
The Big Disconnect
Why the Internet Hasn't Transformed Politics (Yet)
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Stephen McLaughlin
-
By:
-
Micah L. Sifry
About this listen
Now that communication can be as quick as thought, why hasn’t our ability to organize politically - to establish gains and beyond that, to maintain them - kept pace? The web has given us both capacity and speed: but progressive change seems to be something perpetually in the air, rarely manifesting, even more rarely staying with us.
Micah L. Sifry, a longtime analyst of democracy and its role on the net, examines what he calls The Big Disconnect. In his usual pithy, to-the-point style, he explores why data-driven politics and our digital overlords have failed or misled us, and how they can be made to serve us instead, in a real balance between citizens and state, independent of corporations.
The web and social media have enabled an explosive increase in participation in the public arena - but not much else has changed. For the next step beyond connectivity, writes Sifry, “we need a real digital public square, not one hosted by Facebook, shaped by Google, and snooped on by the National Security Agency. If we don’t build one, then any notion of democracy as ‘rule by the people’ will no longer be meaningful. We will be a nation of Big Data, by Big Email, for the powers that be."
©2014 Micah L. Sifry (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
In the Plex
- How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
- By: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few companies in history have ever been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes listeners inside Google headquarters - the Googleplex - to explain how Google works.
-
-
Just ok for me
- By Everyday Mom on 04-23-11
By: Steven Levy
-
New Power
- How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You
- By: Jeremy Heimans, Henry Timms
- Narrated by: Andrew Fallaize
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most of human history, the rules of power were clear: power was something to be seized and then jealously guarded. This "old power" was out of reach for the vast majority of people. But our ubiquitous connectivity makes possible a different kind of power. "New power" is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It works like a current, not a currency--and it is most forceful when it surges. The battle between old and new power is determining who governs us, how we work, and even how we think and feel. New Power shines fresh light on the cultural phenomena of our day, from #BlackLivesMatter to the Ice Bucket Challenge to Airbnb, uncovering the new power forces that made them huge. Drawing on examples from business, activism, and pop culture, as well as the study of organizations like Lego, NASA, Reddit, and TED, Heimans and Timms explain how to build new power and channel it successfully. They also explore the dark side of these forces: the way ISIS has co-opted new power to monstrous ends, and the rise of the alt-right's "intensity machine."
-
-
Very Disappointing
- By MCP on 06-01-18
By: Jeremy Heimans, and others
-
Trust Me, I'm Lying
- Confessions of a Media Manipulator
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You’ve seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don’t know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me. I’m a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs - as much as any one person can.
-
-
Wake up call
- By RML85 on 08-18-20
By: Ryan Holiday
-
The Smear
- How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote
- By: Sharyl Attkisson
- Narrated by: Sharyl Attkisson
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behind most major political stories in the modern era, there is an agenda - an effort by opposition researchers, spin doctors, and outside interests to destroy an idea or a person. The tactic they use is the Smear. Every day, Americans are influenced by the Smear without knowing it. Paid forces cleverly shape virtually every image you cross. Maybe you read that Donald Trump is a racist misogynist or saw someone on the news mocking the Bernie Sanders campaign. The trick of the Smear is that it is often based on some shred of truth.
-
-
Devestating Reporting on...Reporters and The Smear
- By Chip Atkinson on 06-29-17
By: Sharyl Attkisson
-
Antisocial Media
- How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
- By: Siva Vaidhyanathan
- Narrated by: Jack Garrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Antisocial Media, Siva Vaidhyanathan explains how Facebook devolved from an innocent social site hacked together by Harvard students into a force that, while it may make personal life just a little more pleasurable, makes democracy a lot more challenging.
-
-
a modest look at what Facebook can repair
- By Elkobri on 01-19-21
-
Zucked
- Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe
- By: Roger McNamee
- Narrated by: Roger McNamee
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best seller about a noted tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and Facebook investor, who wakes up to the serious damage Facebook is doing to our society—and sets out to try to stop it.
-
-
Important story made almost unbearable
- By vince on 03-14-19
By: Roger McNamee
-
In the Plex
- How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
- By: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few companies in history have ever been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes listeners inside Google headquarters - the Googleplex - to explain how Google works.
