Keen book argues web monopolistic antidemocratic

The great internet swindle: ever get the feeling you've been cheated? http://gu.com/p/45jz2

If you don't get the preferred reading of the headline btw, its a play on a Sex Pistols (iconic 70s punks) film title and the famous final words of vocalist Johnny Rotten on stage before breaking up the band.

Haven't read the book yet - indeed, Keen has published three, the first critiquing UGC, the 2nd social media - but hope to in time to feed some points into your exam prep.

It sounds like an interesting comparison with Anita Elberse's "Blockbusters", which rubbished the long tail theory as idealist piffle. Elberse brings a cold, detached economist's view to play, seeming unperturbed by the extension of conglomerate gigantism online, but Keen ... well, he's ANGRY. And the online monopolists won't like him when he's angry...

More later, but very interesting article - it could be argued that it is further, sharper backing for the declining, threatened press industry's argument that tough regulation will just accelerate the closure of some or all print titles, as circulation swandives and there is no let up in sight of the migration of advertising revenue online. 

Hmmm... unexpected point here from Apple, the world's biggest company:

Cook also pressed the privacy credentials of Apple Pay, the company’s recently-launched mobile payments technology, claiming that it runs against that industry’s trend for data collection on shoppers.
“We believe customers have a right to privacy, and the vast majority of customers don’t want people knowing everything about them,” said Cook, according to Mac Rumors.
“When you make a purchase, we make a little bit of money. It’s very simple, very straightforward. You are not our product, that’s our product. There’s no need for us to know what you’re buying, where you’re buying, I don’t want to know any of that.” (Guardian article)

One of Keen's books specifically argued that social media (what has been referred to as we media, or UGC), where the user is the product, is a damaging and negative development; I didn't expect to see Apple backing this view!