Podcast appearances and mentions of Siva Vaidhyanathan

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to read a book called The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt. The argument made in the book went like this: with the rise of smartphones and other internet-connected devices, there's been a massive uptick in mental illness among Gen Z youth and adolescents. Haidt connects these two, arguing that these don't merely correlate, but share a causal link. I saw a lot of really positive coverage of his book, a lot of really fawning praise for his work, but something about it didn't sit quite right with me. It all fit too neatly.There was a review of the book published in Nature that tore into his findings, which I recommend people check out. I'll link that in the notes here. But for today's newsletter, I'm sharing an audio interview I conducted a couple weeks ago with Siva Vaidhyanathan, the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, and one of Haidt's more vocal critics.In the interest of fairness, I'll also be linking to the original book, some of the more positive praise it received, and some coverage of the controversy it's caused. I hope you enjoy this special audio edition of the newsletter. Full transcript included, obviously.Parker Molloy: All right, so it's so great to talk to you. And so I spent the past week reading Jonathan Haidt's book, The Anxious Generation. And I really wanted to chat with you about it because I know this is a topic on which you've done a lot of study on, and I've seen your social media posts about it. And yeah, so the basic argument that he makes throughout the bookThe book is very repetitive. He repeats his thesis over and over. He makes the argument essentially that the rise of what he calls phone-based childhood, which he refers to as all internet-connected devices, has replaced play-based childhood. And that is primarily to blame for the Gen Z mental health crisis. So I wanted to know what he got wrong here.Siva Vaidhyanathan: Sure, sure, sure. Well, let me start with what he got right. Right. First of all, it's indisputable that young Americans, especially girls and young women, are experiencing higher level of expressed mental distress and emotional distress than we have seen in some time. Right. So that that pretty much tells us that something is happening in this country and probably a few other countries that is creating some combination of suffering we have not seen before and an ability to express and a willingness to express that misery. Right. So, you know, it's a weird thing to look at historically and height doesn't tend to look at things historically, but, you know, life for most people in most of the planet is better than it has been ever in human history.So in the long curve, you know, misery is down, but that shouldn't be a reason to not take seriously the stress, distress and suffering of so many millions of young people. Now, the other thing he gets right is at least in the American context, a steady change in tactics of parenting and the experience of childhood. That's well documented. You don't just need anecdotes to show you this. And it comes in many forms, of course, and it's largely class -informed. So we do see, and we've seen for decades, a sense of parents being both more protective of their children's loose time, right? And this can come from various sources. It can be influenced by the moral panic about drugs or the moral panic about kidnapping or exploitation or any of those things that has been circulating in our media for so many decades, convincing parents that they have to manage children's time precisely.You know, along with the hyper competitive culture that we're seeing among the more privileged classes in the United States where everybody's struggling to get into the same 20 colleges and everybody is trying to sign up for the travel soccer team. You know, all of these things have definitely shifted the practice of parenthood and the experience of childhood. Now, for people who are not privileged,Of course, we've seen the proliferation of demands on parents that take them out of their children's lives, right? So it's not like the free -range latchkey child phenomenon is gone. It's just alive among lower -income families and lower -wealth families, because of course, no one can afford childcare.No one can afford a nanny. No one can afford for one parent to stay home and not work. All of those things that allowed, especially the one parent staying home and not working, which was a luxury long gone in this country, allowed for children to have that space and that security. And so all of these things are long-term changes over four or five decades we've seen. So what happens in the 2000s and what happens to crater mental health among young people? Well, I think it's important to remember that when you're talking about, first of all, as diverse a population as the United States and as complex a question as mental health is thatYou should resist looking for one factor or even trying to isolate variables to find the main factor, the universal factor, the contributing factor. That is what leads us astray. Right. So this is what I think he does wrong. What I think he does wrong is he starts out with a very poor archaic theory of technology. And he starts out with an ahistorical approach to what has changed in American life in recent decades. But he still has this phenomenon that does speak to his thesis, which is that there is a demonstrable drop -off in well -being starting around 2010 or 2011, which is four years after the iPhone is introduced. And just as we start to see younger and younger people get smartphones or get mobile phones at all. And look, every child who has a mobile phone, everybody under 18 who has a mobile phone or has a smartphone has so for a particular reason. There was a conversation, they're expensive, there was a commitment, there were rules set down, there are reasons for it and there are often very good reasons for it. But collectively you do have this change.So he sees a correlation here and it's irresistible to him because of course if he can spark panic about this, then he can create a tremendous amount of attention and then he can be the one stepping forward to try to, you know, prescribe a problem. But this isn't going to help, right? This isn't going to help because the problem is complex.Let's concede that moving one's eyes from the park to the phone is not healthy. I think it would be hard to argue otherwise, right? We experience in our daily lives, it's just so obviously not as healthy as running and playing and playing kickball and softball and street hockey and all of those things, right? So at the same time, let's concede that people do engage with these screens and the apps on them for reasons that are important to them. It's not a default. People have particular uses and needs that they're satisfying by moving to these phones. So again, let's concede it's not great. But that leaves us a huge gap between not great or even bad on balance, and being the chief cause of this high level of distress. When a much more reasonable explanation, and I think a richer explanation, is that a number of factors work synergistically to affect not only an individual's mental health state, but collectively a population's mental health state. It's safe to say that there are people in our country in our communities who are better off because their screens, their phones, the apps on their phones allow them to build community, allow them to find people who have gone through similar experiences to whatever stress or distress they're experiencing, right? People who find mentors, people who find guides. This has been well documented among queer youth for many, many decades, right? Thatthat the ability to reach out beyond your immediate surroundings and find stories and role models and guides and peers could be crucial to surviving some of the most and thriving through some of the most stressful developmental moments that a person can go through. And so for someone in a hostile family or an uncaring or an unreasonable family, or an unreasonable community or church or whatever, these sorts of tools can be crucial. Now, who knows how many young Americans use these tools for that purpose, but we know it's not zero. We know it's significant and we know it's important to them. We also know that children whose families are dissolving or children whose families have lost wealth, houses, jobs, over the cascading economic crises, first the 2008 crisis and its long legacy wiping out American wealth, and then the COVID crisis, right? The sort of two convulsions happening in their lifetimes. How many found solace, community distraction, fun, joy through their screens when nothing else was available?So going back to this question, remember, Haidt has a two-part diagnosis, but he and everyone reading him seems to be only focusing on the second part of the diagnosis. The first part of the diagnosis is that childhood has changed. We've gone from having a sense of free-range immersion in our immediate surroundings, our physical landscape, our communities, other people face to face, and shifted our behavior toward these screens and it has not been healthy, right? So you don't even have to go as far as height to say the problem is the phones. Maybe the problem is everything else in society, right? Maybe the problem is that everything else in society seems scary, unfriendly, unwelcoming, not permitted by certain parents, right? And the only reasonable escape is to go to one screen. Now Dana Boyd did tremendous qualitative research on these very questions about a decade ago before smartphones themselves were the screen of question and when there were plenty of other platforms accessible largely through computers that young people were starting to use.And it was really clear from the deep interviews she did with hundreds of young people around the country that the strategies were worth paying attention to. That what the young people were saying is, yeah, there are things in my life that are suboptimal, that are stressful, that maybe my parents or my older siblings had ways of dealing with that are no longer available to me. There's no place to safely hang out, right? If I hang out in the community, the police are gonna mess with me or the mall security guards are gonna mess with me or the mall's closing down anyway after 2008, right? Pretty much all the malls in the country closed down, right? So all of these spaces, the parks, the malls, they're in disrepair or recession. And so the places where young people can learn to be themselves and be with others and figure themselves out.They're disappearing from real space. So again, Dana Boyd documented all of this and that is a widespread analysis, right? It's not just one device. It's not just one technology. In fact, what we learn from that work and Dana Boyd was not the only one. There were a number of other people doing this sort of qualitative research on young people at this time of great change when social media was really booming even before people got phones, right? When the days of MySpace and early Facebook, what we see time and time again is that the problem is us, the problem is society, the problem is adults, and that young people are trying to cope, and they're coping by going toward an occasional endorphin rush, whatever else these devices offer them, everything from community and solidarity, and friendship to pornography and games and paranoia and conspiracies, right? You've got all of these potential temptations that can give one some sort of comfort, community or distraction in a society that is otherwise unfriendly and untrusting of many American young people.So what I would say to John Haidt, if he cared to listen, is your data is too narrowly focused on big sweeping data sets. You're not