Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Another day, another set of internet-dreading media

We're almost done with 2022, but people still like creating stories about the scary digital world.

Today's example comes from The Incidental Economist, who notes a set of disturbing headlines about digital technology threatening our children!  Until we look at the actual study, that is, if we can. Enjoy:

(thanks to Ted Major)

Dreading the darkweb

A new scholarly study finds that British media painted a deeply skewed, and scary, view of the darkweb.

Here's from the abstract:

Through an extensive content analysis conducted on 833 articles about the deep Web published between 2001 and 2017 by six British newspapers, we demonstrate that these technologies were predominantly associated with crime, crypto markets and immoral content, while positive uses of this technology, such as protecting privacy and freedom of speech, were largely disregarded.

They go on very well: "The consistent association by the British press between the deep Web and criminal and antisocial behaviors is exemplary of a recent “apocalyptic turn” in the imaginary of the Web, whereby Web-related technologies are perceived and portrayed in more negative ways within the public sphere."

Recommended.