UBC’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs is thrilled to host a virtual event with Douglas Rushkoff, world-renowned philosopher, futurist, and author, for this free online event as part of our 2022 Phil Lind Initiative series on “The Future of Media.”
Welcome remarks: Dr. Allison Macfarlane, Professor and Director, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC
Moderator: Taylor Owen, Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, Founding Director of The Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, and Associate Professor, Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University
Talk Title: Distributed A New Operating System for Business and the Economy
In this inspiring talk, drawing from his book Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Douglas Rushkoff will offer a new program for business in the digital landscape.
Digital technology was supposed to usher in a new age of endless prosperity, but so far it has been used to put industrial capitalism on steroids. Social networks surrender their missions to data mining, while brokerage houses abandon investing for algorithms—tactics driven by the need to stoke growth by any means necessary. Internet startups sell for billions, but destroy more jobs than they create, extract more cash from circulation than they put in, and disrupt entire marketplaces and neighborhoods in the process. We know that something’s wrong—but we’re not sure how to fix it, or even what to call it.
Media scholar and technology author Douglas Rushkoff argues for a new economic program that utilizes the unique distributive power of the internet to break free of the winner-take-all game defining business today. In this keynote, Dr. Rushkoff will offer a series of practical steps for businesses, consumers, investors, and policymakers to remake the economy from the inside out—and prosper along the way.
Learn more about the 2022 “The Future of Media” series. Each event is open to the public and free to attend.
Series Theme: Media is at a crossroads. Full-time journalists and long-form reporting have been forced to cede public space to click bait news articles, online echo chambers, and disinformation campaigns. It has never been more challenging to inform the public, to bridge political divides, and to stimulate healthy debate.
Yet trust in mass media has never been lower, with only 9% of Americans trusting the media “a great deal” and 60% having “little to no trust at all.” From the rise of social media to the erosion of traditional business models to the deep political polarization in American society, how we as citizens consume information has fundamentally changed.
This series explores these changes, but more importantly asks where we go from here. How can we restore trust? How do we reconcile evidence-based reporting with the digital age? And above all, how can we reshape the media landscape in the face of these challenges to better society?
Find books authored by Douglas Rushkoff on the UBC Bookstore website.
Subscribe to our Phil Lind Initiative Newsletter for updates and details on how to register.
Disclaimer: Please note that by using this service, your information will be stored on the Eventbrite server, which is located outside Canada. If you do not wish to use this service, please email lind.initiative@ubc.ca directly to register. Thank you.
Hosted by: The Phil Lind Initiative is hosted by the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia
