Fairweather and Rogerson: Politics and Society After De-Massification of the Media

EDITORIAL Politics and Society after De-Massification of the Media

N Ben Fairweather and Simon Rogerson Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK Email: [email protected]

As Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) develop and are more widely adopted, news and current affairs media are moving away from being mass-media, with increasing audience fragmentation, and media targeting specific niche audiences. Patterns of opinion formation are changing with these changes. Broadcast mass-media had the potential to moderate the intensity of political disputes in a way which is being threatened by these changes. There is a danger that there will be a diminishing of the effectiveness of any remaining public space in which opposing views can be fully and fairly aired, and some balanced view of what is happening, and has happened, can be formed. If such a public space ceases to exist or ceases to be effective, key elements to the democratic process may be under severe threat in some polities.

Keywords: Narrowcasting, Cleavage, Current Affairs, Audience Fragmentation, Opinion Formation

INTRODUCTION al. 2002, 285). This editorial seeks to examine possible consequences for politics and for society. For most of the last century, media have been mass- media, where the same message is broadcast to a large population, who thus to a significant extent NEWS SOURCES have a common understanding of what is happening in the world around them. This has had both Professional good, and bad, effects. The age of the Internet, digital and cable televi- It has been judged that one of the hallmarks of a sion, has allowed ‘narrowcasting’ (Smith-Shomade, ‘free society’ has been the existence of varied and 2004, p70), where communication moves towards independent media sources (see, for example, being ‘many to many’, and two-way and away from Binyon, 2002, 461). A century ago, these were the broadcast model of ‘one to many’ communica- newspapers (hence variety and independence of tion which was essentially one-way. Novel “com- media sources has traditionally been spoken of as a munication formats, like the Internet and the tele- ‘free press’). With newspapers the fixed costs of phone, become incorporated into social relation- production (George & Waldfogel, 2003, 766) and ships, forming new infrastructures that enable dif- the costs of timely distribution combined to limit ferent patterns of opinion formation” (Robinson et the number of titles available to each reader.

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As the century progressed, sound and picture reach of the radio waves from their transmitter. broadcasting became more significant, (with mov- The fixed costs of production of newspapers ing pictures of news being distributed first through have fallen considerably, meaning that lower-circu- the proxy of cinema newsreels and then using radio lation newspapers are economic, but other changes waves). The marginal costs of distribution were have not meant that this has led to a significant even lower than for newspapers, but the fixed costs increase in the number of newspapers being pro- remained high (Bourreau et al., 2002)1 (notably – duced. Rather the number has been more-or-less but far from exclusively – the costs, financial or maintained in the face of greater competition from political, of obtaining permission to broadcast). radio, television and the Internet. This does not Thus the number of broadcasters in any place was mean, however, that changes in newspapers are very limited, and in many jurisdictions there was irrelevant to our consideration. Falling (paid-for) regulation to ensure concentrations of media own- readership is relevant, as is the proportion of news- ership did not undermine the desired variety of papers that make some (or all) of their content media sources (Harcourt, 1998, 373-4), since available on the Internet. Again, with newspaper “Politicians and their economic advisors … content available on the Internet the amount avail- assumed that the quality and diversity of media able to readers with Internet connections has products is best assured by means of competition.” increased out of all proportion. At the same time (Fog, 2004, 31). By contrast, where there wasn’t a falling paid-for readership means that newspapers ‘free press’, the limited number of media outlets need to retain the loyalty of a smaller, more dis- made it relatively easy for a determined regime to tinctive, readership. manipulate the media for propaganda purposes. Now, there is a new dynamic: it manifests itself in a variety of ways, but underlying them is a com- Alternative mon core of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). A hundred years ago, pamphlets and public meet- A combination of new technology and deregula- ings provided alternative media, where population tion have taken us from having television stations densities were sufficient to allow. However, the that could be numbered in single figures to a situa- costs of production and distribution of pamphlets tion where many viewers – and an increasing num- limited their size and effectiveness against the ber – have access to digital and cable television with newspapers, and travel times limited the reach of stations numbered in the hundreds. To some extent public meetings. the costs of production have limited the true num- The era of broadcasting impacted alternative ber of stations (duplicates broadcast at, say, an hour media, but did not transform them. There were displacement, cannot truly be classed as extra sta- unauthorised and cross-border broadcasts, but the tions). But at the same time, costs of production costs of transmission and enforcement actions were have fallen enormously, with cheaper and more for- significant inhibitors of the number and range of giving cameras, and material of far lower technical such broadcasts. In the other direction, mass enter- standards and production values being put on air. tainment (whether cinema or television) generally Television news has to a significant extent moved took away much of the audience of public meet- from being an item in the schedule of a channel that ings, and thus they declined in importance. sought broad appeal to being the subject to spe- Pamphlets remained part of the alternative media cialised channels (such as CNN, al-Jazeera or BBC scene, with production costs falling, but distribu- News 24, depending on the viewer’s taste). tion remained a major inhibitor. The Internet has not yet had a dramatic effect on Developments of the information age have, how- television, but it is having such an effect on radio, ever, transformed alternative media. No longer are where the more limited requirements for band- distribution costs such a significant barrier for width enable many listeners to download material alternative media. There have been developments in at least as fast as they can listen to it. This has text-based, audio and visual media. resulted both in an increase in the amount of audio The main developments in text-based alternative programming being produced, and more dramati- media have come in two phases: firstly textual web- cally in the amount of audio programming available sites and then later web logs – ‘blogs’. Both to any individual with a fast Internet connection, flavours of text- and web-based alternative media with radio stations making their output available have enabled a single individual or small group to via the Internet as well as over the airwaves. No publish writing, still photographs, and graphics longer is the reach of a radio station limited by the that can, potentially, be accessed by significant

