Digital Disconnect
How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy
McChesney, Robert W.
Date Written: 2013-03-05
Publisher: The New Press
Year Published: 2013
Pages: 320pp ISBN: 978-1595588678
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX15616
The author argues that the sharp decline in the enforcement of antitrust violations, the increase in patents on digital technology and proprietary systems and massive indirect subsidies and other policies have made the Internet a place of numbing commercialism.
Abstract:
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Publisher's Description:
Hailed as "important" (Truthdig) and praised for its "excellent insight" (Patricia J. Williams, The Nation), Digital Disconnect skewers the assumption that a society drenched in information in a digital age is inherently a democratic one.
A prescient examination of the relationship between the Internet and the economy -- one that has become even more relevant since its publication in hardcover -- the book argues that capitalism’s colonization of the Internet has spurred the collapse of credible journalism and made it an unparalleled apparatus for government and corporate surveillance.
"A provocative and far-reaching account of how capitalism has shaped the Internet in the United States" (Kirkus Reviews) and "an excellent analysis of the problem where a medium with the capacity to empower people is itself becoming a tool of social control" (Daily Kos), Digital Disconnect is both a groundbreaking critique of the Internet and an urgent call to reclaim the democratizing potential of the digital revolution while we still can.
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