Digital Fever

Zusatztext

Terror warnings, fake news, spectacles and scandals in real time - the networked world has wound itself up into a nervous frenzy, where everything has become visible: the banal and the terrible, the uninhibited abuse and the anonymous attack. Translated for the first time into English, Digital Fever analyses the patterns of outrage and agitation that have come to define social media and the Internet, exposing their devastating impact on our notions of truth, debate, authority and power. In this endless cycle of outrage, Poerksen argues that the intelligent use of information must become part of the general education provided by schools: the digital society must be transformed into an editorial one. In order for democracy to survive, we must as a society achieve media maturity. A blazing tour of the contemporary landscape of fake-news, echo chambers, disinformation, manipulation, and the turbulence that democracy is undergoing, this book not only analysesthis digital economy of outrage, but serves as a guiding light to overcome it.

Autorenportrait

Bernhard Poerksen, born in 1969, is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Tübingen. Rising to prominence through his work on scandal, he has published on a rich array of topics, including The Unleashed Scandal with Hanne Detel, Truth is the Invention of a Liar with cybernetician Heinz von Foerster, and From Being to Doing with neurobiologist Humberto Maturana. In 2008 he was voted Professor of the Year in Germany in recognition of the quality of his teaching.

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