Social Media and the Public Interest by Philip M. Napoli

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST by Philip M. Napoli is an important contribution and essential reference to the ongoing debate about the role and regulation of social media platforms. Praised by dana boyd and others, this work focuses on how social media platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and WhatsApp) have “unexpectedly become key platforms for how journalism (and disinformation posing as journalism) is produced, disseminated, and consumed.”  Napoli explores their “gatekeeping” roles, noting, for example, “that Facebook went from accounting for 16 percent of referrals to online news sites in 2013 to more than 40 percent in 2017” although he also later questions whether we have seen the peak. Napoli provides historical context, too, in that he contrasts the “unprecedented level of regulatory oversight” for radio broadcasting technology (e.g., federal licensing, indecency rules, and public affairs programming requirements) with less dramatic changes for other technologies like cable and the “pinballing … between the imposition and elimination of net neutrality regulations.” This work is written by an academic and while therefore somewhat wordy and jargon-laden, it should be viewed by more than policy wonks and be of concern to all. Napoli is writing “about a problem related to the effective functioning of the democratic process, …the very nature of the problem undermines the means for developing and adopting solutions.” Napoli is a Duke University Professor and thorough researcher; roughly a third of SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST contains extensive source notes and additional commentary.