Earlier this week, I interviewed media theorist Mark Deuze for a feature in Tekstblad. For those of you who are unfamiliar with his work, Mark’s research details the social and political economic pressures facing media workers today. Building on Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity, Mark illustrates how insecure and convergent media work has become.
During the interview Mark commented on a of number eye-opening issues, ranging from the omnipresence of gaming to the rationalization (and contingencies) of freelance labor. Mark also pointed to the ‘digital shadow’ that media audiences generate, giving media producers more precise information about consumers than ever before.
What I found most revealing however, were his views on the decline of journalistic authority. Given the never-ending news flow and the democratization of source access (e.g. citizen journalism), journalistic authority is no longer only established through eyewitnessing and first-hand observation (“having been there”) but also (and primarily) through a professional identity guaranteeing informational accuracy, speed of delivery and trustworthiness.
Tom Van Hout 