The resources in this section explore digital media through a variety of research-based and cultural lenses, including media psychology, analysis of social media platforms and functionalities, and critical perspectives.
Books available at Booth Library
Digital Death: Mortality and Beyond in the Online Age by
This fascinating work explores the meaning of death in the digital age, showing readers the new ways digital technology allows humans to approach, prepare for, and handle their ultimate destiny. With DeadSocial(tm) one can create messages to be published to social networks after death. Facebook's "If I Die" enables users to create a video or text message for posthumous publication. Twitter _LIVESON accounts will keep tweeting even after the user is gone. There is no doubt that the digital age has radically changed options related to death, dying, grieving, and remembering, allowing people to say goodbye in their own time and their own unique way. Drawing from a range of academic perspectives, this book is the only serious study to focus on the ways in which death, dying, and memorialization appear in and are influenced by digital technology. The work investigates phenomena, devices, and audiences as they affect mortality, remembrances, grieving, posthumous existence, and afterlife experience. It examines the markets to which the providers of such services are responding, and it analyzes the degree to which digital media is changing views and expectations related to death. Ultimately, the contributors seek to answer an even more important question: how digital existences affect both real-world perceptions of life's end and the way in which lives are actually lived. Explains how new technologies and online accessibility are changing human attitudes to death and dying--and impacting the ways in which people live Explores the afterlife experience as it can play out in a variety of digital media, including Facebook and other social media, World of Warcraft and video games, YouTube and other video services, and Internet memorials Analyzes the myriad ways encounters with death and dying and the capacity for mourning are mediated by new technologies Places death and dying in the digital age in historical perspective, showing how beliefs about and approaches to death and dying have changed constantly over time
Call Number: HQ1073 .D55 2014ISBN: 9781440831324Publication Date: 2014-10-20
Social Media Freaks by
Social media has been transforming American and global cultural life for over a decade. It has flattened the divide between producer and audience found in other forms of culture while also enriching some massive corporations. At the core of Social Media Freaks is the question: Does social media reproduce inequalities or is it a tool for subverting them? Social Media Freaks presents a virtual ethnography of social media, focusing on issues of identity and inequality along five dimensions-race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability. It presents original and secondary findings, while also utilizing social theory to explain the dynamics of social media. It teaches readers how to engage social media as a tool for social activism while also examining the limits of social media's value in the quest for social change.
Call Number: HM742 .K53 2017ISBN: 9780813350660Publication Date: 2017-03-07
Communicating with Memes: Consequences in Post-Truth Civilization by
"Communicating with Memes: Consequences in Post-truth Civilization investigates the consequences of memetic communication, including online harassment, the election of Donald Trump, and the resurgence of once-eradicated diseases. The author examines the causes of these consequences, and what action--if any--should be taken in response"
Call Number: HM626 .K54 2019ISBN: 9781498551342Publication Date: 2019
Videocracy: How YouTube is Changing the World-- with Double Rainbows, Singing Foxes, and Other Trends We Can't Stop Watching by
From YouTube's Head of Culture and Trends, a rousing and illuminating behind-the-scenes exploration of internet video's massive impact on our world. Whether your favorite YouTube video is a cat on a Roomba, "Gangnam Style," the "Bed Intruder" song, an ASAPscience explainer, Rebecca Black's "Friday," or the "Evolution of Dance," Kevin Allocca'sVideocracyreveals how these beloved videos and famous trends--and many more--came to be and why they mean more than you might think. YouTube is the biggest pool of cultural data since the beginning of recorded communication, with four hundred hours of video uploaded everyminute. (It would take you more than sixty-five years just to watch the vlogs, music videos, tutorials, and other content posted in a single day!) This activity reflects who we are, in all our glory and ignominy. As Allocca says, if aliens wanted to understand our planet, he'd give them Google. If they wanted to understandus, he'd give them YouTube. InVideocracy, Allocca lays bare what YouTube videos say about our society and how our actions online--watching, sharing, commenting on, and remixing the people and clips that captivate us--are changing the face of entertainment, advertising, politics, and more. Via YouTube, we are fueling social movements, enforcing human rights, and redefining art--a lot more than you'd expect from a bunch of viral clips.
