Author Archives
Media futurologist
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How both old and new media polarise society for profit (or survival)
Why polarisation is a media effect and what we can do about it. Populism and polarisation are structurally embedded into this social-economic symbiosis. This media hardware can and must work only with this cultural software. Excerpts from the paper. Full… Read More ›
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The eternal failure of selling news
News itself is a very paradoxical commodity. It always ‘needs’ to be read; it is always in some kind of demand from below. But there is always someone from above who wants to pay for certain news to be delivered… Read More ›
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Review of Andrey Mir’s “Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers”
The full title of Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers. The Media after Trump: Manufacturing Anger and Polarization by Andrey Mir says it all: the delivery of news on Twitter and social media to an increasing majority of people has… Read More ›
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Rage on social media: signaling intensities instead of feelings
Signaling intensities instead of feelings has become a built-in setting of social media that encourages socializing through rage. For platform owners, it is a good thing, the bread and butter of business. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of… Read More ›
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Postjournalism: Subjective modality in the guise of objective modality
Postjournalism passes off the opinion as the fact, the connotation as the denotation, the attitude as the referent. To put it simply, in postjournalism, reporting is commenting. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers” (2020). Subjective modality in… Read More ›
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Philanthropy funding of journalism: noble corruption
Foundation funding of the news media comes with a price. It quietly pushes journalism towards activism. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers” (2020). Funding journalism by foundations is perceived as a positive tendency because no one’s individual… Read More ›
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McLuhan and resettling into the digital
“McLuhan foresaw that electronic media gave humans the quality of a disembodied, angel-like spirit, which happens to us right now when we literally resettle to social media or video games and operate our digital selves.” Mike Hodgkinson published in Post… Read More ›
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The news media: manufacturing anger, not consent. Herman-Chomsky’s Propaganda model revised
When Herman and Chomsky described their Propaganda model, the news media were paid predominantly by advertisers and therefore tended to beautify reality. But advertising is gone. The media try to attract reader revenue. But this is a very peculiar reader… Read More ›
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The quantum theory of media
“The future of the book is the blurb,” as McLuhan once said. The news teaser, not even the article, is now the quantum of media content. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers” (2020). What is the unit… Read More ›
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Martin Gurri on “Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers”
Andrey Mir’s previous book, “Human as Media”, was a little masterpiece that accounted for the large transformations brought about by the “emancipation of authorship” in the internet. His latest book, “Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers”, may be the most… Read More ›
