Media distortions : understanding the power behind spam, noise, and other deviant media / Elinor Carmi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carmi, Elinor, author.

Series:

Digital formations ; 121.

Digital Formations ; 121

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Information technology--Social aspects.

Information technology.

Mass media--Social aspects.

Mass media.

American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 270 pages)

Other Title:

Media Distortions

Place of Publication:

New York : Peter Lang, [2020]

Summary:

"Forget everything you know about spam. Now, let's talk about spam. Digital Distortions is about the power behind producing deviant media categories. This book explores the politics behind categories we take for granted such as spam and noise, and what this power means for our broader understanding of media. Despite being an inseparable part of our lives, we know very little about these media categories. The book synthesizes approaches such as media theory, sound studies, feminist technoscience and software studies into a new composition to explore media power. Through the concepts of processed listening and rhythmedia, Digital Distortions draws on sound and sound's ability to cross boundaries as a conceptual framework to think and examine media power more productively. Drawing on repositories of legal, technical and archival sources, Digital Distortions amplifies three stories about media distortions. The book shows that spam received different names in different periods; it is part of a larger project to influence the way people think, understand, and engage with media. The book starts in the early 20th century with Bell Telephone's production of noise. The next story jumps several decades to the web metric standardization in the European Union and the production of spam. The final story focuses on the 2010s and the way Facebook constructs unwanted behaviours. These stories show how deviant categories re-draw boundaries between human and non-human, public and private spaces, and, importantly, social and antisocial"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

List of Figures - Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Listen Closely

Orchestrating Media Power through Sound

Noisy Behaviors on the Line - Fabricating the European Union Safety Net

Engineering the (Anti)social

Conclusion: Transducing the Deviant.

Notes:

Description based on: online resource; title from PDF information screen (Worldcat, viewed March 29, 2023).

Includes bibliographical references.