The author of Silicon Valley satire I Hate the Internet on the evils of social media, and how novelists have failed to tackle itWhen the novel I Hate the Internet came out in the US earlier this year, it had every likelihood of sinking without trace. It was self-published, it was by a young unknown – Jarett Kobek – and its main selling point was naked, gleeful contempt for the devices and technology platforms that are an essential part of all our daily lives. “Nothing says individuality like 500 million consumer electronics built by slaves,” he says at one point. “Welcome to hell.” Hell, for Kobek, a 38-year-old American of Turkish heritage, became daily life in San Francisco, where the novel is set. Along with many of the city’s artists and writers, he found himself driven out by the forces of gentrification, moved to Los Angeles, where he’s now based, set up his own small press, and wrote this book – a scorching satire of how a few hypercapitalist companies in Silicon Valley have come to dominate everything. I Hate the Internet didn’t sink without trace. It found a readership thirsty for its funny, acerbic edge, got a rave review in the New York Times, went to the top of the bestseller charts in Germany and has now been published here by Serpent’s Tail.So, do you actually hate the internet, Jarett?Not particularly. There’s part of it that I find really contemptible. The title is offered like the sneer of a 15-year-old into Twitter, after they’ve just seen a meme of... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
Marc Benioff, the billionaire co-founder of software maker Salesforce.com Inc., is making a play to project his influence far beyond Silicon Valley with the purchase of Time magazine. The 53-year-old entrepreneur and his wife, Lynne, agreed to pay $190 million in cash to Meredith Corp. for the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Bend Venture Conference is back this fall and will feature a keynote from "Bloomberg Technology" anchor and executive producer Emily Chang. The conference is slated for Oct. 18 and Oct. 19 in downtown Bend. Chang authored the book “Brotopia,” which was released in February and chronicles... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2018-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[caption id="attachment_81446" align="alignright" width="150"] Dawn Ostroff[/caption] Condé Nast Entertainment’s Dawn Ostroff is leaving her post as president and is heading to Spotify to take on the role of chief content officer. In her new position, Ostroff will lead Spotify’s content... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2018-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[caption id="attachment_81446" align="alignright" width="150"] Dawn Ostroff[/caption] Condé Nast Entertainment’s Dawn Ostroff is leaving her post as president and is heading to Spotify to take on the role of chief content officer. In her new position, Ostroff will lead Spotify’s content... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2018-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google is offering publishers more generous terms as part of a new subscriber tool, currying favor with the news industry at a time when Facebook is sending mixed signals to newspapers and magazines.Publishers will keep 85 percent to 95 percent of revenue when readers first buy subscriptions via... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2018-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One of the world's largest advertisers is threatening to pull its ads from social sites such as Facebook and YouTube if the tech companies don't do more to minimize divisive content on their platforms. Unilever's chief marketing officer, Keith Weed, will call on Silicon Valley on Monday to better... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media mogul Rupert Murdoch — the executive chairman of News Corporation, and the big boss at Fox News, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal — has a message to Silicon Valley's social media giants: Pay up. Murdoch's specific targets Monday were Facebook and Alphabet's Google, two... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2018-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp. executive chairman and 21st Century Fox executive co-chairman Rupert Murdoch is taking on Silicon Valley. The media mogul released a statement today noting that if Facebook is going to revamp its news feed to ensure it's publishing the most legitimate, "trusted" news content on its... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2018-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Party described in Vanity Fair article and forthcoming book was at a home of Steve Jurvetson, a founding partner of venture-capital firm DFJ who left the firm in November. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2018-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury is further proof that Murdoch never lets personal feelings get in the way of good businessThere are many reasons to want to go back to early 2016 – not least the fact that Rupert Murdoch was still tweeting his views of the world rather than leaving it to the minions... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook defends itselfWhen companies place job ads on Facebook and target them to younger users, is that ageist? Non-profit news organization ProPublica and The New York Times just raised concerns about the issue, adding that Amazon, Verizon, Goldman Sachs and Facebook itself use that practice;... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With Shanghai International Children's Book Fair ahead, it's interesting to see young authors rocking China's bestseller charts. The post OpenBook’s China Bestseller Lists for September: The Road to Shanghai appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In his new book, 'World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech', former New Republic editor Franklin Foer offers a powerful critique of Silicon Valley. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Multimillion fines are just the start for Facebook and Google, as the world comes to realise how political big tech has becomeIn his wonderful book The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began, the literary historian Stephen Greenblatt traces the origins of the Renaissance back to the rediscovery of a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To many Americans, large technology firms embody much of what’s good about the modern world. Google holds the key to new depths of knowledge. Amazon is the white-knight savior of impulse shopping. Facebook builds the connective tissue to old friends and colleagues. Franklin Foer has a different... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Among the books just snatched up in Hollywood are a nonfiction title by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, a not-yet-published book about the unheralded female rock stars of Silicon Valley, and a Spiegel & Grau-published novel about a woman who goes missing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel rockets to number one on Amazon after Channel 4 begins airing series starring Elisabeth MossThe Handmaid’s Tale, the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood envisaging a hellish dystopia where the US is ruled by an ultra-far-right regime that treats women as chattels, has... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Donald Trump loves Reasons to Vote Democrat, a volume of white space that follows a number of liberal spoofs with the same content. I prefer less vacant jokesIt’s a product worthy of Reggie Perrin’s Grot shop – the store opened to sell tat in David Nobbs’s magnificent satire of modern life: a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Less than 24 hours after the announcement that Philip Pullman is to release a new epic fantasy series entitled The Book of Dust, the first volume has shot to number one in Amazon's bestseller charts. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fast Company talks with author Yuval Noah Harari, whose new book looks ahead and hazards a few guesses on what's next for humanity. Fast Company talks with author Yuval Noah Harari, whose new book looks ahead and hazards a few guesses on what's next for humanity.Yuval Noah... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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