The New Information Revolution
April 19, 2022
“ War, war never changes.” Is probably the most pretentious and completely false lines that is repeated far too often. War is constantly changing and those that do not adapt with the new changes are doomed to be left behind . This can easily be shown throughout history as armies under commanders using out dated doctrines saw their forces completely whipped out by a new technology. The rifle, the dreadnaught, the machine gun, the plane, the tank, and now guided rockets all technologies that have completely changed how countries have to conduct traditional warfare, and all with their example of a slow adapting military finding itself beaten completely by their failure to adapt to a new situation.
Advancements in technology changes everything about our society and how it functions quite regularly. With each change we can see the resistance and slow adapters struggling with these new changes in a repeated pattern consistent throughout history. The greater its impact on society the greater the resistance it receives. No technology has greater impact on our society than that of communication technology. Thus communication technology not only receives resistance by individuals but full institutions as well.
We are currently experiencing a communication technological revolution through the creation of social media and other forms of web messaging boards. This change is greatly impacting our society as whole, but with these changes it also brings uncertainty and resistance to its changes. Looking back at history though we have seen this all before. The social media communication revolution is a direct reflection of the communication revolution caused by theprinting press; its democratization of communication and the access to information caused institutional distrust, revolutions, and further technological revolutions. With this in mind it may be worth looking into our history with the printing press, addressing some of critiques of Social media, and address the institution the is the most impacted by this technology revolution.
The Printing Press
When the interviewing PSA Sitch, a political commentator and YouTube personality, on the topic of social media and other forms of alternatives news impact on society and how we should handle it, he made the direct comparison to the printing press well talking about the government having to catch up with the new technology. The more I thought about that the more I realized how perfectly the comparison actually fit. The printing press was first brought to European society through the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1436. (Roos, 2019) Before the printing press books were hand copied by scribes by hand. (Liulevicius, 2020) A rather slow and time consuming process that made books significantly more expensive than we have today.
The printing press made creation of printed word significantly cheaper and faster. Or in other words, it made what was printed much easier to spread to a large number of people. It significantly reduced the cost of information, the cost to both produce and consume the information. Sound familiar? It is exactly what internet and social media has done in our current society. Both the printing press and social media democratized not only access to information but the creation of it as well. Though I am hardly the first one to notice this.
In fact back in 1998 this was not only noticeable but predictable. James Dewar in The information age and the printing press: Looking backward to see ahead makes the same comparison back when the internet was still only around 15 years old and definitely not as accessible as it is today. Dewar makes the comparison well discussing legislation and regulation of the internet or more specifically to argue against regulation. He points out the technology is still in its infancy and rapidly developing around them making it practically impossible to predict the future for even the most informed technician involved with its development. On top of this he notes that, “The important effects of the printing press era were not seen clearly for more than 100 years.” Meaning regulatory behavior especially at the time he was writing his article would have likely caused more harm than good.
So what we are currently experiencing has happened before and thanks to the wonderful thing known as the written word we can look back on what previously happened. So what were the impacts of the printing press on medieval society and what does that mean for us. I think it’s best to answer those questions by most immediate proximity to the invention of the printing press. So let’s start with the reformation.
The Reformation
There is no question on the reliance of the Protestant Reformation was highly reliant on the printing press. It was obvious even at the time with Martin Luther referring to the printing press as gift from God in order to reform His church. (Dewar, 1998) Or his quote “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.” (Roos, 2019) The printing press, like with social media now, allowed fringe voices to get their voices heard by a much larger number of people. Now their ideas weren’t confined local spaces and city centers, or in Luther’s case the door of the local church. Their ideas could be printing on mass and spread afar.
The institutions of the time that control spread of information no longer had full control spread information. The catholic church which had absolute authority at time had grown horribly corrupt with no one besides themselves to answer to. With the printing press they lost authority of information. Martin Luther Became the very first best seller. With any other heretical individual the church would have just killed them and destroyed their writings, but thanks to the printing press Luther’s “95 Thesis” may have been being distributed London, England within 17 days of publication and the nailing them to the door in Wittenberg, Germany. (Roos, 2019)
Suddenly the once unchallengeable catholic church that could bring rulers of empires to heal had their corruption aware made visible to all of Europe. The institution that had so much power, trust, and fear from the populous had none of that. A once fully united under the catholic church Europe was splintered into many different sects and denomination as the common people had the ability view and interpret The Bible for themselves and then spread their interpretations to each other through the rapidly popularizing printing press.
Enlightenment
Though the Renaissance was around before the printing press it was different to the Renaissance we know today and was confined to Northern Italy. (Dewar, 1998) It was a renaissance of the elite where wealthy individuals invested vast funds to get scholars to learn to translate ancient Greek to gather the ancient thinkers teachings for themselves. After the printing press each of the thinkers who were translated could now be shared with everyone. Each medium sized town could have a copy of their translated lessons in the library. (Roos, 2019) The Renaissance, and the rise of Humanism along with it, left the upper class of Northern and spread to the rest of Europe.
With the spread of the Renaissance, loss of power of the Catholic church, and now the ability to write and share information accurately, rapidly, and broadly. The ability to question the statutes quo brought not only led to a rise of Humanism and Protestantism, but the scientific revolution as well. Scientists no longer had the threat of the catholic church who had much bigger problems to deal with in the form of German princes and the very powerful Swedish empire, plus later Britain. That wasn’t all though, they also had vast amounts of knowledge the ancient Greeks collected from the renaissance. Most importantly the printing press brought with it the birth of data collection and data sharing in the scientific community. (Dewar, 1998) There was suddenly a scientific community that could work together and improve off of each other rather than just doing their own things and starting from basically scratch.
The scientific revolution and eventually start of the age of reason and all of their benefits to society can tie their existence directly to the printing press. Whether its reduction of institutional power for the institutions that repressed them or the ability to both share and collect information accurately all scientists at the time would have benefited from the printing press. A period of scientific awaken and community education came with the printing press and scientific revolution we literally refer to it as the Enlightenment. It revolutionized everything, and speaking of revolutions.
Democratization and Revolutions
Another major introduction to society thanks to the printing press was the creation of global press. Along with copies of the bible being spread rapidly people using the printing press they began printing local news of their local towns and sending that as well. People began collecting news daily of not just their own town but from around the world. (Roos, 2019) Peoples knowledge of the world grew. Their local communities, their countries, the world, and who was in charge of it; people became informed.
Just like with the church, there is nothing more dangerous to corrupt authoritarian government than an informed educated populous. Even more so one that can communicate between its communities about what the government is doing and how it is effecting them. All it takes is one well written individual to publish some articles about need for reform and how the populous should stand together and get it. Gone are the age of peasant uprising that can be easily crushed by a trained military before it gets out of hand. Now full nations can organize and rise up without a single ruler, supported by nothing more than an idea.
Welcome to the world of propaganda. Wording something just right can get anybody to follow you. With the printing press, you can spread those words practically endlessly and everywhere. This is the period that pen truly became mightier than the sword. The repressed populous of Europe who had lived under the rule of Kings, in most cases, who followed a might makes right policy now suddenly can communicate with each other. The one who can use their words to sway the popular opinion of the masses is now the one really in power.
Enter a very disgruntled colony populous in North America. They feel repressed and burden their imperial overlords in England who they believe no longer hold their best interest in mind. Thomas Paine creates a pamphlet titled “Common Sense” which despite the colonially population only having a 15% literacy sold more copies than existed in that colony. (Roos, 2019) In the pamphlet Paine argues not only for a revolution against the tyrannical crown but also full independence. This is followed by a counter “Plain Truth” to argue against it, starting a propaganda war for the heart of the colony. A propaganda war that Paine won as the colony revolted, founding its own nation with the support of Britain’s other rivals and showing that Europe was not all powerful. Europe was beatable. The kings were beatable. Having a say in your government was not only an idea, but an obtainable reality if you are willing to fight for it.
“A great and momentous revolution in our ideas has taken place within the last thirty years. Public opinion has now become a preponderant power in Europe, one that cannot be resisted… one may hope that enlightened ideas will bring about the greatest good on Earth and that tyrants of all kinds will tremble before the universal cry that echoes everywhere, awakening Europe from its slumbers. [Printing] is the most beautiful gift from heaven, It soon will change the countenance of the universe… Printing was only born a short while ago, and already everything is heading toward perfection… Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtuous writer!” Louis-Sebástien, pre-revolutionary France. (Roos, 2019)
Well the American revolution was highly influential in the new world, seeing many other regions in the new world fight for independence and gain it as well following America’s lead, Europe remained monarchies. That changed with the French. Imagine you are a starving peasant barely getting by if you call slowly starving to death getting by. Now you know a group other peasants managed get together and get their voices heard in a meeting with the lords that ruled the land under the king. You were hopeful to see change but the news tells you nothing was accomplished and the group was not respected. Next to the story it also talks about the luxuries parties the royal family throws. That’s a bit frustrating… how unfair. The next day though you read that queen who you learned is known for lavishly spending money was asked about the same situation you were in… apparently it’s a common problem. What really gets you though is her answer “Let them eat cake.”
Every peasant who has been starving in the country of France learns not only are their leaders not suffering with them but also are mocking their situation. These same people have already started communicating since they were organizing to get political power. They are done. Done putting up with bad living conditions to support government that doesn’t respect them. They had helped the American’s set up a democracy six years earlier, it’s the turn of the French.
The French revolution was a brutal but successful revolution where the entirety of a nation were able to violently overthrow its corrupt authoritarian government and actual organize itself into a republic. For a couple years before being taken over by military dictator named Napoleon. Despite the blunder of its aftermath the French succeeded in one thing, they brought a democracy to western Europe. Despite its failure it started a trend to bring democracies to rest of western European countries eventually.
What this Means for us
Now I know what you’re thinking. Well that was a nice summary of some major events that were collated with the printing press, but isn’t this supposed to be about Social media’s impact on society how is this relevant? Well let me tell you. As I argued earlier all the printing press really did was democratize both the access to information and the creation of the information further. That is exactly what social media has done, to a comparable extent to that of the printing press. Meaning that we should be seeing very similar events to what Europe and its colonies experienced after the printing press. We are still in the earliest days though.
If we follow the timeline I created of the effects of the printing press we would still be in the reformation and enlightenment period. We will be noticing more institutional corruption especial from things that effect the everyday life people, they may begin seeking alternatives or replacing these institutions entirely. We should also be seeing a scientific revolution fueled by quicker more direct and accurate communication between with broader connections people to pole. So cultural discontent and potentially polarization especially around a particular powerful institution that has a lot of political sway and scientific revolution.
Looking around at current situation I’d argue that mainstream news sources, our aptly named fourth estate, is our catholic church. At least in western nations, news sources used to be highly trusted and respected but recent events have revealed significant corruption in the industry that has destroyed trust in the institution entirely seeing many people looking for alternative sources on where they obtain their information. In the middle east and Muslim majority countries, their catholic church seems to be Islam itself, many Muslim nations kept their traditional values only up until recently when women under their rule grew tired of being treated as property and have become to fight for their rights as human beings, using social media to coordinate and share grievances without threat violence against them. They forcing their countries to become more progressive and fair for the people that live there. (Dashti et al., 2015) Our scientific revolution has been going on for quite a while already, though it currently is focused on green energy/nuclear power, cleaning oceans, and space flight.
The democratization of information through social media is seen through three main formats; the speed and accuracy at which information can spread, the globalization of culture and thought as well as the power of anonymity. One of the main issues with the globalization effects of the internet of today is the outdated views some people still hold regarding regulation of the internet. I am in agreement with Dewar on the idea that governments should avoid regulatory behavior towards the internet due to the unintended and unforeseen consequences of these actions. Currently this concern for regulatory behavior actually is directed American centric regulatory behavior.
One advantage of being an American is that we have our freedom of speech protected by constitutional law. Most other countries lack this advantage. The concern I am addressing is a push by American elite to remove anonymity from the internet for the purpose of bullying and harassment prevention. The problem with this is they are destroying the power of anonymity which is one of the few was disempowered groups can safely air their grievances and build support for their causes. This situation can be seen through the case of the female Kuwaiti students. (Dashti et al., 2015)
In Kuwait, a traditional Muslim and monarchist state where freedom of speech especially in the concept of critiquing their government or religion was nonexistent. Women were treated as second class citizens at best and property normally. Speaking out against the system could very likely have led to their deaths or at minimum harsh beatings and potentially jail time. Students use the anonymity provided by twitter to communicate with each other, air their grievances, and fight for their rights. (Dashti et al., 2015) If the American elites had their way this anonymity wouldn’t exist. The women using twitter to fight for their rights would have been able to easily be tracked down and silenced. The internet is a global entity. Changes our lawmakers do to force the internet to their will not just affect us, but everyone else in the world. We live in a global society now and our laws and actions are going to need to reflect that.
Resistance to Change
As I mentioned before every new invention will see resistance to their change. Communication inventions are no exception. When writing was inventing people argued against it as they feared we would lose our ability to remember things without the paper. With the printing press though it was much larger in scale. People argued that books loss their personalities and souls being printed. Some presses even began printing with letters that looked as if they were handwritten to avoid this critic. Many feared for the loss of jobs for squires, luckily for squares the demand for written books as a luxury item didn’t really change at the time. (Liulevicius, 2020) The printing press mostly just provided books to wider number of people. Most of the critiques of the printing press were false fears or highly exaggerated, the internet and social medias tend to be the same.
Social Media and Mental Health
Though there are numerous effects people claim social media has our mental health I am going to focus on body image claims. There are numerous studies and investigations in how social media impacts how people, especially women, are impacted emotionally when it comes to body positivity. Most of these studies tend to be inconclusive or conclude that social media has no different if not a less negative impact than that of fashion and glamor magazines. (Fardouly et al., 2015) Despite the research saying it has no different impact to body image than that of glamor and fashion magazines it still can have a negative impact.
Due to the potential negative impact social media can have on mental health, especially of young girls, several groups have begun pushing for regulatory actions against social media platforms such as Facebook. These groups do have some truth behind their arguments for their goals. Social media can increase mental health issues involving body image. Girls can develop eating disorders or even resort to self-harm in other ways if they do not feel they are up to par with the other girls on their social media. Some may even build a fake heavily edited version of themselves to post on social media to support a false sense of control for themselves. (King University Online, 2019)
Blaming the tool seems to direction many people want go when it comes to mental health issues. Though I may personally not Facebook as an app or a company, it is a tool. The users are the ones who craft their own experiences. In fact many people can have the opposite impact from social media. They have formed social groups to help support them through their own problems, like and Eating Disorder Hope, a support group for women struggling with eating disorders. (King University Online, 2019) When it really comes down to it is the user who crafts their own experience through social media. Whether they build long lasting friends and a support group or make their life worse by comparing themselves to others is up to them not the media. These same issues have been around for much longer than social media and have been emphasized by things like fashion magazines just as much as social media if not more than social media. (Fardouly et al., 2015) We should not blame the tool for or failings.
Social Media Vs Mainstream Media
Mainstream media, or traditional media, would be anything that established itself prior to social media as form of entertainment or news. These could be newspapers, radio shows, tv series, Hollywood studios, or magazines to name a few. Recently Social Media, especially platforms such as YouTube and Twitch have been taking a vast majority of younger audiences that would have traditionally gone to the other sources. These mainstream sources do not appreciate their new competition. In fact they have been openly hostile towards the new competition. Social Media celebrities can attest to this themselves. Despite being probably much more famous than many of their mainstream counter parts YouTube celebrities find that they are more often than not treated as inferiors or with contemptment from their should be colleagues who do not recognize them as true celebrities. (Geraghty, 2019)
On top of this mainstream news sources have begone making hit pieces against YouTube as platform. They do this through attempting to scare advertisers off the platform entirely. The first attack against YouTube came in the form of indicating YouTube was putting advertisement on terrorist propaganda videos; this was successful for a short while starting what content creators referred to as a Adpocolpse, but YouTube swiftly addressed the issue. (Sitch, 2017) So the mainstream writers found new things to try to scare advertisers with. They began attacking YouTube as well as other social media platforms for platforming conspiracy theories and misinformation. Blaming social media platforms for everything involving Donald Trump. (Martin, 2021)
Despite all these attacks against social media, social media is winning the platform war. More and more Americans have started relying on social media for most of their media consumption including that of news gathering. Mainstream news organizations, well dragged kicking have started to accept this fact. YouTube has become a popular platform that Americans use to watch both mainstream content as well independent producers. Now about a quarter of Americans get their news from YouTube. (Stocking, 2021) YouTube pushing the mainstream news sources on their platform over their own independent content creators, likely in an act to try and appease those mainstream sources. Despite this though nearly half of the quarter of Americans who rely on YouTube for news have stuck to using independent sources for much of their news. (Binder, 2020)
Social media is taking over and evolving how Americans and the rest of the world interreact with the rest of the world. It is no longer a real competition between platforms rather a who gets on board soon enough to not get left behind. That being said it’s not going to just be accepted. Currently mainstream news sources will blame it for just about everything. From trends that started before it such as political polarization. (Tucker et al, 2018)(Prior 2013) To things that are entirely their own fault such as Americans’ growing distrust in mainstream news.
Failing of Mainstream News
The news has been growing more inflammatory and partisan over the years. They separated themselves into side and tell opposing narratives against each other. It has gotten so bad that you can generally guess what political party someone will vote just by what news channel they think is most trustworthy. In the past five years these gaps in trust levels have widen at a significant rate. (Jurkowitz et al, 2022) Overall the rate at which people trust the mainstream news sources have dropped significantly.
They may try and blame social media for the growing partisanship and distrust in the news, but that would be no different the catholic church blaming the printing press for people no longer respecting the church. Journalism used to be a highly respected career to the point there was a heroic journalist architype that some of the most popular super heroes, Spiderman and Superman, fell into. Journalists were the heroes willing to risk their lives and well beings to bring the truth to the American people. Now many people view journalists as slimy schemers who are looking for nothing more than to slander you at any given chance. Just imagine it now Clark Kent writing an opinion piece on why twitter needs to have harsh regulation because a twitter user with a rather named “Kooldude68” called him a mean name on twitter.
Journalists seem to have abandoned the SPJ code ethics which have kept them well respected for so many years. Even when McCarthy went after journalists their ethics helped them win over the people against McCarthy’s fear mongering. Sadly at some point journalists became to pursue political gain and activist causes rather keep to their ethics and pursue truth. They went from we need to present truth so that people can make educated decisions to an MSNBC host say on live television when discussing Donald Trump, “he can actually control exactly what people think. And that, that is our job.” In a completely flat none joking many followed by her other hosts agreeing with her. (Cercone, 2022) Between stuff like that and openly lying about children such the Covington Kid and Kyle Rittenhouse in ways that can ruin their lives and even put them in a criminal trial that proves the news was lying about them. Its no wonder no one trusts the news anymore. In fact the most trusted news source is still only trusted just over half of the population and that is The Weather Channel. (Sanders, 2022)
Social media is not the big bad the news makes it out to be. It is just further democratization of information. Information that reveals lies and corruption for all the world to see. Information to help activists and those without any other ability to stand up for themselves get their voices heard. A tool for those burdened by those in power who seek to repress them make a stand without risk their own life and limb. Yeah it may also allow for people to push conspiracy theories like the printing press help allow potentially harmful cults to spread, but the good it does for the common person is so much more. Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtuous writer!
