In a world characterized by continuous and rapid change, media has become an intrinsic part of shaping contemporary societies, due to its significant impact on most aspects of human activity. Thus, the study of media effects is not merely an academic topic but a vital task for understanding how media influences the lives of people and communities. Since the early 20th century, studies on media effects have evolved notably, leading to the emergence of numerous theses and theories that explain media’s influence. These theories began with the notion of strong and direct influence, suggesting that media has a powerful ability to shape public opinions and attitudes. Over time, these theories shifted to include limited and moderate influence, which posits that the power of media is constrained by various factors, such as psychological, social, and cultural elements of the audience. These theories have also evolved to incorporate concepts like inferential guidance and implicit influence. The impact of media has intensified with the global transition to the digital age, where digital media and social networks have become fundamental in people’s daily lives.
The unique characteristics of digital media in its various forms make it more impactful on individuals, groups, and diverse entities. The effects touch upon crucial aspects such as social relationships, knowledge, mental health, identity, values, customs, traditions, politics, and international relations, alongside ethical and legal challenges that necessitate careful examination of this subject. In this context, reading the book by scholar William James Potter titled “Effects of Digital Media” is timely and relevant.
The book addresses the importance of studying the effects of digital media on individuals and societies and determining whether its effects are different from those of previously studied analog media. It contains twelve chapters, ranging from explaining the current environment of digital media and comparing it to traditional media to defining the concept of “media effects,” culminating in the core subject of “effects of digital media.” Additionally, the book includes a glossary of terms and a bibliography, as well as an introduction to the book and a brief biography of the author. William James Potter relies on a vast array of in-depth studies on the effects of digital media, demonstrating that mass media continuously and cumulatively influences thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors, and how people interact with one another.
The significance of this qualitative knowledge production is heightened by the author’s diverse academic and research experience. Potter’s expertise bridges technology and the humanities, with a deep understanding of how technology works and how to influence audiences, thanks to his academic role in media and communication studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is recognized as a leading scholar in the field of media effects studies, having authored or co-authored dozens of books and articles on this topic, including media effects on individuals and communities, media and violence, media and health/mental health, media literacy, and new media. He is among the first researchers who began studying the impact of media violence on mental health and human behavior, leading and participating in numerous research projects in this area during the 1990s and beyond. Among his most notable contributions is his research titled “A Look at Policies to Protect Children from Television Violence” and “Media Violence and Children: A Full Guide for Parents and Professionals.”
Currently, Potter is editing an encyclopedia on “Media Violence,” which will be the first of its kind in the literature on media effects, and he is also working on developing a general media theory that integrates theories and research findings related to media production and its effects on audiences, aiming to establish a unified and comprehensive framework for better understanding and analyzing the roles and impacts of media in societies.
In this paper, the researcher attempts to provide a critical reading of William James Potter’s propositions and compare them with other theses to explore the various possible effects of digital media on societies.
1. Media Environment: Digital Determinism and Impact Determinism
The author explains the evolution of media from traditional “analog” mediums to digital media by defining and comparing them, highlighting the similarities and differences that provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the evolution of media and its influence on people’s lives. In this context, he discusses the essential differences between the characteristics of analog media and digital media concerning publishing decisions (agenda setting). Analog media is characterized by limited interaction with the audience due to reliance on centralized and defined communication channels, leading to fixed and uniform messages. In contrast, digital media allows for easy transitions between channels, offering more flexible and personalized interactions for users, hence a greater impact on them. As the use of digital devices increases among content creators and audiences, the influence of these media on people’s lives has broadened and deepened on cognitive and behavioral levels.
Statistics indicate that the number of internet users globally reached 4.4 billion, a figure expected to rise further with the deeper integration of the internet into people’s lives through what is known as the “Internet of Things”—a term referring to the connection of the internet with digital devices, cars, household appliances, stores, etc. This steadily increases reliance on the internet, with predictions that “things” connected to the internet have reached 25 billion.
