Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Digital Disconnect Author: Robert W. McChesney Publisher: The New Press ASIN: 1620970317

About This Book

Digital Disconnect is a prescient examination of the relationship between the Internet and the economy. The book argues that capitalism’s colonization of the Internet has spurred the collapse of credible journalism and made the Internet an unparalleled apparatus for government and corporate surveillance. It is a comprehensive political-economic critique of the Internet and the digital revolution, written in unpretentious and engaging language. The author assesses:

• The secretive policy decisions that led the Internet to being a center of commerce and profit-making,
• The rise of gigantic monopolistic firms like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to complete dominance, and what this means going forward for our economics, politics and culture,
• The crucial relationship between these gigantic firms and the surveillance work of the National Security Agency,
• How surveillance is built into the commercial Internet, and how this is radically transforming advertising and commerce,
• The dramatic decline in journalism and why the Internet will not solve the problem—and only make matters worse unless there is smart public spending on journalism, and
• How the digital economy is destroying more decent paying jobs than it is creating, and is therefore aggravating the great economic crisis facing the nation, and, especially, young people.

In addition, McChesney offers a series of proposals to address the problems highlighted in the book.