Media Distortions: Understanding the Power Behind Spam, Noise, and Other Deviant Media
- Length: 272 pages
- Edition: N
- Language: English
- Publisher: International Academic Publishers
- Publication Date: 2020-02-28
- ISBN-10: 1433166917
- ISBN-13: 9781433166914
- Sales Rank: #8134354 (See Top 100 Books)
Media Distortions is about the power behind the production of deviant media categories. It shows the politics behind categories we take for granted such as spam and noise, and what it means to our broader understanding of, and engagement with media. The book synthesizes media theory, sound studies, science and technology studies (STS), feminist technoscience, and software studies into a new composition to explore media power. Media Distortions argues that using sound as a conceptual framework is more useful due to its ability to cross boundaries and strategically move between multiple spaces―which is essential for multi-layered mediated spaces.
Drawing on repositories of legal, technical and archival sources, the book amplifies three stories about the construction and negotiation of the ‘deviant’ in media. The book starts in the early 20th century with Bell Telephone’s production of noise, tuning into the training of their telephone operators and their involvement with the Noise Abatement Commission in New York City. The next story jumps several decades to the early 2000s focusing on web metric standardization in the European Union and shows how the digital advertising industry constructed web-cookies as legitimate communication while making spam illegal. The final story focuses on the recent decade and the way Facebook filters out antisocial behaviors to engineer a sociality that produces more value. These stories show how deviant categories re-draw boundaries between human and non-human, public and private spaces, and importantly, social and antisocial.
Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction: Listen Closely Don’t Be Evil! But I’m Not! Conducting Processes Three Distortion Stories Structure of the Book 2. Orchestrating Media Power through Sound Re-processing Foucault Sound as a Conceptual Framework Processed Listening: Producing Knowledge in Mediated Spaces Rhythmedia, or Orchestrating Sociality Mediated Territories Mediating Bodies Come to the Dark Side, We Have Cookies Conclusion: What’s in the Mix? 3. Noisy Behaviors on the Line The Noise Abatement Commission in Early 20th Century New York City Mapping City Noise No Deal on the Street Selling (the) Telephone Shutting Street Noise Controlling (the Other) Street Rhythm Quieting Noisy Women Connecting Bodies Designing the Communication Line Model Personal Immediacy The Human Information Processors A Design for Living Silencing Dissent Conclusion: Noise Against the Machine 4. Fabricating the European Union Safety Net Opening the ‘Back-End’ Governing Softly Baking Cookies into the Ecosystem Inventing Private and Public Spaces Lobbying to Spam Composing the Data Subject Standardizing Metrics Bodies that Count Bidding for Real-Time User Control to Control Users Keep Your Body Safe Conclusion: Brave New Web? 5. Engineering the (anti)social Filtering the Unwanted Using Four Mechanisms Modulating Architecture Who Listens to You? Channeling through Your Friends Amplified Listening Capacities Every Breath You Take I’ll Be Listening to You Ordering Algorithms Money, Sorted Standardizing the Digital Advertising Industry Naturalizing Organic Feed Maintaining the Immune System You Better Work Clicking Machine Excessive Behaviors Asking As If It Matters Listening: The Silent Actions that Count Majority Report The Human Processors Filtering the Rubbish Feed the Panel Conclusion: Fileting the Rhythms of Anti-Sociality 6. Conclusion: Transducing the Deviant The Power of Sound Creating a Dynamic Database with Processed Listening Deviant Order: How Rhythmedia Orchestrates Sociality
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