Beyond the Echo Chamber

beyond the echo chamber

Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media

By Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke
New Press, 2010

“Beyond The Echo Chamber tells one of the great untold stories of this decade: the evolution of an entirely new (and newly powerful) progressive media… It’s a must-read for media practitioners, consumers, and progressives of all stripes.”—Christopher Hayes, Host, MSNBC

Buy the book.

Why “Beyond the Echo Chamber”?
When we started our research in 2005, it was all the rage to talk about how progressive media needed “infrastructure”—an echo chamber to mirror and combat the right’s noise machine. Over our subsequent years of research, writing and organizing, we came to believe that progressive media’s impact and sustainability depend on moving “beyond the echo chamber” to a collaborative, networked model of reporting and community building. In this 2010 book, we explored how progressive media makers and outlets could:

  • transform themselves to survive and thrive in a participatory media environment,
  • work with users to move stories into the national dialogue,
  • take advantage of the the four network layers to develop and spread content and engage their communities,
  • measure and tell their story of impact.

Since the book’s publication, the political media environment in the U.S. has changed drastically. Participation is now the order of the day, and many of the progressive pioneers we documented are now heading up high-profile media properties that rival those helmed by conservatives. We can’t claim credit, but we have been excited to see many of our nascent theories realized.

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