Make Social Media Uncool?

The discussions held at the 2023 Milton Wolf Seminar were very much in line with its title: “Media at the Abyss.“ The decline and struggles of traditional forms of media were addressed in multiple ways. Additionally, considerable attention was directed to social and online media. The disruptive impact of intense disinformation campaigns that accompanied the Brexit referendum, government elections, and the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the impact on, and of these media. This led some discussants of the seminar to appeal to “make social media uncool.“ 

Yet, we must accept the present. We live in an age where online and social media are essential to many people's everyday lives. The multiple information and media problems won't disappear by ending social media. Indeed social media has a vast potential to reshape and diversify the media landscape, which many presenters emphasized. While numerous actors operate within the online sphere, with platform providers and gatekeepers assuming significant roles, access to alternative interaction spaces has become more accessible. As one speaker put it: “It is the individuals who really work with social media, not the state.“

Disinformation warfare 

Of course, when talking about media, the most prominent headline throughout the last year – the war in Ukraine – was on top of everybody’s mind. Several panels and discussants gave insights into how Russian propaganda functions, both inside Russia as well as outside. Inside Russia, its main transmission channel is the TV, which still is the most important media in Russia. However, in today's world, online media has a multiplicator effect on these messages. Russia is aware of that and has actively pursued a social media policy since 2015 with the appointment of Maria Zakharova as the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the Internet is not as easily controllable as traditional media outlets, which leaves the Russian authorities in an awkward position. One speaker described the messages posted by Russian authorities as “consistently inconsistent and openly so.“ The young staff handles communication through Facebook and Twitter, which are blocked but not illegal to use in Russia. This means two things; first, people seek ways around blockades, leading to the increased application of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), a phenomenon one of the speakers called “VPN-ization.“ Second, once the blockade is circumvented, Russian citizens can acquire information that state media would have censored through access to the internet. One of the ways this can be done is through video games. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, for example, added a downloadable map to the popular game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive where a hidden room containing information regarding the Russian aggression could be accessed (Reymann-Schneider, 2023). Thereby, they used a fraction of the online realm, which is freely accessible for Russians to communicate information. Such opportunities are immensely important for people who cannot choose news outlets from an open media landscape.

Another such example and probably the most significant exemption regarding online networks in Russia is the popular video platform YouTube, which is still operating. This means that people in Russia can still consume the website’s content unrestrictedly. However, also this channel may be blocked in the near future. One discussant mentioned that Russia is working on its own YouTube-like platform, and “as soon as it is ready, they are going to block YouTube.“ At the moment, YouTube, nevertheless, is the platform of choice for Russian journalists working from outside the country who aim to reach a Russian audience. This, of course, comes with significant hindrances, such as getting on-the-ground information. One speaker explained the importance of reaching out to people in Russia to act as camerapersons via FaceTime or other video chat applications. This is important to maintain a level of relatability and to avoid being perceived as an outside agent by the Russian recipients. At the same time, they also show the Ukrainian perspective to the Russian audience, which is nonexistent in Russian mainstream media. And parts of the Russian audience consume these media. In the case of TV Rain or Dozhd, 70% of their views are in Russia. One speaker especially pointed out its role regarding the confusion about mobilization. Receiving factual information through propaganda machinery was difficult, and hence TV Rain provided knowledge about the rights of conscripts, etc. 

Even though these journalists are financially supported by other countries that host them, many obstacles still hinder their journalistic work. For example, the opposition channels do not benefit from the monetizing policies of YouTube since the earnings of their videos stay in Russia. Hence, they depend on funding from other sources and must reinvent their business models to guarantee sustainability. Thereby the gatekeepers and big platforms are making life harder for independent journalism. One speaker argued that “Google and co should be our allies.“ Instead, they are more oriented toward profit and do not adhere to the democratic principles of the countries of their headquarters. Politics must address these accountability issues to enable sustainable and democratic use of social media.

