#100hardtruthsMain MenuPledges and lists written over the first 100 daysA path through the primer focusing on the several pledges and lists of hardtruths I wrote during the first 100 days of the Trump administration24 #100hardtruths authored by invited contributorsA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths written by scholars, artists, activists, and friendsArt Answers to Phony QuestionsA path through the primer focusing on speaking hardtruths about and through poetic, abstract, formally reflexive, non-indexical Art FormsVirality is VirilityA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths that connect a macho growing of digital stature to real world violenceFake News R UsA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths that reveal our complicitySome #100hardtruths on Digital Media LiteracyA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about reading, writing, participating and understanding Digital Media LiteracySome #100hardtruths on RacismA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about ethnicity, nationality, zenophobia, immigration and racismSome #100hardtruths on SexismA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about gender, sexuality, sexism, and misogynySome #100hardtruths on ImagesA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about photography, visibiity, and the power of imagesSome #100hardtruths on the LawA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about legislation, (il)legality, public institutions, and the power of the LawSome #100hardtruths on AdvertisingA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about corporate greed, getting eyeballs to content, the monetization of the Internet and AdsSome #100hardtruths of the InternetA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths that attempt to reveal the structure, logic, uses and power of the InternetSome #100hardtruths on Freedom of ExpressionA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about journalism, freedom of speech, and the power of ExpressionSome #100hardtruths on and through Film and VideoA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths about or spoken through film and video35 #100hardtruths highlighting the work of othersA path through the primer focusing on hardtruths produced by journalists, scholars, artists, activists found onlineCreditsAbout the makers of this Scalar book.Old home page that links to WordpressSome #100hardtruths in poetryPoems that were produced as a result of radical digital media literacy workshopsSome hardtruth poem responses and readingsAlexandra Juhaszf60e7beb550e75bc077d6722b27684bbbb62d0deXiomara Liana Rodrigueze692622823dfcb5652df57e66962e293d1913569Craig Dietrich2d66800a3e5a1eaee3a9ca2f91f391c8a6893490
12017-10-30T18:37:46-07:00#53, tame and disarm dangerous algorithms7March 21, 2017plain2020-06-13T23:02:23-07:00Geert Lovink shared this hardtruth with me from his yet to be published paper, “Overcoming the Disillusioned Internet—Discussing Principles of Meme Design.”
“There is a crisis of ‘participatory culture.’ Let’s look at the example of danah boyd [I, too, refer to boyd’s self-criticism of media literacy in #100hardtruths #18] and how she’s deconstructing the ‘media literacy’ discourse about which so many of us had high hopes. A cynical reading of the news has overshadowed critical capacities. In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election, she asked if media literacy has backfired. Have trolling, clickbait, and fake news undermined the classic belief in the democratization of news production? Whereas, for the pre-internet babyboom generation, literacy was synonymous with the ability to question sources, deconstruct opinions, and read ideology into quasi-neutral messages, the meaning of literacy has shifted to the ability to produce one’s own content in the form of responses, contributions, blog postings, social media updates and images uploaded to video channels and photo-sharing sites. The shift from critical consumer to critical producer came with a price: information inflation (the well-meant prosumer synthesis never materialized). According to boyd, media literacy has come to resemble a distrust of media sources, and no longer fact-based critique. Instead of considering the evidence of experts, it has become sufficient to bring up one’s own experience, thus leading to a doubt-centric culture that can only be outraged and incapable of reasonable debate, a polarized culture that favors tribalism and self-segregation.” “The current situation demands a rethinking of the usual demands of activists and civil society players with regard to ‘media literary.’ How can the general audience be better informed? Is this an accurate diagnosis of the current problem in the first place? How can holes be made in the filter bubbles? How can Do-It-Yourself be a viable alternative when social media are already experienced in such terms? And can we still rely on the emancipatory potential of ‘talking back to the media’ via the familiar social networking apps? How does manipulation function today? Is it still productive to deconstruct The New York Times (and its equivalents)? How might we explain the workings of the Facebook newsfeed to its user base? If we want to blame algorithms, how can we translate their hidden complexity to large audiences? A case in point might be Cathy O’Neil’s Weapons of Math Destruction, in which she describes how ‘ill-conceived mathematical models micromanage the economy, from advertising to prisons.’ Her question is how to tame and, yes, disarm dangerous algorithms.