actually listening to young people to ask them what are they experiencing and what are they deciding to do and why. Because they have autonomy in this. Young people don't have to pick up their phones. They don't have to install you know, Snapchat, that's their choice. They're doing it for a reason. Where are they getting out of it? You know, those are important questions that other researchers have gone through. Height had no interest in talking to the researchers who actually listen to young people about how they're living and why they do what they do.Now, when I said he has a poor theory of technology, he has this idea that the presence of a technology in our lives has one necessary effect, right? That it's the technology that is the driver of social change, not ever considering the idea that the presence of the technology could actually be the response to the problem, not the problem. And so, of course, it correlates, right? And what we've seen in other people's studies, studies he tended to ignore or downplay, is that the young people who tend to suffer the most acute distress, mental illness, self-harm, other things like that, tend to be the ones who gravitate toward the use of phones and apps. And so if that's the case, if there's a correlation there, then it's just as likely, in fact, more likely that, first of all, people who are susceptible to suffering, let's say, self-harm or eating disorders are more likely to be affected by whatever content they're encountering that either encourages or triggers that behavior when they engage with their phones, with Instagram or Snapchat or TikTok or whatever, right? So if there's a causal connection, it's gonna be more acute among those already susceptible to or perhaps suffering from these conditions and just as likely, and this is what we hear when we talk to young people, is that those suffering through that are more likely to seek out community advice, solace, solidarity. And maybe even some answers on how they can change their lives. And so we've seen that in the qualitative work. We've seen it in the quantitative work as the response and that wonderful review in nature that pretty much took down Height's book, you know, makes very clear that that's something showing up in the quantitative work. And I have to say, I've seen it anecdotally. You know, I have an 18 year old daughter who has many friends who have gone through various experiences and, you know, rather all too common conditions. And these are the conversations that those girls have about why they do what they do and how they're coping. And, you know, it's a deeply sensitive and complex thing. And so when I first encountered Haidt's position, I don't even want to call it work, but position, through his Atlantic articles, I was immediately struck by the lack of voices of girls and young women. You know, they're not hard to find. And the scholarship interviewing them is not hard to find. And yet he doesn't seem particularly interested in their actual experience or perspective. He's only interested in launching a tirade.He doesn't seem to be interested in listening. He's only interested in talking, which means he's less of a teacher and more of a preacher. And I think that's basically unhealthy. Look, you know, a lot of us, people in my scholarly community and intersecting scholarly communities have been trying for two decades to get Americans to think in more complex and sophisticated ways about the communication technology in our lives and constantly entering our lives. We want people to understand that these systems are socio-technical.They involve both the actions of autonomous humans and the tendencies of highly designed technologies. And it's in that interaction between what we humans want to do, tend to do, and do to each other and the way these systems are designed, that's where the action is. That's where it's interesting. And so to say it's the technology or it's the humans, is a mistake, it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how technology works in our lives. Technologies, as Marshall McLuhan wrote, are extensions of our capabilities. A bicycle is merely an extension of my legs. It makes me a more efficient user of my legs, but the purpose is the same. Get from point A to point B. It just means I get to do it with less energy expended at a quicker rate.A computer, as Steve Jobs reminded us, is a bicycle of the mind, right? It's something that is designed, at least in its current form, to extend our mental capabilities beyond our rooms and beyond our immediate capacity. So my computer is filled with spreadsheets and lists of things that I can't hold in my memory with any reasonable expectation.But it's also used to render the thoughts I have when I want to put them in word form or video form or audio form. And the computer is an extension of my voice and my fingers in the sense that it can send these expressions to many other people as well. When you understand that, that that's all technologies are, extensions of things we already want to do.Then there's no point in trying to make an argument that it's the phones or it's the people. It's of course in the interaction and the conversation. And to fail to understand that synergistic effect is to get everything wrong and then miss the diagnosis, right? So, Haidt's diagnosis is something close to prohibition. And it reminds me of like, you know, the fact that in the first two decades of the 20th century, there were many people making sincere arguments that alcohol abuse was causing great harm in society, that it was ripping families apart, it was causing violence, it was causing people to lose jobs, and the harms were so widespread and well-documented that we would be remiss not to make alcohol illegal.But in the absence of understanding the motivations for that kind of drug abuse, we of course made the absolute wrong policy decision, one that empowered criminals, one that did nothing to stem the abuse of alcohol. It just made the abuse of alcohol a much more dangerous phenomenon. And that's why Americans undid that decision within a decade. It was clearly documented as a mistake.There wasn't just a mistake of intentions. The intentions of prohibitionists were pretty good, although there was a whole lot of anti-Catholicism attached to it and anti-immigrant sentiment attached to it. So the undercurrents were not so good. But the actual claim like, you know, wouldn't society work better if people were not drinking alcohol all the time? Well, of course. But if you're going to address the problem, let's identify the problem. And the problem was then as now, life sucks.Life was rough and people were escaping into the technology of the moment, you know alcohol or phones or You know Oxycontin or whatever right people escape into it, for good reasons and bad mostly in those cases -- Escapism in the case of phones. There are good functional reasons to do it if you are a parent working two jobs with contingent hours, you're working at a gas station and a Starbucks, and you're a single parent, you better have a smartphone to be able to manage your hourly commitment to both jobs and your transportation and whatever childcare you can hack together. And you better give your child a phone too, so that you can be in constant contact with your child. It's a necessary survival strategy in a society that has no safety net and no decent commitment to making sure that children lead safe and secure lives. So you want to address the problem of alcohol abuse? Maybe you do things to strengthen unions. Maybe you do things to strengthen the social safety net. Maybe you give women more legal autonomy to get out of marriages that are abusive. Maybe you do a dozen other things that we ended up doing in the 20th century to a large degree and at least reducing the overall damage of alcohol abuse in society without outlying alcohol. You can still regulate it in reasonable ways. So you want to address the problems of misery among young Americans? Let's do that. Let's do it seriously, like grownups, looking at all the factors. Let's talk about the fact that it's really hard to be a parent if you don't have health benefits at your job.And, or you, for that matter, you depend on your job for health benefits. You know, like, in the absence of government single payer health, a whole lot of Americans' lives are much worse off, I would say most of our lives are much worse off than they could be. Right? Let's have that conversation. Well, what would that do to lift the overall quality of life in America? And therefore, lift the quality of life of children growing up in households where parents might have to change jobs, might lose their jobs, might have to work two part-time jobs to make it all work, right? Those are really crucial questions that we dodge by saying it is the phones.Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that it really does seem like a cop out when he points to the phones. A lot of his answers to this sound, some of them reasonable, you know: phones shouldn't be out during classes, obviously, you know, I mean, like that's fine. Others like passing the Kids Online Safety Act. That's less fine. That would have wide ranging implications for all of society. That would be very bad.Right, exactly. That's a sledgehammer. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah, no, that's a sledgehammer. And look, even this idea of what the school's phone policy should be, my kid's high school has been wrestling with this for a decade. And during the last four years when my kid was in high school, we had monthly updates from the principal on tweaks to the cell phone policy and the state of the cell phone policy.And my kid's school was slightly different in policy to some of the other public high schools in the area. And each one of them is dealing with pressures from parents, many, many parents, especially lower income parents, demand that their children have their phones with them and have them on at all times. Because that's the only way to cope with the turmoil of daily life for working class parents.Many of the wealthier parents who are much more concerned about test scores and grades and peace and quiet were insisting on prohibition. And that's a vast generalization. Of course there were members of both communities taking the other position too. But my point is there were no simple answers that worked for every child. And the teachers and principals understood that and continue to understand it, which is why every school in America has not completely banned phone use, right? If the answer were that simple and everybody's quality of life would go up, then of course we would. But if you take seriously the testimony about people's real lives, you quickly see that it's not that simple. And there are issues that have to be considered, right? So,And there have to be experiments and every school should have the money and patience and studies to support experimentation and report their results. Maybe having phones in a bag that allows no radio signals in during class is a good policy. That seems like a reasonable thing. And then when class changes go, people can pop out their phone and see if their parents texted them. You know, those seem like reasonable policies. Having a no camera policy in school seems like a reasonable way to deal with privacy violations and surveillance and bullying and other issues that happen to be accelerated by the presence of these technologies, although certainly not caused by because all of those things existed for centuries, right?So that's how you have to look at these problems. And what really bugs me about Haidt is under the veneer of scholarly sober distance, he simplifies everything and fundamentally doesn't seem particularly concerned about the needs of young people in America. Get full access to The Present Age at www.readtpa.com/subscribe

