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Confronting Cyber Risk: An Embedded Endurance Strategy for Cybersecurity
by Gregory J. Falco Eric RosenbachAn adaptive cyber risk management guide from MIT scientist and Johns Hopkins professor Gregory Falco and "Cyber Czar" Eric Rosenbach Cyberattacks continue to grow in number, intensity, and sophistication. While attackers persistently adapt, business leaders have suffered from employing the same cyber risk management strategies for decades. Organizations must learn how to move past temporary solutions and invest in long-term resiliency measures to thrive in the future cyber economy. Confronting Cyber Risk: An Embedded Endurance Strategy for Cybersecurity is a practical leadership guidebook outlining a new strategy for improving organizational cybersecurity and mitigating cyber risk. Veteran cybersecurity experts Falco and Rosenbach introduce the Embedded Endurance strategy as a systems-level approach to cyber risk management which addresses interdependent components of organizational risk and prepares organizations for the inevitability of cyber threats over the long-term. Using real world examples from SolarWinds to the Colonial Pipeline attack, the authors extend beyond hardware and software to provide a thoughtful ten-step process for organizations to address the simultaneous operational, reputational, and litigation risks common to cyberattacks. They conclude with helpful "cryptograms" from the future, in which business leaders are confronted with the next generation of cyber risk challenges. Clear and informative, Confronting Cyber Risk provides CEOs and cyber newcomers alike with concrete guidance on how to implement a cutting-edge strategy to mitigate an organization's overall risk to malicious cyberattacks in an evolving cyber risk landscape.
Confronting Cyber Risk: An Embedded Endurance Strategy for Cybersecurity
by Eric Rosenbach Gregory J. FalcoAn adaptive cyber risk management guide from MIT scientist and Johns Hopkins professor Gregory Falco and "Cyber Czar" Eric Rosenbach Cyberattacks continue to grow in number, intensity, and sophistication. While attackers persistently adapt, business leaders have suffered from employing the same cyber risk management strategies for decades. Organizations must learn how to move past temporary solutions and invest in long-term resiliency measures to thrive in the future cyber economy. Confronting Cyber Risk: An Embedded Endurance Strategy for Cybersecurity is a practical leadership guidebook outlining a new strategy for improving organizational cybersecurity and mitigating cyber risk. Veteran cybersecurity experts Falco and Rosenbach introduce the Embedded Endurance strategy as a systems-level approach to cyber risk management which addresses interdependent components of organizational risk and prepares organizations for the inevitability of cyber threats over the long-term. Using real world examples from SolarWinds to the Colonial Pipeline attack, the authors extend beyond hardware and software to provide a thoughtful ten-step process for organizations to address the simultaneous operational, reputational, and litigation risks common to cyberattacks. They conclude with helpful "cryptograms" from the future, in which business leaders are confronted with the next generation of cyber risk challenges. Clear and informative, Confronting Cyber Risk provides CEOs and cyber newcomers alike with concrete guidance on how to implement a cutting-edge strategy to mitigate an organization's overall risk to malicious cyberattacks in an evolving cyber risk landscape.
Recoding the Boys' Club: The Experiences and Future of Women in Political Technology
by Daniel Kreiss Kirsten Adams Jenni Ciesielski Haley Fernandez Kate Frauenfelder Brinley Lowe Gabrielle MicchiaThe #MeToo movement has catalyzed an international discussion about the routine challenges women face in their professional lives as a result of male-dominated industries and office cultures. These include well-documented cases of sexual harassment and assault, but also unequal opportunities, unequal pay, sexist stereotypes, and a devaluation of women's labor. While these are problems women face in all industries and at all levels, the political and technology sectors are particularly rife with them. Recoding the Boys' Club is a ground-breaking deep-dive into the work experiences of women in the political technology field in the United States. Political technology sits at the intersection of two fields dominated by men--politics and technology--and has become a cornerstone of operations in political campaigns and political institutions more generally. Drawing on a unique dataset of 1004 staffers working in political technology on presidential campaigns from 2004-2016, analysis of hiring patterns during the 2020 presidential primary cycle, and interviews with 45 women who worked on 12 different presidential campaigns, this book reveals the underrepresentation of women in political technology, especially leadership positions, as well as the struggle women face to have their voices heard within the "boys' clubs" and "bro cultures" of political technology. It chronicles the gendered expectations women face to provide emotional labor, stereotypes about women's competencies that shape their opportunities, the ways in which women's ideas are discredited, and the formal and informal forms of exclusion in campaign culture--leading to widespread feelings of "imposter syndrome" among women in this environment. These issues are often compounded by a mentality that the well-being of staffers must come secondary to the goals of the campaign, despite what campaigns might profess publically about gender and labor. Since these campaigns are important entry and training points for the wider field of political technology, the gendered inequities encountered within them have implications for women's professional experiences and careers long after campaigns have ended. This book aims to help political practitioners create more gender equitable and inclusive workplaces, ones that value the ideas and skills of all those who work to get candidates elected.
