Authority is a much contested concept often connected to notions of violence and control, and it emanates variably from class, institution, and now—as I argue—from digital
convergence, which is the availability and shareability of information across multiple digital platforms at all times. This dissertation considers how digital convergence is responsible
for taking what would otherwise be a difference of degree (simply more people sharing more information) and turning it into a difference of kind (people turning information sharing into
knowledge making, previously the domain of institutions). Through the tools made available both online and on multiple technological platforms, individual users of the digitally converged
network (though primarily users of the Internet) are building their own auctoritas. In the particular case of journalism, this threat primarily stems from individuals and groups of
individuals sharing information online that both acts as news and critiques the mainstream media (MSM). Institutions are currently facing such a foundational threat through the
platform-wide information availability and shareability of digital convergence and specifically through the topology and design of the network created by it (and which it simultaneously
creates). This threat of digital convergence leads to a situation in which individuals and groups of individuals are empowered to create and maintain auctoritas outside the institutional
structures that Western culture traditionally leans on for authority and knowledge creation. The individual auctoritas uniquely enabled through digital convergence acts as a valid
challenge to the institution's structure, causing it to respond with proto-authorization and other tactics designed to limit individual auctoritas and maintain institution per se. The
Fifth Estate, considered and defined in this dissertation, is a porous border across which the needs of American journalism consumers are met both by journalists and by consumer subjects
moving into the journalism role just-in-time. Porousness of the border between production and consumption of cultural knowledge is a threat to an institution whose job traditionally has
been considered to be cultural knowledge creation. In many ways, this movement across the porous border between news consumer and producer is neither a new concept nor a new practice. The
difference is one of technology and performances. It is through the affordances of a globalized social structure and a global technological connection, as well as ubiquitous access to
multiple platforms, that a Fifth Estate can become influential enough to need defining—that is, influential enough to bring American journalism back to its roots in citizen auctoritas. I
use three sub-case studies to look at ways the Fifth Estate makes use of tools of digital convergence to cross this porous border and challenge the institutional authority of the Fourth
Estate. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / October 26, 2015. / Authority, Digital, Internet, Journalism, Media, Rhetoric / Includes bibliographical references. / Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Professor Directing Dissertation; Davis W. Houck, University Representative; Ned Stuckey-French, Committee Member; Kathleen
Blake Yancey, Committee Member; Michael Neal, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_291353 |
| Contributors | Cassorla, Leah Frieda (authoraut), Fleckenstein, Kristie S. (professor directing dissertation), Houck, Davis W. (university representative), Stuckey-French, Ned (committee member), Yancey, Kathleen Blake, 1950- (committee member), Neal, Michael R. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of English (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (206 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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