We've reached the fourth Monday of the month and are now in the final lap with the finish line coming at the end of All Hallow's Eve. Shall we celebrate All Hallow's Day? Between now and then there's a lot to get through in as many installments of Charlottesville Community Engagement that I can put together between now and the time of disguise. I? Sean Tubbs. On today's version of this publication:* One person has died following an early morning shooting Sunday on the Downtown Mall * Charlottesville preparing to remove nine trees from the Downtown Mall* Two Charlottesville playgrounds remain closed while repairs continue* Time is running out to submit a poem to JMRL's latest contest* Albemarle County Supervisors finalize legislative priorities * The Center for Politics at UVA takes a look at concerns about the upcoming election Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.First shout-out: Rivanna Conservation Alliance Round-Up wrap-upIn today's first Patreon-fueled shout-out: The Rivanna Conservation Alliance would like to thank everyone who participated in the recent Rivanna River Round-Up! In all, 243 helped remove 173 tires, filled up 148 bags of trash and attended to 27 miles of river and trail. To help cover the costs, the Rivanna Conservation Alliance is selling t-shirts. Want to get involved with ongoing clean-up efforts? On Saturday, October 22, the RCA will hold a stream buffer maintenance day at Crozet Elementary School to check in on how trees planted three years ago are holding up. Visit rivannariver.org to learn more. One killed in early morning shooting SundayOne person has died following a shooting early Sunday morning on the Charlottesville Downtown Mall in which three people were hit with bullets. According to a release, the Charlottesville Police Department responded to the 200 block of West Main Street on the Downtown Mall. “The victims were then transported to UVA medical center for treatment; two of which are currently in stable condition. The third victim succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased later in the morning.”The release goes on to state that the incident does not pose an “immediate threat” and an investigation. A request for a follow-up this morning yielded no results. For more information, some other media coverage:* Charlottesville Mall shooting leaves one dead and two injured, Daily Progress* Police investigate fatal shooting on Downtown Mall, CBS19* CPD: 1 dead, 2 injured in connection with W. Main St. shooting, NBC29Photojournalist Eze Amos was on the Mall at the time. City crews preparing to remove some Downtown Mall treesLater this week, the city's Parks and Recreation Department will hold an information meeting on removing some of the trees on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall. Riann Anthony is the deputy director of the department. “We are very lucky that the Downtown Mall trees have been in existence for this long,” Anthony said. “Some of them are healthy and others are not healthy but per our urban forester is that all of the trees are stressed from a number of factors.”Anthony addresses the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board last Thursday. He said the number one factor are the tree grates that he said are squeezing trees that have outgrown them. He also said heaters for outdoor restaurants also cause stress.“There's a lot of café spaces that also have little lights that they use, nails, to put the lights on and stuff like that nature,” Anthony said. The city has been studying this issue for many year but action has not yet been taken. Anthony said the city is looking to remove hazards that might be in danger of falling. The ones most at risk will be removed over the next few months.“These are trees that are in the worst shape and we are looking out for the best interest of our community and of the folks that work on the mall,” Anthony said. “We do not want to ever see a tree just fall.” Nine trees in all will be removed. The first education session will be on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom. Two in-person meetings will be held next week. (meeting info)Anthony said the city is also seeking a consultant to help come up with a replacement policy for trees on the Downtown Mall. Charlottesville playground installation taking longer than expected The closure of city playgrounds at both Belmont Park and Meade Park will be a little longer than expected. The Parks and Recreation Department is installing new equipment at both locations and work had been expected to be completed this week. However, installation of individual pieces is taking more time. “We are extending the reopening date to tentatively, November 4th, but may open sooner if complete,” reads a press release that went out Friday morning. A Keaton Forest suite of playground structures is being installed at Belmont Park whereas Meade Park will have the first Modern City installation in Virginia. One more day to submit a poem for JMRL contestThe Jefferson Madison Regional Library and WriterHouse have teamed up for a poetry contest that ends tomorrow. If you're over 18 and have one original, unpublished poem you'd like to submit, there's an online form that's taking submissions through tomorrow at 5 p.m.  The theme is transformative change. “For hundreds of years, poets have altered the course of history by speaking out about issues that concern their communities, and this year's theme of transformation echoes that critical legacy of the power of the pen to affect positive change for all of us,” said WriterHouse executive director Sibley Johns. This contest is now in its sixth year. There are prizes for winners. For more information, visit jmrl.org/poetrycontest. Albemarle Supervisors set legislative priorities for 2023 General Assembly There are 79 days until the General Assembly convenes for the 2023 session for the second year with Glenn Youngkin in the Governor's Mansion. Last week, Albemarle Supervisors finalized their list of legislative priorities that they hope to convince legislators to turn into a bill. (2023 Legislative Priorities) (2023 Legislative Positions and Policy Statements)Supervisors last discussed the list in September and extensively discussed a request to expand the number of virtual meetings an appointed body can have. Another of the priorities is to request the ability for counties to decide for themselves if they want to hold a referendum on additional sales tax to generate revenue for school construction projects.“There are currently nine counties and one city in the Commonwealth which enjoy this authority to levy an additional one-percent sales tax which is used exclusively to fund school division capital projects,” said county attorney Steven Rosenberg. Legislation failed to make it out of a House of Delegates subcommittee last year. Another priority is to request a change of the eligibility rules for sites to participate in the Virginia Business Ready Sites program. Currently land in most economic development regions must be of a certain size to quality, and Albemarle wants that to be reduced.“There are not that many properties in the county that satisfy that 100 acre contiguous developable standard,” Rosenberg said.Albemarle wants to cut that in half to 50 acres and Rosenberg said two Go Virginia regions already have that lower threshold. “The economic development office (EDO) has identified sites that would otherwise fulfill the requirement but for their acreage,” Rosenberg said. “I will finally add on this item that there is one site in the county that does satisfy the requirement and it's in North Fork and the EDO is currently working with the University of Virginia Foundation in seeking funds for that site.” There will be one more discussion of the priorities in November if needed. See also: * House subcommittee kills school sales tax bills, February 25, 2022* Albemarle Supervisors to support legislation to allow advisory body meetings to go virtual, September 13, 2021)Second Shout-out is for the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards In today's second subscriber-supported shout-out, an area nonprofit wants you to know about what they offer to help you learn how to preserve, protect, and appreciate! The Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards holds several events throughout the year including a walk in western Albemarle County on the morning of November 12 through a well preserved and highly diverse woodland to see naturally occurring winterberry, spicebush, and dogwood laden with red berries. In abundance will be nuts from forest oaks, hickories, walnuts as well as orchard grown Chinese chestnuts, walnuts, pecans, and American hazelnuts. Registration is limited. There's also still time for an online Zoom tree identification class tomorrow night. Visit charlottesvilleareatreestewards.org for more information. Center for Politics forum explores election security in advance of Election Day Tensions are running high across the country as Election Day approaches and many members of one of the two American political parties continue to insist that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen. The University of Virginia's Center for Politics held a forum last week to discuss the upcoming elections moderated by Christopher Krebs, who served as the United States Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He said much of the threat dates back to Russian efforts to hack the 2016 elections. (wikipedia article)“It had three different components,” Krebs said. “The first was attempts to get into voter registration databases and other systems administering elections. The second was targeting and hacking into political campaigns, the [Democratic National Committee], the Hilary Clinton and the third is this more pernicious, drawn out disinformation campaign that's really rooted in the entirety of Russian information doctrine going back really a century or more.” Krebs said the Russian campaign was intended to destabilize democracy, and not much was done to shore up security systems.“And there were domestic actors that saw the playbook run in 2016 and adapted it to their own measures,” Krebs said.Krebs said he is concerned about continued efforts to falsely claim that President Joe Biden was not elected, as well as continued attacks on election workers. He said death threats are common. “It's part of unfortunately doing business as election workers right now and that is leading to a retreat and exodus from the work force which in turn kind of turns out to be a former of almost voter suppression,” Krebs said.That's because fewer election workers means fewer precincts and longer lines. Krebs said there's also a strategy to radicalize election workers. Barbara Comstock served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in Virginia's former 10th District. The Republican politician is now involved in Issue One and the National Council for Elections Security.  “I am for the first time in my life a single issue voter,” Comstock said. “I've never been a single issue voter. I was a conservative Republican but now my issue is democracy before any other issue. And if you aren't going to respect elections and who wins and who loses, you can't have any other issues before that.” Comstock said she is concerned about candidates who have already declared they will not accept the elections results unless they win. “Those kind of situations are going to repeat themselves around the country,” Comstock said. “We're a 50/50 country. I won my first election by 422 votes.” Comstock said on that night, she knew where the votes were coming in because she was familiar with the polls. She said many with conspiracy theories have never worked an election before. “And these are people who just didn't understand anything about  retail politics,” Comstock said. “They were just people who were preaching to the choir, hung out with everyone who thought the way they did, and had never knocked on a door.”Renée DiResta, research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, has been studying rumors that circulate online about perceived election fraud.“When somebody believes that their ballot has been invalidated because they were given a sharpie marker at the polls and they remember being a kid in school and being told you can't use a sharpie marker on a scantron and they believe that there's a false plot to steal the election from them because that's kind of where the political climate of the country is at this point,” DiResta said. “Those claims tend to go viral and one of the things we look at at Stanford is how those claims go viral and where and in what communities on the internet.”DiResta said the sharpie argument has come back again in Arizona during the 2022 race. She said she's part of something called the Election Integrity Partnership which is a non-partisan coalition to help groups that want to fight disinformation by crowd-sourcing responses by helping to find the right messenger to convey correct information. “That person who is a trusted counter messenger counter speaks to the people in their communities,” DiResta said. “They don't want to hear Stanford Internet Observatory thinks that your sharpie markers is wrong because who the hell are we? We're ivory tower academics. We have no trust and we have no resonance in that community but the local elections theoretically do because they are members of the community.” Siva Vaidhyanathan, the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, said democracies have been under attack from across the world in the past decade. He said a lot of this builds off the stoking of fears of other Americans. “We're now in a situation in this country of all countries where we don't have a romance of  democracy,” Vaidhyanathan said. “We don't have something that moves us to believe deeply in the power of each other, in the shared future that we all have whether we admit or not.”Election Day is now 15 days away. This Wednesday, the two candidates in the Fifth District will meet at Hampden-Sydney College for the first and only campaign forum of the race. Some information here, and more in the next newsletter.You can watch the whole Center for Politics event on YouTube. Other articles for your review:As much as I try, I can't get it all. Here are some recent stories you may be interested in reviewing. * Charlottesville's first climate action plan, Anahita Jafary, NBC29, October 20, 2022* Richmond Fed: Va. gained 8,000 jobs in September, Virginia Business, October 21, 2022* Charlottesville man's lawsuit against University Village tests state condo law, Daily Progress, October 21, 2022* Bob Good visits Albemarle County, CBS19, October 22, 2022 * Public comment period ends Wednesday for proposed transgender policy, WWBT, October 24Concluding notes for the end of #447 Monday will end and Tuesday will begin and I am hopeful that there will be another installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement. There is so much to get through, and I'm grateful for paid subscribers who are helping me attempt to keep the stables clean. Do consider a paid subscription through Substack at either $5 a month, $50 a year or $200 a year.And if you do that, Ting will match your initial payment, making it very likely I'll get to keep doing this for a while. That's my goal, at least. This work is how I exercise my love of democracy, by pointing out the decision points close at hand. I will try to resist saying what I think, because mostly what I think is how I can get this up to a seven-day-a-week publication. There's enough to go round. If you do sign up, Ting will match your initial subscription. And even if you don't sign up for a paid subscription to this newsletter, Ting wants your custom too, and if you sign up through a link in the newsletter you will get free installation, a $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall, and a second month for free. Just enter the promo code COMMUNITY.Did you know this newsletter is also the working script for a podcast? Do sign up in your podcast player, because it's a great way to hear people's voices. There is the occasional music bit from either the Fundamental Grang or Wraki, a chameleon-like blender of sonic stylings. Check them out on Bandcamp.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today's episode is Siva Vaidhyanathan's keynote speech from the Fake Symposium. It was recorded on September 22, 2022.

Cathy O'Neil talks about the increase and profiteering in public shaming. Siva Vaidhyanathan asks whether shame is an effective tool against racism and to promote social justice.

Siva Vaidhyanathan joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about his career as Professor of Modern Media Studies, his podcast Democracy in Danger and his book "Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy".

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 26, 2022 is: specious • SPEE-shuss • adjective Specious means "having deceptive attraction or allure" or "having a false look of truth or genuineness." // The new streamlined design of the phone is specious: it may look new, but its innards are the same, offering no new capabilities or improvements. // The suspect insisted he was telling the truth, but the detective felt his statements were specious. See the entry > Examples: "Just 10 years after the Telecommunication Act of 1996 unleashed mergers under the specious assumption that size and concentration could improve services and spur innovation, large media companies had gobbled up book publishers, television and cable networks, radio stations, and internet ventures." — Siva Vaidhyanathan, Slate, 21 May 2021 Did you know? Specious comes from Latin speciosus, meaning "beautiful" or "plausible," and Middle English speakers used it to mean "visually pleasing." In time, specious had begun to suggest an attractiveness that was superficial or deceptive, and, subsequently, the word's neutral "pleasing" sense faded into obsolescence.

Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic writer and author Twilight of Democracy makes the case for Liz Cheney or Mitch McConnell being the white knights of democracy, Siva Vaidhyanathan, host of the Democracy in Danger podcast, tries to help Molly Jong-Fast figure out why the right thinks other countries' questionable governing style is the golden standard for the U.S., and finally, Frank Vogl, author of The Enablers How the West Supports Kleptocrats and Corruption, leaves us with two big questions: Is Putin hiding his dirty money in art or real estate? And will congress' new kleptocrat caucus stop corruption in its tracks? If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast's membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O'Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes it's just discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you'll support The Beast's fearless journalism. Plus! You'll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We continue our Best of 2021 episodes with an episode from the Democracy in Danger podcast, with hosts Will Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan.Citizenship determines who is in and who is out, who has a voice in a democracy and who doesn't. But for the one million young people who have grown up in the United States undocumented, feeling like they really belong here remains a dream deferred. This time, we hear from two of them living in limbo. Plus, legal scholar Amanda Frost unearths the unsettling stories of Americans who have had their citizenship taken away — because of their politics, their race, even because of whom they choose to marry.As Frost's research shows, the United States has struggled to define citizenship ever since its founding. In the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which upheld and expanded slavery, the U.S. Supreme Court found that no African American could ever be a citizen, setting the stage for a bloody war of secession. Until the mid-20th century, Chinese immigrants — and even their children born in this country — were denied basic constitutional protections. And today, as we hear in the stories of two undocumented students interviewed for this week's show, hundreds of thousands of undocumented young people face demoralizing roadblocks on their pathway to full belonging in the nation they call home.Additional InformationDemocracy in Danger PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

Our guest for this episode is Siva Vaidhyanathan, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia. Siva is a regular columnist for The Guardian as well as the author of Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (Oxford, 2018) and The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry) (University of California Press, 2011), among other books. He focuses on how big tech companies – especially Google and Facebook – are permeating our lives. In this conversation, Siva talks about the creation of Google Books and why he thinks Google was the wrong choice to be a platform that houses the world's online library. He also talks about how authoritarian rulers have used Facebook to win elections and ties this fact into a discussion of the big tech companies' race to become “the operating system of our lives” – and to manage everything from our houses to our minds. Read this episode's transcript here: https://webscience.northwestern.edu/2021/02/04/episode-29-transcript/ See this episode's show notes here: https://webscience.northwestern.edu/2021/11/26/episode-29-show-notes/

Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was rebranding to become Meta, shifting the company's focus away from the single social media platform to some sort of amorphous, “embodied internet” concept. Khabane Lame, TikTok's second biggest star right now, got tapped to do some spon-con for the rebrand, appearing in a video alongside Zuckerberg on Instagram. On today's episode, Rachelle and Madison discuss who Lame's rise to TikTok fame, why Facebook grabbed him for their publicity campaign, and how this might all just be a distraction from some rather unsavory news inside the Facebook Papers. If you would like to learn more about the Facebook Papers, check out: ”The Nationalism of Facebook,” by Siva Vaidhyanathan in Slate The What Next TBD episode, “Will the Facebook Whistleblower Make a Difference?” The What Next episode, “How Long Can Mark Zuckerberg Be King?” Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John. Support ICYMI and listen to the show with zero ads. Sign up to become a Slate Plus member for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was rebranding to become Meta, shifting the company's focus away from the single social media platform to some sort of amorphous, “embodied internet” concept. Khabane Lame, TikTok's second biggest star right now, got tapped to do some spon-con for the rebrand, appearing in a video alongside Zuckerberg on Instagram. On today's episode, Rachelle and Madison discuss who Lame's rise to TikTok fame, why Facebook grabbed him for their publicity campaign, and how this might all just be a distraction from some rather unsavory news inside the Facebook Papers. If you would like to learn more about the Facebook Papers, check out: ”The Nationalism of Facebook,” by Siva Vaidhyanathan in Slate The What Next TBD episode, “Will the Facebook Whistleblower Make a Difference?” The What Next episode, “How Long Can Mark Zuckerberg Be King?” Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John. Support ICYMI and listen to the show with zero ads. Sign up to become a Slate Plus member for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was rebranding to become Meta, shifting the company's focus away from the single social media platform to some sort of amorphous, “embodied internet” concept. Khabane Lame, TikTok's second biggest star right now, got tapped to do some spon-con for the rebrand, appearing in a video alongside Zuckerberg on Instagram. On today's episode, Rachelle and Madison discuss who Lame's rise to TikTok fame, why Facebook grabbed him for their publicity campaign, and how this might all just be a distraction from some rather unsavory news inside the Facebook Papers. If you would like to learn more about the Facebook Papers, check out: ”The Nationalism of Facebook,” by Siva Vaidhyanathan in Slate The What Next TBD episode, “Will the Facebook Whistleblower Make a Difference?” The What Next episode, “How Long Can Mark Zuckerberg Be King?” Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John. Support ICYMI and listen to the show with zero ads. Sign up to become a Slate Plus member for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does Facebook's name change to Meta really signal? We ask Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.

In this episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week's show:  The Congressional testimony of whistleblower Frances Haugen is raising new questions about the social effects of Facebook's global market domination. Niki referred to this interview with Facebook expert Siva Vaidhyanathan and Haugen's 60 Minutes interview. Natalia drew on this NPR history of whistleblowing.   In our regular closing feature, What's Making History: Natalia discussed Apoorva Mandavilli's New York Times article, “A New Vaccine Strategy for Children: One Dose, For Now” – and the correction issued about it. Neil recommended the Romanian documentary, Collective. Niki shared Noam Cohen's Wired article, “One Woman's Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia.”

For a few hours on Monday, the relentless stream of conspiracy memes, thirst traps, and LuLaRoe pitches went silent. Facebook went unconscious. Meanwhile, a whistleblower prepared to testify in front of the Senate about what exactly Facebook knows about the problems it causes. Virginia Heffernan talks to journalist Steven Levy about what's going on and media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan about what's next.

Facebook may not be the source of all evils – but at least many of them. In his book Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, Siva Vaidhyanathan argues that while Facebook has some charms, it holds special responsibility for major social and political ills today. Alongside Will Hitchcock, Siva hosts the podcast Democracy in Danger, where together, they, along with leading thinkers from around the world, put illiberal trends in context and explore ways to turn them around. This episode is made possible by the Israel office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, which promotes peace, freedom, and justice through political education.

Facebook's decision to block sites news here has made international headlines, as media companies and regulators around the world watch how brinkmanship between Australia's government and the tech giant, plays out.

Evidence shows that activists used the walkie-talkie app Zello to help organize the riot at the capitol. On this week’s On the Media, a look at how the platform has resisted oversight, despite warnings that it was enabling right-wing extremism. Plus, how to sniff out the real corporate boycotts from the PR facades. And, how to build social media that doesn't exploit users for profit.  1. OTM reporter Micah Loewinger [@MicahLoewinger] on Zello's role in last week's insurrection, and what the app is finally doing about its militia members. Listen. 2. Casey Newton [@CaseyNewton], writer for Platformer, on why this wave of social media scrubbing might not be such a bad thing. Listen. 3. Siva Vaidhyanathan [@sivavaid], professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, and Americus Reed II [@amreed2], professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business, on the true costs of corporate boycotts. Listen. 4. Eli Pariser [@elipariser], co-director of Civic Signals, on how to build digital spaces that do not monetize our social activity or spy on us for profit. Listen. Music from the show:Fallen Leaves — Marcos Ciscar The Hammer of Loss — John Zorn — A Vision in Blakelight Hard Times — Nashville Sessions — Songs of the Civil WarWhat’s that Sound? — Michael AndrewsIn the Bath — Randy NewmanBoy Moves the Sun — Michael AndrewsAin’t Misbehavin’ — Hank Jones

Episode Notes Welcome to Circle of Willis, my podcast about science and the scientists who do it, brought to you by generous folks at VQR, the Center for Media and Citizenship, and WTJU Radio at the University of Virginia here in Charlottesville. Folks, sometimes the chaos swirls and the lights dim. Sometimes things go very wrong and we don’t know what to do with ourselves. Sometimes those who’ve dedicated their lives to helping don’t know how to help, or, more likely these days, they don’t have the tools they need. And despite what you may have heard, laughter is not the best medicine. But in Part 2 of our conversation, my guest TIM CUNNINGHAM is here to remind us that sometimes laughter is the only medicine available, that laughter can catalyze the kinds of social connections we need most during our times of trial, and that laughter might even make those medicines that are the best more effective. Maybe that’s why Pablo Neruda once wrote, Take bread away from me, if you wish Take air away But do not take from me your laughter Humor has an almost mystical power to make life a little better, sometimes a LOT better. That’s why, in addition to being the VP for Practice and Innovation at Emory Healthcare, a Registered Nurse, and a Dr. of Public Health, Tim Cunningham is a professional Clown, trained at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre up in Northern California, and a board member of CLOWNS WITHOUT BORDERS, which you are going to hear all about in just a few moments. Tim is going to tell us how being a professional clown has informed his work, world view, and personal life, and how all of that converged in all too real moments of life and death in a time of pandemic. ———————— Folks, the Music on Circle of Willis is written and performed by TOM STAUFFER and his band THE NEW DRAKES… For information about how to purchase their music, check the “Music if Circle of Willis” page at circleofwillispodcast.com Circle of Willis is Produced by SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN and brought to you by VQR and the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia… And that Circle of Willis is a member of the VIRGINIA AUDIO COLLECTIVE! You can find out more about that at Virginiaaudio.org. Special thanks Circle of Willis Associate Producer GRACE BOYLE, NATHAN MOORE, General Manager and swell guy at WTJU FM in Charlottesville, VA, and tough as nails editor-in-chief PAUL REYES at VQR—otherwise known as the Virginia Quarterly Review, winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, in 2019, and finalist for the same award right here in 2020. If you like this podcast, how about giving us a little review at iTunes and letting us know how we’re doing? It’s super easy and we like it! Or send us an email by going to circleofwillispodcast.com and clicking on the “contact” tab. Find out more at http://circleofwillispodcast.com This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Facebook faces more criticism for its handling of misinformation around the US election, this time by members of Joe Biden's team. Could the next US president lead a crackdown on the social media giant? We speak to Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. Also on the show: Apple launches a range of new laptops, but it's the chips inside them that are causing a stir. We ask Raspberry Pi creator Eben Upton if it's the end of the road for endlessly faster processors. Plus Hyperloop makes some headlines with a high-speed test in the desert, but is it really going to revolutionise transport systems around the world? Railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis has his say. Presented by Rory Cellan-Jones with BBC tech reporter Zoe Kleinman. (Photo: Cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outside the US Capitol, Credit: Getty Images)

In this episode, Chloe and Emma talk about how Joe Biden has linked the personal and the political throughout a long and successful career. But could the 2020 election force the two apart? They also speak to special guest, press gallery legend Barrie Cassidy, about past presidencies, this year’s election, and what it all means for Australia. Finally, Emma answers a question that still worries us: Despite Biden’s seemingly secure position in polls, what if Donald Trump refuses to leave office?LinksFintan O’Toole, ‘The Designated Mourner’, New York Review of Books, 16 January 2020, https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/01/16/joe-biden-designated-mourner/Siva Vaidhyanathan, ‘The Hunter Biden story was a test for tech platforms. They barely passed’, Guardian, 20 October 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/19/hunter-biden-story-big-tech-facebook-twitterSubscribe to our newsletter here https://confirmsubscription.com/h/r/3B47D9547CCBBA3E2540EF23F30FEDED

In this two-part inquiry into what the internet is doing to societies, two leading scholars who study online media take a critical look at both the affordances and dangers of large platforms like Facebook, Google, and Reddit. In this episode, Siva Vaidhyanathan breaks down the global power of Facebook: what it provides in a positive [...]Read More...