RECODING THE BOYS' CLUB OSDP C: The Experiences and Future of Women in Political Technology
by Kirsten Adams Daniel Kreiss Jenni Ciesielski Haley Fernandez Kate Frauenfelder Brinley Lowe Gabrielle MicchiaThe #MeToo movement has catalyzed an international discussion about the routine challenges women face in their professional lives as a result of male-dominated industries and office cultures. These include well-documented cases of sexual harassment and assault, but also unequal opportunities, unequal pay, sexist stereotypes, and a devaluation of women's labor. While these are problems women face in all industries and at all levels, the political and technology sectors are particularly rife with them. Recoding the Boys' Club is a ground-breaking deep-dive into the work experiences of women in the political technology field in the United States. Political technology sits at the intersection of two fields dominated by men--politics and technology--and has become a cornerstone of operations in political campaigns and political institutions more generally. Drawing on a unique dataset of 1004 staffers working in political technology on presidential campaigns from 2004-2016, analysis of hiring patterns during the 2020 presidential primary cycle, and interviews with 45 women who worked on 12 different presidential campaigns, this book reveals the underrepresentation of women in political technology, especially leadership positions, as well as the struggle women face to have their voices heard within the "boys' clubs" and "bro cultures" of political technology. It chronicles the gendered expectations women face to provide emotional labor, stereotypes about women's competencies that shape their opportunities, the ways in which women's ideas are discredited, and the formal and informal forms of exclusion in campaign culture--leading to widespread feelings of "imposter syndrome" among women in this environment. These issues are often compounded by a mentality that the well-being of staffers must come secondary to the goals of the campaign, despite what campaigns might profess publically about gender and labor. Since these campaigns are important entry and training points for the wider field of political technology, the gendered inequities encountered within them have implications for women's professional experiences and careers long after campaigns have ended. This book aims to help political practitioners create more gender equitable and inclusive workplaces, ones that value the ideas and skills of all those who work to get candidates elected.
Journalism Research That Matters (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
It is now well-established that the long-time economic model on which the news industry has relied is no longer sustainable. Facebook, Google, and declining levels of popular trust in the media have been major contributors to this situation. Simultaneously, the closure of local media outlets across the country has left many areas without access to regional news, compounded the distance between media and publics, and further eroded civic engagement. Despite the looming crisis in journalism, a research-practice gap plagues the news industry. This book argues that an underappreciated factor in the news crisis is a potentially symbiotic relationship between journalism studies and the industry that it researches. As this book contends, scholars must think about their work in a public context, and journalists, too, need to listen to media scholars and take the research that they do seriously. Including contributions from journalists and academics, Journalism Research That Matters offers journalists a guide on what they need to know and journalism scholars a call to action for what kind of research they can do to best help the news industry reckon with disruption. The book looks at new research developments surrounding audience behavior, social networks, and journalism business models; the challenges that scholars face in making their research available to the public and to journalists; the financial survival of quality news and information; and blind spots in the way that researchers and journalists do their work, especially around race, diversity, and inequality. A final section includes contributions from journalists about how researchers can better engage on the ground with newsrooms and media professionals.
