´Inside Facebook´s Battle for Domination´

 

I often complain that there are so many non-fiction books, many of them dedicated to current phenomena, such as far right outburst and the wave of conspirationist theories. Many of them do have relevant information and share interesting details, probably less known to the wider public. However, what is unfortunately missing from many of those accounts is the courage of taking a stance, of reaching conclusions, of making clear statements. 

An Ugly Truth. Inside Facebook´s Battle for Domination by Sheera Frankel and Cecilia Kang, a NYT bestseller, is a poignant testimony about a project that outperformed even its most optimistic expectations. From a network aimed at connecting friends, it reached a country-like following and an equally impressive budget. The nation Facebook, which meanwhile added to its empire the very popular messenging system of WhatsApp and the predominantly photo app Instagram, has market dominance nowadays. 

Its dilemma, as outlined by the authors, both tech writers at NYT: connecting people while taking advantage of them. The costs of an expansion without limits are paid by the users whose information are often used for political purposes or for market researches without their will. Indeed, the users do have their dilemma too: of being out or in a popular social network, helping them to be in touch with relatives and friends while the network is abusing the information shared. 

From many respects, the Golem-esque Facebook redefined completely the social media landscape. If it haven´t existed someone should have need to invent it. Facebook redefined the way in which we connect, made possible a shift in terms of our relationship with the others as well as how we set up our story. However, it could not exist by itself, and the trade-oriented interests not only turned prevalent, but endangered values as democracy and freedom of speech.

Maybe Mark Zuckerberg was so naive to believe that by offering all the possible options on the table, people will rationally chose the best ones. Maybe he couldn´t care less. Maybe there is the millennial indifference of having it all without making any choice. Which is largely irresponsible and at least the episodes involving Facebook during Trump administrations were a counter-example strong enough to outline the dangers of this informational danger. ISIS recruitment projects and extreme right movements, alongside with charitable initiatives and cute cat photos. Hard to make a choice? Is it so hard to say ´no´ and simply ban those entities who should be out of public sight?

The book uses a lot of inside sources - to Sandberg and Zuckerberg´s horror - without getting lost into the sea of details and trivia. It follows a direction of research, therefore the information is organised along those lines. 

Indeed, truth can be ugly, but not openly declare it in its nakedness and uglyness is even uglier.

Book Review: Republic of Lies by Anna Merlan

 

Was Trump presidency the source of the recent wave of conspiracy theories? Or rather the high frequency of conspiracy theories was, in fact, a symptom of times of change and of deep societal fracture. Former Jezebel journalist, currently Motherboard (VICE) Anne Merlan spent hours talking with and in the company of conspirationists of all colours. 

Republic of Lies. American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power is collecting and explaining the major obsessions of untruth, from UFO believers to Birthers and Pizzagate. They are politicians, simple people, opinion breakers and self investigators. There are even conspiracy entrepreneurs. Many of them anti-semitic, Holocaust deniers.

The advantage of having been directly in touch, as a participant to different meetings or through direct discussions with conspirationists´ of all colours, is that a wide range of issues and the complexity of the conspiracy theories as such is offered. The collection of data and the different takes on conspiracies is very useful for a full picture of the conspiracy landscape. It is a very useful selection, updated with the latest state support perpetrated through Trump´s latest presidency which gives a very clear perspective of the phenomenon, although mostly as seen in American - but with reverberations in other part of the world as well, where authoritarian phenomena are a political reality lately.  

However, despite the impressive accumulation of information, the critical approach is lacking. There is no stance - definitely, a journalist should not, but a book is more than a media report. But you have so many symptoms and there is no disease? No one asked for the medicine, anyway, but the disease is there and one should know what exactly is going on, at the big society level, in order to figure out how to preserve what is still left in a relatively healthiest state. 

Rating: 3 stars

Visiting Dictatorland(s)

 

Although it does not have an academic approach per se, Dictatorland. The Men who Stole Africa by award-winning journalist Paul Kenyon may offer to academic researchers a good basis for figuring out the stakes of the research.

As I am often more journalist than academic, I dare to say that good journalism always leads to outstanding academic research. However, even well written journalistic pieces of information are not enough for making it into a serious academic research. Mostly, because although journalism is supposed to use a variety of sources, it may lack the proper critical approach and tools. This is due to lack of time sometimes, but also because it is not that the mission of the journalist: to compare and analyse and refute. A journalist will just be sure that he/she checked all his/her sources properly and offers in the end a quality piece of information reflecting the variety of points of views and approaches. Instead, a good academic article has the voice of the academic represented, as its framework is represented by the critical apparatus and the choice of one or another theoretical approach.

Dictatorland is, from this perspective, rather a collection of direct interactions and personal accounts while touring various countries in Africa: Libya, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea among others. Mostly, there are countries recognized for their rich resources but curses with corrupt governments leaded by dictators with a taste of both cruelty and lack of any contempt for their people. They mostly use the generous resources for peacock themselves - sometimes, literally. As for now, there are many African countries who remain enslaved by their leaders. 

Part of this situation is due, as mentioned in several occasions in the book, to the colonial history, but also to the Cold War tribulations when US preferred to support some paws only because it was useful in the front against the expansion of the Soviet Union. Nowadays though, and those aspects are not so well portrayed in the book, there are many more interests at stake, China being only one of the many main actors involved in using and abusing local resources. 

Each and every one of the cases featured are explained in the smallest details, with many information regarding the cases of dissent as well as the international games at play. However, although there may be a pattern in various situations and taking overs, it is important to avoid making comparisons which risk erase the specificities of the cases. For instance, the comparisons with Middle East, particularly Iran and the Mossadegh case can be useful for having a full picture, but does not necessarily make sense for the logic of the comparisons in itself. 

Books like Dictatorland are reminders not only that there is so much we ignore to know about the African diversity, but also how much share the former colonial powers do have in the current state of dependency and corruption. The problem is that new colonialist, non-Western powers are ready to use this context and deepen further the crisis while stealing the reminder of the resources left.

Rating: 3 stars

Living under White People

 

Germany-educated Mohamed Amjahid adds his testimony to the other informative accounts of what does it mean to be non-white in this country and abroad, like Alice Hasters, for instance. From the everyday encounters between him and the everyday residents of a village to the top management of the German media, the haughty attitude of superiority is widespread. The fact that the ´biodeutsche´ - those born and breed in Germany, with a white lineage - are mostly reluctant towards foreigners is not surprising and not news but the more it is outlined the better for raising awareness. It is a fact that should be acknowledged but even more than that: there should be a change - one day, some day, at a certain extent.

Sometimes, being labelled ´a good migrant´ or ´cool migrant´ (tooler Migrant, in German) may have its advantages, as giving a voice to the voiceless. Without those ´good migrants´ who stay aware of their identity and do not prefer to be trend followers, the story of hate, discrimination and narrow-mindness will never be heard.

This is important especially given the limited number of journalist with non-German background allowed to enter the ranks of the main media outlets. After all, isn´t it so cool to talk about diversity only from the position of generosity afforded by the priviledges of belonging to the majority? What about taking into consideration the real needs of real people who are experiencing every single day discrimination and everyday racism?

Importantly, Mohamed Amjahid sets his story into a wider European context - at the opposite ends of the European geography and history too, France and Hungary are faced with similar experiences. The ways in which the ethnic differences are internalised in Morocco, where his parents, once Gastarbeitern in Germany are currently living, outlines a much complex phenomenon that has to do with human perceptions and internalized stereotypes.

I only wish many many more such books that will keep alive the debate about (mis)treating non-white humans living in Germany. There is so much to share about and hopefully one day, voices of minorities living and contributing to the generous German wealth - think about all those IT experts and engineers invited to come to the country for their skills - will be heard strong enough to make more and more people aware of the need of a structural change of discourse and, on the long term, mentality.

Deciphering the Cultish Language

 

I promise myself over and over again to do not have high expectations on books. After all, very often, the good reputation of a book (as well) is based on reviews and wordsmitten words not necessarily innocent.

Cultish. The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell is an anaylitical research into what makes a belief ´cultish´ and what are the triggers for our critical thinking in order to detect the manipulation in due time and eventually resist it.

One of the takes that I appreciated about this book was the richness and uniqueness of the examples provided, particularly the intersection between various domains, such as health and various New Age belief. Taking the premise of religous, Protestant vocabulary and applying it to, for instance, the bubbling American workout culture is an interesting yet not extensively explored approach before although it is largely a result of the fundamentals of capitalism, in America and elsewhere.

Introducing nuances into the discourse which may avoid easy labelling as ´cult´ only for creating dissent and establishing spiritual monopoly Montell has also a nuanced approach when it comes to issues like ´brainwashing´ and the individual choice of joining or leaving a cult. However, it delves not into the complexities of group thinking and behavior as well as of the functioning of the human brain under peer pressure. 

Actually, my overall impression of the book is that in most of the cases it avoids proceeding to conclusions and quantitative/comparative analysis. Spotting the similarities between the religious language and the vocabulary of the ´positive thinking´ and influencers is not new and Roland Barthes and many others offered brilliant examples in this respect when writing about the language of advertising. Talking about ´followers´ reminisces of cults and religious fervor, but at what extent and how it is reaching the level of ´fanaticism´ we are left to figure out by ourselves, if ever.

The title promises too much, at least happened in my case, but it´s a pity that such a good material was not treated in a more throughout consequential way. Maybe because we are so exposed to radical language that we are unable to figure out how exactly the language of fanaticism really operates and how can it be countered or translated.

Cultish. The Language of Fanaticism is an useful read for its contemporary references although it does not go beyond some of the ´positive thinking´ kind of books it refers to. 

Rating: 2.5 stars

 

It´s All About the Language

 

Everything starts and ends with the language. Wars, discrimination, crimes, but also education, relationships and social and political change. This duplicity of the language brings not only risks but also responsibility and hope. Because actually there is a chance that once we acknowledge what a powerful tool we acquire - through education, birth priviledges or disadvantages, family and social interactions, to name only a few - we can realise the shortcomings and proceed to the changes.

German journalist Kübra Gümüșay is a patient observer of the German everyday complex relationship with identity. Sprache und Sein is an excellent work of reflection and applied hope for redefining the power of words. The everyday words we are using, not necessarily fully aware of the meanings those words are carrying. Painful meaning for some. 

One of the things that in a way suprise me in Germany is, on one side, the curiosity towards other religions, languages and identities - I don´t remember how many times people were in awe upon being informed about the number of languages I do speak - but without a real awareness about what really means to be different. It´s like you are asked where you are coming from but once you mention the exact geography, you are in fact talking about a place hardly someone can figure out where it is on the map. Thus, you are requested to rather find a place in the safe geography of your place/country of residence.

It´s not superficiality the word that may describe this situation. It´s also not mind laziness. But what it happens for sure in the case of the person whose identity is on a display in a very carnavalesque way is that after a while you are getting tired. You may be asked more than once by the same person the same amount of classical questions, and the reaction will be as the first time. No one asks you about what is the name of the food you like, or what is your favorite poetry or about your fashion sense. Such questions are not on the list.

Gümüșay is an excellent social doctor, spotting the paradigms of conservative refusal of identity but at the same time searching to identify and set new realms for discussing and recognising the difference(s). It´s a spin change which on the long term will definitely challenge the German post-war paradigm. But it took two generations - at least - for verbalize the need to end the intolerance of words. The diverse reality of nowadays Germany request a new vocabulary of freedom.

About Women in Journalism

Women journalists do have much more challenges to cope with than men, especially when dispatched in areas with a high potential of conflict. Journalists everywhere are at increased risk of being replaced by kind of Artificial Intelligence production of news where all should look good, neutral and eventually copy-pasted from agencies´ websites.

I believe in the power of words, in the power that journalists do have to change and say the truth to power. No matter what power. Journalists are not made to be a cozy comfortable presence. Power should be afraid of them and the pressure of the opinion public represented by journalists should be strong enough to force politicians and other public appointees to never forget whose interests do they represent.

Theoretically. In reality things are more complicated...

Former head of the ARD Studio in Tehran, Munich-born Natalie Amiri took the risk(s) - literally - of becoming the voice of those unheard in Iran. In addition to the everyday news reporting, she is also is able to seize the nuances and distinctions between different layers of power and the social reflections. Her successful book - Zwischen den Welten. Von Macht und Ohnmacht im Iran (In my approximate translation: Between Worlds. About Power and Powerless in Iran) - is not only a love story to Iran but also an example of why and how journalists should be knowledgeable of the culture, language and history of the countries they are reporting from.

The book includes dramatic episodes from the recent history of Iran, including the 2009-Green Movement as well as profiles women like Nasrin Sotoudeh who are a model of strength and accountability. Amiri´s encounters with the representatives of the security aparatus are horrible and terrible but it shows the high risks journalists are exposed when on assignments in countries ruled by repressive regimes. 

The book is a must read from everyone interested to understand more about the everyday life in Iran, beyond the simplistic black-and-white portrayals.

Photojournalist Julia Leeb is on the forefront of conflict reporting. She was in about to be killed in Libya and escaped an aggressive mob in Egypt during the ´Arab Spring´. She reported from North Korea, South Sudan and the state-who-does-not-exist: Transnistria. Her visual stories - some of them published in the book - are looking deep into the soul of the people, the pawns who are making everyday history.

One may start respecting more journalists and the risks some may take for every single bit of information. The reports from the war fronts by Julia Leeb are a reminder that good work still can be done but everything comes with a risk. Especially for women.