LIVE ONLINE EVENT
Theorizing the Web Presents: Bad Company

Part of Theorizing the Web Presents
Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 2:00 p.m.

This episode of Theorizing the Web Presents offers two explorations of the metaphors that help us grasp the more intangible aspects of corporate technology. In "Ordering the (anti)social: How the advertising industry orders your mediated experience," Elinor Carmi examines the web standardization process in the European Union in the early 2000s and shows how the digital advertising industry and tech companies standardized different categories of behaviour. Next, in "Can We Call A Startup A 'Cult'?,” Adam Willems cautions against using the framework of “cults” to characterize startup culture, arguing for an approach that connects startups’ beliefs and practices to those of larger historical and economic trends. The discussions will be moderated by Dr. Apryl Williams, followed by an audience Q&A.

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About the speakers:

Elinor Carmi (@Elinor_Carmi) is a feminist, researcher, journalist, and digital rights advocate, who has been working on deviant media, internet standards, sound studies, and internet governance for the past decade. Her second book, Media Distortions: Understanding the Power Behind Spam, Noise and Other Deviant Media was recently published (in an open access format) by Peter Lang.

Adam Willems (@functionaladam) studies religion and economy at Union Theological Seminary. They write Divine Innovation, a newsletter on the spiritual world of technology.

Apryl Williams is Assistant Professor of Communication & Media at the University of Michigan and a Faculty Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Her research focuses on emerging technologies, digital media, and race relations in digital spaces.