Journalism Research That Matters (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
by Valérie Bélair-Gagnon and Nikki UsherIt is now well-established that the long-time economic model on which the news industry has relied is no longer sustainable. Facebook, Google, and declining levels of popular trust in the media have been major contributors to this situation. Simultaneously, the closure of local media outlets across the country has left many areas without access to regional news, compounded the distance between media and publics, and further eroded civic engagement. Despite the looming crisis in journalism, a research-practice gap plagues the news industry. This book argues that an underappreciated factor in the news crisis is a potentially symbiotic relationship between journalism studies and the industry that it researches. As this book contends, scholars must think about their work in a public context, and journalists, too, need to listen to media scholars and take the research that they do seriously. Including contributions from journalists and academics, Journalism Research That Matters offers journalists a guide on what they need to know and journalism scholars a call to action for what kind of research they can do to best help the news industry reckon with disruption. The book looks at new research developments surrounding audience behavior, social networks, and journalism business models; the challenges that scholars face in making their research available to the public and to journalists; the financial survival of quality news and information; and blind spots in the way that researchers and journalists do their work, especially around race, diversity, and inequality. A final section includes contributions from journalists about how researchers can better engage on the ground with newsrooms and media professionals.
Networked Collective Actions: The Making of an Impeachment (Oxford Studies in Digital Politics)
by Hyunjin SeoThe summer of 2016 saw one of the most significant citizen protests in the history of democratic South Korea, eventually culminating in the impeachment and conviction of then President Park Geun-hye for corruption. Concerns about the president's behavior were raised in a polarized media environment with low public trust, where extreme right-wing media outlets amplified conspiracy theories and false claims in opposition to impeachment. How then was it possible for pro-impeachment protests seeking major social change to succeed? And why did pro-Park protesters and government efforts to defend Park ultimately fail? Based on interviews with key players in the impeachment movement and original analyses of news reports and social media posts, Networked Collective Actions untangles the intricate interactions among different actors that were supported and sometimes constrained by the technological, socio-political, and legal environments in which they occurred. Moreover, Hyunjin Seo develops a theoretical framework for understanding collective actions in dynamic information ecosysems and analyzes how information consumption patterns might prompt someone to either immediately reject a certain piece of information or to reconsider and adopt that same information. Seo provides a nuanced examination of the role of journalism in a democracy where non-traditional intermediaries (e.g., social media influencers and bots) have emerged as important producers and filters of information, and in light of declining trust in news media.
Networked Collective Actions: The Making of an Impeachment (Oxford Studies in Digital Politics)
by Hyunjin SeoThe summer of 2016 saw one of the most significant citizen protests in the history of democratic South Korea, eventually culminating in the impeachment and conviction of then President Park Geun-hye for corruption. Concerns about the president's behavior were raised in a polarized media environment with low public trust, where extreme right-wing media outlets amplified conspiracy theories and false claims in opposition to impeachment. How then was it possible for pro-impeachment protests seeking major social change to succeed? And why did pro-Park protesters and government efforts to defend Park ultimately fail? Based on interviews with key players in the impeachment movement and original analyses of news reports and social media posts, Networked Collective Actions untangles the intricate interactions among different actors that were supported and sometimes constrained by the technological, socio-political, and legal environments in which they occurred. Moreover, Hyunjin Seo develops a theoretical framework for understanding collective actions in dynamic information ecosysems and analyzes how information consumption patterns might prompt someone to either immediately reject a certain piece of information or to reconsider and adopt that same information. Seo provides a nuanced examination of the role of journalism in a democracy where non-traditional intermediaries (e.g., social media influencers and bots) have emerged as important producers and filters of information, and in light of declining trust in news media.
