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<div>Dear fellow SIGCIS'ers!<br>
<br>
My new book, <i><span>Mediating Plureality,</span></i> <span>comes out on February 15, and though it is mostly about media and technology in society, there's actually also a chapter in it that you might find interesting. </span><br>
<br>
<span>The chapter discusses the materiality of computing with a grounding in its history. I make a Kittler-esque argument that for ethical reasons, we should begin understanding computing more as the result of physical processes than symbolic, harking back
to the 1937-38 period and Stibitz, Atanasoff, and Zuse experimenting with relays. And yes, there are a lot of citations containing the names "Haigh" and "Randell" :-)</span><br>
<br>
<span>I am presenting the book at</span> <a href="https://annenberg.usc.edu/events/annenberg-research-seminar/mediating-plureality-technology-perception-and-ethics-divided">
<span>a book talk at USC Annenberg</span></a> <span>on <strong>Monday the 10th </strong>
<strong>at 12 noon PST.</strong> It will also be streamed live here:</span><br>
<br>
<span>Zoom:</span> <a href="https://usc.zoom.us/my/mortenbay"><span>https://usc.zoom.us/my/mortenbay</span></a><br>
<span>YouTube:</span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@mortenbay"><span>https://www.youtube.com/@mortenbay</span></a><br>
<br>
<span>I hope you will join us!</span><br>
<br>
<span>Morten</span><br>
<br>
<span>ABOUT THE BOOK</span><br>
<i><span>Mediating Plureality: Technology, Perception and Ethics in a Divided Democracy</span></i>
<span>is one of the first books of the second Trump administration to deal with affective polarization and truth.</span><br>
<span>Author Morten Bay asks what role media and tech have played in the current democratic decline and finds provocative answers. In the book, he claims that:</span><br>
</div>
<ul>
<li><span>Contrary to popular belief, social media content is not to blame.</span><br>
</li><li><span>The problem began with the shift to a high-choice media environment in the early 1990s, including talk radio and the early Web.</span><br>
</li><li><span>Around this time, to stave off online competition, news media began insisting that they owned</span>
<i><span>The Truth.</span></i><br>
</li><li><span>Simultaneously, the tech industry's faith in data and prediction fostered a new epistemic overconfidence.</span><br>
</li><li><span>This led to widespread</span> <i><span>epistemic arrogance</span></i> <span>
becoming morally acceptable.</span><br>
</li><li><span>Which, in turn, led to increased</span> <i><span>self-sorting</span></i>
<span>and the rise of affective polarization.</span><br>
</li><li><span>Even scholars began ignoring centuries of basic epistemology despite of new, neuroscientific advances supporting a constructivist approach to reality perception.</span><br>
</li></ul>
<div><span>Drawing on political theorists who argue that these are perfect conditions for authoritarianism, Bay contends that democratic decline from</span>
<i><span>epistemic arrogance</span></i> <span>must be met with</span> <i><span>epistemic humility.</span></i><br>
<br>
<span>He calls for a cultural shift toward greater acceptance of other people’s reality perceptions and proposes an ethics of pluralist realities – a</span>
<i><span>plureality</span></i><span>. It begins with those who control the media platforms as well as media users committing to a more ethical</span>
<i><span>media conduct.</span></i><br>
<br>
<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666945201/Mediating-Plureality-Technology-Perception-and-Ethics-in-a-Divided-Democracy"><i><span>Mediating Plureality: Technology, Perception and Ethics in a Divided Democracy</span></i>
<span>at Lexington Books.</span></a><br>
<br>
<span>"By fostering a more empathetic, less normative analysis, Bay delivers a kind of palliative clarion call to advocate for more pluralistic democratic society."</span><br>
<span>- David Craig, Associate Professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and author of</span>
<i><span>Apocalypse Television</span></i><br>
<br>
<span>"Bay has hit the nail upon the proverbial head: We need to rethink media before we can rethink democracy."</span><br>
<span>- Aram Sinnreich, Professor at American University and author of</span> <i>
<span>The Secret Life of Data: Navigating Hype and Uncertainty in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance</span></i><br>
<br>
<span>Morten Bay teaches courses on media, technology, and society at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He holds a PhD from UCLA and has covered the media and technology industries as a journalist for two decades. Previously, he worked
as a digital media consultant for Fortune 50 companies as well as small startups and has advised US and EU lawmakers on media and tech regulatory policy.</span>
<i><span>Mediating Plureality</span></i> <span>is his fourth book on how media technologies influence human life and the first written solely for an academic audience.</span></div>
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<font face="Big Caslon"><span style="font-size: 16pt; color: rgb(159, 0, 0);">Morten Bay, Ph</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; color: rgb(162, 0, 0);">.D.</span></font><span style="font-family: National; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(127, 127, 127);"><font face="National">Lecturer</font></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(127, 127, 127);"><font face="National">Research fellow, Center for the Digital Future</font></span></p>
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<b><font face="National"><span style="color: rgb(95, 95, 95);">Annenberg School for</span><span style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"> </span></font></b><b><span style="color: rgb(95, 95, 95);"><font face="National">Communication and Journalism</font></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"></span></b></p>
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