Information Casades and the Perception of Women in Media
Suppose you’re scrolling on TikTok and you saw a video about the Adam Levine cheating scandal. You go and talk to your friends about it and you all express disgust about the mistress and how she’s a homewrecker. The next day you see a video talking about how Adam Levine should be held accountable and you go back to your friends and this sentiment is expressed, how it’s sexist that Adam Levine isn’t being held accountable. Then the day after that, you see videos stating how it’s not sexist to hold a woman accountable and the same conversation happens with your friends and they’re saying that it’s sexist that we’re infantilizing women and not holding them accountable.
While these are valid arguments, none of these are their own. This is a phenomenon that we see often in the media specifically in regards to women in media and the constant sway of public perception.
This is a clear example of information cascades as it originates from someone with significant social influence and forces people to make a decision- do they agree with this opinion or not. While this decision is influenced by facts and information they knew prior, due to the information cascade, the opinion gets echoed more and more. Then a new opinion or new information gets introduced to create a new opinion to once again go through the echo chamber.
One of the clearest examples of this shift is Britney Spears. For years she was ridiculed and insulted for her public mental breakdown. The same opinion and jokes were circulated over and over. Then when information was revealed about her conservatory and how she was treated, the pendulum immediately shifted and was much more empathetic to her situation.
Ultimately, the way our social networks are set up are made to be echo chambers of the same opinions and women in the public eye suffer from these information cascades
https://en.vogue.me/culture/amber-heard-johnny-depp-reactions-change-meaning-insights/amp/