A Conversation with Fred Turner on Democracy and Media
In the 1930s, many worried that the new medium of radio--with its ability to deliver the voices of autocrats to millions of listeners--had fueled the rise of fascism in Europe. Responding to this worry, US intellectuals during World War II sought to invent new media experiences that would inoculate audiences against fascism by encouraging the development of democratic and participatory values. These efforts were shockingly influential. They shaped everything from mid-century U.S. propaganda, to the aesthetics of the 1960s counterculture, to the ideas that structured the early internet. Yet, the notion of democracy baked into these media experiences was deeply flawed. It failed to take account of key democratic values, including diversity. Fred Turner's books and essays tell the story of how media and technology (and the ideologies baked into them) helped construct the present moment. They are indispensable to anyone interested in the politics of cyberculture, and of central importance to RadicalxChange.
SPEAKERS
Fred Turner is the Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication at Stanford University. He is the author of three books: The Democratic Surround: Multimedia and American Liberalism from World War II to the Psychedelic Sixties (University of Chicago Press, 2013); From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism (University of Chicago Press, 2006); and Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory (Anchor/Doubleday, 1996; 2nd ed., University of Minnesota Press, 2001). Before coming to Stanford, he taught Communication at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He also worked for ten years as a journalist. He has written for newspapers and magazines ranging from the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine to Harper’s.
Matt Prewitt is the President of the RadicalxChange Foundation, a writer and blockchain advisor, former plaintiff's side antitrust and consumer class action litigator, and federal law clerk.