Ethan Zuckerman to be Featured in ‘How to Fix Social Media…and Civic Life, and Everything Else’ Series

Image

Ethan Zuckerman, associate professor of public policy, information and communication at the UMass Amherst and director of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, will be featured in a two-part event series titled “How to Fix Social Media…and Civic Life, and Everything Else” on March 2 and 4. The series is co-presented by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) and the College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS). 

In the first event titled “Losing Trust, Taking Action” on Tuesday, March 2 at 4 p.m. (EST), Zuckerman will explore how democracies, institutions and organizations alike are suffering from a crisis in trust and the strategies for social change — that work even when trust in institutions is very low, which include using less-familiar levers of social change. This talk explores people making change from within and outside of institutions using strategies that change public opinion and technical architectures as well as laws. The event is open for registration.

In the second event titled ‘Fixing Social Media’ on Thursday, March 4 at 4 p.m. (EST), Zuckerman will explore what could social networks could look like if their goal was not maximizing shareholder profit, but strengthening our democracies. This talk explores the idea of software designed around civic values and seeks to make social change through creating publicly-funded social media. The event is open for registration.

Ethan Zuckerman’s research focuses on the use of media as a tool for social change, the use of new media technologies by activists and alternative business and governance models for the internet. He is the author of “Mistrust: How Losing Trust in Institutions Provides Tools to Transform Them” and “Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection.” With Rebecca MacKinnon, Zuckerman co-founded the international blogging community Global Voices. It showcases news and opinions from citizen media in more than 150 nations and 30 languages, publishing editions in 20 languages. Previously, Zuckerman directed the Center for Civic Media at MIT and taught at the MIT Media Lab. In 2000, Zuckerman founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer organization that sends IT specialists to work on projects in developing nations, with a focus on West Africa. Previously, he helped found Tripod.com, one of the web's first “personal publishing” sites. He and his family live in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts.