Ethan Zuckerman will discuss the current tech backlash and examine the veracity of some of the most common critiques of social media – that it is polarizing our politics, abusing our attention, misinforming our democracy and damaging our emotional health. During his presentation he will explore what it would mean to build social media expressly designed to strengthen democratic society, and whether we can imagine an alternative system where public service digital media overcomes some of the thorniest problems of our contemporary world.

The director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, Zuckerman is associate professor of practice at the MIT Media Lab and the author of the 2013 book Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection. Previously, he worked with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University on projects focused on civic media, freedom of speech online and understanding media ecosystems. He also founded Geekcorp, a non-profit technology volunteer corps that has done work in over a dozen countries, and helped to found Tripod, an early participatory media company.