Il "popolo del web", fra apocalittici e integrati, determinismo e antideterminismo tecnologico

Since Umberto Eco’s 1964 "Apocalittici e integrati" book, the distinction between “apocalittici” and “integrati” has generally been used in mass communication studies to define, on the one hand, all negative intellectual attitudes towards the new media and, on the other, any tendency to accept them too enthusiastically and uncritically. The paper refers Eco’s distinction to the contemporary digital world, and shows how the two attitudes conceal the same kind of technological determinism. At the same time, it shows how the opposition dating back to 1964 can still be useful, today, to contrast the tendency of many Italian mainstream media to treat any social phenomenon related to the Internet and the digital media in apocalyptic and demonising terms.