Part 5

Democratic Expression and the Mass Media

The freedom and openness of the Internet is a double-edged sword. In a digital world overloaded with data and news, it has become much easier to obtain information. With so many people paying attention to the details of everyday life, it is also easier to uncover wrongdoing by business and government, and even to hold these institutions to higher levels of transparency. The news media are helping to do this, but the digital turn and online outlets—particularly Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—have provided new methods that allow ordinary citizens and nonprofit groups to do some of the work once performed by investigative journalists. The lack of centralized control over the Internet also means that people have been able to use digital technologies and our interconnectedness as a way to be heard and to effect change—especially in countries where press freedom has been limited or compromised. Both the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and the Occupy Wall Street movement serve as examples.

At the same time, though, this ease of getting information has led to more situations involving ethically gray practices. For example, “hacktivists” like WikiLeaks and Anonymous and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden have raised issues regarding whether some government and business documents should remain secret—to protect national security, volatile economic markets, or vulnerable diplomats or other individuals at work in difficult areas of the world—or if all information should be made available to the public at all times. The fragmented and accessible nature of the Internet has led to concerns about how to best police the online world and control its overwhelming array of voices and traffic. There are also concerns that as traditional news media shrink, they might become subservient divisions of massive corporations that are able to dictate news content (the infographic on the right shows how overall news media revenue compares to some other well-known companies). We may be seeing similar conflicts, changes, and compromises in the years ahead as we continue to explore how powerful mass media fit into a democracy.

EXPRESSION AND THE MASS MEDIA