Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T13:45:55.149Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Everybody's Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Extract

The incursion of the unwanted thus seems to be part of the risk of thinking with others, part of the vulnerability of opening oneself, one's words and one's thoughts, to anyone who might venture upon them.

—Jodi Dean, “Blogging Theory”

Ah, the peace and quiet that follows a “block” on twitter.

—Saree Makdisi, Twitter

One day in 2012, while a presidential election campaign was in full swing, i wrote a blog post and hit “publish.” the post was pretty niche, I thought—the ninth in a series of posts that I had been tagging “puerility,” all incipient ideas for a future project that would draw on childhood studies, the history of statistics, and poetics. With “puerility,” I sought to describe a ludic epistemological mode that draws its power from its very willingness to disclaim power and embrace provisionality—an ambivalence often figured through, and associated with, boyhood. My previous blogging on puerility had mused over the Google N-gram Viewer and the widespread propensity to describe it as a “fun” “toy,” the foulmouthed parody Twitter account @MayorEmanuel, and Wes Anderson's 2012 film Moonrise Kingdom. The new post was about election predictions and a recent media flap around the statistician Nate Silver.

Type
The Changing Profession
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Bady, Aaron. “The Soul of Mark Zuckerberg: What DuBois Can Tell Us about Facebook.” Zunguzungu. N.p., 14 May 2010. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. <http://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/the-soul-of-mark-zuckerberg-what-dubois-can-tell-us-about-facebook/.Google Scholar
Barlow, John Perry. A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 8 Feb. 1996. Web. 10 Jan. 2015. < https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html>..>Google Scholar
Bernstein, Charles. The Flarf Files. Electronic Poetry Center, Aug. 2003. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/bernstein/syllabi/readings/flarf.html>..>Google Scholar
Bowles, Kate. “Irreplaceable Time.” Music for Deckchairs. N.p., 24 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://musicfordeckchairs.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/irreplaceable-time/.Google Scholar
boyd, danah. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven: Yale UP, 2014. Print.Google Scholar
boyd, danah. “‘Real Names’ Policies Are an Abuse of Power.” Apophenia. N.p., 4 Aug. 2011. Web. 21 Aug. 2014. <http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2011/08/04/real-names.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zephoria%2Fthoughts+%28apophenia%29>.Google Scholar
Cecire, Natalia. “The Passion of Nate Silver (Sort Of).” Works Cited. N.p., 2 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Aug. 2014. <http://nataliacecire.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-passion-of-nate-silver-sort-of.html>.Google Scholar
Chow, Rey. “The Resistance of Theory; or, The Worth of Agony.” Just Being Difficult? Academic Writing in the Public Arena. Ed. Culler, Jonathan and Lamb, Kevin. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003. 95105. Print. Cultural Memory in the Present.Google Scholar
Cohen, Dan. “Professors, Start Your Blogs.” Dan Cohen. N.p., 21 Aug. 2006. Web. 21 Aug. 2014. <http://www.dancohen.org/2006/08/21/professors-start-your-blogs/.Google Scholar
Daum, Andreas W.Varieties of Popular Science and the Transformations of Public Knowledge: Some Historical Reflections.” Isis 100.2 (2009): 319–32. JSTOR. Web. 15 Jan. 2015.Google Scholar
Dean, Jodi. “Blogging Theory.” Bad Subjects 75 (2006): n. pag. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://bad.eserver.org/issues/2006/75/dean.htm.Google Scholar
Demby, Gene. “Taking a Magnifying Glass to the Brown Faces in Medieval Art.” Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity. NPR, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 May 2015. <http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/13/250184740/taking-a-magnifying-glass-to-the-brown-faces-in-medieval-art.Google Scholar
Dunn, Sydni. “University's Rescinding of Job Offer Prompts an Outcry.” The New York Times. New York Times, 31 Aug. 2014. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/education/illinois-university-prompts-outcry-for-revoking-job-offer-to-professor-in-wake-of-twitter-posts-on-israel.html>.Google Scholar
Eaton, Kit. “Reader May Have Died to Feed Google+'s APIs.” Fast Company Labs. Mansueto Ventures, 3 July 2013. Web. 28 Aug. 2014. <http://www.fastcolabs.com/3013890/reader-may-have-died-to-feed-googles-apis.Google Scholar
Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel. 1st Dalkey Archive ed. Normal: Dalkey Archive, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Fleishman, Glenn. “Cartoon Captures Spirit of the Internet.” The New York Times. New York Times, 14 Dec. 2000. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/14/technology/14DOGG.html>.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. An Introduction. Trans. Hurley, Robert. New York: Vintage, 1988. Print. Vol. 1 of The History of Sexuality. 3 vols.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. “The ‘Uncanny.‘” An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works. London: Hogarth, 1955. Print. Vol. 17 (1917-19) of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.Google Scholar
