Technoliberalism and the End of Participatory Culture in the United States

"Adam Fish's ambitious book is at once empirically and theoretically incisive; it charts the rise and fall of 'technoliberalism' as it confronts generation after generation of hopeful new media and their relentless incorporation within capital. It is an essential and creative clarification of the tangle of contemporary technologies, political theories of freedom and equality, and the desires involved in making and consuming media." (Christopher Kelty, University of California, Los Angeles, USA)

This new book examines whether television can be used as a tool not just for capitalism, but for democracy. This book elaborates on this history by using ethnographic data to build a new iteration of liberalism, technoliberalism, which sees Silicon Valley technology and the free market of Hollywood end the need for a politics of participation.This new book examines whether television can be used as a tool not just for capitalism, but for democracy. Throughout television’s history, activists have attempted to access it for that very reason. New technologies—cable, satellite, and the internet—provided brief openings for amateur and activist engagement with television. This book elaborates on this history by using ethnographic data to build a new iteration of liberalism, technoliberalism, which sees Silicon Valley technology and the free market of Hollywood end the need for a politics of participation.