Assessing the Social Value of Social Media: A Dialogue with Dr. Daniel Broudy

Bio: Daniel Broudy is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Okinawa Christian University. His interdisciplinary research involves analysis of the major narratives, organizations, institutions, methods, and actors deployed by power centers to coerce and agitate emotions, shape perceptions, and engineer consent to the policies, plans and procedures that camouflage various forms of modern warfare. He is co-editor of “The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness” ([2018](https://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/e/10.16997/book27/)) and co-author of “Okinawa Under Occupation: McDonaldization and Resistance to Neoliberal Propaganda” ([2017](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-10-5598-0)). He is co-editor of Propaganda in Focus.

Abstract: If traditional media make use of the mainstream channels of communication to broadcast the only acceptable perspectives and forms of knowledge, to what extent can social media serve the same purposes in limiting awareness, bounding public debate, shaping opinion, and influencing behavior? Do social media serve benevolent ends in creating a cohesive and informed society or, instead, reproduce the status quo whereby the owners of the world deploy algorithms and other forms of censorship to manage and guide populations. This interview explores these and related questions to present a fuller picture of the purpose of social media. Professor Daniel Broudy discusses his research and efforts to build in students a habit of critical self-reflection on their consumption of media.