How Social Media Killed Traditional News | Oliver Luckett | Big Think | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Communication structures have transitioned from top-down controlled mass media systems to decentralized holonic networks, resulting in the responsibility of discerning and propagating authentic information falling on every individual.

Key Insights

• ⛪ The church and television architecture historically controlled the content disseminated to masses, following a top-down approach.
• 👻 The internet's decentralized nature transformed communication, allowing individuals to become publishers and disrupting the ability to discern authenticity.
• 🥺 In decentralized systems, the responsibility for propagating and authenticating content falls on every individual, leading to challenges in discerning what is real and fake.
• 🖤 Lack of transparency in algorithms poses a significant obstacle in understanding and navigating the new communication architecture.
• 🗯️ Holonic systems require social responsibility from every individual to propagate the right information and discern authenticity.
• 🧑‍🏭 Human emotions, acting as the metabolism of the system, drive the propagation of content in holonic networks.
• 😃 The internet has democratized content dissemination, making it challenging for big media companies to buy their way into the system.

Transcript

Read and summarize the transcript of this video on Glasp Reader (beta).

Questions & Answers

Q: How have communication structures evolved throughout history?

Communication structures were initially controlled in a top-down manner, with the church serving as the first broadcast network, followed by television architecture. However, the internet's decentralization and the emergence of social media have shifted the power dynamics and allowed individuals to become publishers.

Q: How has the internet transformed content dissemination?

The internet has created a more democratic environment where anyone can contribute to the system. With the rise of video and photo sharing, as well as social media, every person has the ability to distribute content horizontally. This has resulted in difficulties discerning what is real, fake, sponsored, or non-sponsored.

Q: What challenges arise in a decentralized communication system?

In a system without top-down authority, the responsibility for authenticating and propagating content falls on every individual. This lack of checks and balances allows hackers, scammers, and those who arbitrage ad features to gain an advantage over established institutions.

Q: How does the lack of transparency in algorithms affect communication?

The lack of visibility into algorithms and how content behaves hinders our understanding of the communication architecture. Without transparency, it becomes challenging to make sense of how information is disseminated and why certain posts have different reach and engagement.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Throughout history, communication structures have been controlled by a few individuals who had distribution control, similar to the church acting as the first broadcast network.

• Television architecture also followed a top-down approach, where a group of people decided the content and distributed it to towers for mass consumption.

• The internet, with its decentralized network and social layer, has allowed everyone to become publishers, disrupting the ability to discern authenticity and responsibility for content propagation.