media users succumb to depression, and numerous factors, including pre-existing mental health conditions, personality traits, and offline support networks, exert significant influence. Additionally, social media can serve as a crucial lifeline for individuals grappling with mental health challenges, providing access to support groups, resources, and coping mechanisms.

Navigating the complex interplay between social media immersion and depression requires a comprehensive approach. Educating users about cultivating healthy online habits, such as setting boundaries, taking periodic digital detoxes, and avoiding incessant comparisons, can empower individuals to navigate the digital landscape more judiciously. Promoting digital literacy, including critical thinking and media discernment, can equip users with the skills to sift through the flood of content and distinguish between authenticity and artifice often prevalent on social media.

Furthermore, fostering open dialogues about mental health and eliminating the stigma surrounding seeking help are crucial steps in creating a more empathetic online environment. Social media platforms themselves can leverage their influence by implementing features designed to prioritize user well-being, such as tools to manage screen time and providing swift access to support resources during moments of distress.

In conclusion, the intricate interplay between social media immersion and depression unfolds against a backdrop of diverse influences, encompassing individual tendencies to platform design. While excessive social media immersion can lead to feelings of isolation, inadequacy, and depression, it is essential to recognize the potential benefits these platforms offer in terms of connectivity and support. By promoting healthier online behaviors, fostering digital literacy, and cultivating compassionate digital communities, we can mitigate the adverse effects of social media on mental health and harness its potential as a driver for positive societal change.

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• Essay on Psychology

Digital Media Essay Example

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Psychology , Skills , Internet , Information , Computers , Media , Brain , Thinking

Words: 2000

Published: 01/11/2020

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Is our increasing use of digital media making us dumb?