160 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & ETHICS IN SOCIETY Fairweather and Rogerson: Editorial proportions of the electorate in countries anywhere their attention is interpreted against a background around the world. No longer are the problems for of what had previously come to their attention. But alternative media limited reach or costs of distribu- people’s understanding of the world is not solely tion2. The problems are attracting and retaining the determined by the media that they pay attention to. attention. Attention can, to some extent, be attract- Other influences include parenting, schooling and ed and especially be retained by having content that social circles. The understanding of the world of appeals to the worldview of the intended audience parents and social circles can itself also be influ- (see below). enced by various factors including the media Alternative audio has made use of two formats – (Barker & Knight, 2000, 151). By contrast, whether the audio file of limited length distributed using the media influence through schooling will depend on Internet; and Internet ‘radio’ stations with more- how teachers are trained and a multitude of other or-less continuous transmission. The costs factors. Thus while other factors have an influence, (whether financial or in terms of effort) of main- media can have a considerable impact on shaping taining continuous transmission have restricted, understandings of the world. and can be expected to restrict, this form of alterna- A shared understanding of the world implies tive audio, and may result in a blurring of the dis- some shared understanding of the nature of the tinction between professional and alternative audio. problems, and thus leaves open scope for a shared The audio file of limited length pre-dates the iPod, understanding of the possible and desirable solu- but has been rejuvenated as ‘pod-casting’, where tions to those problems. files are distributed over the web to be listened to In saying this, however, it must be remembered on personal audio players. As with text-based web- that the relevant media in shaping understandings sites and blogs, a major issue is attracting and of the world are wider media than the news/current retaining the attention of listeners. affairs media whose output those understandings Alternative media using moving images have then shape. Understandings of the world are pow- largely centred on two phenomena: webcams and erfully shaped by explicitly or apparently fictional open access television. Neither of these phenomena and entertainment productions as well as news has had a very strong news/current affairs element to media (see, for example, McCombs, 2002, 16). it thus far, perhaps because there are greater costs of production than for other alternative media. These greater costs of production have often compelled DE-MASSIFICATION producers to seek an income – whether from premi- um rate telephone calls or subscribers – in ways that The result of the technological changes is that there is are not easily open to alternative news media. far more competition for the attention of the audi- Cross-cutting these delivery patterns is the tech- ence. Yet “While concentration of ownership and nique of ‘viral’ promotion or ‘viral marketing’ insufficient competition is readily deplored in theo- whereby an audience is attracted using the combina- retical discussions of media performance, the conse- tion of word-of-mouth and ICT, whereby people quences of excessive competition are barely recog- tell their friends (whether face-to-face or virtual nised as a problem” (Fog, 2004, 31). Under excessive friends) of a particularly interesting/funny/outra- competition, very few, if any, media can afford to geous item or stream of content. While the technique continue to aim at the broad sweep of the audience in itself can be considered ‘alternative’ it can be used their geographical reach. Those that try are already equally by either commercial or alternative media as losing audience share. The many newer entrants are a promotional technique. Indeed, while alternative much more likely to attempt “the targeting of specif- media may need to rely on it more, professional ic niche audiences” (Smith-Shomade, 2004, 70), and media may have the resources to produce materials larger media organisations may attempt to package that mobilise ‘viral’ marketing more effectively. output so that each of a number of ways of present- ing output is targeted at a different niche audience. Few of these niche audiences are likely to wish to UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD receive their news in the way news was traditionally broadcast. Increasingly news does not come to he Interpretations of news are made through a lens of who waits, so much as he or she who seeks. prior understanding of the world (e.g. see Gadamer, As news increasingly comes to he or she who 1989). This is constructed in a number of ways. seeks there is parallel competition for the attention One key factor is those media that attract the indi- of those who are seeking news. “The use of fear and vidual’s attention: news that recently has come to danger as attention-catching devices often has the

VOL 3 NO 3 JULY 2005 161 Fairweather and Rogerson: Editorial side effect that people fear the wrong things” (Fog, affairs. Where knowledge of current affairs is 2004, 33). This can have serious political conse- shaped by a near-universally accessed broadcaster, quences as “Drastic measures are taken to combat or where society is mixed so that social interaction statistically negligible dangers while other much means that people who get their worldview from more likely dangers are largely ignored.” (Fog, different media sources talk to and influence 2004, 33) In turn, “The media-created fears some- eachother, the consequences will be less than in times develop into moral panics … with the result from societies where people get their knowledge that principles of human rights, civil liberties, and about current affairs from very different sources fair trial are eroded” (Fog, 2004, 33). and people mix (either physically or virtually) More and more media are compelled to seek an almost entirely with others of a similar worldview, audience by appealing to the audience on the audi- with media sources and social interaction reinforc- ences’ own terms – to position themselves for that ing (differing) understandings (Lipset, 1983, 262). market (George & Waldfogel, 2003, 779-781). The Thus for members of the public who, in a world impact of this is that “the goal of democratic per- of narrowcasting, select their current affairs medi- formance cannot be achieved when unrestrained um to match their pre-existing attitudes and dispo- market forces control the media.” (Fog, 2004, 32) sitions, the medium reinforces their worldview, and While there has long been pressure in this direction, reinforces the division between them and other increased competition can be expected to increase members of the population with different attitudes the tendency. If there is another media outlet avail- who select different current affairs media that rein- able of equivalent quality and delivery pattern force their differing worldview. As “the customiza- (whether audio/textual/video, or at particular tion of the communications universe increases, times) that appears to some members of the audi- society is in danger of fragmenting, shared commu- ence to better match their understanding of the nities in danger of dissolving” (Sunstein, 2001). world, and their interests, that other media outlet Linguistic cleavages are particularly likely to be can be expected (ceteris paribus) to gain the atten- relevant: if there are linguistic differences, people tion of at least a proportion of those members of are likely to choose a news source in the language the audience. Few, if any, media outlets can afford that they are most comfortable with (see to be unconcerned by such a development. In the Fernandez-Maldonado, 2001, 4-6, for example), end, the way to retain some audience may be to and especially so if there are other cultural differ- appeal to the pre-existing attitudes and dispositions ences accompanying that linguistic cleavage. It may of that audience. be argued that the resulting effect is one caused by the linguistic cleavage, rather than demassification of the media. The argument here is not that demas- POLITICAL AND SOCIAL sification is the root cause, so much as a possible CONSEQUENCES catalyst in such situations. There may also be a counter-trend of some The extent to which demassification of the media choosing to widen their view of the world in a way has political and social consequences will vary from that wasn’t previously possible, but the suspicion place to place. Crucial questions are the extent to must be that fewer will make use of the opportuni- which social divisions, or cleavages, reinforce or ties opened up in this way than will gravitate to cross-cut each other (see, for example, Lipset, 1983, media that match their pre-existing worldview. 240), and how that reinforcement or cross-cutting The existence of such a counter-trend seems to is affected by the changes in the media. be supported by Robinson et al. (2002, 300). They It has long been understood by political scientists found that “where differences existed, they were in that a crucial factor in the intensity of a political the direction of Internet users being more support- dispute is the extent to which the people involved ive of diverse and tolerant points of view than have, and recognise, that they have something in nonusers.” However, this evidence is only tangen- common with those on the other side of the dis- tial to the matter of concern to this editorial: their pute. Thus, where divisions in economic status research related to Internet use in general, and was cross-cut cleavages around religion and language, Internet-specific, rather than looking at all demassi- for example, those divisions are less likely to lead to fied news/current affairs outlets, whether Internet- intense political hostility than where the divisions based or television-based. in economic status are reinforced by differences in Further, Robinson et al.’s evidence (2002, 300) religion and language. was that “tolerance did not always increase the This can extend to perceptions about current more one used the Internet”, which would be

