I wanted to circulate a new essay, “Governance of and by platforms,” set to appear in the SAGE Handbook of Social Media, edited by Jean Burgess, Thomas Poell, and Alice Marwick, being readied now for a 2017 publication. It also sets up the agenda of my forthcoming book, from Yale University Press, also set for next year. So, I very much […]
The controversy about the human curators behind Facebook Trends has grown, since the allegations made last week by Gizmodo. Besides being a major headache for Facebook, it has helped prod a growing discussion about the power of Facebook to shape the information we see and what we take to be most important. But we continue […]
Gizmodo has released two important articles (1, 2) about the people who were hired to manage Facebook’s “Trending” list. The first reveals not only how Trending topics are selected and packaged on Facebook, but also the peculiar working conditions this team experienced, the lack of guidance or oversight they were provided, and the directives they […]
We live in a world of bots. Generally speaking, these sets of algorithms are responsible for so much on the backend of the internet, from making Google searches possible to filling up your spam folder. But an emergent kind of bot, capable of interacting with humans and acting on their behalf, is playing a more […]
I am happy to announce the release of Queering the Countryside, with exciting contributions by great scholars and edited by Brian J. Gilley, Colin R. Johnson and myself. Find it at NYU Press, or order it from Amazon. “Rural queer experience is often hidden or ignored, and presumed to be alienating, lacking, and incomplete without […]