More people are watching television, playing video games, reading news, spending time on social networks and using video on demand services than they were six months ago according to a survey published today by the KPMG Survey. Since the digital technologies became widely available, educators, scholars, parents and policy makers have been discussing the implications that they may be causing to the literacy, social tolerance, aggression and attention spans in the young people. Considerable steps have continued to be made in the scholarship of most of these areas. For example the educational benefits of the video games are being documented by some scholars like Johnson in 2005, Gee in 2003 and Shaffer in 2006. Meanwhile, debates on the relationship between violence and the video games have continued to persist. Some of the effects of digital media that have raised concern include the nature of the personal identities which have been formed online, personal privacy in environments in which many forms of information can be disseminated and gleaned, the actual meaning of authorship in a place where several anonymous writers produce knowledge, the manner in which people treat and interact with one another, trustworthiness and credibility of organizations and individuals that we interact with on the internet. The issues have also been considered to be important even offline and yet the digital space may have newer or distinct concerns. It hence becomes critical to ask if the digital media are leading to the making of new mental models with respect to privacy, identity, authorship and ownership and credibility . Even though the World Wide Web has been in existence for around 20 years, it is very difficult to imagine how life would be without it. The World Wide Web provides instant access to large amounts of information and also the ability to stay connected to colleagues and friends continuously. Our dependence though, on the digital media has its dark side. An increasing body of scientific evidence has continued to suggest that the internet which has constant interruptions and distractions has turned people into superficial and scattered thinkers. Information is gathered and knowledge is retained significantly more when reading a hard as compared to reading on the internet. A book or an article written on a paper is all where the focus is and as such more attention is paid to the information and as result the reader becomes more knowledgeable. However, when a person is reading something on the net, it becomes very easy to be distracted and to go off topic. It only takes an attractive, colorful sidebar link to appear on the screen and one loses track of the original intentions to read the article they were in. Unlike while one is reading a book, on the computer one is able to multitask by opening multiple tabs. If a message is received on say Facebook, the tab on which the page is flashes and then the computer goes on to make a sound. It is presumed that if that happens, one would easily be tempted to stop reading whatever they were reading online to attend to the message on their Facebook. The results that are emerging are troubling especially to those people who value subtlety of the human thought rather than just speed. Studies show that those people who read text which has links comprehend less compared to those who read word that are printed on pages. Those people who watch multimedia presentations that are busy remember less than the people who take information in more focused and sedated manners. People who are usually distracted by updates, emails and other messages have been seen to understand less compared to who are in environments where they are able to concentrate. It has also been proven that people who multitask are mostly less productive and creative as compared to those who carry out one task at a time. The thread that is common in the disabilities is division of attention. Richness of memories, thoughts and also personality hinders the ability focus the minds and retain concentration. It only when we are able to pay attention to new information that has the ability to associate it with knowledge in our memory that is systematic and meaningful. Such associations are very important in thinking critically and also mastering concepts that are complex. When we are continuously interrupted and distracted, as it is when we are looking at the screens of our mobile phones and computers, our brains are unable to forge the expansive and strong neural connections which give depth and distinctiveness of our thinking. Our memories become weak and our thoughts disjointed. And as Seneca a Roman philosopher once said, “To be everywhere is to be nowhere”. Following an article in Science last year, a development psychologist Patricia Greenfield who a Children’s Digital Media Center looked at many studies on how the different media technologies affect the cognitive abilities. Most of these studies showed that certain tasks on computers such as playing video games do increase the speed at which human beings can shift their focus on icons and other images on the screens. However, other studies have pointed out that such rapid shift in focus even if it is performed adeptly; it results to more automatic and less rigorous thinking. It has been said that mediums develop cognitive skills at the expense of others. The growing use of media that is screen based has continued to strengthen the visual-spatial intelligence of people and this can in turn strengthen the ability of people to carry out jobs which involve keep track of signals that are rapidly changing like monitoring patients during surgery or piloting a plane. However, the visual-spatial intelligence has been connected with new weaknesses in processes of higher-order cognitive which include mindfulness, abstract vocabulary, critical thinking, inductive problem solving and imagination. It would be a better thing if the effects disappeared as soon as the mobile and computer screens are turned but this is not the case. Scientists have discovered that the cellular structure of the brain readily adapts to the tools we utilize in finding, storing and sharing information. When we change our habit of mind, the new technology goes on to strengthen a certain neural pathway and in turn weakens the others. These alterations mould the manner in which we think even when we are not using that technology. An experiment conducted at a university in the US, half of the students in a class had been allowed to use internet that had been connected to their laptops in a lecture while the other half had shut down their computers. The students who were browsing the web were seen to perform worse in the subsequent tests of how well they had retained the content of the lecture. Some earlier experiments indicated that as the amounts of links on an online page increased, the comprehension of reading goes down and as more kinds of information are displayed on the screen, people remember very little of what they see. Through continuous use of the digital media, our brains are massively being remodeled by this behavior. Mr. Merzenich who is a professor at the University of California conducted an experiment which indicated how quickly and extensive the neural circuits often change in response to experience. He continued to say that he was worried about the cognitive impacts of the interruptions and distractions the internet presents to us. The long term impacts on the quality of people’s intellectual lives and this could be deadly. As most of us know, not all distraction have negative effects. If we again concentrate so much on tough problems, we can get stuck in a situation referred to as a mental rut, but if we leave the problem stay unattended for little while, we often get back to it with fresh ideas and lots of creativity. It has been proven that breaks in people’s attention give the unconscious mind the time to come to grips with a problem and this result to cognitive processes and bear information which is unavailable to the conscious deliberation. It is then true that when we shift our attention from mental challenges for a while, we make better decisions. However, the constant distractions encouraged by the internet are very different from the type of temporary and purposeful diversion offered by our minds which refreshes thinking. The internet distractions short-circuit both the unconscious and conscious thoughts preventing the minds from thinking creatively or deeply. The brains are turned into simple signal processors. Many young people now days use multiple mediums at a time. They make calls while they play computer games or write emails. For the reasons that everything one does leaves its traces in the brain, when there is optimum development, the memory links are built and formed in the initial months and years of one’s life and the structure piles up to form the basic foundation of the other things we learn later on in life. When drivers exclusively depend on the navigation technology, developing the ability of orientation is made impossible even though their brains present them with the ability of learning how to do so. This is also the case when it comes to children who often use styluses on SMART boards instead on developing skills on writing which would keep the brain in check. Computer take over most functions of the classrooms which are really good practices for children and this has negative impacts on learning. The things we seem to sacrifice in our searching and surfing is the capacity to engage in quieter, attentive mode of thoughts which underpin reflection, introspection and contemplation. The web does not encourage us to slow down. In fact, it keeps us in the state of continuous mental locomotion. The increase in social networks such as Twitter and Facebook that pump out streams of only brief information has exacerbated the problems. There is no problem with absorption of information quickly, in pieces and in bits. People have often skimmed the newspaper even more that we have read them. People also run their eyes over magazines and books to get an idea of a piece of writing so as to make a decision whether it requires more reading. That ability to browse and scan is as crucial as the ability to deeply read and think. The disturbing thing is that, skimming has become the dominant mode of thinking. It is becoming the preferred method of analysis and learning and as result losing the main goal of learning. Fascinated by treasures of the internet, people have become blind to the damage being caused to our culture and even our intellectual lives. I am not quit not sure of whether the digital media such as the internet is making us stupid or not. What I am sure about is the fact that living in a state of partial attention and distractions is very far from being smart.

