Assignment 04- Drawing a Line
Angeline Henriquez
Digital Media and Society
Drawing a Line – Ch. 6
In chapter 6 “Drawing the Line” Taylor encourages us to look into the “hidden abode”, the systems and means by which we have what seems to be free access to the web. She makes special emphasis on debunking ideas that promote the internet as a democratic and egalitarian platform that empowers users. Instead she, states that “it is clear that this revolution is not from the bottom-up variety” (p189) and as opposed to empowering consumers, the internet is really an advertiser-driven environment with marketers very much in control of what circulates in the digital space. At the core of what circulates in this attention economy is the selling of detailed knowledge about specific users and their behaviors such as “zip code, income, age, race, gender, educational attainment, religious leaning, health and marital status, and preferred entertainment options” (p190). In this was they are able to filter which ads are seen by which users; we become packaged into categories. Taylor calls this occurrence reputation silos, the effect of this she states, is that reinforces preexisting inequalities. It is a “prejudicial system that shapes what information we are exposed to and what products we are offered” (p190).
Another way in which marketers influence the digital cultural environment is through the advertising of their products in editorial-style pieces and journalistic articles, which Taylor calls native advertising. She states that taking advantage of the many unemployed journalists, “companies are busy building online news rooms of their own”. As a result of occurrences such as reputation silos and native advertising, marketers have a hold on the cultural content that circulates the web, proving that the internet is not as egalitarian and unrestricted as new-media thinkers consider it to be. What is unrestricted however, is the reach markets have into our online behaviors and information, and as long as that reach is not regulated, the digital cultural environment will be an uneven playing field in which only a pre-approved set of ideas will be promoted in benefit of the ones who have more resources.