Call Number: HM742 .A46 2018ISBN: 9781632866745Publication Date: 2018-01-23
Woke Gaming: Digital Challenges to Oppression and Social Injustice by
From #Gamergate to the 2016 election, to the daily experiences of marginalized perspectives, gaming is entangled with mainstream cultures of systematic exploitation and oppression. Whether visible in the persistent color line that shapes the production, dissemination, and legitimization of dominant stereotypes within the industry itself, or in the dehumanizing representations often found within game spaces, many video games perpetuate injustice and mirror the inequities and violence that permeate society as a whole. Drawing from groundbreaking research on counter and oppositional gaming and from popular games such as World of Warcraft and Tomb Raider, Woke Gaming examines resistance to problematic spaces of violence, discrimination, and microaggressions in gaming culture. The contributors of these essays seek to identify strategies to detox gaming culture and orient players and gamers toward progressive ends. From Anna Anthropy's Keep Me Occupied to Momo Pixel's Hair Nah, video games can reveal the power and potential for marginalized communities to resist, and otherwise challenge dehumanizing representations inside and outside of game spaces. In a moment of #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, and efforts to transform current political realities, Woke Gaming illustrates the power and potential of video games to foster change and become a catalyst for social justice.
Call Number: GV1469.34.S52 W65 2018ISBN: 9780295744186Publication Date: 2018-11-01
The Impact of Social Media in Modern Romantic Relationships by
The Impact of Social Media in Modern Romantic Relationships is the communication field's most major, comprehensive volume of the study of social media and romantic relationship development. It is the first volume in the discipline of communication studies intended to provide an overview of romantic development that includes all types of social media, such as Tinder and Facebook. The volume contains several major communication and media scholars who have researched social media and romantic relationship development.
Call Number: HQ801 .I57 2017ISBN: 9781498544481Publication Date: 2017-04-26
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by
Nicholas Carr's bestseller The Shallows has become a foundational book in one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the internet's bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? This 10th-anniversary edition includes a new afterword that brings the story up to date, with a deep examination of the cognitive and behavioral effects of smartphones and social media.
Call Number: QP360 .C3667 2020xISBN: 9780393357820Publication Date: 2020-03-03
Logged in and Stressed Out: How Social Media is Affecting Your Mental Health and What You Can Do About It by
Social media is here to stay, and Logged In and Stressed Out presents the right information and tools to improve our lives through examining and changing our digital habits. America is facing a mental health crisis. Studies show that the average American is spending more than 10 hours a day in front of their screens, suicide rates are at an all-time high, and mental health professionals are working hard to address social medias role in this epidemic. Social media can sometimes feel like an unpredictable roller coaster ride. Ones mood can swing from elated after getting a slew of "likes" on a post to worthlessness and deflation in response to being criticized in a comment thread. Too often, bad feelings from social media interactions linger, negatively affecting our off-line lives and worsening already present mental health issues. Instead of demonizing social media by taking a one-note, "digital detox" approach, Logged In and Stressed Out recognizes social media is not, itself, the problem--its how we use it that needs examining. Paula Durlofsky guides readers through its impact on break-ups and infidelities, social distortion and comparison, trauma and triggers, social media binging, depression, anxiety, and other common concerns, using real stories from her own practice to personalize concepts and recommendations. By setting needed limits and embracing new practices, it is possible to improve mental health when using social media. Durlofsky details the whys and hows of creating a safe digital space, cultivating digital and social media mindfulness, applying the techniques of metalizing while consuming social media, and decreasing social media and digital reactivity. She offers suggestions for how to use social media and digital technology to create meaningful social interactions and positive mental health and provides readers with practical steps to put these ideas into action. Social media is here to stay, and Logged In and Stressed Out presents the right information and tools to improve our lives through examining and changing our digital habits.
Call Number: HM742 .D875 2020xISBN: 9781538126677Publication Date: 2020-12-21
Digital Media, Friendship and Cultures of Care by
This book explores how digital media can extend care practices among friends and peers, researching young people's negotiations of sexual health, mental health, gender/sexuality, and dating apps, and highlighting the need for a multifocal approach that centres young people's expertise. Taking an "everyday practice" approach to digital and social media, Digital Media, Friendship and Cultures of Care emphasises that digital media are not novel but integrated into daily life. The book introduces the concept of "digital cultures of care" as a new framework through which to consider digital practices of friendship and peer support, and how these play out across a range of platforms and networks. Challenging common public and academic concerns about peer and friendship influences on young people, these terms are unpacked and reconsidered through attention to digital media, drawing on qualitative research findings to argue that digital and social media have created important new opportunities for emotional support, particularly for young people and LGBTQ+ people who are often excluded from formal healthcare and social support. This book and its comprehensive focus on friendship will be of interest to a range of readers, including academics, students, health promoters, educators, policymakers, and advocacy groups for either young people, LGBTQ+ communities, or digital citizenship. Academics most interested in this book will be working in digital media studies, health sociology, critical public health, health communication, sexualities, cultural studies, sex education, and gender studies.