Consequently, the influence of media is automatically increasing in individuals’ daily lives. Potter believes that the impact exerted by digital media on its audience occurs without clear awareness from consumers, attributing this phenomenon to individuals’ daily habits that provide media with an opportunity for continuous influence through what he terms “self-programming of behavioral patterns.” He indicates that digital media continuously intertwines with thoughts and feelings; some of these effects can be easily recognized and understood, whereas more significant influences occur in subtle and unconscious ways, forming patterns and spontaneous behaviors.
Media continuously programs and reprograms thought patterns and behaviors automatically, exemplified by food delivery apps that use digital marketing techniques to guide advertisements and promotions towards users. User data is collected and utilized to identify offers that may be of interest to them and motivate them to purchase. According to a 2018 study, 56% of users reported that they purchased food through delivery apps due to ads directed at them.
Potter’s arguments align with Nicholas Carr’s thesis in his book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” which elaborates on the effects of using the internet and digital media, affirming that their usage considerably impacts brain development and the capacity for deep thinking and concentration. Carr provides evidence that the internet and digital media affect mental and emotional health, leading to reduced focus and diminished capacity for deep thinking and creativity.
Academician Sherry Turkle, a professor of social studies of science and technology at MIT and a prominent author discussing the social and psychological impacts of digital media, addresses in her book “Alone Together” the influence of digital technology and social media on humanity and human relationships. She argues that digital technology negatively impacts people’s ability to communicate and socially interact in the real world, promoting isolation and distance from others. The book offers a comprehensive examination of the extent of influence that social media and digital technology can exert on social life and human relationships, providing numerous examples of how digital technology is utilized in daily life and its effects on people. Turkle’s thesis centers on the idea that individuals may find themselves “alone together,” meaning they are together in virtual space yet simultaneously isolated from one another in the real world.
Several notable theses underscore these points, expanding on the impacts of digital media, such as Dana Boyd’s book, which focuses on the social and cultural repercussions of digital media, and the thesis by Jean Marie Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, which addressed the psychological and social effects of digital media on children and adolescents online. Her book on the issues facing children with hyper-connectivity is among the most significant contributions in this field, outlining the consequences of extensive use of technology and digital media. Twenge concludes that the new generation, which she terms “iGen,” experiences lower levels of happiness and an increase in mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, attributing this partially to time spent on social media and digital interactions at the expense of real-world social interactions. Moreover, the researcher found that this generation struggles to cope with adulthood and achieve independence due to long hours spent online and engaged with technology rather than developing life and social skills, in addition to various other cognitive and behavioral impacts that she elaborated on and analyzed.
All this brings us back to the title of this section concerning the “inevitability” of unavoidable change; this inevitability encompasses:
- First: Digital determinism, which is integral to the vast digital transformation occurring across almost all fields, including the necessity of digital transformation in media; digital transformation has become a tangible reality that individuals experience in every detail of their lives.
- Second: Impact determinism, which asserts that digital technology, the internet, and social media possess an unavoidable capacity to induce necessary transformations in human life in multifaceted and interconnected ways across various dimensions, including communication and social relationships, mental health, access to knowledge and information, economy and labor market, politics, and international relations, etc.
This idea closely relates to Marshall McLuhan’s philosophy, which posited that media inevitably impacts individuals and societies, with culture and technology interacting with each other in a mutually interwoven manner. McLuhan famously stated that “the medium is the message,” meaning that the medium of communication influences the conveyed meaning more than the content itself.
2. News, Advertising, and Entertainment in the Digital Environment
William James Potter explains the transformations in the concepts of news, advertising, and entertainment in three separate chapters of his book. He reviews the most significant historical developments in the evolution of news, advertising, and entertainment and how the digital media environment has fundamentally and radically impacted these areas. What stands out is not just the evolution of content in media messages but its profound effect on audiences. This paper seeks to explore these developments and their diverse impacts.
First: News in the Digital Age
Massive transformations have occurred in the way news is produced, categorized, and consumed. Digital characteristics have added exceptional features; digital media is distinguished by instant, localized news and shorter formats, alongside offering multimedia capabilities, enabling individuals to access news quickly without having to wait for a news broadcast or the following day’s paper.
