Civic Distance: Digital Culture’s Intrusion on Trust, Engagement, and Belonging (original) (raw)

Abstract

In 2021, the term infodemic was coined to describe the state of misinformation about health and science that has the potential to undermine public health initiatives and endanger lives. The current infodemic, this essay argues, emerges in a digital culture that exacerbates three phenomena: distributed propaganda, the hollowing of local media ecosystems, and rampant media cynicism. This chapter uses these phenomena to introduce the concept of “civic distance.” Civic distance here reflects the increasing space between our media lives and the human interactions necessary for meaningful engagement in civic life. The comparison to the automobile is made to reinforce the impacts of “distance” on our interactions with others.

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School of Communication, Emerson College, Boston, MA, USA
Paul Mihailidis
Emerson Engagement Lab, Boston, MA, USA
Paul Mihailidis
Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, Washington, DC, USA
Paul Mihailidis

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Paul Mihailidis
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Correspondence toPaul Mihailidis .

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Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, UK
Karen Fowler-Watt
Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, UK
Julian McDougall

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Mihailidis, P. (2023). Civic Distance: Digital Culture’s Intrusion on Trust, Engagement, and Belonging. In: Fowler-Watt, K., McDougall, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Media Misinformation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11976-7\_1

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11976-7\_1
Published: 13 December 2022
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-11975-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-11976-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)