IPM Indore 2025 Question Paper

Meta is recalibrating content on itssocial media platforms as the politicaltide has turned in Washington, withMark Zuckerberg announcing last weekthat his company plans to fire its USfact-checkers. Fact-checking evolved inresponse to allegations ofmisinformation and is being watereddown in response to accusations ofcensorship. Social media does not havesolutions to either. Community review -introduced by Elon Musk at X andplanned by Zuckerberg for Facebookand Instagram - is not a significantimprovement over fact-checking.Having Washington lean on foreigngovernments over content moderationdoes not benefit free speech. Yet, that isthe nature of the social media beast,designed to amplify bias.

Information and misinformation continueto jostle on social media at the mercy ofuser discretion. Social media now hasenough control over all other forms ofmedia to broaden its reach. It is the connective tissue for mass consumptionof entertainment, and alternativeplatforms are reworking theirengagement with social media.Technologies are shaping up to drivethis advantage further through syntheticcontent targeted precisely at itsintended audience. Meta's algorithm willnow play up politics because it is theflavour of the season.

The Achilles' Heel of social media isinformed choice which could turnagainst misinformation. Its move awayfrom content moderation is driven bythe need to be more inclusive, yetunfiltered content can push users awayfrom social media towards legacy formsthat have better moderation systems inplace. Lawmakers across the world areunlikely to give social media a free run,even if Donald Trump is working on theircase. Protections have already been putin place across jurisdictions overmisinformation. These may be difficultto dismantle, even if the Republicanspull US-owned social media companiesfurther to the right.

Media consumption is, in essence,evidence-based judgement thatmediums must adapt to. Contentmoderation, not free speech, is theadaptation mechanism. Musk andZuckerberg are not exempt.

According to the French philosopherJean Baudrillard, commodities availablefor consumption are not inherentlynegative things. Baudrillard tried tointerpret consumption in modernsocieties by engaging with the 'cargomyth' prevalent among the indigenousMelanesian people living in the SouthPacific. The Melanesians did not knowwhat aeroplanes were. However, theysaw that these winged entitiesdescended from the air for white peopleand appeared to make them happy.They also noted that aeroplanes neverdescended for the Melanesian people.

The Melanesian natives noted that thewhite people had placed objects similarto the aeroplane on the ground. Theyconcluded that these objects wereattracting the aeroplanes in the air andbringing them to the ground. Through amagical process, the aeroplanes werebringing plenty to the white people andmaking them happy. The Melanesianpeople concluded that they would needto place objects that simulated theaeroplane on the ground and attractthem from the air. Baudrillard believesthat the cargo myth holds an importantanalogy for the ways in whichconsumers engage with objects ofconsumption.

According to Baudrillard, the modernconsumer "sets in place a whole arrayof sham objects, of characteristic signsof happiness, and then waits forhappiness to alight". For instance,modern consumers believe that they willget happiness if they buy the latestavailable version of a mobile phone orautomobile. However, consumptiondoes not usually lead to happiness.While consumers should ideally beblaming their heightened expectationsfor their lack of happiness, they blame the commodity instead.

They feel that they should have waitedfor the next version of a mobile phoneor automobile before buying the onethey did. The version they bought issomehow inferior and therefore cannotmake them happy. Baudrillard arguesthat consumers have replaced 'real'happiness with 'signs' of happiness.This results in the endless deferment ofthe arrival of total happiness.

In Baudrillard's words, "in everydaypractice, the blessings of consumptionare not experienced as resulting fromwork or from a production process; theyare experienced as a miracle". Modernconsumers view consumption in thesame magical way as the Melanesianpeople viewed the aeroplanes in thecargo myth. Television commercials alsopresent objects of consumption asmiracles. As a result, commoditiesappear to be distanced from the socialprocesses which lead to theirproduction. In effect, objects ofconsumption are divorced from thereality which produces them.

For the following questions answer them individually