Read on Twitter
" #MediaStudies, what a mickey mouse subject, hur hur hur, amirite"
Listen buddy, if you can look at this *gestures wildly* shit-show and not see the enduring relevance of Media Studies as a critical, essential discipline, you are terminally incurious.
ANGRY THREAD
Listen buddy, if you can look at this *gestures wildly* shit-show and not see the enduring relevance of Media Studies as a critical, essential discipline, you are terminally incurious.
ANGRY THREAD
Ever wondered how George Osborne, ex-Chancellor with zero journalism experience, was able to become editor of the Evening Standard in 2017? - unrelatedly, here he is pictured with Standard owner, the non-dom billionaire Evgeny Lebedev...
Ever wondered what impacts Donald Trump, often described as the first 'reality TV president', has had on political discourse, debate and literacy? https://time.com/4596770/donald-trump-reality-tv/
Trump's 4 year denigration of the media reflects his professional inadequacies - but it also shows us how effectively anti-media sentiments can be stirred up by autocrats who undermine ideas of 'truth' as a way of evading accountability for their actions https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/about-us
Ever thought about the disinformation propaganda circulated via Facebook by Cambridge Analytica? - which sought to micro-target 'persuadable' groups with extreme messaging about immigration + delivered a narrow Brexit vote (see #DeleteFacebook to find out how your data is used)
Facebook, Reddit, Youtube (and Twitter!) all use algorithms and digital architecture that promote ever more extreme content - the FB algorithm has been found to 'actively promote' Holocaust denial, which FB still refuse to categorise as hate speech https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/16/facebook-algorithm-found-to-actively-promote-holocaust-denial
Ever wondered how misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic ideas proliferate through the digital architecture we use? - understanding the power of social media means understanding the long complex media histories that prefigure them
This wonderful radio programme provides a short accessible intro to these disinformation processes https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000c9sm
How do we develop our media literacy so that we can better 'see' the machinery at work *in* media - political, economic, cultural, national, historical forces that shape what we see, read, hear, 'like', retweet, amplify - THAT'S #MediaStudies
Media is an infrastructure of connection - but also of ACTION - #MediaStudies helps us recognise the powerful (democratic?) aspirations at the centre of media when we use it to connect, act, invite, show solidarity, donate, and so on. Movements for change must be mediated
An excellent example of #MediaPower is the legions of students who furiously and cogently took to the airwaves, (and newspaper columns, hashtags, TV screens) to explain the injustices of the A-level algorithm fiasco - AND WON! -
The #MediaStudies denigration routine happens like clockwork at this time every year. It is a routine designed to sow anxiety in students about to start Media degrees, flatter students who are doing 'proper' subjects, and reproduce archaic distinctions between disciplines.
REFUSE IT! #MediaStudies demands and develops critical thinking skills, creativity, analytical imagination, robust research and scholarship - it illuminates the structures of power and routes to challenge them - *there could not be* a MORE relevant subject to study 