Bottom-up and financing

However, also inside the EU or, more broadly, the West, there are concerns about media freedom. To provide one example, the situation of the media landscape of Hungary has been a heavily discussed issue for years. As one of the speakers put it: “the Victor Orban story is a media story.“ Being aware of the importance of media to win elections, Orban and his circle steadily obtained more and more media outlets until they gained complete control over Hungary’s media landscape. One of the media outlets they seized control of is Dikh-TV. This originally was a Roma grassroots YouTube channel that tried to counter stereotypical negative images online and pursued a positive depiction of Roma society and culture, among others. Thereby, they not only tried to produce content by Roma for Roma but also reached out to a broader audience. Social media allowed this marginalized minority to build up their own media outlet, which would not have been doable without major funding in a traditional media landscape. The YouTube channel was well received by the audience and accumulated over 300.000 viewers within three years, but it remained to be a majorly amateur project. To make the channel more professional, reach a broader audience but also resolve financial issues, Dikh-TV was remodeled into a regular TV channel in 2019. However, this also prompted the involvement of pro-government enterprises and actors that bought the channel and started reorganizing. In early 2022, no Roma were left in management positions. They either left or were shifted to other broadcasters, thereby also depoliticizing the channel (Eredics, 2022). This again symbolizes the freedom social media platforms provide for content creators. However, also in this case, the insufficient monetization policies of YouTube did not allow them to maintain continuous growth and the publishing of qualitative content. Hence, society needs to acknowledge the journalistic work that is done on social media and support it to unlock the full democratic potential of social media.

Moreover, the case of Dikh-TV also shows how the takeover of media is done in Hungary. It is not as violent as in Russia, journalists do not get arrested, but government-critical ones lose their jobs after pro-government parties take over the media outlet. Thereby, this transformation happened almost silently. 

Financing, of course, also is an issue for traditional media outlets that try to accommodate themselves in a changing media landscape. One speaker referred to the concept of the news desert in the US to elaborate on the extinction of traditional media in some places with the shrinking of advertising revenue. This situation even worsens since there is no adequate policy response to it.  Moreover, there are certain communities, especially in the South of the USA, more impacted than others. However, the disintegration of traditional media also makes space for new (online) media which should be fostered. Ideas to counter this desertification involve public funding for broadcasting. This funding should go into bottom-up approaches that should renew people's interest in media and news and broadcasting on a neighborhood basis.

Protest

Finally, the roundtable Resistance, Response, and Revolution: Global Movements for a World on the Edge also discussed the battleground of social media in light of the ongoing protests in Iran. The protests are heavily supported and coordinated by social media. In this regard, Instagram plays a crucial role. For example, 1500 Tasvir, a grassroots organization formed by citizens, regularly shares updates about the continuing protests (Kumar, 2022). Their Instagram page has over 2 million followers. The regime reacts to these formations with different disinformation tactics, such as spamming a hashtag until it becomes useless or spreading fake news. However, social media not only helps to organize protests and inform people on the outside, but it also helps misinformation to spread more quickly. Last November, for example, a post circulated that stated that 15.000 protesters were about to get executed. The post quickly spread and gained media attention. Even though people wanted to support the protests, they were misled by the emotions this huge number triggered and thereby actually spread misinformation (Azar, 2022). This exemplifies that states also should engage more in media literacy regarding the use of social media to enable people to use them responsibly.

In conclusion, the media landscape has dramatically changed over the last decades. Traditional newspapers and TV channels are struggling, while disinformation campaigns and hate speech on social media networks seem to eliminate all hopes for improvement. However, as the examples mentioned have shown, the internet and social media also create new spaces for actors and opinions that are excluded from mainstream media. Hence, it is of utmost importance that these spaces are protected and mechanisms established that distribute the revenues of the giant gatekeepers. I agree that the current form of social media must be made uncool. However, mass quitting Facebook will not help. States have to hold these platforms accountable and support a new generation of journalists who depend on these media to communicate with their audience.

References

Taraneh Azar, A false post on Iran’s protests went viral. Social media can’t get it wrong again (The Guardian, 17.11.2022).

Lilla Eredics, Dikh-TV, a Roma Channel in the Hungarian Media: From a Grassroots Self-representation to an Elite, White-dominated Media Platform (mezosfera, Feb. 2022).

Raksha Kumar, Not quite the Arab Spring: how protestors are using social media in innovative ways (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 6.12.2022).

Kristina Reymann-Schneider, How the game 'Counter-Strike' fights fake news in Russia (Deutsche Welle, 10.05.2023).