This book provides an in-depth analysis of the evolution of tech journalism. The emerging tech-backlash is a story of pendulum swings: we are currently in tech-dystopianism after a long period spent in tech-utopianism.

Technologies and tech companies are routinely accused of creating many societal problems. This book exposes these charges as mostly myths, falsehoods, and exaggerations. Technology Fears and Scapegoats debunks 40 widespread myths about Big Tech, Big Data, AI, privacy, trust, polarization, automation, and similar fears, while exposing the scapegoating behind these complaints. The result is a balanced and positive view of the societal impact of technology thus far. The book takes readers through the steps and mindset necessary to restore the West's belief in technological progress. Each individual chapter provides a cogent and often controversial rebuttal to a common tech accusation. The resulting text will inspire conversations among tech insiders, policymakers, and the general public alike. Robert D. Atkinson is the founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the world's leading science and technology policy think tank. His previous books include Big is Beautiful (The MIT Press, 2018), Innovation Economics (Yale, 2012), Supply-Side Follies (Rowman Littlefield, 2007), and The Past and Future of America’s Economy (Edward Elgar, 2005). David Moschella is a nonresident senior fellow at ITIF, in charge of its "Defending Digital" project. For more than a decade, Moschella was Head of Worldwide Research for IDC. His previous books include Seeing Digital (DXC Technology, 2018), Customer-Driven IT (Harvard Business School Press, 2003), and Waves of Power (AMACOM, 1997). He has lectured and consulted on technology trends and strategies in more than 30 countries.

This book presents a comprehensive compilation of the latest research into digital disruption in the media industry. The perspectives are differentiated into innovation triggers in the media industry stemming from the economy, society and technology. In addition, the book highlights selected case studies exploring new media actors and usage, innovation and disruption in media organizations, emerging media platforms and channels, as well as innovative media topics and events. The book is intended for researchers in communication sciences and media research, as well as media practitioners who want to understand the causes and effects of digital transformation in the media industry.

The Techlash and Tech Crisis Communication provides an in-depth analysis of the evolution of tech journalism. The emerging tech-backlash is a story of pendulum swings: we are currently in tech-dystopianism after a long period spent in tech-utopianism.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an established management focus of today's companies and organizations of different types, scope and size. Communication practices on CSR and sustainability in the media industry, related theoretical concepts, and empirical foundations have not yet been sufficiently explored. This book focuses on a new normative framework of sustainability, bridging the established debate on public value with the current debate on social impact and the social license to operate in the media industry. With a variety of contributions from theory and practice, the book addresses the dual nature of media and media companies, which simultaneously produce economic and cultural goods and thus bear a "double responsibility": on the one hand, for the way they present reality, monitor and criticize economic and political developments, and bring ethical concerns to the public debate. On the other hand, they bear responsibility for their own activities as companies (license to operate). The book is therefore aimed at readers interested in the journalistic perspective and at executives in the media industry.

An urgently needed exploration of global technology worship, and a measured case for skepticism and agnosticism as a way of life, from the New York Times–bestselling author of Good without God. Today’s technology has overtaken religion as the chief influence on twenty-first century life and community. In Tech Agnostic, Harvard and MIT’s influential humanist chaplain Greg Epstein explores what it means to be a critical thinker with respect to this new faith. Encouraging readers to reassert their common humanity beyond the seductive sheen of “tech,” this book argues for tech agnosticism—not worship—as a way of life. Without suggesting we return to a mythical pre-tech past, Epstein shows why we must maintain a freethinking critical perspective toward innovation until it proves itself worthy of our faith or not. Epstein asks probing questions that center humanity at the heart of engineering: Who profits from an uncritical faith in technology? How can we remedy technology’s problems while retaining its benefits? Showing how unbelief has always served humanity, Epstein revisits the historical apostates, skeptics, mystics, Cassandras, heretics, and whistleblowers who embody the tech reformation we desperately need. He argues that we must learn how to collectively demand that technology serve our pursuit of human lives that are deeply worth living. In our tumultuous era of religious extremism and rampant capitalism, Tech Agnostic offers a new path forward, where we maintain enough critical distance to remember that all that glitters is not gold—nor is it God.

The first detailed history of Code for America that examines how democratically designed government systems can collectively improve technology’s impact on society. For decades, tens of thousands of volunteers and employees of Code for America have taken a different path to institutional change: through designing and implementing infrastructure. In Politics Recoded, Aure Schrock employs a robust, organizational ethnography to analyze how Code for America’s infrastructural organizing changed how politics get exercised, showing how we citizens can work directly with the government on projects to improve our collective livelihoods. Drawing from theories of organizing, social infrastructure, racialized organizations, technical cultures, and intersectionality, Schrock argues that our “post-techlash society” must no longer presume that corporate platforms or social networks can level social inequities. An underrecognized yet influential organization, Code for America emerged from a tech culture background that prioritized networks and publicity over the long, slow work of institutional change. But its evolution demonstrates how to push beyond the fundamental flaws of tech-forward organizing. This, the first history of Code for America, shows how promoting agentic citizenship and brokering in empathy let the organization influence policy at all levels of government—and demonstrates why we need to bolster institutions to ensure that everyone is justly represented and receiving the benefits. Appealing to those in political science, communication, and information studies, Politics Recoded will empower practitioners and activists to revolutionize technological design and participate in alternative forms of civic engagement.