Six essays on media, technology and politics from Data & Society

danah boyd writes, "Yesterday, a group of us at Data & Society put out six essays on 'media, technology, politics.' Takentogether, these pieces address different facets of the current publicconversation surrounding propaganda, hate speech, and the US election. Although we only allude to specifics, we have been witnessingmis/disinformation campaigns for quite some time as different networksseek to manipulate both old and new media, shape political discourse,and undermine trust in institutions and information intermediaries. Inshort, we are concerned about the rise of a new form of propaganda thatis networked, decentralized, and internet-savvy. We are also concernedabout the ongoing development of harassment techniques and gaslighting,the vulnerability of old and new media to propagate fear anddisinformation, and the various ways in which well-intendedinterventions get misappropriated. We believe that we'rewatching a systematic attack on democracy, equality, and freedom. Thereis no silver bullet to address the issues we're seeing. Instead,a healthy response is going to require engagement by many differentconstituencies. We see our role in this as to help inform and ground theconversation. These essays are our first attempt to address theinterwoven issues we're seeing. (more")