Importantly, this random, disparate and admittedly sometimes misleading information flow of Twitter was the reality of the situation. Stay tuned to the BBC for verified and authoritative coverage. They told us: Twitter was full of misinformation, conflicting accounts and unverifiable information. This is partly due to the emergence of networked media powered by the internet and increasingly networked mobile technology however, it is also down the wider structural limitations of liberal democracy within which the media plays a central role (see Louw, for a good overview of how the emergence of liberal democracy has gone hand-in-hand with the media).ĭuring the worst of the riots social media gave access to multiple sources of information enabling anyone with internet access to gather information and build their own real-time stream of news.įascinatingly, the BBC was urging people not to use social media (Twitter in particular) to interpret events. The guiding theme for all the points I jotted down was how the liberal media has possibly reached its limits for effective and adequate reporting in the 21st century. I wanted to capture some of my thoughts around the limitations (and failings) of the media during the worst of the rioting, which may be useful for my ongoing research. Something I'll hopefully return to a later date.Īs mentioned above, recommended wider reading would include: Zygmunt Bauman's article on the consumerist context for the riots Critical Legal Thinking and Schnews' account of the broader neoliberal capitalist project as cause of the riots and the London Review of Book's historical perspective. I end the post with some next step ideas about what this all means for democracy. Having written something I felt it worthwhile adding my own initial reactions to the debate, particularly from a media perspective given the political role the media has within liberal democracies. This post started out as a few immediate thoughts about the way the #ukriots played out across the media.īy the time I'd got around to tidying up what I'd written it'd been superceded by a wealth of good analysis - some focused on media, some not.
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