The Power of Narrative: Climate Skepticism and the Deconstruction of Science
by Raul P. Lejano Shondel J. NeroThere is an ideological war of words waging in America, one that speaks to a new fundamentalism rising not just within the American public, but across other ideologically-torn nations around the globe as well. At its heart is climate skepticism, an ideological watershed that has become a core belief for millions of people despite a large scientific consensus supporting the science of anthropogenic climate change. While many scholars have examined the role of lobbyists and conservative think tanks in fueling the climate skepticism movement, there has not yet been a systematic analysis of why the narrative itself has resonated so powerfully with the public. Pulling from science and technology studies, narrative and discourse theory, and public policy, The Power of Narrative examines the strength of climate skepticism as a story, offering a thoughtful analysis and comparison of anti-climate science narratives over time and across geographic boundaries. This book provides fresh insight into the rhetorical and semantic properties on both sides of the climate change debate that preclude dialogue around climate science, and proposes a means for moving beyond ideological entrenchment through language mediation, further ethnographic study, and research-informed teaching. The Power of Narrative culminates in the revelation of a parallel between narratives about climate skepticism and those in other issue areas (e.g., gun rights, immigration, health crises), exposing a genetic meta-narrative of public distrust and isolation. Ultimately, The Power of Narrative is not a book about climate change in itself: it is, instead, a book about how our society understands and interacts with science, how a social narrative becomes ideology, and how we can move beyond personal and political dogma to arrive at a sense of collective rapprochement.
The Power of Narrative: Climate Skepticism and the Deconstruction of Science
by Shondel J. Nero Raul P. LejanoThere is an ideological war of words waging in America, one that speaks to a new fundamentalism rising not just within the American public, but across other ideologically-torn nations around the globe as well. At its heart is climate skepticism, an ideological watershed that has become a core belief for millions of people despite a large scientific consensus supporting the science of anthropogenic climate change. While many scholars have examined the role of lobbyists and conservative think tanks in fueling the climate skepticism movement, there has not yet been a systematic analysis of why the narrative itself has resonated so powerfully with the public. Pulling from science and technology studies, narrative and discourse theory, and public policy, The Power of Narrative examines the strength of climate skepticism as a story, offering a thoughtful analysis and comparison of anti-climate science narratives over time and across geographic boundaries. This book provides fresh insight into the rhetorical and semantic properties on both sides of the climate change debate that preclude dialogue around climate science, and proposes a means for moving beyond ideological entrenchment through language mediation, further ethnographic study, and research-informed teaching. The Power of Narrative culminates in the revelation of a parallel between narratives about climate skepticism and those in other issue areas (e.g., gun rights, immigration, health crises), exposing a genetic meta-narrative of public distrust and isolation. Ultimately, The Power of Narrative is not a book about climate change in itself: it is, instead, a book about how our society understands and interacts with science, how a social narrative becomes ideology, and how we can move beyond personal and political dogma to arrive at a sense of collective rapprochement.
Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
by Jacob L. NelsonMany believe the solution to ongoing crises in the news industry--including profound financial instability and public distrust--is for journalists to improve their relationship with their audiences. This raises important questions: How do journalists conceptualize their audiences in the first place? What is the connection between what journalists think about their audiences and what they do to reach them? Perhaps most importantly, how aligned are these "imagined" audiences with the real ones? Imagined Audiences draws on ethnographic case studies of three news organizations to reveal how journalists' assumptions about their audiences shape their approaches to their audiences. Jacob L. Nelson examines the role that audiences have traditionally played in journalism, how that role has changed, and what those changes mean for both the profession and the public. He concludes by drawing on audience studies research to compare journalism's "imagined" audiences with actual observations of news audience behavior. The result is a comprehensive study of both news production and reception at a moment when the relationship between the two has grown more important than ever before.
IMAGINED AUDIENCES C: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
by Jacob L. NelsonMany believe the solution to ongoing crises in the news industry--including profound financial instability and public distrust--is for journalists to improve their relationship with their audiences. This raises important questions: How do journalists conceptualize their audiences in the first place? What is the connection between what journalists think about their audiences and what they do to reach them? Perhaps most importantly, how aligned are these "imagined" audiences with the real ones? Imagined Audiences draws on ethnographic case studies of three news organizations to reveal how journalists' assumptions about their audiences shape their approaches to their audiences. Jacob L. Nelson examines the role that audiences have traditionally played in journalism, how that role has changed, and what those changes mean for both the profession and the public. He concludes by drawing on audience studies research to compare journalism's "imagined" audiences with actual observations of news audience behavior. The result is a comprehensive study of both news production and reception at a moment when the relationship between the two has grown more important than ever before.