-
-
Just ok for me
- By Everyday Mom on 04-23-11
By: Steven Levy
-
New Power
- How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You
- By: Jeremy Heimans, Henry Timms
- Narrated by: Andrew Fallaize
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most of human history, the rules of power were clear: power was something to be seized and then jealously guarded. This "old power" was out of reach for the vast majority of people. But our ubiquitous connectivity makes possible a different kind of power. "New power" is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It works like a current, not a currency--and it is most forceful when it surges. The battle between old and new power is determining who governs us, how we work, and even how we think and feel. New Power shines fresh light on the cultural phenomena of our day, from #BlackLivesMatter to the Ice Bucket Challenge to Airbnb, uncovering the new power forces that made them huge. Drawing on examples from business, activism, and pop culture, as well as the study of organizations like Lego, NASA, Reddit, and TED, Heimans and Timms explain how to build new power and channel it successfully. They also explore the dark side of these forces: the way ISIS has co-opted new power to monstrous ends, and the rise of the alt-right's "intensity machine."
-
-
Very Disappointing
- By MCP on 06-01-18
By: Jeremy Heimans, and others
-
Trust Me, I'm Lying
- Confessions of a Media Manipulator
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You’ve seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don’t know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me. I’m a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs - as much as any one person can.
-
-
Wake up call
- By RML85 on 08-18-20
By: Ryan Holiday
-
The Smear
- How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote
- By: Sharyl Attkisson
- Narrated by: Sharyl Attkisson
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behind most major political stories in the modern era, there is an agenda - an effort by opposition researchers, spin doctors, and outside interests to destroy an idea or a person. The tactic they use is the Smear. Every day, Americans are influenced by the Smear without knowing it. Paid forces cleverly shape virtually every image you cross. Maybe you read that Donald Trump is a racist misogynist or saw someone on the news mocking the Bernie Sanders campaign. The trick of the Smear is that it is often based on some shred of truth.
-
-
Devestating Reporting on...Reporters and The Smear
- By Chip Atkinson on 06-29-17
By: Sharyl Attkisson
-
Antisocial Media
- How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
- By: Siva Vaidhyanathan
- Narrated by: Jack Garrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Antisocial Media, Siva Vaidhyanathan explains how Facebook devolved from an innocent social site hacked together by Harvard students into a force that, while it may make personal life just a little more pleasurable, makes democracy a lot more challenging.
-
-
a modest look at what Facebook can repair
- By Elkobri on 01-19-21
-
Zucked
- Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe
- By: Roger McNamee
- Narrated by: Roger McNamee
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best seller about a noted tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and Facebook investor, who wakes up to the serious damage Facebook is doing to our society—and sets out to try to stop it.
-
-
Important story made almost unbearable
- By vince on 03-14-19
By: Roger McNamee
-
Here Comes Everybody
- The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
- By: Clay Shirky
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A revelatory examination of how the wildfirelike spread of new forms of social interaction enabled by technology is changing the way humans form groups and exist within them, with profound long-term economic and social effects - for good and for ill. A handful of kite hobbyists scattered around the world find each other online and collaborate on the most radical improvement in kite design in decades. A midwestern professor of Middle Eastern history starts a blog after 9/11 that becomes essential reading for journalists covering the Iraq war.
-
-
Sorry I don't see the magic
- By David Turkington on 10-22-12
By: Clay Shirky
-
The Chaos Machine
- The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
- By: Max Fisher
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a New York Times investigative reporter, this “authoritative and devastating account of the impacts of social media” (New York Times Book Review) tracks the high-stakes inside story of how Big Tech’s breakneck race to drive engagement—and profits—at all costs fractured the world, and is “an essential book for our times” (Ezra Klein).
-
-
First few chapters were good. The rest was bashing all right wing politics.
- By Brandon Bastianelli on 09-19-22
By: Max Fisher
-
The Filter Bubble
- What the Internet Is Hiding from You
- By: Eli Pariser
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years: the rise of personalization.
-
-
Now in the top 3 best books I've ever read
- By Brian Esserlieu on 05-26-11
By: Eli Pariser
-
Overload
- Finding the Truth in Today's Deluge of News
- By: Bob Schieffer, H. Andrew Schwartz
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the explosion of fake news to the challenges of the 24-hour news cycle, legendary journalist Bob Schieffer examines political journalism today and those who practice it. Based on interviews with over 40 media leaders, Schieffer provides an inside look at the changing role of media and asks whether today's citizens are more informed or just overwhelmed.