Resources
History
Dewar, J. A. (1998, January 1). The information age and the printing press: Looking backward to see ahead. RAND Corporation. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P8014.html
Liulevicius, V. (2020, August 14). The social impact of the printing press. Wondrium Daily. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.wondriumdaily.com/the-social-impact-of-theprinting-press/
Roos, D. (2019, August 28). 7 ways the printing press changed the world. History.com. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance
Body Image
Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015, January 20). Social comparisons on social media: The impact of facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S174014451400148X
Link between social media & body image. King University Online. (2019, October 19). Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://online.king.edu/news/social-media-and-body-image/
Mainstream Media vs Social Media
Geraghty, H. (2019, March 3). The mainstream media's refusal to acknowledge YouTube culture is creating a generation chasm. NME. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.nme.com/features/time-end-snobbery-surrounding-youtube-celebrity-culture2446261
Martin, R. (2021, April 13). Exploring YouTube and the spread of disinformation. NPR. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2021/04/13/986678544/exploringyoutube-and-the-spread-of-disinformation
Stocking, G., Kessel, P. van, Barthel, M., Matsa, K. E., & Khuzam, M. (2021, November 16). Many americans get news on YouTube, where news organizations and independent producers thrive side by side. Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/09/28/many-americans-getnews-on-youtube-where-news-organizations-and-independent-producers-thrive-side-byside/
Binder, M. (2021, October 29). Nearly half of Americans who rely on YouTube for news watch independent channels. Mashable. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://mashable.com/article/youtube-study-pew-poll-media
Tucker, J. A., Guess, A., Barbera, P., Vaccari, C., Siegel, A., Sanovich, S., Stukal, D., & Nyhan, B. (2018, March 21). Social media, political polarization, and political disinformation: A review of the scientific literature. SSRN. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=506001013065023026088093087074011123 0250210680550700820250860870260711130900160080310571221110220090361091190 0409100000608006701708401207606111500400107712109209500502907312201209207 8104070105031070095103070112076094098095001004007090106105082082000&EXT =pdf&INDEX=TRUE
Sitch, P. (2017). 0:00 / 23:00 Adpocalypse 2.0 is Here. And it's Worse. YouTube. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2SA1i6gcgc%27.
Prior, M. (2013, February 1) Woodrow Wilson School and Department of Politics. (n.d.). Media and political polarization. Annual Reviews. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-polisci-100711-135242
Trust in Mainstream News
Jurkowitz, M., Mitchell, A., Shearer, E., & Walker, M. (2022, March 28). U.S. media polarization and the 2020 election: A nation divided. Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/01/24/u-s-media-polarization-and-the-2020- election-a-nation-divided/
Pew Research Center. (2020, January 17). Ideology adds another layer to party-line divides of most trusted and distrusted news sources. Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/01/24/ideology-reveals-largest-gaps-intrust-occur-between-conservatives-and-liberals/pj_2020-01-24_media-polarization_3-01/
Sanders, L. (2022, April 5). Trust in media 2022: Where Americans get their news and who they trust for information. YouGov. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/04/05/trust-media-2022- where-americans-get-news-poll
Cercone, J. (2022, April 18). Politifact - Donald Trump, not Elon Musk, was topic of discussion in 2017 MSNBC video. @politifact. Retrieved April 19, 2022, from https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/apr/18/facebook-posts/donald-trump-not-elonmusk-was-topic-discussion-20/
Additional Resources
Lim, H., Oh, S.-wa, Kim, Y., & Kim, J. (2019). Activists and Their Communicative Behaviors for Effective Crisis Communication in the Age of Social. Asian Journal Of Public Relations, 3, 1–14.
Dashti, A., Al-Abdullah, H., & Johar, H. (2015). Social Media and the Spiral of Silence: The Case of Kuwaiti Female Students’ Political Discourse on Twitter . Journal of International Women’s Studies, 16(3).