In this two-part inquiry into what the internet is doing to societies, two leading scholars who study online media take a critical look at both the affordances and dangers of large platforms like Facebook, Google, and Reddit. In this episode, Siva Vaidhyanathan breaks down the global power of Facebook: what it provides in a positive [...]Read More...

Government by the people can't work without getting reliable information in the people's hands. So when disinformation artists hijack the media, democracy itself is put at risk. On this debut episode of Democracy in Danger, political historian Nicole Hemmer joins hosts Will Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan to explore the roots of the powerful right-wing media in America, and their influence on Republican politics. How did the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt become the house of Trump and Breitbart? Hemmer takes Will and Siva back to a little-known conservative radio host who supported Barry Goldwater in the 1960s, tracing the information tactics developed back then all the way to the illiberal politics of today’s alt-right movement.

The Virginia Department of Health is reporting another 801 cases of COVID-19 this morning, bringing the cumulative total to 72,443. Nine more deaths have been reported for a total of 1,977. The 7-day percent positive rate for all testing encounters has risen again to 6.8 percent. That’s the third day in a row that metric has increased by a tenth of a percent.  In the Thomas Jefferson Health District, there are 41 new cases reported today for a cumulative total of 1,277. The 7-day positivity rate in the area for all testing encounters is 7.5 percent based on 27,858 tests. *It has now been four months since the State of Emergency was declared in Virginia for the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Nikuyah Walker and other city officials held a press conference yesterday to reinforce the need for vigilance.“After a few months spending trying to figure out how we  protect each other, I think we all understand that we at some point have reached a fatigue around this COVID-19 virus. There have been a lot of mixed messages from state, federal and even here at the local level and it’s been a very confusing time to try to figure out how to keep yourself and your family safe.” Mayor Walker and other speakers warned that the fatigue can be hazardous as people stop using masks and stop keeping physical distance. Dr. Denise Bonds of the Thomas Jefferson Health District said her agency is responsible for enforcement of directives requiring facial coverings.“To date we’ve had 180 complaints almost all of them related to individuals not wearing masks in restaurants or shops. Our policy right now is to inform and educate  for the first few times we get a complaint about a particular organization. If the complaint continues and its an agency that we are responsible for regulating, we do have the authority to issue more serious compliance orders with that.The full video of the press conference can be seen on the city of Charlottesville’s archive and excerpts will be included in the next edition of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. Governor Ralph Northam will hold his first press COVID-19 conference in several weeks. *A University of Virginia media studies professor has published an article in the Guardian about whether American schools are ready to reopen in the fall. Siva Vaidhyanathan writes in a July 13 article that Charlottesville schools are not prepared to reopen, and he writes that the pressure from the federal government to resume in-person classes isn’t helping. Albemarle County plans to open on September 8 with students attending school twice a week in two different cohorts, with schools Friday for a teacher workday and deep cleaning. Charlottesville is considering a plan that would see students in kindergarten through 6th grade attend school days four a week, and older students on the same plan as Albemarle. A growing number of faculty and staff are pushing back on the concept as a number of metrics appears to indicate further caution. (Open letter to Albemarle County schools) (Siva Vaidhyanathan article in the Guardian) * In government meetings today, the Charlottesville Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on how to spend nearly an additional $250,000 in federal funding for COVID-19 relief, as well as a rezoning that would allow a car wash located on Long Street to expand onto a nearby property.  The Albemarle County Planning Commission will take consider a request to fill in the flood plain for a stream crossing to enable more homes in Crozet. And the Greene County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on raising water connection fees to help raise funds for a proposed reservoir. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

On this episode, Gigi speaks with Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia to address one central question: Did the COVID-19 pandemic kill the "Techlash?" Coincidentally, just hours after sitting down with Siva, President Trump appeared to answer that question. Along the way, Gigi and Siva discuss the future of big tech, the recent Twitter-Trump flare-up, Facebook's new "content review board" and much more! 

The news breaking every day and every minute makes it possible to miss the local news drought advancing all around us. Hundreds of papers have closed and tens of thousands of reporting jobs have been cut to satisfy a starving bottom line. On this week's On The Media: the local news business, at the intersection of transformation and annihilation. 1. Penny Abernathy [@businessofnews], Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina, on America's "local news deserts." Listen. 2. Bob [@Bobosphere], on the rise and fall of the ad revenue–supported newspaper business model, with Cynthia B. Meyers [@AnneHummert], Craig Forman [@cforman], Jeff Jarvis [@jeffjarvis], and Siva Vaidhyanathan [@sivavaid]. Listen. 3. Rachel Dissell [@RachelDissell], investigative reporter, spoke to us on April 21 about what her sudden joblessness means for her beat and her community. Listen. 4. Steven Waldman [@stevenwaldman], president and co-founder of Report For America, on his efforts to funnel non-profit money into much-needed reporting jobs across the country. Listen.   Music from the show: Newsreel - Randy Newman / Cello Song - Nick Drake Death Have Mercy/BreakAway - Regina Carter I Moaned and Moaned - Regina Carter Totem Ancestor - Kronos Liquid Spear Waltz - Michael Andrews Tribute to America (Medley)- The O'Neill Brothers A Ride with Polly Jean- Jenny Scheinman On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

The news breaking every day and every minute makes it possible to miss the local news drought advancing all around us. Hundreds of papers have closed and tens of thousands of reporting jobs have been cut to satisfy a starving bottom line. On this week’s On The Media: the local news business, at the intersection of transformation and annihilation. 1. Penny Abernathy [@businessofnews], Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina, on America's "local news deserts." Listen. 2. Bob [@Bobosphere], on the rise and fall of the ad revenue–supported newspaper business model, with Cynthia B. Meyers [@AnneHummert], Craig Forman [@cforman], Jeff Jarvis [@jeffjarvis], and Siva Vaidhyanathan [@sivavaid]. Listen. 3. Rachel Dissell [@RachelDissell], investigative reporter, spoke to us on April 21 about what her sudden joblessness means for her beat and her community. Listen. 4. Steven Waldman [@stevenwaldman], president and co-founder of Report For America, on his efforts to funnel non-profit money into much-needed reporting jobs across the country. Listen.   Music from the show: Newsreel - Randy Newman / Cello Song - Nick Drake Death Have Mercy/BreakAway - Regina Carter I Moaned and Moaned - Regina Carter Totem Ancestor - Kronos Liquid Spear Waltz - Michael Andrews Tribute to America (Medley)- The O’Neill Brothers A Ride with Polly Jean- Jenny Scheinman

Calling the Republicans' Bluff on Impeachment; Zuckerberg and Thiel's Secret Meetings with Trump; Trump's Brazen Stealth Attack on Social Security backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

 DEMOCRACY IN TROUBLE?  Interviewer: MATTHEW BERKMAN. The ways in which Facebook pollutes public discourse are inherent and inescapable features of its business model, argues SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. In his discussion with political scientist and Mitchell Center interviewer Matthew Berkman, he attributes the platform’s malign effects to its scale, which encompasses 2.2 billion users; the perverse logic of its algorithms, by which attempts to confront hateful messages only serves to amplify them; and its advertising system, which can target and segment audiences in unprecedented ways. Above all, he points to the ways in which Facebook has crowded out other venues of expression more suitable for democratic deliberation, from public libraries to the brief flourishing of blogs on the Internet in the early 2000s. For Vaidhyanathan, the best way to deal with Facebook would be to break it up – and to do everything we can to take back our deliberative spaces.

In this episode, Natalia, Niki, and Neil discuss YouTube’s role in political radicalization, the history of tariffs, and the presidential candidacy of Senator Elizabeth Warren. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:  YouTube’s algorithm, the New York Times reported, serves up increasingly extreme content to viewers. Niki recommended media studies scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book Antisocial Media. Natalia recommended Niki’s book Messengers of the Right. Tariffs have become a central part of President Trump’s foreign policy. Niki cited historian Marc W. Palen’s book, The Conspiracy of Free Trade, and Natalia referred to historian Lizabeth Cohen’s book A Consumer’s Republic. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 candidacy is inspiring passionate support from many on the left. Natalia recommended this Politico article about Warren’s conservative past.   In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended historian Joshua Specht’s new book, Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America. Neil discussed Jia Tolentino’s New Yorker article, “Why Humans Treat Their Dogs Like People.” Niki shared Lindsay Parks Pieper’s Washington Post article, “The Biggest Challenge Facing the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Isn’t on the Field.”