-
-
The best book added to my library in over a year!
- By Daniel on 10-29-17
By: Bob Schieffer, and others
-
Twitter and Tear Gas
- The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
- By: Zeynep Tufekci
- Narrated by: Carly Robins
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An incisive observer, writer, and participant in today's social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protests - how they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change.
-
-
Insightful but frustrating
- By James on 03-11-18
By: Zeynep Tufekci
-
Rules for Revolutionaries
- How Big Organizing Can Change Everything
- By: Zack Exley, Becky Bond
- Narrated by: Tia Rider Sorensen
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rules for Revolutionaries is a bold challenge to the political establishment and the "rules" that govern campaign strategy. It tells the story of a breakthrough experiment conducted on the fringes of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign: A technology-driven team empowered volunteers to build and manage the infrastructure to make 75 million calls, launch eight million text messages, and hold more than 100,000 public meetings - in an effort to put Bernie Sanders' insurgent campaign over the top.
-
-
managing canvassors
- By Honeybee on 08-24-24
By: Zack Exley, and others
-
#Deleted
- Big Tech's Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election
- By: Allum Bokhari
- Narrated by: Allum Bokhari
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist Allum Bokhari has spent four years investigating the tech giants that dominate the Internet: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. He has discovered a dark plot to seize control of the flow of information, and utilize that power to its full extent - to censor, manipulate, and ultimately sway the outcome of democratic elections.
-
-
Big tech is playing us.
- By Jack Daniels on 11-17-20
By: Allum Bokhari
-
Future Perfect
- The Case for Progress in a Networked Age
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Samuel Cohen
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining the deft social analysis of Where Good Ideas Come From with the optimistic arguments of Everything Bad Is Good for You, New York Times best-selling author Steven Johnson's Future Perfect makes the case that a new model of political change is on the rise, transforming everything from local governments to classrooms, from protest movements to health care. Johnson paints a compelling portrait of this new political worldview.
-
-
Learn something new
- By Mauricio Eduardo Elizondo Perez on 03-12-13
By: Steven Johnson
-
An Ugly Truth
- Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination
- By: Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang
- Narrated by: Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang, Holter Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once one of Silicon Valley’s greatest success stories, Facebook has been under constant fire for the past five years, roiled by controversies and crises. It turns out that while the tech giant was connecting the world, they were also mishandling users’ data, spreading fake news, and amplifying dangerous, polarizing hate speech.
-
-
Juicy and well researched
- By Jacki C on 07-13-21
By: Sheera Frenkel, and others
-
Public Parts
- How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live
- By: Jeff Jarvis
- Narrated by: Jeff Jarvis
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A visionary and optimistic thinker examines the tension between privacy and publicness that is transforming how we form communities, create identities, do business, and live our lives. The Internet, he argues, will change business, society, and life as profoundly as Gutenberg’s invention, shifting power from old institutions to us all.
-
-
An important read
- By Simon H. Morris on 10-08-12
By: Jeff Jarvis
-
Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way
- A Comprehensive Guide for Candidates and Campaign Workers
- By: Jeff Blodgett, Bill Lofy, Ben Goldfarb, and others
- Narrated by: Emil Nicholas Gallina
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way is based on the work of Wellstone Action, a leading-edge progressive training center that has instructed thousands of political activists, campaign managers, and volunteers, of whom more than two hundred have gone on to run for office and win. Jeff Blodgett and Bill Lofy analyze the crucial lessons learned from many successful (and several losing) campaigns and demystifies what it takes to run for-and win-a political seat.
-
-
Computer read book
- By Jessica Tiedt on 05-24-18
By: Jeff Blodgett, and others
-
Network Propaganda
- Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics
- By: Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A conventional wisdom has emerged since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 that new technologies and their manipulation by foreign actors played a decisive role in his victory and are responsible for the sense of a "post-truth" moment in which disinformation and propaganda thrives. Network Propaganda challenges that received wisdom through the most comprehensive study yet published on media coverage of American presidential politics from the start of the election cycle in April 2015 to the one-year anniversary of the Trump presidency.
-
-
Biased biased biased
- By Maria Stevens on 01-17-20
By: Yochai Benkler, and others