How machines came to speak : media technologies and freedom of speech / Jennifer Petersen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Petersen, Jennifer, 1970- author.

Series:

Sign, storage, transmission

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication--Effect of technological innovations on--United States.

Communication.

Freedom of speech--United States.

Freedom of speech.

Freedom of expression--United States.

Freedom of expression.

Mass media and technology--Political aspects--United States.

Mass media and technology.

Technological innovations--Political aspects--United States.

Technological innovations.

Technological innovations--Political aspects.

United States.

Physical Description:

ix, 288 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2022.

Summary:

"How Machines Came to Speak argues that the development of new media technologies-from the phonograph, film, and radio in the early twentieth century to computer code and algorithms today-has been integral to legal conceptions of free speech in the U.S. Traditional histories of free speech and the First Amendment focus on court cases with clear moral and political stakes in regulating speech, including cases that established worker picketing, criticism of war, and freedom of the press as aspects of free speech. Yet, according to Jennifer Petersen, the outcomes of these cases have often been determined by earlier legal precedent around how we define speech itself. Offering what she calls "a media history of free speech," Petersen shows that over the course of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court's definition of speech grew to include everything from symbols and gestures (like saluting the flag) to messages without a clear speaker (like opinions broadcast over the radio) to corporate messages (like commercials and donations). As algorithms increasingly determine which news and culture we consume, Petersen argues that technology and discourse on communication are still central to how the Courts conceptualize free speech, and legal decisions concerning the parameters of speech are bound up in concerns about the constitution of personhood that have been shaped and reshaped by the role of technology as a mediator of social relations and identity"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Moving images and early twentieth-century public opinion

"A primitive but effective means of conveying ideas" : gesture and image as speech

Transmitters, relays, and messages : decentering the speaker in midcentury speech law

Speech without speakers : how speech became information

Speaking machines : the uncertain subjects of computer communication.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Petersen, Jennifer, 1970- How machines came to speak.

ISBN:

9781478013600

1478013605

9781478014522

1478014520

OCLC:

1260291851