In conversation with Seetha Tan (Media Editor, The Scholar), Dr Ella McPherson examines how crises can unearth underlying social problems. She discusses digital fakery, ChatGPT, online activism, the rise of Neo-Luddite movements, and surveillance. Access the podcast's full transcript below.
"Crisis reveals the taken-for-granted parts of society and sort of really brings them to the surface, brings them to the fore, and allows us to question them... and in seeing these taken-for-granted elements of society, we are able to re-evaluate them and it becomes a moment for social change."
Dr Ella McPherson [2004] is an Associate Professor in the Sociology of New Media and Digital Technology at the University of Cambridge, Co-Director of Cambridge's Centre of Governance and Human Rights, and Fellow in Sociology at Queens' College. Her research and policy work focuses on human rights fact-finding in the digital age, and she leads The Whistle, an academic startup focused on social change through technology.
Dr McPherson also developed the End Everyday Racism initiative, which collects and documents accounts of racial discrimination at Cambridge to support advocacy for systemic change.
Access the podcast transcript here:
Music credit: Akerman ft. Coma Svensson | 'Stuck in the Middle' | Courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com