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The Problem With Kevin Roose’s Essay on YouTube Radicalization
Favorable framing takes precedence over moral responsibility.
In all manners familiar to news media, the world got first exposed to the woes of online radicalization through a blockbuster story courtesy of the New York Times by resident technology columnist, Kevin Roose. The story was thorough in its examination of what happened when one young man, Caleb Cain, got sucked into an algorithmic hellscape of extremist content on YouTube, and how that nearly turned him into the very thing he used to fear back when his liberal fabric was still untainted. Extremist right-wing pundits had undoubtedly tapped into quite a vulnerable part of young white men’s disillusionment with the way that society had cast out their grievances and deemed them secondary concern, but even with that generous framing in mind, Caleb Cain, couldn’t help himself but be yet another pawn in the media’s machine whose often method of procedure, is not to consider a story worthy of pursuing until it befits a compelling narrative of a collective awakening, as opposed to shedding a light on it when it’s most effective.
The story had all the makings of a hit. It was helmed by a reputable media organization, and it comprised a much bigger narrative than its narrow confines-the culture-bending investigation into…
