Digital Platforms as Rhetorical Performance
Digital Platforms like YouTube strategically present themselves as egalitarian spaces conveying a message of openness, neutrality and empowerment. However, digital platforms obscure their role as active rhetorical mediums. Through the illusion of openness, these platforms can conceal systems of control which undermine intellectual autonomy and shared humanity and critical thinking. Through a deeper analysis, these platforms do not function as a neutral space for content but as a performance of rhetoric that shapes public discourse through partnerships with advertisers, commodification, demonetization and content moderation. Digital platforms, like YouTube, do not simply host videos. It curates, recommends, removes and monetizes through algorithmic systems. In turn, these platforms shape the message and the means in which users engage.
Digital Platform Undermine Critical Engagement
Gillespie reveals how algorithmic filtering and moderation serve the interests of advertisers and corporate partners. Digital platforms present a stage for open dialogue while subtly scripting who speaks, how and for how long. Platforms, like YouTube, influence what users can access and how they engage with knowledge, thus serving as a rhetorical filter. The consequence is a diminished capacity for nuance, reflection (remember pondering??) and meaningful engagement. Digital platforms influence content by prioritizing certain types of content, which Nicholas Carr argues can erode critical thinking and deep analysis. Marshall McLuhan agrees that this poses a question of how we think and what we value based on the technologies and content we use to create and access information.
Labor and Control Disguised as Empowerment
Digital platforms frame participation as empowerment, but a deeper look reveals that these platforms extract data, attention and labor in return for visibility and access. YouTube creators are encouraged to share content but only if it aligns with advertiser guidelines and content favorability. Carr and McLuhan would both agree that due to this contingency expression becomes performative, suitable only for attention rather than reflecting. Online expression becomes less about the contribution of critical thought thus introducing a new form of commodification. Digital platforms operate at the midpoint of creator participation and corporate infrastructure which is phrased by Tarleton Gillespie as a ‘discursive resting point’. Platforms such as YouTube work strategically to find the balance between risk, monetization and visibility. Which begs the question: Where do digital platform loyalties lie?
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