Thread by @rasmus_kleis

"Democratic Creative Destruction?" Discussing work done with @dragz at @StanfordCyber event, moderated by @persily.

Key empirical slides below, some links to research we build on, event link, and the chapter is available in the open access book here cambridge.org/core/books/soc… 1/14

We frame the issue as “democratic creative destruction” that challenges incumbent institutions, creates new ones, and in many ways empower individual citizens-even as change also leaves both individuals and institutions increasingly dependent on large US-based tech companies 2/14

INSTITUTIONALLY, the ongoing move to a more digital, more mobile, and more platform-dominated media environment has made news more abundant and more accessible but existentially threatens the business models that funded professional news production in the twentieth century 3/14

This is particularly challenging for newspapers, an industry central to the news institution and the business of news, and it compounds an ongoing structural decline in many countries as more and more different forms of media compete for attention and advertising online. 4/14

In parallel, cliché that “every organization is a media organization” is increasingly reality as everyone from activists, NGOs, candidates, campaigns, parties, a multitude of companies, to peddlers of misinformation try to engage people online in part by relying on platforms 5/14

At the INDIVIDUAL level, we see a rapid move from direct access to news sources to a heavy reliance on distributed discovery via platforms that provide us with new, supplementary ways of accessing, consuming, and engaging with news. 6/14

And this move will continue for years to come through generation replacement alone. Mortality being the rule, older people will not sustain legacy media forever. Younger people are choosing digital, mobile, and often platform media. 7/14

This broadly point to more diverse and sometimes participatory news use while also bringing with it (even enabling) widespread online harassment, exposure to disinformation, as well as potentially more political polarization and (especially) social inequality in news use. 8/14

We see move to more digital, mobile, and platform-dominated media environment as pointing to a more popular democracy, democracy with more focus on the demos- part even as some of the institutions that are central to the -kratos are challenged and new institutions developing 9/14

Lot thus hinges on how old institutions adapt and new ones evolve (including regulation and policy). For news institution specifically, we offer four scenarios-

1) Restoration (unlikely)
2) Renewal (new roles)
3) Retreat (=high culture)
4) Relegation (aguably worst of all) 10/14

Scenarios depend most of all on choices journalists, news media, and public make (and by extension advertisers and platforms), but also on policy choices for enabling environment. Right now, in most countries, we see inaction, negative policy, deliberate non-intervention. 11/14

The chapter is based on empirical @risj_oxford work and draws on important work by others including e.g.

@safiyanoble nyupress.org/9781479837243/…

@robyncaplan and @zephoria journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

Jim Webster and Thomas Ksiazek onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111… 12/14

As well as e.g. @andrew_chadwick global.oup.com/academic/produ…

@shannimcg and @kreissdaniel
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

@wphillips49 and @rmmilner wiley.com/en-gb/The+Ambi…

and many, many more 13/14

The @StanfordCyber webinar is open, with too many amazing speakers to list here but including e.g. @daphnehk @andyguess @MarietjeSchaake @KellyKborn @rgorwa @j_a_tucker and many many more.

Starts later today - register here stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regist…