Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Episode 119: My Filter Bubble of Vindication

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Plunging blindly ahead without due regard is one way to do something. A New Year, though, provides a convenient calendar-triggered pause, where one can look back and make sure goals have not been completely abandoned or forgotten. Hence, Episode 119: My Filter Bubble of Vindication.

In this episode, I read from: Eli Pariser's wonderful book, The Filter Bubble:What the Internet Is Hiding From You; A Guardian article on the effects online entities are having on journalism; Now I Know's article on television ads getting sped up even more; a New York Post article on ads in for-hire cars; Chad Hill's comments on a recent episode; and Jerry Mander's also-wonderful book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.

Sound snippet-wise I play: D. L. Myers voicing the Powell Movement stinger; Lili Tomlin's character Ernestine the Operator; and Ronald Reagan's character the Outgoing President. I also snippetize 100% Chevalier's tune "Ghana Ghana" into the segment breaks. A snippet of KMFDM's "Attack" backs a snippet of wisdom from Dmitri Orlov in the opening, and I'm close the show with the final snippet of Mistle Thrush's "It's All Like Today".

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0 attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial license.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jim- I loathe advertising just as you do, so was pleased to discover your podcast a couple years ago. I've been listening regularly ever since.

    I ran across a piece by George Monbiot that might provide grist for your mill: https://www.monbiot.com/2019/01/06/the-mind-hackers/ . Reading it makes me want to turn off my computer forever. I've said more than once that I'd be perfectly happy to go back to the pre-TV technology of the 1940s. Alas it ain't gonna happen. Well, not soon enough! This is coming from someone who has worked in the electronics field for 55+ years and was initially thrilled with such advances as transistors, integrated circuits, and microprocessors. Now I'm completely dismayed with where it's all taking us. The Internet has become a pipeline for spies, liars, and general manipulation. It's pretty damn horrifying.

    So many thanks for providing an ad-free island in the midst of the insanity. I'll be listening.


    Kevin

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    1. Hey, Kevin,

      Thanks for the link and kind words. Did you check out the abstract for that first article Monbiot mentioned?

      This article presents a typology of the different ways in which consumers resist advertising, and the tactics that can be used to counter or avoid such resistance.… Our ACE typology distinguishes three types of resistance strategies: Avoiding, Contesting, and Empowering. We introduce these strategies, and present research describing advertising tactics that may be used to neutralize each of them.

      Oh, that is… angry-making. Words. Fail.

      Grrrr…,

      Jim

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  2. yeah, I looked at that. Grrr is right.

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