The People's Platform
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''The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age'' is a 2014 book by Astra Taylor. Its central argument "challenges the notion that the Internet has brought us into an age of cultural democracy." The book was the winner of the
American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...
and has been praised by ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', ''
Flavorwire ''Flavorwire'' is a New York City-based online culture magazine. The site includes original feature articles, interviews, reviews, as well as content recycled from other sources. ''Flavorwire'' describes themselves as "a network of culturally con ...
'', and NY1 News' ''The Book Reader''.


Summary

(From back cover of Picador-published paperback): "The Internet has been hailed as an unprecedented democratizing force. A place where all can participate equally. But how true is this claim? In a seminal dismantling of techno-utopian visions, ''The People's Platform'' argues that the Internet in fact amplifies real-world inequities at least as much as it ameliorates them. Online, just as off-line, attention and influence largely accrue to those who already have plenty of both. A handful of giant companies remain the gatekeepers, while the worst habits of the old media model -- the pressure to seek easy celebrity, to be quick and sensational above all -- have proliferated in the ad-driven system. "We can do better, Astra Taylor insists. The online world does offer a unique opportunity, but a democratic culture that supports work of lasting value will not spring up from technology alone. If we want the Internet to truly be a people's platform, we will have to make it so." ''The People's Platform'' was created to document how the internet has been instrumental in wiping out the "cultural industry’s middle classes" and that the middle class has been "replaced by new cultural plantations ruled over by the West Coast aggregators."


Writing and Inspiration

Astra Taylor credits much of the inspiration behind writing ''The People's Platform'' to her work as an independent filmmaker. She cites "frustration with the mainstream media" because they failed to cover subjects and stories that were of concern to Taylor. After she saw firsthand how the internet is not the "egalitarian or noncommerical paradise" she once believed it was. She mentions concerns about writing critically about technology, as criticism of technology has often been met with resistance.


Reception

A variety of publishers and newspapers have offered praises for ''The People's Platform''. The
LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
states that “Taylor makes a thorough case that the technological advances we’ve been told constitute progress—that anyone can start a blog, that we can easily keep up with our friends (and frenemies) on Facebook, that Twitter can foment democratic revolution — are actually masking and, in some cases, exacerbating social ills that have long plagued our society… Compelling and well argued.”
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
notes that “Taylor’s smart and nuanced overview of the new media landscape is the best I’ve recently read and an excellent summary of the mess we’re in…. After reading Taylor’s brisk and lucid survey, there’s no denying that in online media, the market is falling short.”
Publishers weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
claims that “With compelling force and manifest-like style, writer and documentary filmmaker Taylor lays out one of the smartest—and most self-evident—arguments about the nature and effect of technology in our digital age…. Taylor’s provocative book has the power to help shape discussions about the role of technology in our world.”


References

__FORCETOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:People's Platform, The 2014 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Books about the Internet Metropolitan Books books