Green, Alan. “Powering Down Google Reader.” Official Google Reader Blog. Google, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 28 Aug. 2014. <http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2013/03/powering-down-google-reader.html>.Google Scholar
Hardaway, Francine. “Why Blogging Is Dead—and What's Next.” Fast Company. Mansueto Ventures, 4 Dec. 2012. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.fastcompany.com/3003658/why-blogging-dead-and-whats-next.Google Scholar
Herrman, John. “Weird Twitter: The Oral History.” BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, 5 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/weird-twitter-the-oral-history.Google Scholar
Jaschik, Scott. “The Emails on Salaita.” Inside Higher Ed. Inside Higher Ed., 25 Aug. 2014. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/25/u-illinois-officials-defend-decision-deny-job-scholar-documents-show-lobbying>.Google Scholar
Kabadayi, Onur. “Blogging Is Dead, Long Live Blogging.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 July 2014. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/jul/16/blogging-dead-bloggers-digital-content.Google Scholar
Kane, Shanley. “‘Internet Famous’: Visibility as Violence on Social Media.” Model View Culture (2014): n. pag. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/internet-famous-visibility-as-violence-on-social-media.Google Scholar
Kottke, Jason. “The Blog Is Dead, Long Live the Blog.” Nieman Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism, 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/12/the-blog-is-dead/>.Google Scholar
Kottke, Jason. “R.I.P. The Blog, 1997-2013.” Kottke.org. N.p., 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://kottke.org/13/12/rip-the-blog-1997-2013.Google Scholar
Kristof, Nicholas. “Professors, We Need You!New York Times 15 Feb. 2014: SR11. Print.Google Scholar
Lardinois, Frederic. “The End of Bloglines Is Nigh—Will Close October 1.” ReadWrite. Say Media, 10 Sept. 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2014. <http://readwrite.com/2010/09/10/bloglines_closes_shop>..>Google Scholar
Lindemann, Marilee. “The Madwoman with a Laptop: Notes toward a Literary Prehistory of Academic Fem Blogging.” Journal of Women's History 22.4 (2010): 209–19. Print.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Rebecca, and Lim, Hae-in. “Google Plus Finally Gives Up on Its Ineffective, Dangerous Real-Name Policy.” Slate. Slate Group, 17 July 2014. Web. 21 Aug. 2014. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/07/17/google_plus_finally_ditches_its_ineffective_dangerous_real_name_policy.html>.Google Scholar
Makdisi, Saree. “Ah, the peace and quiet that follows a ‘block’ on twitter.” 20 Aug. 2014, 1:01 p.m. Tweet. <https://twitter.com/sareemakdisi/status/502183770179391489>..>Google Scholar
McMillan Cottom, Tressie. “‘Who Do You Think You Are?‘: When Marginality Meets Academic Microcelebrity.” Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology 7 (2015): n. pag. Web. 28 May 2015. <http://adanewmedia.org/2015/04/issue7-mcmillancottom/>.Google Scholar
Medieval PoC. “[Censored Slurs, Violence, Harassment].” People of Color in European Art History. N.p., Mar. 2014. Web. 2 Sept. 2014. <http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/76113717998/censored-slurs-violence-harassment>..>Google Scholar
Medieval PoC. “A Moment to Address Something Important.” People of Color in European Art History. N.p., Feb. 2014. Web. 2 Sept. 2014. <http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/68584718453/a-moment-to-address-something-important>..>Google Scholar
Medieval PoC. People of Color in European Art History. N.p., Aug. 2014. Web. 30 Aug. 2014. <http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/93339594148/tw-harassment-threats-stalking-violence>..>Google Scholar
Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Lisa, and Chow-White, Peter, eds. Race after the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.Google Scholar
Nguyen, Mimi Thi. “Against Efficiency Machines.” Thread and Circuits. N.p., 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://threadandcircuits.wordpress.com/tag/academic-labor/.Google Scholar
Nissenbaum, Helen. “Privacy as Contextual Integrity.” Washington Law Review 79.1 (2004): 119–57. Print.Google Scholar
On Collegiality as a Criterion for Faculty Evaluation. AAUP: American Association of University Professors. AAUP, 1999. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://www.aaup.org/report/collegiality-criterion-faculty-evaluation.Google Scholar
Palumbo-Liu, David. “The Morality of Form; or, What's ‘Bad’ about ‘Bad Writing‘?Just Being Difficult? Academic Writing in the Public Arena. Ed. Culler, Jonathan and Lamb, Kevin. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003. 171–80. Print. Cultural Memory in the Present.Google Scholar
Shapin, Steven. A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1994. Print. Science and Its Conceptual Foundations.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunstein, Cass R.Deliberating Groups vs. Prediction Markets (or Hayek's Challenge to Habermas).” Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology 3.3 (2006): 192213. Project Muse. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.Google Scholar
Tracy, Marc. “Eulogy for the Blog.” New Republic. New Republic, 26 Apr. 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2014. <http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113053/new-york-times-buzzfeed-andrew-sullivan-herald-death-blog.Google Scholar
Warner, Michael. Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Wilson, Jason. “Hate Sinks.” New Inquiry Feb. 2014: 17-20. Print.Google Scholar