Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department: Department of Media Studies
Colleges / Universities: University of Virginia
Contact
P.O. Box 400866, 115 Ruppel Drive
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4866
Email: sv2r@virginia.edu
Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies. He is also director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia, which hosts a Democracy Lab, produces several podcasts, and the Virginia Quarterly Review magazine.
Professor Vaidhyanathan is the author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018). He also wrote Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017), and The Googlization of Everything And Why We Should Worry (University of California Press, 2011). Additional books he’s authored include: Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001) and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (Basic Books, 2004). He also co-edited (with Carolyn de la Pena) the collection, Rewiring the Nation: The Place of Technology in American Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
Professor Vaidhyanathan served on the board of the Digital Public Library of America. from 2012 through 2018. He has written for many periodicals, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Bloomberg View, IEEE Spectrum, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate.com, Columbia Journalism Review, The Washington Post, Esquire.com, and The Nation. He is a frequent contributor to public radio programs. And he has appeared on news programs on BBC, CNN, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and ABC. He is currently a regular columnist for The Guardian. In 2016, Professor Vaidhyanathan played a prominent role in the higher-education documentary, Starving the Beast. Additionally, he was portrayed as a character on stage at the Public Theater in New York City in a play called Privacy (also in 2016). Professor Vaidhyanathan has appeared in an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss early social network services; and he has appeared in several documentary films, including Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013), Inside the Mind of Google (2009), and Freedom of Expression (2007).
Degree
Ph.D. American Studies University of Texas, Austin
Recent Academic Article Summaries
Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
Facebook and other tech firms have failed to filter out racism and other harmful ideas from the public sphere and encourage people to express themselves in shallow ways. The idea that the Internet would lead to more freedom and more competition was a myth.
People should take a global stand to resist tech firms’ power before it is too late.
Facebook Was Letting Down Users Years Before Cambridge Analytica
In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that Facebook had deceived users about how much data it shared with third-party apps, and how that data was used. Facebook was required to ensure that outsiders did not obtain such data, but failed to do so.
Critics worry that firms can use data from Facebook to manipulate voters. The real problem is that Facebook itself is now using data to influence political campaigns.
Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction
Intellectual property (IP) law includes copyright, patent, trademark, and trade secret law. Some scholars advocate revisiting and reforming fundamental principles of IP law, because it can be overly complex, raise prices, and restrict free expression and innovation.
Activists have arisen to protest excessive IP laws around the world.
The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry)
Google dominates the way we navigate the Internet, offering Web search, email, video, and more. Most people trust Google, but dependence on Google may be dangerous. Google’s role is too important to leave to one private company.
Regulators should subject Google to strict antitrust scrutiny. Computer users’ privacy should be better protected.
Rewiring the Nation: The Place of Technology in American Studies
This books looks at how technology affects people, families, war and society.
Technology is critical to the sense of progress in the United States, but its affects are not always beneficial or well understood.
Blog Posts
Quotes in the News
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2022, April 15). NBC News.“He's never been in this business. He’s been in a scattershot of businesses that have nothing to do with media or communication.”
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department of Media Studies
University of Virginia
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2021, September 18). The Guardian.“In short, the problem with Facebook is Facebook.”
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department of Media Studies
University of Virginia
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2021, March 6). The New York Times.“When you ban all campaign ads on the most accessible and affordable platform out there, you tilt the balance toward the candidates who can afford radio and television.”
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department of Media Studies
University of Virginia
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2021, February 17). The New York Times.“Google is already used to playing a different game in every different country; they may have gotten beyond this fantasy of a universalized approach to doing business in the world.”
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department of Media Studies
University of Virginia
Vaidhyanathan, S. (2020, November 13). BBC.com.“Facebook was basically caught flat-footed, even though anybody who studies American politics would have known that one of our two political parties would do everything it could to delegitimise the process.”
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department of Media Studies
University of Virginia
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