Welcome to Circle of Willis! For this episode I'm sharing a conversation I had a while ago with BRIAN NOSEK, professor of Psychology here, with me, at the University of Virginia, as well as co-Founder and Executive Director of the CENTER FOR OPEN SCIENCE, also here in Charlottesville. Brian earned his PhD at Yale University way back in 2002, only about a year before I first met him here, when I was just a jittery job candidate. Brian has been in the public eye quite a lot in the past decade or so, not only due to his work with the Implicit Association Test, otherwise known as the IAT, but also and perhaps mainly for his more recent path breaking efforts to increase the transparency and reproducibility of the work scientists do. I think you'll find that in our conversation, Brian is relentlessly thoughtful about everything that comes up. And I want to say here, publicly, that I think he's absolutely right, at the very least, about the toxicity of the current system of incentives and rewards faced by academic scientists. Occasionally you'll hear that "science is broken." It's a great, click-baity phrase that thrives in our current social media ecosystem. But it's completely wrong. Science is not and has never been broken. Even now, science is our most precious, life affirming, life saving, human activity. Literally nothing humans have invented has done more than science has to improve our welfare, to increase our sensitivity to the natural world, or to reveal the forces and mechanisms that form and constrain our miraculous universe. But the institutional structures within which science is done are in bad shape. At the foundation, public funding for science is dismal, and that problem is yoked to the steadily declining public commitment to higher education in general. Our institutions have come to rely on bloated federal grants to just keep the lights on, and the responsibility for securing those federal dollars has fallen heavily on the shoulders of scientists who ought to be focused on making discoveries and solving the world's problems. And because that is a heavy burden, institutional structures have formed to incentivize -- some would say coerce -- scientists into striving for those federal dollars. Want to get tenure? Better bring in some big federal grants. Want 12 months of continuous salary? Better bring in some big federal grants. You get the idea. But there are other problems, too. Want to get a good raise? You'd better publish a lot. Note that I didn't say you'd better publish excellent work. No one would say that excellent work isn't valued -- it is -- but what you really want is good numbers, because numbers are easier to evaluate. And we love indices we can point to, that can help us evaluate each other as algorithmically as possible. So each individual scientist has an h-index associated with their name (Google Scholar thinks mine is 44). Journals come with impact factors. And all of these indices are relatively easy to game, so professional advancement and stability orients itself toward gaming the indices at least as much as doing high quality work. In the meantime, a profession -- a passion, and even an art, really -- can gradually transform into a cynical race for money and prestige. And though a scientist may well grow skilled at reeling in the money during their career, whatever level of prestige they attain will ultimately fail them. As John Cacioppo argued in a previous episode of this very podcast, you and your specific work are not likely to be remembered for long, if at all. Prestige and recognition are understandable but ultimately foolish goals. Far better, Cacioppo argued, to focus your attention on the process -- on the doing of your work. And your best shot at enjoying that work -- perhaps at enjoying your life -- is to make sure that the work that you do is aligned with your values. Brian Nosek and I are in full agreement on at least one point: The system within which science is done -- particularly within which American science is done -- discourages a process-oriented focus, and, by extension, discourages us from aligning our scientific process with our values. Why? Because our institutions have to keep the lights on. So, science isn't broken at all. How could it be? Science is a system, a philosophy, perhaps even a moral commitment...to transparency and openness, to verifiability, to repeatability, to discovery, and, I would argue, to humility. Science is far more than a collection of methods and techniques, and, by the way, there is nothing about science that requires coverage by the New York Times to be valid. What may be broken is the system within which science manifests as a profession. So here's why I admire Brian Nosek so much: He isn't just complaining about things, the way I do. Instead, he's working hard to develop an alternative system -- a system based on the scientific process instead of rewarding outcomes, and, by extension, a scientific process based on deeply held scientific values. You and I may not agree with all the details in Brian's approach, but, you know, it's easy to criticize, right? Anyway, here are Brian Nosek and me, having a conversation in one of the conference rooms at the Center for Open Science. *    *    * Music for this episode of Circle of Willis was written and performed by Tom Stauffer of Tucson, Arizona. For information about how to purchase Tom’s music, as well as the music of his band THE NEW DRAKES, visit his Amazon page.  Circle of Willis is Produced by Siva Vaidhyanathan and brought brought to you by VQR and the Center for Media and Citizenship. Plus, we're a member of the TEEJ.FM podcast network.   Special thanks to VQR Editor Paul Reyes, WTJU FM General Manager Nathan Moore, as well as NPR reporter and co-founder of the very popular podcast Invisibilia, Lulu Miller.  

Antisocial Media: A Conversation with Siva Vaidhyanathan In this installment, JNP sits down with Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan to talk about his latest book, Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. The conversation delves into questions of how Facebook positions itself as a social good while its very structure provides a platform – unprecedented in its size and scope - for the manipulation of political discourse and the widespread circulation of misinformation. Prof. Vaidhyanathan is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Media and Citizenship. He is the author of several other books, including The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry), and he also serves as a columnist for The Guardian.

Welcome to Part 2 of my conversation with SUSAN JOHNSON, inventor of Emotionally Focused Therapy, or EFT, which is an evidence based therapy for couples that she's been developing and refining for more than30 years. How do you develop and refine a psychological intervention? Well, on the one hand, you spend a lot of time working with your intervention targets—in Sue's case, romantic couples in distress. On the other hand, you put a lot of time and energy into subjecting the intervention to scientific studies, not only to see whether it works, but to pick apart HOW it works, what the mechanisms are. Sue's work has influenced thousands of therapists and couples over the past several decades, and her work continues to this day, as professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa, as founder of the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy, and as inductee into the very prestigious Order of Canada in recognition of her profound service to her adopted country. In the last episode, I mentioned her books HOLD ME TIGHT and LOVE SENSE. I advise you to check them out if you are interested in sprucing up your relationships and learning a little about what Sue calls the science of love. Sue is certainly passionate and committed to this work, but you'll also find that she's unusually thoughtful about it, too. Sue is a first generation college student who grew up working in a pub, in Chatham, Kent, southeast of London. I think you can hear that background in her, in the way she allows herself a sort of straight-talky candor and accessibility. But don't let that accessibility fool you. Sue is one of our deepest and most sophisticated thinkers. So here in Part 2, we dive a little deeper into the scientific side of Sue's life and into the development of EFT. And we talk a little bit about what life's all about, too. Wisdom, folks.   *    *    * Music for this episode of Circle of Willis was written and performed by Tom Stauffer of Tucson, Arizona. For information about how to purchase Tom’s music, as well as the music of his band THE NEW DRAKES, visit his Amazon page.  Circle of Willis is Produced by Siva Vaidhyanathan and brought brought to you by VQR and the Center for Media and Citizenship. Plus, we're a member of the TEEJ.FM podcast network.   Special thanks to VQR Editor Paul Reyes, WTJU FM General Manager Nathan Moore, as well as NPR reporter and co-founder of the very popular podcast Invisibilia, Lulu Miller.

Air Date: 5/7/2019 Today we take a look at the impacts, from personal to global, of the paradigm of companies profiting off of surveillance of their users, otherwise known as surveillance capitalism. Be part of the show! Leave a message at 202-999-3991   Episode Sponsors: Amazon USA| Amazon CA| Amazon UK| Clean Choice Energy Get AD FREE Shows & Bonus Content: Support our show on Patreon! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: A Threat to Global Democracy How Facebook & Surveillance Capitalism Empower Authoritarianism Part 1 - Democracy Now! - Air Date 8-1-18 We speak with Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” He is a professor of media studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. Ch. 2: How Facebook Helped Trump...Without Cambridge Analytica - On The Media - Air Date 3-23-18 García is a former Facebook product manager for ads and author of Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley. Ch. 3: A Threat to Global Democracy How Facebook & Surveillance Capitalism Empower Authoritarianism Part 2 - Democracy Now! - Air Date 8-1-18 We speak with Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” He is a professor of media studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. Ch. 4: Age of Surveillance Capitalism Part 1 - Ralph Nader Radio Hour - Air Date 1-26-19 The author of many books and papers on the subject of modern corporate capitalism, Professor Zuboff’s latest is entitled “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.” Ch. 5: Yael Grauer: The Billboards Are Watching You. Really. - Zero Hour with RJ Eskow - Air Date 12-11-18 When billboards can talk to cell phones we end up living in The Minority Report. Ch. 6: Age of Surveillance Capitalism Part 2 - Ralph Nader Radio Hour - Air Date 1-26-19 The author of many books and papers on the subject of modern corporate capitalism, Professor Zuboff’s latest is entitled “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.” VOICEMAILS Ch. 7: Benefits and problems of algorithmic decision-making - Nick from California Ch. 8: Immigration arguments shouldn't be economic arguments - Zach from Atlanta FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 9: Final comments on algorithmic decision-making and the moral vs economic arguments for humane immigration policy RESOURCES Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Surveillance Self-Defense Online Behavioral Tracking Surveillance Technologies Privacy International Internet of Things Expose Data Exploitation: Data, Profiling, and Decision Making Data Protection Curated by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman  MUSIC(Blue Dot Sessions): Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Inessential - Bayou Birds A Path Unwinding - K4 Open Flames - Aeronaut Long and Low Cloud - The Bulwark Hickory Shed - Onesuch Village Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Support the show via Patreon Listen on iTunes | Stitcher| Spotify| Alexa Devices| +more Check out the BotL iOS/AndroidApp in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on iTunesand Stitcher!

Welcome to Part 1 of my epic conversation with SUSAN JOHNSON, inventor of Emotionally Focused Therapy—EFT—which is an evidence-based therapy for couples, one focused on repairing and enhancing the kinds of emotional bonds that we all depend on for our health and well being.   The author of numerous scientific articles, Sue has also written a bunch of books—some for practicing psychotherapists and some, notably HOLD ME TIGHT and LOVE SENSE, for the general public.   In 2017, Sue was honored by the Canadian Government with membership in the Order of Canada, one of Canada's highest civilian honors, which recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the country. Sue is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa, and the founder of the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy. *    *    * Music for this episode of Circle of Willis was written and performed by Tom Stauffer of Tucson, Arizona. For information about how to purchase Tom’s music, as well as the music of his band THE NEW DRAKES, visit his Amazon page.  Circle of Willis is Produced by Siva Vaidhyanathan and brought brought to you by VQR and the Center for Media and Citizenship. Plus, we're a member of the TEEJ.FM podcast network.   Special thanks to VQR Editor Paul Reyes, WTJU FM General Manager Nathan Moore, as well as NPR reporter and co-founder of the very popular podcast Invisibilia, Lulu Miller.

