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  • 3 - The Flooded Zone

  • from Part II - The Current Situation
  • Edited by W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington, Steven Livingston, George Washington University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    The Disinformation Age
    Published online:
    06 October 2020
    Print publication:
    15 October 2020, pp 67-92
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  • Summary

    Starr describes how we have became so vulnerable to disinformation in this digital era. Heargues, that, like analyses of democratization, which have turned in recent years to thereverse processes of democratic backsliding and breakdown, analyses of contemporarycommunication need to attend to the related processes of backsliding and breakdown inthe media – or what he refers to as “media degradation.” After defining that term inrelation to democratic theory, Starr focuses on three developments that have contributedto the increased vulnerability to disinformation: 1) the attrition of journalistic capacities; 2)the degradation of standards in both the viral and broadcast streams of the new mediaecology; and 3) the rising power of digital platforms with incentives to prioritize growthand profits and no legal accountability for user-generated content. Neoliberal policies oflimited government and reduced regulation of business and partisan politics contributed tothese developments, but while demands are growing for regulation, it remains uncertainwhether government can act effectively.