Accountability - How technology’s advancement in mass media has changed society’s expectation and culture

 

Technological advancements have created/altered a culture where society is now more sensitive towards the content shared by the mass media. The general population now expects the mass media to behave in a more responsible way. People expect that any content shared on the on the internet should not offend any group of people in any way.

The general public could potentially hold the media houses / giant social platforms etc. face accountability, easily, for if, any content does not achieve/maintain a reasonable standard. It does not matter who shares/publishes the content, if the vast majority is offended, thus they will react and, the content creator whether a person or an organization, will be held responsible to an internet trial, in the form of; threatening to leave platform, or making reactive content (against it) go viral and create a negative publicity for that person or organization. Many advertising agencies, celebrities were forced to apologize, if any socially unacceptable advertisement was run on any platform. Some celebrities had to apologize for endorsing a product when they themselves used a product of a rival company in real life. YouTube had to create You Tube Kids, due to excessive pressure from parents, due to unsatisfactory age controls, on the main platform, which was potentially not suitable for kids. Another example is where PUBG mobile (game) was (and is) banned in various countries due to negative (addictive) impact on youth in certain countries. Furthermore, black lives matter movement gained huge momentum, via mass media, when a police officer killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, and general public called for substantial police reforms throughout the country. And it surely became a global phenomenon, when even ICC (International Cricket Council) allowed the teams of West Indies and England to wear “Black Lives Matter” logo on their playing shirts.  

An article on medium.com by Daniel Imbellino, highlights the cultural change where the general public is keeping powerful individuals and organizations accountable for their actions. Another article written by Monica Anderson, Skye Toor, Lee Rainie and Aaron Smith on pewresearch.org throws light on the public attitudes toward political engagement via social media.