Book Review: This Program Is Brought to You By . . . . by Joshua A. Braun

Abstract

This Program Is Brought to You By . . . . Joshua A. Braun. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015. 336 pp. $35.00 pbk. $33.25 ebk.The whole wired world appears, at first glance, to be our personalized digital oyster. As Joshua Braun, assistant professor of journalism studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst, addresses in his book, it is imperative that look inside of online media distribution to fully appreciate inner working and efforts of contemporary media organizations. The connected individual has become a focal point for developing technologies that address fundamental shifts in content creators' relationship with, and engagement of, online media consumers. Braun shares that we appear to have entered a phase in which much of news work revolves around a somewhat different concern: How do journalists get non-journalists to distribute their messages? (p. 5). This deceptively simple observation is at very core of a new Conversation Economy that requires leveraging of online content consumers and their social networks. For good reason, Braun calls for a paradigm shift in research that is more inclusive of roles and implications of distribution, noting that past scholarship has skewed more heavily toward production efforts and consumer effects. As foundation for his research, Braun utilizes a case study methodology with three primary field sites and numerous interviews set in larger MSNBC constellation of independent units, cable TV shows, and management, as it was structured in 2010.Central to importance of this inquiry is veil of instantaneous access to peruse and procure online media that obfuscates highly orchestrated and negotiated journey that content travels. This path often includes an incredible degree of curation, often automated, taking place to ensure that content gets on right websites and devices for right consumers. Braun hints that final distribution routes hidden inside this black box may come at costs have yet to understand, stating that decisions about distribution, whether made by media executives or file sharers, are-in barest terms-attempts to control who has access to information and culture, and under what conditions (pp. 7-8). To render these socio-technical systems visible, Braun chooses to rely heavily on science and technology studies perspectives on infrastructure. In first chapters of book, Braun builds upon study of seafaring Portuguese merchant ships charting trade routes, or Voltas, amid natural phenomena and human interests to allegorically depict journey of online media content to consumer. The comparison is an apt one, and Braun steers clear of over-applying it, returning to metaphor to tie concepts of first section of book together cohesively.Braun approaches some technological artifacts, like MSNBC video player, through an anti-art lens, seeking an elevated discussion of whether the object in itself has politics or is making a statement (p. …