Ultimately, news institutions operate as commercial entities subject to the principles of a “market society” based on open competition among these institutions’ owners to attract various audience segments, leading to a pursuit of profit. Consequently, some institutions have begun to produce entertainment-related, event-driven, and light news rather than delivering official and serious journalistic content.
It is important to note that this shift in the digital media environment has transformed the concept of truth and credibility in news. While many highly credible news platforms exist, it is also possible for anyone to create a site or account on social media and disseminate misleading or incorrect content.
Second: Digital Advertising
The digital revolution has brought radical changes in advertisers’ thinking, the design of advertising campaigns, and the new persuasive tools offered by digital media. Potter explains the tools that digital advertising employs to identify and persuade target audiences to purchase products, including online search, electronic personalization, influencers, recommendations, and others. The author agrees with many propositions emphasizing the power and effectiveness of commercial advertising through digital platforms, which can be said to have fundamentally transformed the face of commercial advertising.
However, what the author did not clearly address is the role of technology companies, particularly social media platforms, relying on algorithms and artificial intelligence in digital marketing processes, especially in ad recommendations. While the use of these algorithms can effectively reach target audiences and increase advertising success, this raises concerns regarding privacy. Such issues have ethical implications and pose critically important questions that must be answered to ensure user data safety without violating laws.
Other researchers have addressed this issue, as seen in Shoshana Zuboff’s book “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” which discusses the use of personal data by social media platforms and the implications for privacy and democracy. These concerns were heightened following the infamous “Cambridge Analytica” scandal, which revealed the use of user data on social networks like Facebook to craft targeted political ads that influenced the 2016 U.S. elections.
Third: Exposure to Entertaining Content in Digital Media
Academician Potter argues that exposure to entertaining content represents a pattern similar to the influence stemming from exposure to entertaining content in analog media, positing that digital media has not fundamentally changed storytelling but rather offers users and producers greater flexibility. Digital media provides broader options for users in terms of variety in content and the ability to choose suitable viewing times, in addition to offering classifications and detailed information about each piece of content, aiding users in making their selections. Meanwhile, producers have increased flexibility in presenting their narratives without needing to meet specific quality standards imposed by traditional media.
Potter illustrates how companies like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu have utilized digital media to offer new and diverse entertainment experiences for users in the content creation sector, with significant potential allowing for easy sharing of videos and music among users.
Potter’s study concludes that there is no definitive evidence showing that the effects of exposure to entertainment in digital media differ from those resulting from exposure to entertainment in traditional media. The differences seem to lie in the effects of the entertainment content itself, not in the nature of the medium presenting this content. The uncertainty surrounding these findings is attributed to a lack of academic studies on the effects of digital entertainment media, as it is a relatively new subject.
However, this conclusion appears inconsistent with many theses that have explored the impacts of digital entertainment media, such as Sidneyeve Matrix’s thesis on the influence of Netflix on teenagers, noting that part of the impact relates to how the digital medium is used and its characteristics, like quick access to content and ease of selecting it.
Thus, Potter’s conclusions may change in the future as more researchers investigate how the power of entertainment messages can enhance or diminish their effects on ways of thinking, behaviors, and beliefs. This direction requires further academic research and future studies to comprehend how consumers interact with entertaining content on digital platforms and the resulting effects across diverse levels.
On the other hand, Potter overlooked the impact of globalization in the entertainment industry, a cross-border influence that reaches cultures with unique social, cultural, and religious identities, leading to increased interest in foreign films and TV shows and the growing global influence of productions in non-English languages. This shift is part of the globalization of media content and its induced effects, yet Potter did not address it in his book. Meanwhile, the impact of digital entertainment media remains an inescapable reality, as established by a number of recent studies.