Call Number: HQ799.9.I58 B97 2021ISBN: 9780429060953Publication Date: 2020-11-29
Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media by
A revealing and gripping investigation into how social media platforms police what we post online--and the large societal impact of these decisions Most users want their Twitter feed, Facebook page, and YouTube comments to be free of harassment and porn. Whether faced with "fake news" or livestreamed violence, "content moderators"--who censor or promote user‑posted content--have never been more important. This is especially true when the tools that social media platforms use to curb trolling, ban hate speech, and censor pornography can also silence the speech you need to hear. In this revealing and nuanced exploration, award‑winning sociologist and cultural observer Tarleton Gillespie provides an overview of current social media practices and explains the underlying rationales for how, when, and why these policies are enforced. In doing so, Gillespie highlights that content moderation receives too little public scrutiny even as it is shapes social norms and creates consequences for public discourse, cultural production, and the fabric of society. Based on interviews with content moderators, creators, and consumers, this accessible, timely book is a must‑read for anyone who's ever clicked "like" or "retweet."
Call Number: HM742 .G575 2018xISBN: 9780300173130Publication Date: 2018-06-26
The Social Structure of Online Communities by
With great potential benefit and possible harm, online social media platforms are transforming human society. Based on decades of deep exploration, distinguished scholar William Sims Bainbridge surveys our complex virtual society, harvesting insights about the future of our real world. Many pilot studies demonstrate valuable research methods and explanatory theories. Tracing membership interlocks between Facebook groups can chart the structure of a social movement, like the one devoted to future spaceflight development. Statistical data on the roles played by people in massively multiplayer online games illustrate the Silicon Law: information technology energizes both freedom and control, in a dynamic balance. The significance of open-source software suggests the traditional distinction between professional and amateur may fade, whereas web-based conflicts between religious and political groups imply that chasms are opening in civil society. This analysis of online space and the divergent communities is long overdue.
Call Number: HM742 .B345 2020xISBN: 9781108499132Publication Date: 2020-04-16
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by
From New York Times opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci, an firsthand account and incisive analysis of the role of social media in modern protest "[Tufekci's] personal experience in the squares and streets, melded with her scholarly insights on technology and communication platforms, makes [this] such an unusual and illuminating work."--Carlos Lozada, Washington Post "Twitter and Tear Gas is packed with evidence on how social media has changed social movements, based on rigorous research and placed in historical context."--Hannah Kuchler, Financial Times To understand a thwarted Turkish coup, an anti-Wall Street encampment, and a packed Tahrir Square, we must first comprehend the power and the weaknesses of using new technologies to mobilize large numbers of people. An incisive observer, writer, and participant in today's social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protests--how they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change. Tufekci speaks from direct experience, combining on-the-ground interviews with insightful analysis. She describes how the internet helped the Zapatista uprisings in Mexico, the necessity of remote Twitter users to organize medical supplies during Arab Spring, the refusal to use bullhorns in the Occupy Movement that started in New York, and the empowering effect of tear gas in Istanbul's Gezi Park. These details from life inside social movements complete a moving investigation of authority, technology, and culture--and offer essential insights into the future of governance.
Call Number: HM742 .T84 2017ISBN: 9780300215120Publication Date: 2017-05-16
Related journal articles available through EBSCO (Abstracts linked below)
- Buehler, E. M. (2017). “You Shouldn’t Use Facebook for That”: Navigating Norm Violations While Seeking Emotional Support on Facebook.Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117733225
- Jung, E. H., & Sundar, S. S. (2018). Status update: Gratifications derived from Facebook affordances by older adults.New Media & Society, 20(11), 4135–4154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818768090
- Kien, G. (2021). Postmodernism Trumps All: The World Without Facts.Qualitative Inquiry, 27(3/4), 374–380. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800420918892
- Tandon, A., Dhir, A., Almugren, I., AlNemer, G. N., & Mäntymäki, M. (2021). Fear of missing out (FoMO) among social media users: a systematic literature review, synthesis and framework for future research.Internet Research, 31(3), 782–821. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-11-2019-0455
- Waterloo, S. F., Baumgartner, S. E., Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2018). Norms of online expressions of emotion: Comparing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp.New Media & Society, 20(5), 1813–1831. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817707349
"Reply All" Podcast by Gimlet
Loading ...