"Your Brain on Computers: Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime". (n.d.). Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?_r=1 Bauerlein, M. Online Literacy is Lesser Kind. Carr., N. (n.d.). Review of The Shallows. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20009036-265.html Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction. (n.d.). Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all Nicholas Carr., C. (n.d.). We're taking this too seriously. Retrieved from http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/314134/june-30-2010/nicholas-carr Shirky, C. (n.d.). "Does the Internet Make You Smarter?". Retrieved from Wall Street Journal: http//online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870402530457528497372694334.html

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Testament to doomed media

• May 20, 2024

Bryan Appleyard

• Themes: Media, Technology

The old media has failed to rise to the challenge of tech, but we'll miss it when it's gone.

I first became aware of the importance of newspapers when everybody stopped talking about them. It was October 1962 and, prior to that date, everybody had routinely discussed the headlines, notably in the Daily Express . Then – in family groups and on car, train or bus journeys – nobody said a word. This was because, with children present, there were no words with which to discuss the impending extermination of our species.

After 11 days the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved and the now more or less harmless Daily Express headlines were being openly discussed, but not by the children. They went on imagining the great hole where Manchester had once been and what it was like to be burnt or irradiated to death.

Later, having been unable to imagine what could possibly be done with a Cambridge degree in English, I slumped into the media . This, on a very local paper, turned out to be a dodgy not to say distasteful, exercise. This was not for me, but the media trapped me with a double promotion, first to the regional group United Newspapers and then The Times , swiftly followed by the Sunday Times , where I worked, as a contracted freelancer, for almost 40 years.

In this period, geopolitics did not change; in fact, it grew much worse. Nuclear war is now more likely than ever thanks to an increasingly brutal generation of autocrats and ever more subtle weapons. The media, however, has changed beyond recognition – also, though it may be too early to tell, for the worse.

The agent of change is obvious: the internet. This has eviscerated the newspaper business, draining advertising revenue and circulation, and it will continue to do so. Newspapers have been turning themselves into online subscription services, but online ads are worth a lot less than print. Furthermore, subscriptions are now a very crowded market and buyers are finding themselves choosing between the Mail Online and Disney Plus. Media author Andrey Mir speaks of the problem of ‘subscription fatigue’: ‘People get more and more annoyed by digital services of all kinds seeking to sneak and charge them pennies for a subscription to something.’

Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has, since early 2023, been charging into the online media space. A fully AI-powered internet is just around the corner. Last year it was reported that News Corp Australia was generating 3,000 articles a week written by AI. And we all know now that ChatGPT can, in seconds, write essays about anybody even slightly famous. That single debut terrorised Google, which instantly switched most of its staff over to AI.

So, in a few decades, the internet has destroyed the foundations of the press. Some may say this is not a bad thing – newspapers are too often crudely biased and slapdash products. OK, my local newspaper lied a lot and the big newspapers make a fair few mistakes; the tabloids never had a firm commitment to the truth. Yet there is one important defence of the whole business – in the old newspaper trade something like significant truth was in there somewhere, detectable with just a little effort.

That is not true of the lumbering internet behemoth. How much truth is there in the trillions of posts drifting in the ether? The answer is very little, simply because this is an open space. Not everybody can contribute to newspapers, but almost everybody can and does have their say in the swamp of cyberspace.

