128 Citizens
The Washington Post, is much more important as an example of some
of the future directions that mainstream journalism looks set to follow
in coming years.
Infowars in the Digital Coffee House
In many respects, Infowars is an example of everything that has gone
wrong in relation to the influence of big tech and journalism, being a
new breed of publication whose widespread influence was only made
possible by the new platforms considered in this book and which was
then cut off by tech giants without recourse to third parties. In a strange
way, however, it also very much belongs to the early era of the press.
During the English Civil War, an intense propaganda war was carried
out between Royalists and Parliamentarians, drawing on a tradition
that, as Peacey observes, had its roots in Henry VIII’s revolution and the
break with Rome but resulting in a print explosion that was ostensibly
concerned with “educating” the public.
7
Pamphlets were relatively cheap
to produce, could be distributed easily to larger sections of the population than books, and often had a profound effect in terms of radicalising
readers. Their vast popularity was also often associated with “slander or
scurrility” and critics worried that they would turn readers from “good”
reading.
8
In terms of our own contemporary media, the pamphlet wars
of the early modern period had all the hallmarks of what we now would
call a moral panic. Some pamphleteers clearly took advantage of the
liminal nature of their format, such as John Taylor’s infamous The
Arraignment, Conviction and Imprisoning of Christmas (1646) which
satirised the Puritans’ unpopular attacks on Christmas festivities. Others belonged to the truly bizarre world of seventeenth-century conspiracy theories, such as Thomas Totney, who, after a revelation in 1648,
changed his name to Thereau John Tany, declaring in works such as
Theous Ori Apokolipkal (1651) that he was destined to restore the Jews
to their homeland: after attacking Parliament single-handedly when
Oliver Cromwell was offered the crown in 1654 and having changed his
name to Ram Johoram, he left England to gather up European Jews and
was eventually drowned at sea.
9
Tany sometimes reads like a pamphleteering variant of Alex Jones,
the founder and bizarrely charismatic presenter of Infowars – although
if Tany appears to have genuinely believed that he had been divinely
chosen to be king of the Jews, Jones presents a much more ambiguous figure. Jones seems to have been genuinely radicalised during the
1990s and, in a recent paper, Jessica Jones discusses the ways in which
Infowars regularly appears as a source for those who, in turn, shift
further towards the alt- or far right.
10
In the decades before social media talk radio in particular seems to have served the same role for Alex
Jones that his website would provide for younger individuals. Thus, he
The Washington Post, is much more important as an example of some
of the future directions that mainstream journalism looks set to follow
in coming years.
Infowars in the Digital Coffee House
In many respects, Infowars is an example of everything that has gone
wrong in relation to the influence of big tech and journalism, being a
new breed of publication whose widespread influence was only made
possible by the new platforms considered in this book and which was
then cut off by tech giants without recourse to third parties. In a strange
way, however, it also very much belongs to the early era of the press.
During the English Civil War, an intense propaganda war was carried
out between Royalists and Parliamentarians, drawing on a tradition
that, as Peacey observes, had its roots in Henry VIII’s revolution and the
break with Rome but resulting in a print explosion that was ostensibly
concerned with “educating” the public.
7
Pamphlets were relatively cheap
to produce, could be distributed easily to larger sections of the population than books, and often had a profound effect in terms of radicalising
readers. Their vast popularity was also often associated with “slander or
scurrility” and critics worried that they would turn readers from “good”
reading.
8
In terms of our own contemporary media, the pamphlet wars
of the early modern period had all the hallmarks of what we now would
call a moral panic. Some pamphleteers clearly took advantage of the
liminal nature of their format, such as John Taylor’s infamous The
Arraignment, Conviction and Imprisoning of Christmas (1646) which
satirised the Puritans’ unpopular attacks on Christmas festivities. Others belonged to the truly bizarre world of seventeenth-century conspiracy theories, such as Thomas Totney, who, after a revelation in 1648,
changed his name to Thereau John Tany, declaring in works such as
Theous Ori Apokolipkal (1651) that he was destined to restore the Jews
to their homeland: after attacking Parliament single-handedly when
Oliver Cromwell was offered the crown in 1654 and having changed his
name to Ram Johoram, he left England to gather up European Jews and
was eventually drowned at sea.
9
Tany sometimes reads like a pamphleteering variant of Alex Jones,
the founder and bizarrely charismatic presenter of Infowars – although
if Tany appears to have genuinely believed that he had been divinely
chosen to be king of the Jews, Jones presents a much more ambiguous figure. Jones seems to have been genuinely radicalised during the
1990s and, in a recent paper, Jessica Jones discusses the ways in which
Infowars regularly appears as a source for those who, in turn, shift
further towards the alt- or far right.
10
In the decades before social media talk radio in particular seems to have served the same role for Alex
Jones that his website would provide for younger individuals. Thus, he