CHANGE AND 21ST CENTURY MEDIA
CHANGE AND 21ST CENTURY MEDIA

Author(s): Sarah Dooley, Emma Moore, Alexander Averin
Subject(s): Politics, Media studies, Communication studies, Theory of Communication, Social Theory
Published by: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
Keywords: communication; media; 21st century; truth; post-truth; politics; fake news; Marshall McLuhan; internet;
Summary/Abstract: The Cluetrain Manifesto, written in 1999, around the advent of the Internet, celebrates the emergence of a flattened and divided media space. Each individual user is equal amongst the millions of other users but at the same time divided as the Internet enables coalescing amongst like-minded people. The sixth of Cluetrain’s 95 Theses states: ‘The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.’161 The Internet is, however, not the only result of technological development. As has been slowly becoming clear over the past two decades, this new technology might not be merely ‘enabling conversations’. In order to understand the position of fake news in our current media environment, one needs to take a bird’s eye view, not only in space, but also in time.

• Details
• Contents