This means that a great deal of effort is required to find the significant truth. In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine; all 298 passengers and crew died. The Russians and, for some reason, the Spanish, blamed the Ukrainians, but then an independent truth-teller proved that it was shot down by a Russian missile. The truth-teller was Bellingcat , a private investigative group. Three cheers for them but consider this – the truth is now very hard to find because lies can be so firmly established, as, initially, was the fate of Flight 17. In the infinitely connected climate of the internet the truth needs great thinkers and dogged idealists like Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat.

Possibly, newspapers will survive as fairly reliable truth-tellers but I have my doubts. I gave a talk at a grand Scottish school recently and I asked my sixth-form interlocutor, clearly a very bright girl indeed, what papers she read. The answer was none, but she did mention a news aggregator of which I had never heard. Mir suggests newspapers will survive little more than a decade – about the same time as that sixth former comes into her own. If they’re all like her, fine, if not…

So what shall we read, watch and learn after 2034? That depends on more important questions: why should we read, watch and learn anything? In other words, why media, what is news, and are either of them essential to the human condition?

Taking a more fundamental view, news and media are simply formalisations of speech. Long before Julius Caesar (supposedly) launched the Acta Diurna (Daily Acts), a form of newspaper consisting of official notices and message boards, humans would have been discussing these things among themselves. Even further back, animals co-operated in order to fight and feed, and, latterly, we have discovered that trees have busy social networks, the wi-fi, routers and cables of which are made of subterranean fungi.

In short, media evolved to sustain life, but what sustain means has changed rapidly with the global success of humans. Our media organised armies, trade, technology and political systems. This has happened over many thousands of years, but what we now define as media was really only born in the late Renaissance.

Newspapers appeared in Europe in the 16th century. They were, at first, heavily censored but, by the 19th century, they had, especially in the UK and US, become boisterous and, for politicians, dangerous publications.

One spectacular and – in terms of contemporary journalism – most resonant example of a politically free press was a series of articles headlined ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’, which appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885. Edited by W.T. Stead, the articles exposed a massive trade in young girls for sexual abuse. The stories caused panic in Westminster – Stead’s abusers included some powerful men – and laws were rapidly changed to protect young girls.

This was a spectacular assertion of the power of politically independent media. The press and, subsequently, the broadcast media had become a new power in the land, and laws, such as those inspired by Stead, protected the rights of this newly powerful force.

There was, however, something ominous about this; not simply the political and legal power of the media, but rather the threat to the human self. The 19 th -century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard sensed that something was wrong.

‘As a result of knowing and being everything possible, one is in contradiction with oneself,’ he wrote. For him the self requires not ‘variableness and brilliancy’, ‘but firmness, balance, and steadiness’. The sheer availability of knowledge reduced the quality of the self.

The great journalist Walter Lippmann, writing in 1919, also glimpsed a terrifying instability in the rise of the press: ‘Men who have lost their grip upon the relevant facts of their environment are the inevitable victims of agitation and propaganda. The quack, the charlatan, the jingo, and the terrorist can flourish only where the audience is deprived of independent access to information.’

He added that uncertainty about ‘secondhand news’ would mean that people would ‘cease to respond to truths, and respond simply to opinions. The environment in which they act is not the realities themselves, but the pseudo-environment of reports, rumours, and guesses’.

With Lippmann I heartily agree. I now find opinions – my own included – ridiculous and the way newspapers become politically defined – usually as right or left – simply means they cannot be relied upon to tell the truth.

This was all a response to the boisterous power of the newspapers and broadcasters of the last 200 years. They had begun to represent a new world in which everybody had no choice but to be enervated daily by, well, everything. As Kierkegaard saw, in demanding membership, this new world shrinks the self.

This was just the beginning. The power of this type of media force remained largely unthreatened until the arrival, in the early 21 st century, of Web 2.0. Web 1.0 had lasted from 1989 to 2004. This was the basic system in which most of us simply consumed online material. Certainly, this was a threat – notably to the powerful print unions – as it meant media would no longer need the paraphernalia of printing and physical delivery.

The unions saw this threat clearly enough. When I was pounding away on a typewriter at The Times Business News I came up with the bright idea of installing a terminal on which we could call up share prices in ‘real’ time. At once, two large and alarming men appeared to study this machine that they considered as a threat to their jobs. I backed away as one always did from the print unions in those days.

Web 2.0 allowed users to connect with each other. It was the start of blogs, social networks and, in the event, the future. If Kierkegaard and Lippmann regarded the clamorous press environment as dangerously noisy, then they would have thrown themselves off a cliff when presented with Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and TikTok. It has flung media-thinkers into a form of delirium. Social media is just too big to force an opinion or even a generalisation. This, from the normally cool, but now evidently confused, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ‘…the urgent need for attention to the social networking phenomenon is underscored by the fact that it has profoundly reshaped how many human beings initiate and/or maintain virtually every type of ethically significant social bond or role: friend-to-friend, parent-to-child, co-worker-to co-worker, employer-to-employee, teacher-to-student, neighbor-to-neighbor, seller-to-buyer, doctor-to-patient, and voter-to-voter, to offer just a partial list. Nor are the ethical implications of these technologies strictly interpersonal, as it has become evident that social networking services… and other new digital media have profound implications for democracy, public institutions and the rule of law’.

All the old categories that used to frame our concepts of the media are dead. That clever girl I met in Scotland who didn’t read newspapers was three or thereabouts when Web 2.0 came into existence – she knew no other world except as history.

Here’s the catch. The world of Web 2.0 is dying. Its imminent demise was announced on 30 November 2022 when ChatGPT – an ‘artificial intelligence chatbot’ – was announced. Everybody had known that artificial intelligence was on the way, but this was the real thing. AI is still being incubated in the apricot groves of Silicon Valley, but it is obvious that it will come and that it will change everything.

That it should not change everything is the concern of those politicians and thinkers who are now trying to construct human defences against the age of the machine. Their problem is that, by its very nature, AI may well be unstoppable. If you build free-thinking machines, then you should not be surprised when they think – and act – freely.

And much better than us. The great environmental thinker James Lovelock, in his last book, Novacene (co-written, I confess, by me), points out that electronic circuits work 10,000 times quicker than the ones in our brain. We, in turn, he said, think about 10,000 times faster than plants. The machines would regard us as plants, but at least they might be able to save the planet from global warming. In the end, they may not bother about us – it is unlikely we would be, in their eyes, a very special species.

Anticipating the effects of AI on the media is impossible. If we simply become a secondary species governed by machines, then gossip will probably be all we ever learn of the world because all the real, effective thinking will be done by the machines. This may not happen – but what will?

Web 2.0 might provide one kind of answer. Social networking has already reduced the wealth and power of newspapers. The almost infinite availability of streamed video is threatening the existence of broadcast companies. Educating children in the worlds of politics, literature, science, and art is becoming an insoluble puzzle when confronted with their addiction to the worlds they are creating for themselves online. And so on.

It is trivial in this context to have opinions about what will happen, though we can reasonably think about what should happen.

The media should strive to tell more convincing truths than they do at the moment. The future is hard but not impossible. We should free ourselves of the worship of the tech gods – Musk, Bezos, Altman, Zuckerberg, etc – and their money. They are so blinded by their ingenuity that they know very little of value. What is clear about recent tech history is only money makes the decisions, and it should not. We should also use the media to assert humanity. Our buildings, paintings, poetry, novels and music are what we are. As the broadcaster Melvyn Bragg said recently: ‘The arts are not the cherry on the cake – they are the cake.’

The media’s responsibility is to fight this fight, to say that what has been done cannot simply be eradicated. All else is mere gossip, opinion, and tech.

One last philosopher needs quoting to warn of the failure of the media to rise to the challenge. In 1992, when the tech storm was beginning, Albert Borgmann noted that it had already ‘begun to transform the social fabric’. ‘At length it will lead to a disconnected, disembodied, and disoriented sort of life… It is obviously growing and thickening, suffocating reality and rendering humanity less mindful and intelligent.’

Personally, I’d go for mindful and intelligent, but it’s up to you, kids and ’bots, you and the people who write, film, compose and produce the media. Do not fall as silent as my parents did during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Just get better at what you do. We are not children.

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