Essential Communication
by Ronald B. Adler George Rodman Athena du PréAn essential part of effective communication involves listening to and learning from one another in a world that's quickly changing. The third edition of Essential Communication excels in its coverage of diversity, social media, and career success. This edition builds upon the engaging design and practical advice that have made the first editions of Essential Communication so popular. It stands out for its commitment to active learning with real-life examples, self-quizzes, reflection opportunities, and communication checklists to help students think critically about the material and put what they learn to good use.
News After Trump: Journalism's Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
by Matt Carlson Sue Robinson Seth C. LewisDonald Trump might have been the loudest and most powerful voice maligning the integrity of news media in a generation, but his unrelenting attacks draw from a stew of resentment, wariness, cynicism, and even hatred toward the press that has been simmering for years. At one time, journalism's centrality in reporting and interpreting important events was relatively unquestioned when a limited number of channels and voices produced a consensus-based news environment. The collapse of this environment has sparked a moment of reckoning within and outside journalism, particularly as professional news outlets struggle to remain solvent. Alternative voices compete for attention with and criticize the work and motivations of journalists, even as a growing number of journalists question their core norms and practices. News After Trump considers these struggles over journalism to be about the very relevance of journalism as an institutional form of knowledge production. At the heart of this questioning is a struggle to define what truthful accounts look like and who ought to create them or determine them in a rapidly changing media culture. Through an extensive accounting of Trump's relationship with the press, and drawing on in-depth interviews with journalists and textual analysis of news events, editorials, social media, and trade-press discussions, the book rethinks the relevance of journalism by recognizing the limits of objectivity and the way in which journalism positions certain actors as authority figures while rendering the less socially powerful invisible or flawed. This ethos of detachment has staved off vital questions about how journalism connects to its audiences, how it creates enduring value in people's lives (or not), and how diversity needs to be understood jointly at the level of production, reporting, and audience in order to rebuild trust.
News After Trump: Journalism's Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
by Matt Carlson Sue Robinson Seth C. LewisDonald Trump might have been the loudest and most powerful voice maligning the integrity of news media in a generation, but his unrelenting attacks draw from a stew of resentment, wariness, cynicism, and even hatred toward the press that has been simmering for years. At one time, journalism's centrality in reporting and interpreting important events was relatively unquestioned when a limited number of channels and voices produced a consensus-based news environment. The collapse of this environment has sparked a moment of reckoning within and outside journalism, particularly as professional news outlets struggle to remain solvent. Alternative voices compete for attention with and criticize the work and motivations of journalists, even as a growing number of journalists question their core norms and practices. News After Trump considers these struggles over journalism to be about the very relevance of journalism as an institutional form of knowledge production. At the heart of this questioning is a struggle to define what truthful accounts look like and who ought to create them or determine them in a rapidly changing media culture. Through an extensive accounting of Trump's relationship with the press, and drawing on in-depth interviews with journalists and textual analysis of news events, editorials, social media, and trade-press discussions, the book rethinks the relevance of journalism by recognizing the limits of objectivity and the way in which journalism positions certain actors as authority figures while rendering the less socially powerful invisible or flawed. This ethos of detachment has staved off vital questions about how journalism connects to its audiences, how it creates enduring value in people's lives (or not), and how diversity needs to be understood jointly at the level of production, reporting, and audience in order to rebuild trust.
A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism: Lessons From the Front Lines
A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism brings together award-winning journalists from around the world to share fascinating tales of science and how it works and to provide guidance into reporting specialties like infectious disease, climate change, astronomy, public health, physics, and statistics. From practical advice on finding sources and distilling complex research subjects for a general audience, to tips on how to cover science in authoritarian regimes, the book serves as an essential survey of the best in science reporting today--and a testament to the importance of independent journalistic inquiry in understanding research and building trust with audiences. Drawing insights from writers based at publications including The New York Times, the BBC, The Washington Post, Science, The New Yorker, National Geographic and more, this guide is designed to help journalists everywhere improve their craft and serve as a valuable resource for those seeking to understand the profession at its best.
