Producing the Internet: Critical Perspectives
of Social Media
Edited by Tobias Olsson
September 2013
Nordicom
Distributed By
ISBN: 9789186523596
259 pages, Illustrated
$97.50 Paper original
This collection of essays investigates the question of who produces the Internet by looking at how it is both participatory and bottom-up, but also top-down and professionally managed. They consider who the producers of social media in particular are, and what kind of power they have. The essays are organized into four sections on the power in and organization of social media production, how established media professionals (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers) make sense of the new media environments created by the Internet, what community means in terms of social media, and the uses of social media to foster a new kind of civic discourse and organizing platform. Particular essays explore capitalism and exploitation in the context of social media, journalism and reader comments, producing public space in a virtual world, social media and the Occupy Wall Street movement, monetization of Facebook fan pages, and more. The contributors are European professors or scholars of communication and media studies.
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