Zombie Media 73
to be journalism and the denunciation of bona fide journalism as potentially false – can proliferate. Prior to 2016, the term fake news was
barely used, but 12 months later was named Word of the Year by the
Macquarie Dictionary. As an example of the intersections between journalism, readers, and technology, it offers an illustrative case study of the
unintended consequences of disruptive innovation, as well as a counter
to deterministic views of the role played by technology which tend to ignore the social and cultural contexts in which such technology operates.
Reductionist accounts of technological determinism, as Fernando de la
Cruz Paragas points out, are rightly critiqued for their simplistic conclusions but that, drawing on Burrell and Morgan’s four paradigms of
sociological analysis (functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and
radical structuralist) it is possible to provide much complex accounts
of the impact of technology on social, cultural, economic, and political
systems.
4
As such, this chapter will explore the role that changes in social media and the online distribution of news, particularly the effects
of automation of screening stories, had to play in the recent election and
the latest alternatives to mainstream media.
A Genealogy of Alt-Journalism
In April and May 2017, self-defined “New Right” journalist, Mike Cernovich, and Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the website Infowars,
Jerome Corsi, were granted White House press passes shortly before
petitions began online to revoke the credentials for CNN. Cernovich,
who had previously found some notoriety as an advocate of the MRA
(Men’s-Rights Activists) movement and author of the self-help book, The
Gorilla Mindset, pivoted towards political commentary during 2016,
describing himself as a “national security reporter” and “documentary
maker”, while Infowars, which lists itself the “#1 Internet News Show
in the World”, has emerged as a popular successor to the right-wing
talk radio shows of the 1990s and early 2000s. Both Infowars and Cernovich have had a significant role to play in recent years in promoting
various conspiracy theories, most bizarrely the “Pizzagate” conspiracy
that placed leading Democrats at the centre of a child sex-abuse ring
centred on the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington. The award of
such press passes to these figures was seized on as evidence of President
Trump’s favouring unconventional alt-journalists, as they were increasingly being referred to, especially in the light of (as it turned out) hoax
stories that press credentials were being revoked from more traditional
outlets such as CNN, NBC, ABC, and the New York Times. As ever,
the actual truth of such claims was considerably more complex: the press
passes awarded to Cernovich and Corsi were of a temporary nature,
much more readily available than the permanent credentials awarded
following security clearance and approval for congressional press passes
to be journalism and the denunciation of bona fide journalism as potentially false – can proliferate. Prior to 2016, the term fake news was
barely used, but 12 months later was named Word of the Year by the
Macquarie Dictionary. As an example of the intersections between journalism, readers, and technology, it offers an illustrative case study of the
unintended consequences of disruptive innovation, as well as a counter
to deterministic views of the role played by technology which tend to ignore the social and cultural contexts in which such technology operates.
Reductionist accounts of technological determinism, as Fernando de la
Cruz Paragas points out, are rightly critiqued for their simplistic conclusions but that, drawing on Burrell and Morgan’s four paradigms of
sociological analysis (functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and
radical structuralist) it is possible to provide much complex accounts
of the impact of technology on social, cultural, economic, and political
systems.
4
As such, this chapter will explore the role that changes in social media and the online distribution of news, particularly the effects
of automation of screening stories, had to play in the recent election and
the latest alternatives to mainstream media.
A Genealogy of Alt-Journalism
In April and May 2017, self-defined “New Right” journalist, Mike Cernovich, and Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the website Infowars,
Jerome Corsi, were granted White House press passes shortly before
petitions began online to revoke the credentials for CNN. Cernovich,
who had previously found some notoriety as an advocate of the MRA
(Men’s-Rights Activists) movement and author of the self-help book, The
Gorilla Mindset, pivoted towards political commentary during 2016,
describing himself as a “national security reporter” and “documentary
maker”, while Infowars, which lists itself the “#1 Internet News Show
in the World”, has emerged as a popular successor to the right-wing
talk radio shows of the 1990s and early 2000s. Both Infowars and Cernovich have had a significant role to play in recent years in promoting
various conspiracy theories, most bizarrely the “Pizzagate” conspiracy
that placed leading Democrats at the centre of a child sex-abuse ring
centred on the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington. The award of
such press passes to these figures was seized on as evidence of President
Trump’s favouring unconventional alt-journalists, as they were increasingly being referred to, especially in the light of (as it turned out) hoax
stories that press credentials were being revoked from more traditional
outlets such as CNN, NBC, ABC, and the New York Times. As ever,
the actual truth of such claims was considerably more complex: the press
passes awarded to Cernovich and Corsi were of a temporary nature,
much more readily available than the permanent credentials awarded
following security clearance and approval for congressional press passes