Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Taming of the Web and the Rise of Algorithmic News
2. Algorithmic Gatekeeping and the Transformation of News
Organizations
3. The First Amendment, Fake News, and Filter Bubbles
4. The Structure of the Algorithmic Marketplace of Ideas
5. The Public-Interest Principle in Media Governance: Past and
Present
6. Reviving the Public Interest
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Philip M. Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he is also a faculty affiliate with the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. His previous books include Audience Economics: Media Institutions and the Audience Marketplace (2003) and Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences (2010), both from Columbia University Press.
Drawing on the history of U.S. media regulation, Napoli offers an
insightful framework for reimagining how social media can serve the
public interest. Social Media and the Public Interest is an
essential text for policy makers and those struggling to reduce the
harm of caustic content and misinformation.
*danah boyd, author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of
Networked Teens*
Napoli takes up the daunting challenge of lassoing and taming the
wild social media beasts that have wreaked so much havoc in
democracies around the world. This book is bold, clear, and
necessary. Readers of this book will gain a deep historical
understanding of the complex relationship among social media
platforms, news producers, citizens, and the state.
*Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook
Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy*
While recent episodes have raised questions about algorithmic
manipulation and discrimination, what remained missing was a truly
comprehensive account, one that not only synthesizes the state of
affairs but also offers a conceptual framework for interpreting
these developments in light of public policy, news values and
ethics, and the future of the public sphere. This book bridges that
gap.
*Seth C. Lewis, University of Oregon*
While "public interest analyses" are common in the discussion of
communications technology, television, and journalism, such
analyses have not usually been used to frame algorithmic platforms
like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. For that reason, Social Media
and the Public Interest is a major contribution to the literature
on communication, regulation, and digital media.
*C. W. Anderson, author of Rebuilding the News: Metropolitan
Journalism in the Digital Age*
This market failure is so deep, Napoli argues, that it cannot be
solved by conventional antitrust or other competition policies.
Instead, he argues, Americans must embrace rigorous regulation of
social media platforms so that they are made to serve public
purposes.
*Washington Monthly*
Excellent and vital.
*Journal of Communication*
Social Media and the Public Interest is a comprehensive
contribution to understanding the digital ecosystem . . . It is a
timely study that would benefit students in the social sciences and
communication.
*Arab Studies Quarterly*
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