This week Facebook became embroiled in a(nother) fight about what content the company should allow on its social network. Before reading further, know that I do not support nor do I endorse any of the racist/sexist/hateful content discusses below.
The latest fight Facebook finds itself in is over removing (or not removing) misogynistic content, sometimes mild at other times graphic. The posts in question involve pro-rape and pro-partner abuse groups and user generated content.
I recently wrote and published a working paper on the “public author,” the historical and core function of the modern blogger. Read the full paper at JoshuaIAltman.com.
In publishing and media, nothing is truly new, every innovation builds upon those that came before, and even if unknowingly, uses the same tactics and methods employed by earlier mediums. In all cases, the same elements are necessary for taking a basic set of information and reaching an audience. Early printers, twentieth century publishers and twenty-first century bloggers all need to select their content and choose a way to distribute it.
Online publishing is not a virtual newspaper anymore than the radio is the newspaper being read aloud. Although the mediums are not the same the contributors share many characteristics that bind colonial authors with modern bloggers. Letter writers in the 1700s advanced, and at times created, a national conversation in the same way that twenty-first century bloggers spread national discourse and culture today.
I recently wrote a paper on the gamification of politics, read the full paper at JoshuaIAltman.com
Politics is a game and like all games there are winners and there are losers in every campaign and political fight. Although the existence of the victor and the defeated has been a part of politics since since the earliest contest, the rise of games, and a larger culture surrounding games has lead to the gamification of politics. The language of politics, words like “veepstakes” and online primaries allow anybody to participate in the game and play politics.