Welcome To Noise Level
An open invitation to explore today's digital media landscape with us.
This is Noise Level, where we embark on a journey to study the modern digital information ecosystem and understand its impact on our lives, relationships, communities, and country. Welcome to our first issue–let’s set the stage.
Imagine sitting in a room filled with strangers, each yelling at you at the top of their lungs. Half of them are yelling things you agree with, but it’s directed at the people who think differently and laced with obscenities. The other half are yelling opinions and “news” that boils your blood. To make matters worse, these people are paid to yell at you, and they get paid more when they successfully provoke fights. Somehow, over time, their shouts become your most trusted source for news, current events, and political commentary. Sounds bad, right?
Now imagine spending two hours in this room every day. How would you feel after a week? A month? A year? What about after 10 years? How would it affect your mood, your political opinions, and your willingness to find common ground with people you disagree with?
This is the reality for most Americans today. The average person spends just under 2.5 hours per day scrolling on social media, and the younger you are, the more likely you are to spend all your free time sitting in that chaotic and stress-inducing room. Social media thrives on conflict, and the multi-billion dollar influencer economy excels at both creating it and monetizing it.
From this new information marketplace comes a constant barrage of conflict-based content, whose exploration is known as “doom scrolling.” While you scroll you’ll come across Russian trolls and bot farms, AI-generated engagement-boosting accounts, and millions of memes that spread from the corners of the internet to the front page of the New York Times and the President’s teleprompter.
This reality highlights the differences between the Fourth Estate – traditional journalism and media outlets like newspapers, television, and radio – and the new Fifth Estate, which includes decentralized online content creators and influencers. These modern opinion leaders bypass traditional gatekeepers, directly influencing public mindsets in a way the old media never could.
Here at Noise Level we will provide you with an analysis of this confusing digital media landscape. We’ll dive into the important metrics – advertisement money, views, clicks, and engagement – to try and paint a clearer picture of how this new non-traditional media ecosystem shapes public discourse. Most importantly, we’ll focus on how this ecosystem exacerbates division and how divisive actors, foreign and domestic, use it to those ends. Each week, we’ll bring you data, insights, and commentary on the evolving role of content creators, influencers, and the fragmented, decentralized media landscape. We’ll explore who the key players are and how they compete for the most valuable commodity: your attention.
Our goal isn’t just to inform but to learn together about how this new media affects our perceptions, mindsets, and relationships, both with our communities and our nation. We’ll explore how it divides us and highlight ways people are pushing back against it. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we intend to find them together.
Welcome to Noise Level.
What’s coming next?
This month, each issue will focus on a foundational element to understanding our modern digital media landscape and the fifth estate. Here’s a preview of topics we’ll be covering:
Understanding The Fifth Estate
A Bird’s Eye View Of The Modern Social Media Landscape
A Look Back At How Digital Media Has Transformed Elections Since 2008
Know someone who might want to follow along?