Selfie Democracy

The New Digital Politics of Disruption and Insurrection

Selfie Democracy
Elizabeth Losh
RRP:
NZ$ 55.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 44.00
Paperback
h229 x 152mm - 304pg
6 Sep 2022 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780262047050
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
How politicians' digital strategies appeal to the same fantasies of digital connection, access, and participation peddled by Silicon Valley. Smartphones and other digital devices seem to give us a direct line to politicians. But is interacting with presidential tweets really a manifestation of digital democracy? In Selfie Democracy, Elizabeth Losh examines the unintended consequences of politicians' digital strategies, from the Obama campaign' s pioneering construction of an online community to Trump' s Twitter dominance. She finds that politicians who use digital media appeal to the same fantasies of digital connection, access, and participation peddled by Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, smartphones and social media don' t enable participatory democracy so much as they incentivize citizens to perform attention-getting acts of political expression. Losh explores presidential rhetoric casting digital media as tools of democracy, describes the conflation of gender and technology that contributed to Hillary Clinton' s defeat in 2016, chronicles the Biden campaign' s early digital stumbles in 2020, and recounts the TikTok campaign that may have spoiled a Trump rally. She shows that although Obama and Trump may seem diametrically opposed in both style and substance, they both used mobile digital media in ways that reshaped the presidency and promised a new kind of digital democracy. Obama used data and digital media to connect to citizens without intermediaries; Trump followed this strategy to its most extreme conclusion. What were the January 6 insurrectionists doing, as they livestreamed themselves and their cohorts attacking the Capitol, but practicing their own brand of selfie democracy?
Elizabeth Losh is Duane A. and Virginia S. Dittman Professor of American Studies and English at William & Mary. She is the author of Virtualpolitik- An Electronic History of Government Media-Making in a Time of War, Scandal, Disaster, Miscommunication, and Mistakes, The War on Learning- Gaining Ground in the Digital University (both published by the MIT Press), and other books.
Status: Indent title, imported to order
ISBN-13: 9780262047050
Published: 6 Sep 2022
Published In: United States
Imprint: MIT Press
Publisher: MIT Press
Format: Paperback
Height: 229mm
Width: 152mm
Pages: 304

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information