The Editors by Stephen Harrison: Wikipedia, internet communities, and the battle for truth in the digital age
- In-Person
- ASU Barrett & O'Connor Washington Center
1800 I St NW (8th Floor Event Pavilion)
Washington, D.C. 20006 - 12PM 鈥 1:30PM EDT
Crowd-sourced internet encyclopedias鈥攎ost famously, Wikipedia鈥攈ave the power to shape the story we tell about the past and the information with which we move into the future. The people who edit those forums鈥攏amely, an army of unpaid volunteers鈥攖ake their roles seriously. But what happens when that power is manipulated?
That鈥檚 the set-up for Stephen Harrison鈥檚 new novel, . When a freelance journalist attends the global conference for Infopendium, a fictional rendition of Wikipedia, she expects a straightforward story: editors鈥擯hDs and high schoolers alike鈥攄ebating the rules of the crowdsourced encyclopedia. But when a hacker targets the conference, leaving a cryptic message, it sets off an online information war with grave offline consequences.
Join Future Tense and Harrison, a leading journalist covering Wikipedia and online information ecosystems and the longtime author of the column, to discuss The Editors, internet communities, and the battle for truth in the digital age.
The first 20 registrants will receive a free copy of the book upon arriving at the event. .
Speaker:
Stephen Harrison
Author, The Editors
Moderator:
Andr茅s Martinez
Editorial Director, Future Tense
Professor of Practice, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Praise for The Editors
鈥淎 strikingly relevant and compelling suspense novel. With the pace of a thriller and the heart of a drama, Harrison exposes the unseen battles fought in the digital trenches of today's information war." 鈥擳aylor Lorenz, Technology Columnist, The Washington Post
鈥淭he Editors is an enthralling, ambitious and sharply observed contemporary thriller – no citation needed. Already one of the best reporters of the digital age, Stephen Harrison shows he鈥檚 just as adept at fiction. Every page draws the threads of a (world wide) web of intrigue, made taught by relevance, energy, and the author鈥檚 formidable understanding.鈥 鈥擱ichard Cooke, Contributing Editor, The Monthly
鈥淎 timely and entertaining thriller that confronts the perils of misinformation on the eve of a pandemic. Harrison鈥檚 writing chops are on full display, and effectively capture a moment in our recent collective history.鈥 鈥The BookLife Prize
鈥淭he great Wikipedia novel. There鈥檚 a new adventure on almost every page, and it鈥檚 hard to stop reading as you fall down the rabbit hole.鈥 鈥擯ete Ekman, The Signpost