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One concrete evidence of human beings as born magical thinkers1 is the religious creation of the Genesis Flood.The sudden torrents of water destroyed everything and the sea level divided the earth—making it a “flat” planet to live on.
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Alcock, E. James, 2018. Chapter 16, The God Engine.
! In the ancient people’s mind, our planet is flat— a wisdom of unspoken human aspirations for being far-reaching, boundless, equal and impacted like the ocean. So to speak, this is not only our starting point, but it has increasingly become the truthful reality of today’s world: we are all connected by the screens of smart devices.
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Sadly, the opposite is also true. “At the beginning of the week, the world’s leading scientific experts collectively reinforced what we know about climate change and how close we are to catastrophe—Sea Level Rise, if no immediate action taken”.( Source: Instagram@cirstinamittermeier)
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According to Technology, Information and Public Policy, “ We believe we are living today through such a period: deep structural adjustments (DSAs) are currently occurring rapidly in response to major changes in multiple enabling technologies” ( Lipsey and Bekar: 1995).Propelled by smart and AI technologies, we are undergoing a paradigm shift from “materialistic ” to “ virtual”—being “flat” both on the screen and within the structure.
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! 2Technology, Information
and Public Policy, 1995.
Under such technological waves, the world’s media/print press industry has become one that is being transformed most: 1) evolving from a set of interpretive packages ( that give meaning to an issue in hours or days) to millions of sets of self-defined interpretive packages that frame an issue within seconds and; 2) evolving from the monopoly of several nation-wide media corporations ( for example, six corporations controlled 90% of the media resources in America) to a fragmented reporting structure featured by billions of individual “reporters" all over the world. That is, we are by all means closer to the truths. The rapid dismantling of the mainstream media’s role in forming collective opinions and/or a public debate is reflected in its declining power in re-shaping public discourse. Unlike social media, the mainstream media depend on agency— generated contents and lack the overwhelming power to re-collect the perspectives and opinions of billions of individual viewers— especially the grassroots. In the context of “FLAT”, such a slow and inflexible reporting structure has largely weakened “ its considerable power in society”— which is normally based on the media’s impact on the public’s attitudes and opinions and the meaning policy makers and other targeted groups or individuals give to public policy issues as a result of the media (Hutson & Liddiard, 1994; Lee et al., 1991). Challenged by the social media’s news reporting structure (free-cost, independent, direct, comprehensive, instant, and 7/24) , public opinions are no longer formed around the traditional bases.
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! ! ! ! ! ! ! Hutson, Susan, & Liddiard, Mark. (1994). Youth homelessness: The construction of a social issue. London: Macmillan.
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S.T. response to the 2018 Facebook crisis ( Apr.9, 2018).
See the antithesis contrast. “On these platforms, we are empowered to interact with strangers, generate creative information for sharing, download apps, purchase and sell products and services—performing almost all of the routine duties the way we live in real communities. Thus, the use of social platforms not only improves the individuals’ sense of connectedness in real and online communities but facilitates communications between businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals. Far more than that, many people’s lives—especially those of the grassroots— are completely transformed on the social media.” By virtue of “ being flat” , the social media like Facebook and Twitter are considered to be the most important forces reshaping the future’s public discourse.
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Lacking the viewers’ attention and participation in forming public opinions is the biggest challenge facing the traditional media. It is worth questioning: Why do people rely on a very limited range of personal views toward a specific issue when they can freely express themselves and influence others ?
The rapid process of “ De-agency through
thriving social media has made the mainstream media’s news reports (such as a poll) less and less accurate.
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B cause the proxy the traditional media seek to build between people and the government often acts like a lawyer —withholding knowledge or truth for the money/power purpose—despite the fact they cannot surrender the truth to a powerful one nor billions of individual viewers. The limitations of the traditional media in doing news report has only deepened the agency’s dependency on the person/ corporation/political party who is willing to fund them. For example, “Journalists question Liberal government's $600M media bailout plan” ( Tom Parry, May 23 2019) Distortion is inevitable when the flow of information has to be gone through a third party, say a corrupt agent or a heavily-funded one by the government or a large corporation. He/she who processes, analyzes, and interprets messages on behalf of no one but the funder. The situation becomes worse and worse when the disillusioned viewers lack the collective power to morally and legally charge these dishonest agents and their fake news (or even fraudulent schemes). As was in the cases of Art For Virtue vs. Montreal Qi Tian Communications Inc.( also known as Sept Days 七天 传媒 or La Connexion ) in Canada. The public cannot STOP this CCP-funded media from publishing deceptive commercials nor help the vulnerable victims who are publicly defamed by the media . “ The people’s enemy” is thus formed. A vicious circle is thus formed.
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! ! ! ! ! ! ! All in all, “ learning what is in use elsewhere and adapt it to one’s use is a slow and costly process that typically requires innovation in its own right.” Compounded with inertia from the various parts of the old structure,
we are suffering some degree of mismatch between the existing structure and expanded techniques— particularly in the news production process. onsequently, the discrepancy of a poll result or reporting a fact between the traditional media and social media only reveals the former’s constant struggle with surviving on the news market when challenged by the later’s thriving —or, put it bluntly, the two are engaged with a trenched economic war over ads-selling.
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achieve a good match and curb the media’s cutthroat competition, I hereby recommend, first, redesign the polling system to adapt to the virtual context, and second, initiate a legislative change to facilitate new modes of public communication, ensuring that the global citizens can be redirected to public consultations of a global cause in both virtual and real communities more equally and effectively than ever.
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Authoring a Paradigm Shift,”
In “
Jeff Carreira says, “Those of us who are recognizing the limitations of our current paradigm and aspire to play a part in manifesting a new one must find the inner strength and emotional fortitude to face the existential insecurity of not knowing what tomorrow may bring. How terrifying and how exhilarating at the same time.”
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! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 5https://gratefulness.org/blog/the-opportunity-before-us,
downloaded on Oct.11, 2018.
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With the passing of the mainstream media’s golden age, the US-Trump government’s success in mobilizing public communications via social media represents a new standard of openness &
t
ransparency in state governance.
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It isIt It is also a manifestation that a push for the nationwide use of smart devices and AI technologies is aiming at a virtual trend— through which the mainstream media’s power is largely privatized and dispersed.
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“We cannot write the story of a new paradigm, but the new paradigm can write its own story through us if we let it. Once we enter into the non-conceptual space of raw possibility it is not our job to create. It is our sacred work to allow creation to happen through us.”
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