"Taylor is the Marshall McLuhan or the Neil Postman of our new digital economy, the lonely voice raising urgent questions we need to answer together . . . If "The People's Platform" doesn't spark the conversation about the kind of democracy and culture we deserve, then we'll deserve the one we get." NY1 News' "The Book Reader"""""The Internet has been hailed as an unprecedented democratizing force, a place where all can participate equally. But how true is this claim? In a seminal dismantling of techno-utopian visions, "The People's Platform" argues that the Internet in fact amplifies real-world inequities at least as much as it ameliorates them. Online, just as off-line, attention and influence largely accrue to those who already have plenty of both. A handful of giant companies remain the gatekeepers, while the worst habits of the old media model the pressure to seek easy celebrity, to be quick and sensational above all have proliferated in the ad-driven system. We can do better, Astra Taylor insists. The online world does offer a unique opportunity, but a democratic culture that supports work of lasting value will not spring up from technology alone. If we want the Internet to truly be a people's platform, we will have to make it so."

The People's Platform

Astra Taylor

Metropolitan Books

<p>The Intellectual Situation is occupied. James Franco prepares, Sotheby's sells out. Are computers stupid? Christopher Glazek: Raze the prisons. Benjamin Kunkel: Buzz.</p>

n+1 Issue 13: Machine Politics

Benjamin Kunkel

Elizabeth Gumport

Franco Moretti

Sarah Allison

Ryan Heuser

Matthew Jockers

Michael Witmore

JAMES FRANCO

Christopher Glazek

Alice Gregory

David Auerbach

Deenah Volmer

Kirill Medvedev

n+1 Foundation

<p>A follow-up to n+1's 2007 pamphlet What We Should Have Known, No Regrets talks to twelve writers, editors, academics, and artists about life and reading in their early twenties.</p>

No Regrets: Three Discussions

Literature & Fiction

Sara Marcus

Dawn Lundy Martin

Sarah Resnick

Carla Blumenkranz

Emily Gould

Emily Witt

Elif Batuman

Amanda Katz

Namara Smith

Kristin Dombek

Literary

Democracy May Not Exist But We'll Miss it When It's Gone

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Verso

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Books by Astra Taylor