Social Media: A Critical IntroductionNow more than ever, we need to understand social media - the good as well as the bad. We need critical knowledge that helps us to navigate the controversies and contradictions of this complex digital media landscape. Only then can we make informed judgements about what's happening in our media world, and why. Showing the reader how to ask the right kinds of questions about social media, Christian Fuchs takes us on a journey across social media, delving deep into case studies on Google, Facebook, Twitter, WikiLeaks and Wikipedia. The result lays bare the structures and power relations at the heart of our media landscape. This book is the essential, critical guide for all students of media studies and sociology. Readers will never look at social media the same way again. |
Contents
Recommended Readings and Exercises | |
What is Social Media? | |
Social Media as Participatory Culture | |
Social Media and Communication Power | |
The Power and Political Economy of Social Media | |
Good or Evil Search Engine? | |
A Surveillance Threat to Privacy? | |
A New Public Sphere? | |
A New Democratic Form of Collaborative Work | |
Recommended Readings and Exercises | |
References | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accessed on March activities alternative media analysis analyze argues Assange behaviour blogs capital accumulation capitalist Castells Chapter co-operation co-operative collaborative commodification commons-based communication power communist companies concept consumers contemporary corporate social media counter-power create crisis critical theory critique democratic dialectical digital labour dimension discussion domination example exploitation Facebook Fuchs Giddens global Google Google’s groups Habermas 1989c Henry Jenkins human ideology individual interaction Internet Internet prosumer Jenkins journalism Karl liberal Manuel Castells Marx and Engels means of production Morozov movement neoliberal notion ownership participation participatory culture participatory democracy personal data platforms political economy potential privacy policy profit prosumer protests public sphere questions revolution role share Shirky slacktivism Slavoj Žižek social media social networking sites social theory society structures struggle surplus value surveillance targeted advertising tweets Twitter unpaid user-generated content violence websites WikiLeaks Wikipedia workers YouTube Žižek