A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism: Lessons From the Front Lines
by Ashley Smart And Tom Zeller Deborah Blum Jr.A Tactical Guide to Science Journalism brings together award-winning journalists from around the world to share fascinating tales of science and how it works and to provide guidance into reporting specialties like infectious disease, climate change, astronomy, public health, physics, and statistics. From practical advice on finding sources and distilling complex research subjects for a general audience, to tips on how to cover science in authoritarian regimes, the book serves as an essential survey of the best in science reporting today--and a testament to the importance of independent journalistic inquiry in understanding research and building trust with audiences. Drawing insights from writers based at publications including The New York Times, the BBC, The Washington Post, Science, The New Yorker, National Geographic and more, this guide is designed to help journalists everywhere improve their craft and serve as a valuable resource for those seeking to understand the profession at its best.
Democracy Lives in Darkness: How and Why People Keep Their Politics a Secret (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
by Emily Van DuynRepublicans and Democrats increasingly distrust, avoid, and wish harm upon those from the opposing party. They also increasingly reside among like-minded individuals and belong to social groups that share their political beliefs. While these factors can make it difficult to express a dissenting political opinion, digital and social media have given people new spaces for political discourse and community, and more control over who knows--and does not know--their political beliefs. In Democracy Lives in Darkness, Emily Van Duyn looks at how these changes in the political and media landscape affect democracy. Van Duyn discovers and follows a secret political organization of progressive women in a conservative community in rural Texas. Its members, a mixture of real estate agents, school teachers, business owners, and retired grandmothers, met in secret to protect themselves from social, economic, and even physical retaliation by their conservative neighbors, friends, and family. They discussed immigrant rights, women's reproductive rights, racism, and intolerance of those of different racial/ethnic and cultural backgrounds in their community. Democracy Lives in Darkness is about this group: their daily lives, their choices, and ultimately, their incubation. But it is also about what led them to meet in secret--the political prejudice and hostility that marginalizes and makes people afraid, and the growing political, social, and geographic cleavages that now make even mainstream dissent dangerous. Importantly, Van Duyn asks why mainstream partisans feel the need to hide their political beliefs from others, why they feel afraid of those from the opposite party, how they stay politically engaged in secret, and how this can transform them and their communities. The book challenges those who study democratic life to look beyond public political behavior and those who study big data and machine learning to consider the unique and meaningful qualities of studying the individual in context. Van Duyn challenges the assumption that the United States is a liberal democracy where ideas can be expressed freely and publicly. Rather, she suggests that democracy in the United States may exist in darkness, but, more optimistically, that it uses this darkness to move forward.
Democracy Lives in Darkness: How and Why People Keep Their Politics a Secret (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound)
by Emily Van DuynRepublicans and Democrats increasingly distrust, avoid, and wish harm upon those from the opposing party. They also increasingly reside among like-minded individuals and belong to social groups that share their political beliefs. While these factors can make it difficult to express a dissenting political opinion, digital and social media have given people new spaces for political discourse and community, and more control over who knows--and does not know--their political beliefs. In Democracy Lives in Darkness, Emily Van Duyn looks at how these changes in the political and media landscape affect democracy. Van Duyn discovers and follows a secret political organization of progressive women in a conservative community in rural Texas. Its members, a mixture of real estate agents, school teachers, business owners, and retired grandmothers, met in secret to protect themselves from social, economic, and even physical retaliation by their conservative neighbors, friends, and family. They discussed immigrant rights, women's reproductive rights, racism, and intolerance of those of different racial/ethnic and cultural backgrounds in their community. Democracy Lives in Darkness is about this group: their daily lives, their choices, and ultimately, their incubation. But it is also about what led them to meet in secret--the political prejudice and hostility that marginalizes and makes people afraid, and the growing political, social, and geographic cleavages that now make even mainstream dissent dangerous. Importantly, Van Duyn asks why mainstream partisans feel the need to hide their political beliefs from others, why they feel afraid of those from the opposite party, how they stay politically engaged in secret, and how this can transform them and their communities. The book challenges those who study democratic life to look beyond public political behavior and those who study big data and machine learning to consider the unique and meaningful qualities of studying the individual in context. Van Duyn challenges the assumption that the United States is a liberal democracy where ideas can be expressed freely and publicly. Rather, she suggests that democracy in the United States may exist in darkness, but, more optimistically, that it uses this darkness to move forward.
