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David Elliot Berman

@davidberman.bsky.social
127 followers 111 following 2 posts

A professor. Enjoyer/spreader of misinformation. Platforms, policy, political economy of the media.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by David Elliot Berman
The Media, Inequality & Change Center @miccenter.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Huge thank you to the authors @christopherali.bsky.social @sydneyforde.bsky.social @davidberman.bsky.social @abbysimmerman.bsky.social @saschameinrath.bsky.social and Aaron Hyzen for their work on this paper. Check out more from the Pennsylvania Broadband Research Institute here: buff.ly/CWZQZeL
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Victor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
A nice write-up of some of our recent research at the @miccenter.bsky.social, with lead authors @davidberman.bsky.social and Aaron Hyzen. penntoday.upenn.edu/news/how-pa-...
penntoday.upenn.edu
How PA nonprofit newsrooms see their role in addressing the journalism crisis | Penn Today
Penn researchers identified two competing visions of nonprofit news, a restorationist vision and a transformational vision, and calculated the cost of implementing each vision.
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
The Media, Inequality & Change Center @miccenter.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Drawing on interviews with nonprofit news leaders in PA, @victorpickard.bsky.social @davidberman.bsky.social and Aaron Hyzen examine the role of the nonprofit news sector in addressing the journalism crisis in this article: buff.ly/y6KUYUs
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Victor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Very excited about this new journal article with @davidberman.bsky.social and Aaron Hyzen that examines Pennsylvania's nonprofit news ecosystem and makes the distinction between journalism reforms that focus on restoration vs. transformation. Link to the PDF: victorpickard.com/wp-content/u...
An abstract of a new journal article that concludes democratic society requires public funding for local journalism at scale.
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Incredible to go from breaking Watergate to this
The Washington Post®
@washingt... • now
Her husband started sleeping in a tent in their backyard after his wife stopped having sex with him. She's now worried about what the neighbors might think.
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Aaron Shapiro @bricolageyumyum.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Looks awesome @ppopiel.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The network dialectic: the digital divide and the contradictions of Philadelphia's digital equity strategy
This study examines the political economy, discursive legitimations, and effectiveness of the primary U.S. policy response to narrowing the digital divide: public subsidies for internet service. Us...
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Victor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Important new research into the contradictions of US broadband policy by two leading political economists.
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Pawel Popiel @ppopiel.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
🚨 New article out, great colab w/ @davidberman.bsky.social, assessing the primary U.S. response to the digital divide: the corporate subsidy. Using mixed methods, we show how networked "digital equity" reinforces network monopoly. @miccenter.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2BPFG...
ABSTRACT
This study examines the political economy, discursive legitimations, and effectiveness of the primary U.S. policy response to narrowing the digital divide: public subsidies for internet service. Using Philadelphia as our case study, we analyze municipal efforts to enroll low-income communities in low-cost commercial broadband plans supported by the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Like many other U.S. cities in the neoliberal era, Philadelphia sought to organize its digital equity initiative as a decentralized network of public agencies, commercial broadband providers, and nonprofits. Drawing on expert interviews, focus groups with ACP-eligible subscribers, and policy documents, we find that despite the city’s goal of achieving universal service, the networked initiative ultimately advanced the economic interests and market position of Comcast, the city’s monopoly broadband provider – with only minimal gains in connectivity. We argue that the evolving relationship between Comcast and the city of Philadelphia exemplifies what we refer to as the dialectic of the network. While often assumed as opposing forms of economic and social organization, the monopoly – centralized, vertically organized, hierarchical – and the network – decentralized, horizontal, leaderless – actively reinforce and legitimize one another as part of the neoliberal conquest of America’s communication infrastructure.
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Pawel Popiel @ppopiel.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
New piece from me and @davidberman.bsky.social, previewing our research on the rollout, implementation, and experience of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) before and after its end www.benton.org/blog/lived-b...
benton.org
Lived Broadband Policy: Experiencing the Affordable Connectivity Program
Quantitative data gleaned from surveys and other sources can illuminate how connectivity initiatives perform
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11/08/2025
the same administration screaming at universities about “merit” is also elevating unqualified hacks to critical positions, which makes you wonder about what they mean by “merit”
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
If you won't believe me, here's Paul musgrave.substack.com/p/at-the-coa...
Screenshot from blog post that reads: Nor, especially, can they be addressed by American researchers moving abroad. When someone suggests that researchers just move abroad, I smile wanly, because I know that whoever is suggesting it has no idea of the scale of U.S. higher education relative to other markets nor of the difficulties other countries are facing. (What, just move to the many financially secure institutions of the United Kingdom? If you don’t keep up with UK higher ed news, then you may not recognize that’s a darkly bitter joke.) Some folks will find moving abroad attractive but it is simply not possible for the 1.4 million U.S. post-secondary instructors to just move to Canada.
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David Elliot Berman @davidberman.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Thrilled that my article “On Optimization: Cultural Labor in Platform Capitalism” has just been published in New Media & Society. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Pawel Popiel @ppopiel.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
New piece out with @davidberman.bsky.social giving a preview of our study of post-pandemic efforts to address the digital divide in Philadelphia, especially Comcast's central role in it www.benton.org/content/digi...
benton.org
The Digital Divide in Comcast Town
First post from Philadelphia Equitable Broadband project
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Reposted by David Elliot Berman
Sydney L Forde @sydneyforde.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
So proud of the big things happening at our Pennsylvania Broadband Research (PBR) Institute! @christopherali.bsky.social @saschameinrath.bsky.social @davidberman.bsky.social @victorpickard.bsky.social @abbysimmerman.bsky.social +Aaron Hyzen @mic-center.bsky.social @bellisariograded.bsky.social
psu.edu
Penn State professors partner on digital equity grant to benefit Philadelphia | Penn State University
Two Penn State faculty members recognized for their expertise in broadband and digital access helped shape an effort that secured a five-year, $11.9 million grant that will benefit residents of the ci...
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