Critical Media Literacy in the Age of Surveillance AI

Abstract McLuhan’s dictum “the medium is the message” holds that the form of media (rather than its content) shapes how we acquire knowledge and understand the world. Although media platforms have been instrumental in promoting civic discourse, such platforms are often rife with fear and intolerance. Feelings of moral outrage prolong our time spent online. Silicon Valley corporations, via AI recommender systems, shape our conscious and unconscious ideologies and prejudices through psychometric behavioral targeting, with a view to promoting new content within broader spheres of influence. Critical media literacy equips readers to recognize propaganda, a form of behavioral conditioning, with a view to “reading” media as potential pretexts for societal control. A McLuhanian counterstance examines the origins or provenance of the media, how it is produced and circulated, who controls it, whom it serves, how it shapes human social relationships, and, ultimately, how it may be unmasked and subverted.