162 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & ETHICS IN SOCIETY Fairweather and Rogerson: Editorial paradoxical if Internet use were causing the increase declared election result, a victory for Yanukovych, in tolerance. Indeed, they accept (2002, 285) that did not match the perception of a very large pro- “Early adopters of innovations are notably distin- portion of the population of the capital city, and guished by…greater attention to news media”. other parts of the Ukrainian-speaking West of the Such a pre-existing tendency to greater attention to country, and popular protest led to the election news media than the general public may mean that being declared invalid (ISIS, 2004, 12). This in turn changes in popular news delivery affect their atti- led to protests in the East of the country (BBC, tudes less than the effects of the same changes on 2005a). The election was re-run on 26th December, more typical members of the public. This would be with Yushchenko being victorious (ISIS, 2004, 12). because those with a pre-existing tendency to It is clear that given the size of Ukraine, and the greater attention to news media already made a three-way split of society, the protestors whose conscious choice of news media, even prior to protests led to the election being re-run had no adopting use of the Internet. independent way of being certain that the declared election result of 21st November was a victory for the wrong candidate. Much of their information Israel/Palestine will have been coming from Yushchenko – sup- porting media (see BBC 2005b). In the same way, Despite inhabiting much the same space, Israeli the protestors in the East of the country had no media and Palestinian media are clearly and dra- independent way of being certain that the subse- matically distinct (Jamal, 2000), and refer to the quent result of the 26th December re-run was cor- same “people, places, events, actions and things” rect. In both cases they were making judgments using different names (Peteet, 2005, 153, 154). This about which sources of news to trust, and which results in very different perceptions of the same not to trust. incident. The two populations are aware of different subsets of the potentially newsworthy events in the area. Even if there were no other influences, this Saudi Arabia could be expected to result in very different political perceptions. As it is, the different news perspec- The example of Saudi Arabia is rather different, and tives reinforce other differences, differences of interesting, in that a traditional division of society is worldview that have in part been shaped by differ- being broken down by many-to-many communica- ent media, differences of religion and language, and tion. Does such a counter-example invalidate the differences of economic status. The net result is that thesis of this editorial? there is little understanding, very little fellow-feel- The division in question is the division between ing, and a widespread feeling on both sides that vio- males and females (Weckert & Al-Saggaf, 2003, 21). lence is legitimate against an unreasonable oppo- Why is many-to-many communication breaking nent. down a division, rather than reinforcing it? One of the key factors here would seem to be that the gen- der division was one that did not result from cul- Ukraine tural differences between the genders so much as a common cultural observance of a form of Islam. The Ukraine has been another society with relative- Families have naturally and almost inevitably pro- ly clear division between language groups. vided a bridge across that divide. It also seems that “Generally, analysts draw a line along the Dniepr for a proportion of young people (at least) there is river, dividing the country into a Russified and a desire for communication across, or regardless of, heavily industrialised East, and a more ethnically the divide between males and females (Al-Saggaf & Ukrainian, Western-oriented West.” (Kubicek, Begg, 2004, 48-49). So long as there is genuine 2000, 273), although other analysts have portrayed desire for communication across a divide accompa- it as “a three-way divided society with no majority nied by practical means to bring that communica- … (Russophone Russians, Russophone Ukrainians tion about, the depth of that divide may be reduced. and Ukrainophone Ukrainians)” (O’Loughlin & Bell, 1999, 4). On 21st November 2004 there was a presidential Wider Implications run-off election in the Ukraine, in which there was a distinct geographical split in support between People who have distinct and differing sources of Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. The news and current affairs informing their opinions

