Social Media, News and the Public Sphere

Building on from the previous chapter, this chapter examines how surveillance capitalism has impacted on how news companies operate, and on how other techno-social aspects of news and information gathering, reporting and distribution are transformed through social media. The role social media plays in the generation, distribution and consumption of news has emerged as a major concern due to the perceived impact of news coverage and consumption on public debate on key social issues (such as marriage equality), environmental issues (such as climate change), public health issues (like vaccinations and the COVID-19 pandemic) and political events (like the Brexit vote in the UK and national elections in the US, the Philippines, Malaysia, Kenya, France and many others.