The Association of Internet Researcher’s (AoIR) 2024 Nancy Baym Book Annual Award Winner was announced on Friday. Samuel Woolley, the Dietrich School’s Endowed Chair of Disinformation Studies, won for his book, “Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity.”
The Associations Committee had this to say about Woolley’s book:
“The committee agreed that Wooley’s Manufacturing Consensus constitutes a distinctive contribution to and, perhaps more significantly, a potentially important political intervention in, the scholarship of dis/misinformation in the social media platform ecology. The book addresses one of the most important issues in contemporary internet research, namely the rise of computational and algorithmic propaganda that affects social media users across the globe. In advancing his argument, Wooley develops a nuanced and supple STS framework for the critical analysis of computational propaganda, which fruitfully engages and significantly revises the traditional Herman/Chomsky model of mass media propaganda. Moreover, the book stands out in the crowded field of dis/misinformation studies through its inclusive optic that scans and assesses cases from around the globe and, in so doing, actually gives voice to a heterogenous array of people, experiences, and ideas. Finally, the committee agreed that Wooley’s writing style appeals to both academic and non-academic audiences, striking a balance between a readable format for non-experts, and complexity in terms of method and theory. The book is based on solid scholarship but is accessible to citizens and decision-makers. In today’s political environment, it could be transformative.”