The disinformation society: Misinformation and disinformation in the late-capitalist public sphere

Gilroy-Ware, Marcus

Abstract

The technological ideologues and internet utopians who championed the world-wide web’s adoption promised that it would enable the smooth transfer of information with unprecedented scale and efficiency, characterising it initially as an “Information Super-Highway”. Decades later, not only have these cheery predictions not transpired, but the web and its ecosystem of dependent apps and platforms is now commonly blamed for the copious misinformation and disinformation that is said to have arisen since user-generated content became a feature of mainstream commercial media consumption. This body of work consists of two books, Filling the Void, published 2017 and After the Fact?, published 2020, and one article “What is Wrong with Social Media?”, published in 2022. These works contain a variety of analyses and theoretical contributions concerning a range of info-technological challenges that accompany the circulation of information of public importance via digital platforms, including “social media”. As well as misinformation and disinformation, these challenges include compulsive and excessive social media use, and the political-economic relations intrinsic to platform ownership. Covering the period between 2004 (when Facebook was first launched) and 2021 (when the last of the works submitted was actually written), these analyses aim to make their contribution to knowledge in two simultaneous ways. Firstly, they offer original analyses of what actually has transpired, which, besides their aspiration as scholarly contributions, are intended to provide reparative utility for media-makers and digital platforms who are serious about improving the quality of public conversation and information dispersal. Secondly, the works also challenge technocentric and positivist accounts of these phenomena on political-economic grounds, characterising them as a form of mystificatory narrative in themselves that obscures the true systemic causes of these challenges—which are also addressed as part of the analyses offered.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 7, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 21, 2024
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11011728
• Award Date: Mar 21, 2024