<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span style="font-family: Optima;" class="">Dear MIT STS Community,</span><br class=""><div class=""><div class="" style="font-family: ArialMT;"><font face="Optima" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class="" style="font-family: ArialMT;"><span class="" style="font-family: Optima;">You are cordially invited to the inaugural event of MIT’s new <i class="">Computational Cultures Initiative</i>, sponsored by the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. MIT’s doctoral program in History, Anthropology, and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) presents a panel discussion focused on the social, political, and technological entanglements of social media and democracy. </span></div><div class="" style="font-family: ArialMT;"><span class="" style="font-family: Optima;"><br class=""></span></div><div class="" style="font-family: ArialMT;"><font face="Optima" class="">The event features a moderated panel of four leading scholars specialized in researching and analyzing the infusion of social media platforms in our everyday social and political lives, including an audience Q&A session. Following the lecture, there will be a smaller seminar for graduate students.</font></div></div><div style="text-align: center;" class=""><span class="" style="font-family: Optima;"><br class=""></span></div><div style="text-align: center;" class=""><span class="" style="font-family: Optima;">MIT HASTS’s Democracy, Citizenship, and Technology Series presents: </span><br style="text-align: start;" class=""><b class="" style="font-family: Optima;"><br class=""></b></div><div style="text-align: center;" class=""><b class="" style="font-family: Optima;">Social Media and Democracy</b><br style="text-align: start;" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-family: Optima;" class="">Wednesday, September 12, 2018</span></div><div class=""><span style="font-family: Optima;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="font-family: Optima;" class="">Panel Discussion: 4:30pm - 6:30pm</span></div><span style="font-family: Optima;" class="">10-250 </span><br style="text-align: start;" class=""><div class=""><font color="#5856d6" face="Optima" class=""><br class=""></font></div><span style="font-family: Optima;" class="">Graduate Seminar: 7:00pm </span><br style="text-align: start;" class=""><span style="font-family: Optima;" class="">4-153 </span></div><div style="text-align: center;" class=""><span style="font-family: Optima; text-align: start;" class=""> </span></div><div class=""><div class=""><font face="Optima" class=""><i class="">*Pizza will be served for all attendees following the panel discussion at 6:30pm, outside the hall. </i></font><span style="font-family: Optima;" class=""><i class="">Registration is not required but helpful for planning purposes. Please register your attendance (at no charge):</i> </span><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mitsocial-media-and-democracy-colloquium-tickets-49218079601" style="font-family: Optima;" class="">https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mitsocial-media-and-democracy-colloquium-tickets-49218079601</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><span class="" style="font-family: Optima;">"</span><span class="" style="font-family: Optima;">Democracies face a set of unique and proliferating challenges in the twenty-first century, particularly stemming from the increasing power and presence of digital platforms like social media and related technologies. Such digital platforms are the spaces and places that increasingly provide the dominant means of encountering and exchanging ideas, finding news and information, and for creating social and political communities. Although these platforms can promise to serve a public function, they are nonetheless dominantly owned and operated by the private sphere, leading to a number of legal, ethical, and broadly techno-social problems as evidenced by recent revelations of the relationship between Facebook and the 2016 American presidential elections.</span><br class=""><div class=""><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><span class="" style="text-indent: 36pt;"><font face="Optima" class=""><br class=""></font></span></div></div></div></div><span class="" style="font-family: Optima; text-indent: 36pt;">Digital platforms are thus not easily classifiable under familiar categories: are they similar to traditional media (press and TV)? Are they considered a utility company (ISPs), providing essential services for internet users? What promising potentials and subsequent futures might certain iteration of social media platforms offer towards creating and maintaining the public and political spheres that are central to the evolution of twenty-first century democracies? How might these platforms be harnessed generatively, as well critiqued?</span><span style="font-family: Optima;" class="">”</span><div class=""><b style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125); font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><br class=""></b></div><div style="text-align: center;" class=""></div></body></html>