The emergence of the network
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Social inequality is a constant issue. We are all both in different classes and received different education. Before the era of the network, we are settled in our own lives, it is not easy to know the living conditions of all kinds of people in the world. The internet has brought us closer together. Since the Second World War, high-efficiency and high-speed messaging have been required, Inventions such as the telegraph laid the foundation for the advent of the Internet. With the development of computers and communications, media technology has penetrated all areas of our social life and is changing the mode of people’s work, study and lifestyle. However, the discourse of inequality in the network is embodied in the aspects of gender, race, and social class.
Gender inequality in media technology
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In neoliberal societies, everyone advocates that the interests of the individual take precedence and that the legitimacy of owning private property should be given priority. The role of women in perinatal is rationalized to give feeding, breastfeeding, and child care responsibilities, although National Health Service offers maternal well-being includes the period between before and after childbirth and mothers will seeking support and suggestions about mental health online, these digitally-mediated interpersonal relationships often embedded in maternal subjectivities that mother blame and guilt be rationalized and normalized, in certain economic, the political and cultural background cannot be separated from the discourse of maternal subjectivity which idealized motherhood who need to feeding, breastfeeding, and childcare without complaints. Mother-blame and Mother-shame regulate the identity and responsibilities of “good” mothers, a gendered narrative of sacrifice. (Popiel, 2018). It distorts the identity of motherhood, give more burden on women who in perinatal.
Racial inequality in media technology
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The article the power of Algorithms asserts the internet and users’ mutual shape and influence. The internet has many misrepresentations interwove into our everyday life and culture. From 2009 to 2015, search engines entries have strong gender and racial discrimination, black girls often are regarded as sexual objects and stigmatize with pornography. (Noble, 2018) Since the 1970s, television has been almost pervasive, women appear in advertisements, and films are formed under the “male gaze”, feminine culture and image that is separate from the male perspective are dangerous and “deviant”. Females are often objectified, need to dress up beautifully, and satisfied the public’s aesthetic.（Krijnen, 2015）. The search results and commercial interests are tightly linked, the search reflects public belief and value, while search engines organize and encode search results also according to popular preferences. The ideology of hegemony in search engines has been formed over a long history, racial and gender discrimination is embedded in the business interests and long-period cultural history. (Noble, 2018)
Social class inequality in media technology
Turner(2021) put forward countercultural protest movements in the 1960s that offers a new possibility to challenge the alienating and bureaucratic machine of the Cold War. The computer is a symbol and sign of individual liberation and personal freedom, trying to break free from bureaucratic oppression and control. They form the foundation of Silicon Valley media technology culture. However, the New Communalist in the 1960s was out of touch with the working class and did not lay a solid foundation for network culture, leading to increasingly serious class divisions. In the 1960s, communes tended to be dominated by white, male, and middle or up-class, bureaucracy is almost their natural perspective, as a result, there were many hidden dangers to later public bias. (Turner, 2021). The book From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) is intended to reveal a shared economic mindset, of collaboration and innovation, however, its counter to bureaucratic ideology. These contradictions persist, polarizing the elite and Uber drivers, and making working conditions and conditions worse for the lower classes.
Conclusion
The advent of the Internet has brought convenience to our lives, accelerated the development of our economy, politics, and other aspects. However, Media data open to the public have been used by commercial interests. Terry(2019) advances that after the late 2010s, the network presented a hypothetical scene, although we use the network to spread and exchange information, expand knowledge, and the face of false advertising information-driven by economic benefits also make fake news more and more. It’s not just false information, but interests are driven by the growing gender, racial and class inequalities in media technology, the increasing use of the Internet as a substitute for libraries, and the ease with which Internet messages are taken as real facts, thereby exacerbating inequality. When we go online, we should be clear about the conditions and sources of information formation on the Internet, which platforms are more authentic, how each message is formed, understand the process, and identify it.
Reference
Popiel, Pawel (2018) ‘The Tech Lobby: Tracing the Contours of New Media Elite Lobbying Power’. Communication, Culture & Critique 11(4), pp. 566-585.
Noble, Safiya U. (2018) A society, searching. In Algorithms of Oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. New York: New York University. pp. 15-63.
Terry Flew (2019), ‘Guarding the Gatekeepers: Trust, Truth, and Digital Platforms’, Griffith Review 64, pp. 94-103.
Lusoli, Alberto, and Turner, Fred (2021), ‘“It’s an Ongoing Bromance”: Counterculture and Cyberculture in Silicon Valley—An Interview with Fred Turner. Journal of Management Inquiry 30(2), pp. 235-242.
Krijnen, T., & Van Bauwel, S. (2015). Who Is Represented . In Krijnen, T., & Van Bauwel, S. Gender and media: representing, producing, consuming (pp. 19–37). London: Routledge.