In this episode April Glaser is joined once again by co-host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. They start by talking about the Sri Lankan government’s shutdown of Facebook and WhatsApp after the Easter attacks on churches and hotels. Then they talk to Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a staff writer for Motherboard and producer for CYBER, a Motherboard podcast about hacking. In their conversation Franceschi-Bicchierai talks about the time he corresponded directly with hackers who infiltrated the servers of the Democratic National Committee. Those hackers initially tried to pass themselves off as a lone Romanian hacker named Guccifer 2.0. Then slate writer Rachelle Hampton joins the show to talk about her cover story, The Black Feminists Who Saw the Alt-Right Threat Coming. This episode is brought to you by Proper Cloth.  Save $20 on your first custom shirt at propercloth.com/ifthen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode April Glaser is joined once again by co-host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. They start by talking about the Sri Lankan government’s shutdown of Facebook and WhatsApp after the Easter attacks on churches and hotels.  Then they talk to Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a staff writer for Motherboard and producer for CYBER, a Motherboard podcast about hacking. In their conversation Franceschi-Bicchierai talks about the time he corresponded directly with hackers who infiltrated the servers of the Democratic National Committee. Those hackers initially tried to pass themselves off as a lone Romanian hacker named Guccifer 2.0.  Then slate writer Rachelle Hampton joins the show to talk about her cover story, The Black Feminists Who Saw the Alt-Right Threat Coming.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode April Glaser is joined by guest host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia and author of several books about social media and the internet, including a recent one on Facebook, “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.”  First they talk about the ongoing elections in India and how fake news and propaganda on Facebook and WhatsApp is wreaking havoc on an electoral process that’s otherwise celebrated for working quite well in the world’s largest democracy. Then they discuss Uber’s recent IPO filing and the litany of ways the company’s reliance on a contractor workforce and business in only a handful of major cities could destabilize the rideshare company’s hopes of ever being profitable.  After that, author and WIRED writer Andy Greenberg joins the show to talk about the recent indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, threats the case poses to press freedom, and how Assange’s ideology has been much more fluid than his alleged co-conspirator, Chelsea Manning. Greenberg is the author of This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers. This episode of IF Then is brought to you by LinkedIn. Post a job today at LinkedIn.com/IFTHEN and get fifty dollars off your first job post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode April Glaser is joined by guest host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia and author of several books about social media and the internet, including a recent one on Facebook, “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.”  First they talk about the ongoing elections in India and how fake news and propaganda on Facebook and WhatsApp is wreaking havoc on an electoral process that’s otherwise celebrated for working quite well in the world’s largest democracy. Then they discuss Uber’s recent IPO filing and the litany of ways the company’s reliance on a contractor workforce and business in only a handful of major cities could destabilize the rideshare company’s hopes of ever being profitable.  After that, author and WIRED writer Andy Greenberg joins the show to talk about the recent indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, threats the case poses to press freedom, and how Assange’s ideology has been much more fluid than his alleged co-conspirator, Chelsea Manning. Greenberg is the author of This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers. This episode of IF Then is brought to you by LinkedIn. Post a job today at LinkedIn.com/IFTHEN and get fifty dollars off your first job post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by the cultural historian, media scholar and author of Antisocial Media Siva Vaidhyanathan in conversation with the New Statesman's Helen Lewis. In this wide-ranging discussion, they looked at how Facebook's went from an innocent social site into a force that poses major challenges to our democracy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Host Kristin Hayes and Matthew Nisbet, a professor of communication, public policy, and urban affairs at Northeastern University, discuss effective communications related to complex social problems such as climate change and political polarization. References and recommendations made by Matthew Nisbet: Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy by Siva Vaidhyanathan; https://www.amazon.com/Antisocial-Media-Disconnects-Undermines-Democracy/dp/0190841168

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Robertson Family Professor of Media Studies, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences If you wanted to build a machine that would distribute propaganda to millions of people, distract them from important issues, energize hatred and bigotry, erode social trust, undermine respectable journalism, foster doubts about science, and engage in massive surveillance all at once, you would make something a lot like Facebook. Of course, none of that was part of the plan. https://alumni.virginia.edu/learn/program/antisocial-media-how-facebook-disconnects-us-and-undermines-democracy/

My guest today is Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of the book Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. His previous book was "The Googlization of Everything". Siva is a Cultural Historian and Media Scholar at the University of Virginia.   We explore the impact of Facebook and how it will continue to shape our world, and we discuss the mechanics of how social media influences human behavior and societies.   Siva on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sivavaid   Book: Anti-Social Media https://www.amazon.com/Antisocial-Media-Disconnects-Undermines-Democracy/dp/0190841168 __________   More at: https://www.MindAndMachine.io

On this episode of the Oxford Comment, we are taking a look at how elections are influenced by technology with the help of Jamie Susskind and Siva Vaidhyanathan. From fake news to Cambridge Analytica, the 2016 election was the first look at how digital media will influence modern campaigns. The 2018 midterm elections will amplify … Continue reading Technology, Privacy and Politics – Episode 49 – The Oxford Comment →

A conversation about the use and abuse of social media and how it affects our democratic principles with author Siva Vaidhyanathan. Guest: Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and the Director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. He is the author of many books on technology, law, and society, including his latest Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. About Antisocial Media: It explains how Facebook devolved from an innocent social site hacked together by Harvard students into a force that, while it may make personal life just a little more pleasurable, makes democracy a lot more challenging.  It's an account of the hubris of good intentions, a missionary spirit, and an ideology that sees computer code as the universal solvent for all human problems. And it's an indictment of how “social media” has fostered the deterioration of democratic culture around the world, from facilitating Russian meddling in support of Trump's election to the exploitation of the platform by murderous authoritarians in Burma and the Philippines. The post Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy appeared first on KPFA.

Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. He joined Shorenstein Center director Nicco Mele to discuss his new book, "Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy". This Shorenstein Center Speaker Series event was recorded September 11, 2018, at Harvard Kennedy School.  Apologies for the poor sound quality of audience questions. 

Tomaš Dvořák - "Game Boy Tune" - Machinarium Soundtrack - "Mark's intro" - "Recap of first year, part 1" - "Scott Heiferman excerpt" - "Vicki Boykis excerpt" - "Jessamyn West excerpt" - "Courtney Maum excerpt" - "Eric Zimmerman excerpt" - "Andrew Beccone excerpt" - "Roger Anderson excerpt" - "Andy Rehfeldt excerpt" - "Janelle Shane excerpt" - "Zaire Dinzey-Flores excerpt" - "Cheyenne Hohman excerpt" - "College student excerpt" - "Nir Eyal excerpt" - "Kirby Ferguson excerpt" - "Steven Levy excerpt" - "Mark reads Botnik's Harry Potter - excerpt" - "Ken Freedman excerpt" - "Jace Clayton excerpt" - "Jonathan Taplin excerpt" - "Scott Williams rec" - "Gabriel Weinberg excerpt" - "Christopher Potter excerpt" - "Botnik's Bob Mankoff and Jamie Brew excerpt" - "Matt Klinman excerpt" - "Yong Zhao excerpt" - "Recap of first year, part 2" - "Irwin Chusid excerpt" - "Kimzilla excerpt" - "Mathew Ingram excerpt" - "Alex George excerpt" - "Dylan Curran excerpt" - "Henry Lowengard (aka Webhamster Henry) excerpt" - "Catherine Price excerpt" - "Len Sherman excerpt" - "Corey Pein excerpt" - "Anya Kamenetz excerpt" - "David Sax excerpt" - "Felix Salmon excerpt" - "Meredith Broussard excerpt" - "Andrew Keen excerpt" - "Brett Frischmann excerpt" - "John Keating excerpt" - "Siva Vaidhyanathan excerpt" - "Mobile Steam Unit excerpt" - "Jaron Lanier excerpt" - "Paul Ford excerpt" - "Dr. Robert Epstein excerpt" - "Matt Warwick excerpt" - "James Bridle excerpt" - "Ali Latifi excerpt" Recap of the first year! Episode 50 of Techtonic, finishing the first year of the show, with a clip from every guest so far. https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/81296

Tomaš Dvořák - "Game Boy Tune" - Machinarium Soundtrack - "Mark's intro" - "Recap of first year, part 1" - "Scott Heiferman excerpt" - "Vicki Boykis excerpt" - "Jessamyn West excerpt" - "Courtney Maum excerpt" - "Eric Zimmerman excerpt" - "Andrew Beccone excerpt" - "Roger Anderson excerpt" - "Andy Rehfeldt excerpt" - "Janelle Shane excerpt" - "Zaire Dinzey-Flores excerpt" - "Cheyenne Hohman excerpt" - "College student excerpt" - "Nir Eyal excerpt" - "Kirby Ferguson excerpt" - "Steven Levy excerpt" - "Mark reads Botnik's Harry Potter - excerpt" - "Ken Freedman excerpt" - "Jace Clayton excerpt" - "Jonathan Taplin excerpt" - "Scott Williams rec" - "Gabriel Weinberg excerpt" - "Christopher Potter excerpt" - "Botnik's Bob Mankoff and Jamie Brew excerpt" - "Matt Klinman excerpt" - "Yong Zhao excerpt" - "Recap of first year, part 2" - "Irwin Chusid excerpt" - "Kimzilla excerpt" - "Mathew Ingram excerpt" - "Alex George excerpt" - "Dylan Curran excerpt" - "Henry Lowengard (aka Webhamster Henry) excerpt" - "Catherine Price excerpt" - "Len Sherman excerpt" - "Corey Pein excerpt" - "Anya Kamenetz excerpt" - "David Sax excerpt" - "Felix Salmon excerpt" - "Meredith Broussard excerpt" - "Andrew Keen excerpt" - "Brett Frischmann excerpt" - "John Keating excerpt" - "Siva Vaidhyanathan excerpt" - "Mobile Steam Unit excerpt" - "Jaron Lanier excerpt" - "Paul Ford excerpt" - "Dr. Robert Epstein excerpt" - "Matt Warwick excerpt" - "James Bridle excerpt" - "Ali Latifi excerpt" Recap of the first year! Episode 50 of Techtonic, finishing the first year of the show, with a clip from every guest so far. http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/81296

Three perspectives on the power of Facebook and content platforms. Was Facebook’s current form inevitable? Can it be “constitutionalised”? And, understanding content moderation.

Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, joins the podcast to discuss his new book "Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy" (Oxford University Press). We discuss the impact of Facebook, Google, and other tech platforms on politics and society. We also examine the ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, how their technologies are used around the globe, and look ahead to why smart speakers are increasingly becoming the battleground for FANG companies.

Virginia Heffernan talks to Siva Vaidhyanathan, the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, about the post-IRA indictment struggles at Facebook and whether or not it can be saved. Plus, Steve Waltien and Kate James join with a new Facebook ad and a doctor with a particular set of skills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to Siva Vaidhyanathan, the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, about the post-IRA indictment struggles at Facebook and whether or not it can be saved. Plus, Steve Waltien and Kate James join with a new Facebook ad and a doctor with a particular set of skills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook is destroying democracy around the world. UVA professor Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of "Anti Social Media," explains. Tomaš Dvořák - "Game Boy Tune" - Machinarium Soundtrack - "Mark's intro" The Daily Show - "Bar Facebook" [excerpt from this video] - "Interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan" - "Your calls and comments 201-209-9368" David Rovics - "Facebook" - The Other Side [Available on the Free Music Archive] http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/79875

In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Here's What a 5-Day Break From Facebook Will Do for Your Brain If you need more convincing, check out "Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy" by Siva Vaidhyanathan. Can You Answer the 10 Questions on the US Government's Science Knowledge Survey? The American Accent Is Older Than the British Accent Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki debate the historical significance of Cambridge Analytica and its relationship with Facebook, a serial bomber in Austin, and an all-white, all-male history conference at Stanford. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Cambridge Analytica is suddenly a household name for its troubling use of Facebook data to influence the 2016 election. Niki referred to Siva Vaidhyanathan’s forthcoming book, Antisocial Media, about the social costs of the rise of Facebook. After terrorizing Austin for several weeks, serial bombing suspect Mark Conditt is dead. Niki referenced this Rolling Stone article about the impact of the Son of Sam serial murders on tabloid journalism. Natalia cited this NPR article on recollections of Conditt. Stanford University’s Hoover Institution hosted a conference comprised entirely of white men. Niki referred to this Washington Post article about the long relationship between the Hoover Institution and Stanford. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Neil discussed Jackie Mansky’s Smithsonian article, “How Smithsonian Helped Solve the Twitter Mystery of the Unknown Woman Scientist.” Natalia commented on Joanna Rothkopf’s Jezebel article, “Inside the Convoluted ‘Battle for the Heart and Soul of Yoga’ That Resulted in Alo Yoga Suing a Body-Positive Influencer.” Niki shared Michael S. Rosenwald’s Washington Post article, “Toys R Us Founder Charles Lazarus Has Died. Here’s How He Built – And Lost – An Empire.”

Cambridge Analytica claims that, with the help of 50 million Facebook users' data, it was able to target ads so specifically and so effectively that it helped swing the election for Donald Trump. The media have been more than happy to boost the claim, but many experts are skeptical. This week, a look at what exactly went on with Cambridge Analytica and whether we shouldn't be focusing more on Facebook. Plus, how social media works to undermine free will and what the future might hold for Facebook. 1. Antonio García Martínez, columnist at WIRED and former tech entrepreneur, on Cambridge Analytica's "psychographic" techniques. Listen. 2. Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of University of Virginia's Center for Media and Citizenship, on past regulatory efforts to reign in Facebook. Listen. 3. Franklin Foer, staff writer at The Atlantic, on what he sees as Facebook's war on free will. Listen. 4. Clay Shirky, author, educator and tech writer, on what real change for Facebook might look like and why he is still an optimist when it comes to the internet. Listen. Music: Tomorrow Never Knows by Quartetto D'Archi Dell'Orchestra Sinfonica Di Milano Slow Pulse Conga by William Pasley Passing Time by John Renbourn Transparence (Instrumental) by Charlie Haden On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Virginia Heffernan talks to WIRED's Editor-in-Chief, Nick Thompson, and the Director of the Center for Media & Citizenship at the University of Virginia, Siva Vaidhyanathan, about all the issues that have plagued Facebook for the past several years and how the company is reacting after the Mueller indictments just one week ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to WIRED's Editor-in-Chief, Nick Thompson, and the Director of the Center for Media & Citizenship at the University of Virginia, Siva Vaidhyanathan, about all the issues that have plagued Facebook for the past several years and how the company is reacting after the Mueller indictments just one week ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about the Senate’s stand on net neutrality and why Congress is set to renew a major piece of internet government mass surveillance legislation. The hosts are joined by Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of Media Studies at University of Virginia, to talk about Facebook’s big news feed changes and what they might mean for the way we read the news and talk to each other online. And on Don’t Close My Tabs: Google’s gorilla problem and “authentic” Instagram ads. Don’t Close My Tabs: The Verge: Google ‘fixed’ its racist algorithm by removing gorillas from its image-labeling tech The Atlantic: The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed Podcast production by Max Jacobs. If Then plugs: You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com. If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about the Senate’s stand on net neutrality and why Congress is set to renew a major piece of internet government mass surveillance legislation. The hosts are joined by Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of Media Studies at University of Virginia, to talk about Facebook’s big news feed changes and what they might mean for the way we read the news and talk to one another online. And on Don’t Close My Tabs: Google’s gorilla problem and “authentic” Instagram ads. Don’t Close My Tabs: The Verge: Google ‘fixed’ its racist algorithm by removing gorillas from its image-labeling tech The Atlantic: The Strange Brands in Your Instagram Feed Podcast production by Max Jacobs. If Then plugs: You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com. If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panel One: Corporate Power Discussants: Siva Vaidhyanathan (Virginia), Mireille Hildebrandt (Brussels) & Ellen Goodman (Rutgers) Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Modern Media Studies, University of Virginia, author of The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry) and numerous other works. Mireille Hildebrandt holds the chair of Smart Environments, Data Protection and the Rule of Law at the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) at Radboud University, Nijmegen, and since October 2015 she is a Research Professor at the research group for Law Science Technology and Society (LSTS) at Vrije Universiteit Brussels. Ellen P. Goodman is Professor of Law at Rutgers University and co-founder of the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy & Law (RIIPL). She is also a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication and has been a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Federal Communications Commission. Ellen has written on digital platforms, the Internet of Things, spectrum and net neutrality policy, free expression and advertising law, and public media, and is currently working on data transparency and civic tech projects. Chair: Daniel Wilson (Cambridge)

Potemkin apps, Fake ads, and the return of little pepe the frog. Your host busts out all his best deep state moves for the grand conclusion of our Surveillance miniseries. Plus Finn Brunton pitches AdNauseum and Siva Vaidhyanathan gives us a tour of the Cryptopticon.

So it looks like you guys liked “Zittrain and Lessig Take On… Competition!” Last week’s season premiere of Radio Berkman drew the largest number of listeners and tweets in our show’s history! Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig co-host a definitive tour of how the competitive landscape for the digital technology market has evolved in the 12 years since the famous Microsoft antitrust battle. Give it a listen if you haven’t already. Are you ready for a second helping? Ever wondered how Microsoft got in trouble in the first place? Google’s got all those little apps and widgets that run our lives — is that legal? And could Apple’s Steve Jobs be the next to get hauled in front of a federal judge? This week segment producers (and non-lawyers) Daniel Dennis Jones and Molly Sauter take on “Competition” in plain English, with viewpoints from Ken Auletta, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Gary Reback, Phil Malone, and Brian Chen.

In his new book The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) (University of California Press, 2011), Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, takes a close look at the powerful influence Google has on our society. He believes that by valuing popularity over accuracy, Google dictates what information is most useful to users, thereby changing societal perceptions of what information is relevant. In our interview, we talked about how Vaidyanathan’s American Studies training informed his analysis of Google, the problem of Google’s use in authoritarian countries, and how Google emerged out of nowhere to defeat all other search competitors. Read all about it, and more, in Vaidhyanathan’s illuminating new book. Please become a fan of “New Books in Public Policy” on Facebook, if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his new book The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) (University of California Press, 2011), Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, takes a close look at the powerful influence Google has on our society. He believes that by valuing popularity over accuracy, Google dictates what information is most useful to users, thereby changing societal perceptions of what information is relevant. In our interview, we talked about how Vaidyanathan’s American Studies training informed his analysis of Google, the problem of Google’s use in authoritarian countries, and how Google emerged out of nowhere to defeat all other search competitors. Read all about it, and more, in Vaidhyanathan’s illuminating new book. Please become a fan of “New Books in Public Policy” on Facebook, if you haven’t already. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Siva Vaidhyanathan talks about the evolving culture of America and the internet and how Google represents the growing trends in our society. (May 16, 2011)

A talk show on KZSU-FM, Stanford, 90.1 FM, hosted by Center for Internet & Society Resident Fellow David S. Levine. The show includes guests and focuses on the intersection of technology and society. How is our world impacted by the great technological changes taking place? Each week, a different sphere is explored. This week, David interviews Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan of the University of Virginia, author of The Googlization of Everything. For more information, please go to http://hearsayculture.com.

Four experts look back at the year’s web news: Andrew Rasiej of techPresident on politics, Siva Vaidhyanathan of The Googlization of Everything on culture, Susan Crawford of Cardozo on law, and Peter Rojas of gdgt.com on gadgets.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of "The Googlization of Everything" and Guobin Yang, author of "The Power of the Internet in China" look at the search engine giant's policy in the PRC. Plus: TV and the Internet get hitched.

Google seems omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. It also claims to be benevolent. It’s no surprise that we hold the company to almost deific levels of awe and respect. But what are we really gaining and losing by inviting Google to be the lens through which we view the world? This talk will describe Siva Vaidhyanathan’s own apostasy and suggest ways we might live better with Google once we see it as a mere company rather than as a force for good and enlightenment in the world. Siva Vaidhyanathan, cultural historian and media scholar, is currently associate professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia.