Final Response Post

— Mackenzie Shaffer

The main problem with American media is its inherently divisive and targeted content derived from the data and information companies collect from media users. Several big media and non-media companies alike have gained access to specific and individualistic information from media users via social media and internet platforms which is then sold, studied, and implemented back into those same social media and internet platforms, making media curated for users. Not only is media curated and specifically targeted for specific users based off of the data collected from them, but the content in which users are exposed to as a result is intrusively partisan and is sending our nation toward societal combustion.

On the surface, curated media sounds nice — carefree, if you will. Despite the ease and fulfillment a media user might get from having media content geared more toward their specific interests, curated media is a divisive and toxic trait in American media that is doing more harm than good not only for media users, but for our nation.

In “The Social Dilemma,” a documentary raising crucial awareness on the hidden economics of social media, it is said that “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. It’s the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product.” Most social media and internet users don’t blink twice when they go to download a social media app onto their smartphone, tablet or computer and see that it’s free. However, as “The Social Dilemma” states, using a media platform or product at no expense has serious, underlying implications that are now being brought to light. According to the documentary, data is collected from a media user as they use media platforms which then gets studied and converted into algorithms which are then applied to target specific content, images, influencers and advertisements to appear on the specific user’s feed. This has all been happening on a large scale under the noses of American media users.

In Media/Society by David Croteau and William Hoynes, it is stated that social media platforms and companies “are not content creators. Instead, they deliver people to advertisers, in effect making users the product being sold,” once again affirming the seemingly nuance understanding that data is being collected from social media and internet platforms which then get converted into the influence of targeted advertising (page 65).

So, what’s so bad about seeing a few targeted advertisements or news articles here and there while scrolling through Instagram or Google? Well, because the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares, in the words of Croteau and Hoynes, that “the government should take a hands-off approach toward the media,” the American media is “still largely controlled by a relatively small group of powerful interests — commercial corporations,” (page 109). Having a “small group of powerful interests” predominately running the media for an entire nation means a serious lack of diversity in media itself — meaning a serious lack in media pluralism — where “different and independent voices, an array of political views and opinions, and a variety of cultures” are not seen or heard (90).

Essentially, unregulated media has led to a conglomeration of large, powerful media companies that have nearly total control on the content that social media and internet users interact with on a daily basis, all possible by the data collected from users and the implementation of that data from said large and powerful media companies. It seems today that there are always sides butting heads, saying the other is wrong, treating neighbors as opponents in a game — but are we pointing our fingers in the right place?

With a nearly completely divided country and shouting from both sides, there’s a lot of noise. It’s time to take the headphones out, listen for a second, and think about the cause of it all. Let’s unplug — delete that social media account you know you shouldn’t use, bring out the incognito browsers and do what you can to influence congress to regulate the media just a little more — two sides aren’t enough, and a partisan government has proven to be toxic for our nation. American media users are being monitored and studied as we speak, and advertisements are being strategically placed as you read these very words. Croteau and Hoynes say “More important than media critics are the citizen activists from across the political spectrum who write, educate, lobby, and agitate about the media” (147). Let’s be those people. Together.