Digital media and the banalization of deception

Theories of deception in digital media often rest on the assumption that deception occurs when something in the process of communication does not work as it should – due to an intention to lie, or to faults and mistakes in the communication process. Such perspectives, however, do not fully account for the more subtle practices by which deception becomes normalized in the very functioning of digital media. This article advances the concept of ‘banal deception’ to describe deceptive mechanisms and practices that are incorporated in the functioning of media technologies, to the point that they appear indistinguishable from the media themselves – in other words, to the point of becoming ‘banal’. Through a range of examples encompassing digital and non-digital media, the article illuminates nuanced mechanisms of deception that are often not understood as such but are integral to people’s experiences with media. Banal deception mechanisms applied to media even before digitalization processes, but they are becoming increasingly relevant and ubiquitous due to the automation of communication processes sparked by platform algorithms and AI.