7/16/19
Data versus Democracy
New Release
July 16th, 2019
Welcome to the “attention economy”. Information delivery based on algorithms is now the chief manner in which news is presented to digital users. Companies have figured out how to generate engagement data into currency. When these algorithms are then backed by political bias, it shifts media narratives and shapes worldviews. How did we get here? What domestic and foreign events have showcased this phenomenon’s impact? What vulnerabilities of human nature were exploited to achieve that impact?
Look no further than the July 2019 book Data versus Democracy, a first-of-its-kind release from Apress. Author Kris Shaffer is perhaps best known for co-authoring the official report presented to the United States Senate Committee on Intelligence about the weaponization of social media via foreign interference in the 2016 US presidential election. There is no expert more qualified to dive into the subject area of disinformation, political movements steered by social media, and how algorithmic recommendation systems can (and have) changed election results both nationally and worldwide.
This book examines just how information enters the zeitgeist in 2019, how you can equip yourself and others against propaganda, and what long-term implications all of the above have on the state of modern democracy. Through timely case studies like Ferguson and GamerGate, examinations of human psychology and its natural biases, and valuable research about the drastic effects our digital world has on our real world, Shaffer delivers an essential text for our times with Data versus Democracy.
Data versus Democracy is available now from Apress!