Context rules
Who first said that "content is king"? - Media Ecology Newsletter #26
Today, we have a cover story. But when you have read it, and if you will have time, please, continue scrolling down to read also about the new approach to internet policy that seems to be emerging in the United States. Europe already broke ground in this field.
Where is the kingdom of content, anyway?
I rarely found an expression so meaningless as “content is king”. It is the kind of thing that platform and software companies tell their users to flatter them into buying their products. Besides: what does a king do in the communication ecosystem? Is that a kingdom or an oligarchic republic? And even if it was a kingdom, is it a king at least as powerful as, say, a prime minister? In reality, to express the idea that “content is king” is a way to get rid of content while seemingly telling the opposite. Somebody said that it was Bill Gates who first used the expression “content is king”. But, even if it were true, it is not something about he brags about.
Too much content in too little context
Platforms that have so far won the battle for power on the Internet have helped create an environment in which messages travel in perfect isolation from their context. The platforms treat each message like any other, blurring its relationship to the places and moments that originated it. Meanwhile, people increasingly tend to behave completely divorced from their surroundings. And even in places of intimacy, at the dinner table or in the living room, they do not stop chatting on their phones with people who are far away instead of talking to those around them.
We are talking about what Eva Berger has studied and written about in her new book: Context Blindness. Digital Technology and the Next Stage of Human Evolution, Peter Lang 2022. «When GPS decides what route is best and iTunes decides what song to play, humans forget how to contextualize. When we completely outsource all our skills to mobile technology, location service, sensors, social media, and AI, we stop understanding the most basic situations. To relinquish control over our decisions to contextual technology is to give up our awareness of context», writes Berger.
Welcome to the “media ecology” newsletter. Today we are talking about Eva Berger idea. And what we can do about it. In fact, there is so much more happening. It may seem that we are finally entering a period of time in which awareness about media ecology becomes policy and law. In both the United States and Europe, Big Tech companies are challenged. It is an opportunity time for people willing to favor a new way to interpret the internet.
Autistic behavior
«Very significant changes in people’s behavior started to become apparent sometime after the introduction of mobile phones and later, smartphones. The phones’ blue lights lit up like fireflies in dark movie theaters, un-suspending our valuable suspension of disbelief and ruining the movie experience. We started to walk and text. Manners seemed to disappear, and smartphone use soon became grounds for divorce». Eva Berger describes people immersed in a digital environment in which they live thanks to the phone, while their brains get used to delegate some functions to the technology.
Consequences are important. «Something has gone terribly wrong over the past few years. The year 2020 alone was enough to make one’s head spin: fake news about the source of the coronavirus, mismanagement of the pandemic, the politicization of face masks, the conspiracy theories that culminated in the attack on the Capitol building in the Unites States in January 2021, politics brutality, and demonstrations throughout the world, to mention only a few. All these have made it hard to find coherence and to make meaning of what is happening. it has become harder than ever to know what’s true and what’ not, to find order or logic in events everywhere in the world. life feels random, irrational, and capricious».
It is not a health environment. «I use the term “context blindness as a metaphor for the human condition in this technological age - but, as it turns out, it may not be entirely metaphorical. Context blindness is a term coined by Joe Griffin and Ivan Terrell in 2007 to describe the most dominant manifestation of autistic behavior».
Readings to share
Two Supreme Court Cases That Could Break the Internet, The Newyorker.
In February, the Supreme Court will hear two cases that could alter how the Internet is regulated. Both cases concern Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which grants legal immunity to Internet platforms for content posted by users.
Biden calls for bipartisan legislation to keep Big Tech in check, Engadget.
In an article published on the Wall Street Journal, the president of the United States urged Democrats and Republicans to 'find common ground" and protect privacy, competition and kids. Europe has already started to legislated about the matter.
Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2023, Reuters Institute.
Could this be the year when publishers rethink their offer to address the twin challenges of news avoidance and disconnection – to offer more hope, inspiration, and utility?
And if this was the time to rethink journalism and start a better age for quality information?
Podcasts in Italian, by me
L’altra metà del verso. Rai Radio 3
Media Ecology. Intesa Sanpaolo on air
Eppur s’innova. Luiss University Press
Have you seen this?
Science fiction museum, by Zaha Hadid Architects, in Chengdu, China, Futurix.
Ecology of screens
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