<nettime-ann> new book of Robert McChesney: Digital Disconnect

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

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From: rwmcchesney@gmail.com

I am writing you to tell you about my new book on the Internet that  
may interest you. It is titled Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is  
Turning the Internet Away from Democracy. The book is a political  
economic examination of the digital revolution based upon 15 years of  
research. The book provides considerable detail but also an  
overarching analysis and argument, so it is intended for anyone  
concerned with the Internet. It is the capstone of my career.

Michael Delli Carpini, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication  
at the University of Pennsylvania, said: “Digital Disconnect makes a  
convincing case that one can only understand the Internet and related  
communication technologies through the lens of political economy, and  
that the capitalist political economy in which they are currently  
embedded in the United States is anathema to a truly democratic  
information environment.”

The book includes the following:

	• how the standard dichotomy of views on the Internet as  
“celebratory” or skeptical” have important and necessary insights, but  
they almost all fail to factor in or appreciate the importance of  
capitalism as the driving force, as well as the problems capitalism  
can create for democratic values and practices
	• a fresh look at  the noncommercial origins of the Internet, and the  
shadowy process whereby it was converted into an engine for  
commercialism
	• how the dinosaur industries of telecommunication and entertainment  
media have managed to survive and even prosper in the Internet era by  
their domination of the corrupt policymaking process
	• how the Internet, once seen as an engine of economic competition,  
has become arguably the greatest generator of economic monopoly in  
history, with troubling implications for both the economy and  
political democracy; the dominant Internet firms now comprise nearly  
one-half of the 30 largest publicly traded corporations  in the United  
States, based on market value
	• how advertising has been radically transformed online such that  
traditional notions of privacy have been eliminated, and the  
traditional support for media content advertising once provided is  
disappearing
	• how the national security state has surveillance powers over  
private citizens that were unimaginable a generation ago and are  
inimical to the foundations of a free society
	• how the Internet has assisted in destroying journalism as it has  
been practiced for the past century, and offers no hope on its own of  
rejuvenating journalism as a credible broad-based democratic  
institution; this chapter updates the research I did with John Nichols  
in 2010’s multiple-award-winning Death and Life of American Journalism  
(Nation Books)
	• how a series of crucial policy debates in the next decade will go a  
long way toward determining the course of the Internet and the course  
of society.
This book is written with the aim of helping scholars and citizens be  
informed participants, and to see that the revolutionary democratic  
potential of the digital revolution be realized.

After reading the book, Eric Alterman of The Nation and Brooklyn  
College wrote: “Once again, McChesney stands at the crossroads of  
media dysfunction and the denial of democracy, illuminating the  
complex issues involved and identifying a path forward to try to  
repair the damage. Here's hoping the rest of us have the good sense to  
listen this time.”

Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, wrote: “With a  
panoramic sweep and profound insights, McChesney rings the alarm  
bells, showing clearly how capitalism is swallowing up the promise of  
the Internet. No one knows this field better than McChesney, and with  
this book, he has reached the pinnacle.”

Thank you for your consideration,

Robert W. McChesney
702 South Wright Street
3001 Lincoln Hall
Urbana, IL 618
USA



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