Manufacturing now

“Funny cat video ... holiday snap ... Gaza ... pic of *awesome* cappuccino ...dead children in Gaza photo”. We increasingly experience current events through the timelines of networked publics. If the age of mass media was about manufacturing consent, the age of social media is about manu- facturing “now.” We need to do a better job at understanding these new mechanisms that shape our knowledge of the world in time. 

Frederike kaltheuner
is a graduate of the Oxford Internet Insti- tute, and is an aspiring internet researcher, writer, and data analyst.