Trolling Ourselves to Death: Democracy in the Age of Social Media (Oxford Studies in Digital Politics)
by Jason HannanAlmost forty years ago, Neil Postman argued that television had brought about a fundamental transformation to democracy. By turning entertainment into our supreme ideology, television had recreated public discourse in its image and converted democracy into show business. In Trolling Ourselves to Death, Jason Hannan builds on Postman's classic thesis, arguing that we are now not so much amusing, as trolling ourselves to death. Yet, how do we explain this profound change? What are the primary drivers behind the deterioration of civic culture and the toxification of public discourse? Trolling Ourselves to Death moves beyond the familiar picture of trolling by recasting it in a broader historical light. Contrary to the popular view of the troll as an exclusively anonymous online prankster who hides behind a clever avatar and screen name, Hannan asserts that trolls have emerged from the cave, so to speak, and now walk in the clear light of day. Trolls now include politicians, performers, patriots, and protesters. What was once a mysterious phenomenon limited to the darker corners of the Internet has since gone mainstream, eroding our public culture and changing the rules of democratic politics. Hannan shows how trolling is the logical outcome of a culture of possessive individualism, widespread alienation, mass distrust, and rampant paranoia. Synthesizing media ecology with historical materialism, he explores the disturbing rise of political unreason in the form of mass trolling and sheds light on the proliferation of disinformation, conspiracy theory, "cancel culture," and digital violence. Taking inspiration from Robert Brandom's innovative reading of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Trolling Ourselves to Death makes a case for building "a spirit of trust" to curb the epidemic of mass distrust that feeds the plague of political trolling.
Trolling Ourselves to Death: Democracy in the Age of Social Media (Oxford Studies in Digital Politics)
by Jason HannanAlmost forty years ago, Neil Postman argued that television had brought about a fundamental transformation to democracy. By turning entertainment into our supreme ideology, television had recreated public discourse in its image and converted democracy into show business. In Trolling Ourselves to Death, Jason Hannan builds on Postman's classic thesis, arguing that we are now not so much amusing, as trolling ourselves to death. Yet, how do we explain this profound change? What are the primary drivers behind the deterioration of civic culture and the toxification of public discourse? Trolling Ourselves to Death moves beyond the familiar picture of trolling by recasting it in a broader historical light. Contrary to the popular view of the troll as an exclusively anonymous online prankster who hides behind a clever avatar and screen name, Hannan asserts that trolls have emerged from the cave, so to speak, and now walk in the clear light of day. Trolls now include politicians, performers, patriots, and protesters. What was once a mysterious phenomenon limited to the darker corners of the Internet has since gone mainstream, eroding our public culture and changing the rules of democratic politics. Hannan shows how trolling is the logical outcome of a culture of possessive individualism, widespread alienation, mass distrust, and rampant paranoia. Synthesizing media ecology with historical materialism, he explores the disturbing rise of political unreason in the form of mass trolling and sheds light on the proliferation of disinformation, conspiracy theory, "cancel culture," and digital violence. Taking inspiration from Robert Brandom's innovative reading of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Trolling Ourselves to Death makes a case for building "a spirit of trust" to curb the epidemic of mass distrust that feeds the plague of political trolling.
The Book of Answers: Alignment, Autonomy, and Affiliation in Social Interaction (Foundations of Human Interaction)
by Tanya StiversImagine for a moment the only way to confirm a yes-no question was by saying Yeah. How different would this make our communication? Relying on a large corpus of naturally occurring recordings of spontaneous social interaction, this book explores all of the ways that we confirm questions in our everyday social lives. Tanya Stivers analyzes what these different ways of responding allow us to do that is unique to each answer type. When do we answer with Yeah rather than He is, for instance; or when do we use more complicated forms of confirming? This information provides us with the basic response possibility space. From that point we can examine what the range of responses, in particular answers, tells us about what is important to us in managing social relationships through social interaction. The book explains that we can conceptualize the response possibility space as having three dimensions: alignment, autonomy, and affiliation. Speakers rely on the details of their response to position themselves at a particular point in that three-dimensional space, sometimes accepting trade-offs among the dimensions to achieve a stance that is higher in alignment and autonomy and lower in affiliation or higher in affiliation and autonomy but lower in alignment. The Book of Answers uses real-life conversations to find hidden patterns in how we do things together such as reach decisions, tell stories, or arrive at agreement or disagreement. Delving into the science of how we talk, this book investigates what those patterns tell us about human communication and our social lives.
