Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

A polarizing political behavior has emerged in the mass consumption of news and information with the rise of social media. Kierkegaard criticized mass communication of his age for its homogenizing, dispassionate effect on the public. With the advent of the Internet, there is a splintering, emotional, and polar public behavior in consuming information. The two behaviors may seem to be opposing on the surface, but we argue that the effects on communication are similar to what Kierkegaard observed in many aspects. Kierkegaard observed a monolithic press and a homogeneous public. On the Internet, there is not a diverse press and a heterogeneous public, but multiple monoliths and disparate homogeneous ‘publics’. These groups distrust each other, and exhibit similar irrational, dispassionate, consumption of the news by either being too emotional or too insensitive. We study this model of communication enabled by the Internet, while also looking at the propaganda model for mass media proposed by Herman and Chomsky and how this can (and has been) used to influence information on the Internet. This study can inform policy making in regulating Internet practices to ensure a fair and free process of information consumption.