Bad news plus good crowd makes good engagement. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers” (2020). A teaser on the main page of the New York Times’ website on May 14, 2020 read: Almost 3 million U.S. workers… Read More ›
Clay Shirky
Internet hygiene: browser settings, the Viral Editor and the Filter Bubble
In the collective mind, being weaned off sanctioned information and switching to a collective self-service media is accompanied by withdrawal and culture shock. On a daily basis, people thirstily seek information on the Internet – they are led by it,… Read More ›
The post-truth world: how social media destroy the absolutism of the “objective” truth
Monotheistic religion, scientific ethic, and writing alienated truth from personal experience. Social media return truth from priests to people. Nobody likes it. In 2016, Oxford Dictionary declared ‘post-truth’ to be the Word of the Year. The dictionary explains the adjective… Read More ›
Does the internet bring nationalism back?
When media shift from broadcasting to engagement, other countries may have their own Trump and Brexit waiting ahead. Douglas Rushkoff published a great article The New Nationalism Of Brexit And Trump Is A Product Of The Digital Age. “TV… Read More ›
The Wrong Theory. Roughness as a lure, in design and media
In the age of total algorithmization, the roughness of a performance, and even the mistake, becomes the factor of surplus value. It is only wrongness that proves the existence of rightness. Or maybe even more: it is wrongness that proves… Read More ›
3 filters of Internet hygiene: browser settings, the Viral Editor and the Filter Bubble
Is the Internet really just a supplier of rubbish? One of the video presentations of American media thinker Clay Shirky is entitled It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure.[i] The problem is not the volume or quality of information, but… Read More ›
When abundance enables sharing and sharing causes abundance
Here is an excellent slide in the presentation by Gerd Leonhard, a noted futurist, depicting a rabbit surrounded by tons of carrots. The caption states, “Get ready for abundance: distribution (i.e. availability) will no longer be an issue…” Abundance, not… Read More ›
The Revolt of the Public and Media Ecology
Marginal notes on Martin Gurri’s The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium (2014) Most Westerners would be surprised to learn that many Easterners consider Tahrir-type protests to be cunning plots by the West… Read More ›
Lenin and billions of man-hours of free time. From passivity of TV consumption to activity of social media contribution
Television swallowed up millions of man-hours of free time by drawing people into a shared passive addiction. Prior to the age of TV, never before had such a large number of people done the same thing at the same time…. Read More ›
Clay Shirky, devices and the brain’s weathering
Why the Internet guru Clay Shirky eventually banned the Internet in class. (A distorted precis, comments, and notes on the margins of Shirky’s reflection.) New media evangelist Clay Shirky has recently prohibited students’ use of digital devices in his class…. Read More ›