3. The Impact of Social Media Networks and Living in the Virtual World
Academician Potter discusses the major issues stemming from the influence of social media networks, such as the effects of social media on individual behaviors, cyberbullying and its negative consequences, addiction to social media usage, unrealistic social relationships based on social platforms, the impact of social media on individuals’ romantic relationships, exposure to falsehoods on social media, and the influence of social media on political behaviors among individuals, among others. Potter presents diverse evidence of social media’s impacts in these mentioned areas; however, he does not delve into critical studies regarding the effects of social media on the mental health of its users.
While the author addresses significant issues such as addiction and cyberbullying, there are essential topics that cannot be overlooked in this context. Notably, two recent studies are worth mentioning: the first titled “Social Media and Mental Health,” which reviews the impact of social media use on mental health, concluding that excessive use of social media can lead to psychological disorders like depression, anxiety, and loneliness. The second study, titled “The Link Between Social Media Use and Depression Among Young People in the United States,” examines the relationship between social media usage and depression among young Americans, indicating that excessive use can elevate the risk of depression in this demographic. This study utilized a random sample of 2,037 young people in the U.S., measuring their social media usage and depression levels through a questionnaire. The findings highlighted that excessive social media usage increases the risk of depression among youth, emphasizing the importance of studying the effects of social media on the mental health of young people, one of the crucial issues associated with digital media effects.
This leads us to Potter’s discussion of what are known as “virtual worlds” and their impact. Virtual worlds are digital environments operating on internet-connected servers, allowing users to immerse themselves in alternative experiences beyond what they can or wish to experience in their real lives. These worlds provide what is termed “persistent environments,” meaning they exist in stable forms even when the person is not present in them. However, virtual worlds are not fixed; visitors can influence events within them and even “build lives.” The author reviews various models of virtual worlds ranging from games to educational and social platforms, such as “Second Life,” a virtual social platform launched in 2003 that allows users to create avatars and interact with others to build their own environments, as well as platforms like “FarmVille” and “The Sims,” among others not included in the book, such as “Minecraft” and “VRChat.”
The author outlines a series of subheadings regarding the effects of virtual worlds, concluding that the experience of being in a virtual world is very different from experiencing analog media, though these digital experiences sometimes lead to effects already documented with analog media (such as behavioral conditioning, belief formation, and meaning-making).
Conclusion
There is no doubt that academic William James Potter has presented a distinctive and significant thesis on the effects of digital media across multiple aspects, including the impact of digital transformation itself, the evolution of news, advertising, and entertainment industries, social media effects, and the consequent social, cultural, and political ramifications, supported by documented scientific evidence. The author approached this topic from his unique perspective, offering various theses to interpret and understand the different effects of digital media using a broad array of tools and concepts that aid in interpreting the issue of media effects, providing vivid examples and case studies to underscore and emphasize this. While some of these tools were strong and compelling, others relied on limited information or incomplete explanations. Therefore, this book, with its various theses, raises more questions than it provides answers. This may not solely pertain to the author, who has diligently produced this remarkable work, but also relates to the context of the rapid development of digital media, a pace so swift that no one can predict where it might lead or how its forms and tools might evolve in the coming years.
Potter addressed future challenges and issues related to digital media, but it cannot be concluded that the challenges and issues he discussed represent decisive conclusions, as a researcher may arrive at a certain thesis that can quickly change due to unexpected developments within media tools and formats, such as the emergence of new platforms and applications taking over the digital landscape, just as TikTok has done, or through new artificial intelligence applications.
Many questions remain regarding fundamental challenges in the effects of digital media, including but not limited to information manipulation and fake news, the potential for such issues to create social and political divides, addressing discrimination and bias in digital media, ensuring balanced representation of all voices and opinions, addiction to digital media and its psychological and social impacts, ethical and legal aspects, continuous technological developments associated with artificial intelligence and virtual reality, cybersecurity, guiding youth and children, and the digital divide ensuring access to the internet and technology for all social and economic groups.
The evolution of digital media necessitates continuous exploration and study of such challenges and others to ensure adaptation to this evolution and to improve the general understanding of the effects of digital media on individuals, communities, and various entities.
Book Information
Title: Effects of Digital Media
Author: William James Potter
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Publication Date: 2021
Language: English
Edition: First
Pages: 252