VOL 3 NO 3 JULY 2005 163 Fairweather and Rogerson: Editorial can have different opinions about what is politically with those of a differing political persuasion they important, what has happened, what the causes of may tend to overestimate the level of support for those events have been, what aims the polity should their chosen party or candidate. be aiming to achieve and how to achieve them. Thus for any national election that is reasonably Many of these differences have long been possible, closely contested, perceptions of whether the result but the thesis of this editorial is that demassification is correct will depend on how news media report of the media and narrowcasting may have made any opinion polls, the balance of opinion (Mebane, them more common and/or more likely. 2000, 53) and shifts in that balance. The danger is Democracy depends on there being disagree- that if different sections of the electorate access dis- ment, and differences about what aims the polity tinct news media that are seeking an audience by should be aiming to achieve and how to achieve reporting news that reflects the pre-existing world- them are important in a healthy democracy (Lipset, view of their narrowcast audience, these distinct 1983, 1). news media may also reflect different perceptions Democracy also depends, though, on the intensi- about what the balance of opinion is, and how it is ty of disagreement being moderated (Lipset, 1983, shifting. The may also present partisan interpreta- 70-71). Factors that moderate the intensity include tions of the balance of opinion and shifts in it as if cross-cutting cleavages and, importantly to our they were objective. case, a common understanding of the world and (at In seeking media attention “an increasing num- least the basics) of current affairs. If cleavages start ber of populist politicians … talk about simple to align more closely, if there opens a simultaneous causes and implement simple cures in complete dis- gulf in the way the world is understood accompa- regard for … experts who know better” (Fog, 2004, nied by a parallel gulf in perceptions of what has 32), while where society is deeply divided, those in happened, and what the causes of those events have power may feel a need to retain popularity with been, disagreement can intensify. their power-base on one side of the divide by pur- Such intense divisions have been (and will suing the interests of that side of the divide to the remain) more likely to occur (ceteris paribus) exclusion of the interests of the marginalised group. where there are linguistic differences to separate Populations thus excluded from power may social circles and propel different audiences to dif- cease believing that they have a chance of getting ferent news media, but history has shown that lin- their interests taken into account, or (rightly or guistic differences are not necessary for intense dif- wrongly) of their representatives coming to power. ferences to build up between populations that At first glance, it may appear that this de-massifi- inhabit the same geographical space (eg Lipset, cation will work against global cultural homogenisa- 1983, 138-148). tion (Fairweather & Rogerson, 2003). However, the Also relevant is the extent of desires for commu- two trends can rather easily coexist for many years. nication across the cleavages. Such communication Indeed, global cultural homogenisation may lead to has been seen as crucial to a healthy polity, where a cleavage between those who resist it, using their opposing views can be fully and fairly aired native language, and those who embrace it, commu- (Sunstein, 2001). The concern must be that, nicating in English. The cleavage may well eventual- whether or not linguistic differences are a factor, ly be resolved by those who embrace global cultural increasingly segmented audiences will form differ- homogenisation becoming dominant. Whether or ent worldviews and different perceptions of news not this is desirable, it seems possible that it will not and current affairs in a way that will intensify dis- happen before a worryingly deep division has agreements beyond the capacity of democracy to opened up between them and those who resist (at reconcile those disagreements, and in such a way least some aspects of) global cultural homogenisa- that desires to maintain communication across the tion. The likelihood of such a worryingly deep divi- divides are weakened or made ineffective. sion will, in turn depend on whether there are suffi- A result of this intensification may be that elec- ciently strong cross-cutting cleavages, and on the tion results do not match perceptions of what they desire for dialogue across this new divide. should be sufficiently to be accepted as genuine. Individual voters uninfluenced by the media are rarely in a position to get a feel for what the correct CONCLUSION election result would be among an electorate of more than 10,000 if the contest is remotely close. While the effect is not inevitable, predictable Indeed, if individual voters mix exclusively in like- changes in the way that we receive news and cur- minded social circles and have minimal contact rent affairs may not result in a fragmentation of

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