The Book of Answers: Alignment, Autonomy, and Affiliation in Social Interaction (Foundations of Human Interaction)
by Tanya StiversImagine for a moment the only way to confirm a yes-no question was by saying Yeah. How different would this make our communication? Relying on a large corpus of naturally occurring recordings of spontaneous social interaction, this book explores all of the ways that we confirm questions in our everyday social lives. Tanya Stivers analyzes what these different ways of responding allow us to do that is unique to each answer type. When do we answer with Yeah rather than He is, for instance; or when do we use more complicated forms of confirming? This information provides us with the basic response possibility space. From that point we can examine what the range of responses, in particular answers, tells us about what is important to us in managing social relationships through social interaction. The book explains that we can conceptualize the response possibility space as having three dimensions: alignment, autonomy, and affiliation. Speakers rely on the details of their response to position themselves at a particular point in that three-dimensional space, sometimes accepting trade-offs among the dimensions to achieve a stance that is higher in alignment and autonomy and lower in affiliation or higher in affiliation and autonomy but lower in alignment. The Book of Answers uses real-life conversations to find hidden patterns in how we do things together such as reach decisions, tell stories, or arrive at agreement or disagreement. Delving into the science of how we talk, this book investigates what those patterns tell us about human communication and our social lives.
Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Information Plenty
by Pablo J. BoczkowskiInformation overload is something that humans have dealt with for millennia. During different historical eras, massive increases in what was available to know has motivated the creation of systems for sorting, indexing, and compiling information as well as concerns that the abundance of information might cause cultural anxiety or even drive people to madness. The digital age has renewed concerns about information overload and the detrimental effects it has on our ability to sort through the stream of online data, decide what is most important, or even to train our attention on it long enough to make sense of it. In Abundance, Pablo J. Boczkowski builds upon what we know about the historical and contemporary scholarship to develop a novel framework on the experience of living in a society that has more information available to the public than ever before, focusing on the interpretations, emotions, and practices of dealing with this abundance in everyday life. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and survey research conducted in Argentina, Abundance examines the role of cultural and structural factors that mediate between the availability of information and the actual consequences for individuals, media, politics, and society. Providing the first book-length account of information abundance in the Global South, Boczkowski concludes that the experience of information abundance is tied to an overall unsettling of society, a reconstitution of how we understand and perform our relationships with others, and a twin depreciation of facts and appreciation of fictions.
Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Information Plenty
by Pablo J. BoczkowskiInformation overload is something that humans have dealt with for millennia. During different historical eras, massive increases in what was available to know has motivated the creation of systems for sorting, indexing, and compiling information as well as concerns that the abundance of information might cause cultural anxiety or even drive people to madness. The digital age has renewed concerns about information overload and the detrimental effects it has on our ability to sort through the stream of online data, decide what is most important, or even to train our attention on it long enough to make sense of it. In Abundance, Pablo J. Boczkowski builds upon what we know about the historical and contemporary scholarship to develop a novel framework on the experience of living in a society that has more information available to the public than ever before, focusing on the interpretations, emotions, and practices of dealing with this abundance in everyday life. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and survey research conducted in Argentina, Abundance examines the role of cultural and structural factors that mediate between the availability of information and the actual consequences for individuals, media, politics, and society. Providing the first book-length account of information abundance in the Global South, Boczkowski concludes that the experience of information abundance is tied to an overall unsettling of society, a reconstitution of how we understand and perform our relationships with others, and a twin depreciation of facts and appreciation of fictions.