Now you could counter this by saying that one thing does not necessarily exclude the other. I think that an article that I come across on Twitter, thanks to many likes and retweets, certainly also acquires a certain relevance. Okay, some people share an article without even having read it… But thanks to Twitter, I also found that article about The Syllabus on De Correspondent, for example. Many clicks to an article can also mean that people find the information relevant. Not necessarily more relevant than other things, but at least relevant enough to be brought to attention. So I continue to believe in the power of networking.
Morozov does expose the weaknesses of the current system. With The Syllabus, he wants to give every author or creator a better chance to reach an audience. And he wants to put content in the spotlight that you probably would never have discovered otherwise.
Scientific publishers
Another interesting thing. If you visit the website of The Syllabus, you can already view a number of whatsapp number list syllabi. You will see that there are many academic articles in it. With titles such as (brace yourself) “ Globalization and the rise of integrated world society: deterritorialization, structural power, and the endogenization of international society ”. If you then click through to such an article, you often end up on websites of academic publishers. You then first have to ask permission (and usually pay) to be able to read the article. Frustrating!
The Syllabus is therefore also a 'guerrilla strategy' to pressure publishers to make the information public. Morozov writes in a response under the article in De Correspondent: “(…) the scientific publishing industry is a sham that needs to be destroyed: so much tax-funded and extremely important research ends up under unreasonably priced paywalls. ” Clearly, he is not a fan. And it is indeed quite strange: scientific articles, often paid for by tax money, are locked up to make a profit. This article in The Guardian explains where the problem lies. Both the journalist from The Guardian and Morozov recommend a platform like Science Hub to find free versions of the papers.
When I read about The Syllabus, I immediately thought of all kinds of ifs and buts. What does quality mean , for example? Should I trust Morozov to make the best selection in those huge mountains of content? The Syllabus is an interesting answer to the way a lot of content is currently unlocked. But on the other hand, you can also see it as old-fashioned content curation , but with fancy technology.