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The Commodity of Authenticity

 

DATE: Monday, March 9, 2020

TIME: 9 AM EST

LOCATION: Online. Click here to join

Join for a #digiURI book club discussion of “The Commodity of Authenticity" Team Human Podcast, Ep. 113 w/ Jamie Cohen and Douglas Rushkoff.

Learn more about the DIGIURI Book/Media Club

Listen to the podcast here

Jamie Cohen helps us understand the commodity of authenticity. His work looks at the ways authenticity is quantized and codified on media platforms such as YouTube. It’s a process through which trust and connection become instrumentalized as tools for the monetization and manipulation of audience attention. Jamie warns how, coupled with powerful algorithms, the gaming of authenticity threatens serious social consequences. Jamie joins Douglas to discuss his research, including his case studies of famous YouTubers like Tyler Oakley and Casey Neistat. Together they dig into the promise and peril of “populist” digital technologies; blogging, VR, and beyond. Jamie Cohen Is a professor at Molloy College where he started the New Media Program. He researches social media, memes, digital culture, and virtual reality.