The People's Platform

Starred review from March 3, 2014
With compelling force and manifestlike style, writer and documentary filmmaker Taylor lays out one of the smartest—and most self-evident—arguments about the nature and effect of technology in our digital age. “Technology alone,” she acknowledges, “will not deliver the cultural transformation we have been waiting for; instead, we need to first understand and then address the underlying social and economic forces that shape it.” Despite the illusion of a level digital playing field, she observes, there are really only a handful of gatekeepers that provide access to information. “Amazon controls one-tenth of all American online commerce,” for example. She acknowledges that while the Internet allows us to witness amazing feats of inventiveness, “real cultural democracy means more than everyone with an Internet connection having the ability to edit entries on Wikipedia or leave indignant comments.” Taylor suggests that we can promulgate a more democratic culture by “supporting creative work not because it is viral but because it is important, focusing on serving needs as well as desires, and making sure marginalized people are given not just a chance to speak but to be heard.” Taylor’s provocative book has the power to help shape discussions about the role of technology in our world.

March 15, 2014
A filmmaker turns her high-powered intellect not just on the Internet and its effect on our lives, but also on the sociological and economic forces that bend and shape it. Writer, director, documentary filmmaker, sometime philosopher, political activist and self-described troublemaker--not bad for Taylor, who was unschooled until she was 13 years old and has since become one of the more incisive voices among the multitudes delivering their visions of what the Internet is and might become. In her loquacious but well-defined examination of media culture, the author describes her conversations with a wide range of enthusiasts and doubters, ranging from jazz musicians to economists. She finds that, as opposed to the Kickstarter-fueled utopia that some hugely popular creators predict, when examined en masse, the Web tends to exhibit what Taylor deems a surprising tendency toward monopoly, bent by many of the same problems that have nearly destroyed traditional broadcast media and decimated newspapers. To be fair, she also sees this as an era of adaptation rather than extinction, and she asks the hard questions that often go unanswered--e.g., "Do social media nurture community or intensify our isolation, expand our intellectual faculties or wither our capacity for reflection, make us better citizens or more efficient consumers? Have we become a nation of skimmers, staying in the shallows of incessant stimulation, or are we evolving into expert synthesizers and multitaskers, smarter than ever before? Are those who lose their jobs due to technological change deserving of our sympathy or scorn ('adapt or die, ' as the saying goes)? Is that utopia on the horizon or dystopia around the bend?" It's a difficult book to encapsulate simply, one that delves deep into the philosophical nature of people, the complexities of desire, the economics of advertising, the productive chaos of open systems and the value of content in a limitless universe. Not to be skimmed. A cogent and genuine argument for the true democratization of online culture.

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April 1, 2014
The Internet, many thought, was going to usher in a new era of information sharing; of open, unfettered communication; of new arts and new media. But, instead, Taylor argues in this persuasive book, the Internet has given us more of the same. Instead of leveling the playing field, giving everyone equal opportunities to succeed creatively and economically, the Internet carried over the traditional problems: corporate monopolies at the controls, unfair economic practices, and a disproportionate focus on popularity and mass appeal. The author isn't saying we should rebuild the Internet from scratch but, instead, that we should strive to create a more democratic Web in which users are treated like citizens, not consumers or unpaid workers. We need, in other words, a new financial model. Newspapers, he points out, are being hurt by the enormous amount of online content, and most of that content is generated by people who aren't paid for their work. How, Taylor asks, is that fair? A smart, well-reasoned approach to a highly topical subject.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

Starred review from March 15, 2014

The Internet is often lauded as an open, democratic marketplace of ideas and goods in which anyone can thrive. In her sweeping critique, documentary filmmaker Taylor (Zizek!) challenges this notion, arguing that networked technology has allowed for greater concentration of power and has reduced transparency. Her well-researched, unsettling, and occasionally downright harrowing book explores the consolidation of popularity; the stubborn digital divide; copyright and piracy; and the pervasive power of advertising. She deplores the resource intensity, hazardous e-waste, and other obscured costs of digital technology, with its obsolescence ensured more by producer-guided popularity than by function, and the ignorance of its users as to these costs. In the midst of an incalculable array of information, our ignorance is all the greater, as the decline of investigative journalism reduces our awareness of local, domestic, and international events, and as Internet companies push the familiar to users with increasing specificity as the universe of personal data available to these companies expands. VERDICT Taylor makes the case for a government-supported sustainable online culture that promotes the public good and encourages journalism and the arts. This provocative populist manifesto on an utterly timely subject deserves a wide audience among policymakers and consumers alike. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/13.]--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2013

The Internet is a great democratizing force that gives us all equal say, right? Wrong, argues Taylor, a vanguard cultural critic and documentary filmmaker. Taylor sees the Internet as a reinforcement of real-world inequalities, where the already celebrated get even more celebrated, sharing what's hot gets the most attention, and advertising (not creative thought) is what counts. If we want the Internet to be truly democratic, we can't just sit back and let technology rule. We have to take action.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2014

The Internet is often lauded as an open, democratic marketplace of ideas and goods in which anyone can thrive. In her sweeping critique, documentary filmmaker Taylor (Zizek!) challenges this notion, arguing that networked technology has allowed for greater concentration of power and has reduced transparency. Her well-researched, unsettling, and occasionally downright harrowing book explores the consolidation of popularity; the stubborn digital divide; copyright and piracy; and the pervasive power of advertising. She deplores the resource intensity, hazardous e-waste, and other obscured costs of digital technology, with its obsolescence ensured more by producer-guided popularity than by function, and the ignorance of its users as to these costs. In the midst of an incalculable array of information, our ignorance is all the greater, as the decline of investigative journalism reduces our awareness of local, domestic, and international events, and as Internet companies push the familiar to users with increasing specificity as the universe of personal data available to these companies expands. VERDICT Taylor makes the case for a government-supported sustainable online culture that promotes the public good and encourages journalism and the arts. This provocative populist manifesto on an utterly timely subject deserves a wide audience among policymakers and consumers alike. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/13.]--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.