Communication Studies: Social Media : New Media : Digital Media

This subject guide is a starting point for communication-related research, including mass media, speech communication, and more.

Portal to Additional Sources

Communications & Technology
Communication Studies librarians from colleges and universities around the country recommend reference materials, article databases/indexes, web sites, associations/organizations, journals/trade publications, and statistics.

Concepts & Terms

Organizations

Internet & Social Media Metrics

OpenLinkprofiler
Search for and analyze backlinks to a specific url. Free tool.
U.S. Census Bureau : Computer & Internet Use
Beginning in 1997, the Current Population Survey (CPS) included questions on Internet Use.
Pew Research Center: Internet & Technology
Excellent source for academic studies and statistics on the Internet's growth and social impacts.
World Internet Project
Watches and documents what happens as households and nations acquire and use the Internet.
Internet World Stats : Usage and Population Statistics
Provides world Internet usage, population statistics and Internet market research data, for over 233 individual countries and world regions.
Technorati
Tracks blogging including top bogs. Also publishes annual State of the Blogosphere report.
Alexa.com
Web traffic metrics, top site lists, site demographics, and more.
Search Engine Watch : Search Engine Ratings & Statistics
Statistics on search engine performance in various areas.
ClickZ
Digital marketing stats.

Statista
Market, industry, and country statistics including those dealing with social media & the internet
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Social, political, and economic statistics of the United States.

World telecommunication/ICT indicators database
Available on CD-ROM. Can be used on a computer in the Government Publications area on the ground floor of Suzzallo Library.

Book Sampler

These are a sampling of books on the topic social media. To find additional books use UW Libraries Search.

#HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice by Brooke Foucault Welles & Genie Lauren How marginalized groups use Twitter to advance counter-narratives, preempt political spin, and build diverse networks of dissent.The power of hashtag activism became clear in 2011, when #IranElection served as an organizing tool for Iranians protesting a disputed election and offered a global audience a front-row seat to a nascent revolution. Since then, activists have used a variety of hashtags, including #JusticeForTrayvon, #BlackLivesMatter, #YesAllWomen, and #MeToo to advocate, mobilize, and communicate. In this book, Sarah Jackson, Moya Bailey, and Brooke Foucault Welles explore how and why Twitter has become an important platform for historically disenfranchised populations, including Black Americans, women, and transgender people. They show how marginalized groups, long excluded from elite media spaces, have used Twitter hashtags to advance counternarratives, preempt political spin, and build diverse networks of dissent. The authors describe how such hashtags as #MeToo, #SurvivorPrivilege, and #WhyIStayed have challenged the conventional understanding of gendered violence; examine the voices and narratives of Black feminism enabled by #FastTailedGirls, #YouOKSis, and #SayHerName; and explore the creation and use of #GirlsLikeUs, a network of transgender women. They investigate the digital signatures of the "new civil rights movement"-the online activism, storytelling, and strategy-building that set the stage for #BlackLivesMatter-and recount the spread of racial justice hashtags after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other high-profile incidents of killings by police. Finally, they consider hashtag created by allies, including #AllMenCan and #CrimingWhileWhite.
Breaking the Social Media Prism by Christopher A. Bail A revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online--and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social media In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and renders moderates all but invisible. Breaking the Social Media Prism challenges common myths about echo chambers, foreign misinformation campaigns, and radicalizing algorithms, revealing that the solution to political tribalism lies deep inside ourselves. Drawing on innovative online experiments and in-depth interviews with social media users from across the political spectrum, this book explains why stepping outside of our echo chambers can make us more polarized, not less. Bail takes you inside the minds of online extremists through vivid narratives that trace their lives on the platforms and off--detailing how they dominate public discourse at the expense of the moderate majority. Wherever you stand on the spectrum of user behavior and political opinion, he offers fresh solutions to counter political tribalism from the bottom up and the top down. He introduces new apps and bots to help readers avoid misperceptions and engage in better conversations with the other side. Finally, he explores what the virtual public square might look like if we could hit "reset" and redesign social media from scratch through a first-of-its-kind experiment on a new social media platform built for scientific research. Providing data-driven recommendations for strengthening our social media connections, Breaking the Social Media Prism shows how to combat online polarization without deleting our accounts.
Introduction to Digital Media by Alessandro Delfanti & Adam Arvidsson New and updated English translation of the highly successful book on digital media This book introduces readers to the vast and rich world of digital media. It provides a strong starting point for understanding digital media's social and political significance to our culture and the culture of others--drawing on an emergent and increasingly rich set of empirical and theoretical studies on the role and development of digital media in contemporary societies. Touching on the core points behind the discipline, the book addresses a wide range of topics, including media economics, online cooperation, open source, social media, software production, globalization, brands, marketing, the cultural industry, labor, and consumption. Presented in six sections--Media and Digital Technologies; The Information Society; Cultures and Identities; Digital Collaboration; Public Sphere and Power; Digital Economies--the book offers in-depth chapter coverage of new and old media; network infrastructure; networked economy and globalization; the history of information technologies; the evolution of networks; sociality and digital media; media and identity; collaborative media; open source and innovation; politics and democracy; social movements; surveillance and control; digital capitalism; global inequalities and development; and more. Delivers a reliable, compact and quick introduction to the core issues analyzed by digital culture studies and sociology of information societies Interweaves main topics and theories with several examples and up-to-date case studies, often linked to our everyday lives on the internet, as well as suggestions for further readings Anchors examples to discussions of the main sociological, political, and anthropological theoretical approaches at stake to help students make sense of the changes brought about by digital media Uses critical sociological and political theory alongside every day examples to discuss concepts such as online sociality, digital labor, digital value creation, and the reputation economy Clear and concise throughout, Introduction to Digital Media is an excellent primer for those teaching and studying digital culture and media.
The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism by Howard Tumber & Silvio Waisbord, eds. This companion brings together a diverse set of concepts used to analyse dimensions of media disinformation and populism globally. The Routledge Companion to Media Disinformation and Populism explores how recent transformations in the architecture of public communication and particular attributes of the digital media ecology are conducive to the kind of polarised, anti-rational, post-fact, post-truth communication championed by populism. It is both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, consisting of contributions from both leading and emerging scholars analysing aspects of misinformation, disinformation, and populism across countries, political systems, and media systems. A global, comparative approach to the study of misinformation and populism is important in identifying common elements and characteristics, and these individual chapters cover a wide range of topics and themes, including fake news, mediatisation, propaganda, alternative media, immigration, science, and law-making, to name a few. This companion is a key resource for academics, researchers, and policymakers as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of political communication, journalism, law, sociology, cultural studies, international politics and international relations.
Social Media and Society by Regina Luttrell & Adrienne A. Wallace This text engages students in the social media phenomenon, exploring how fundamental changes in mass media influence every level of societal communication. With the explosion of social media and big data, students must become conscious of media's positive and negative influences on their lives.
Twitter: A Biography by Jean Burgess & Nancy K. Baym The sometimes surprising, often humorous story of the forces that came together to shape the central role Twitter now plays in contemporary politics and culture Is Twitter a place for sociability and conversation, a platform for public broadcasting, or a network for discussion? Digital platforms have become influential in every sphere of communication, from the intimate and everyday to the public, professional, and political. Since the scrappy startup days of social media in the mid-2000s, not only has the worldwide importance of platforms grown exponentially, but also their cultures have shifted dramatically, in a variety of directions. These changes have brought new opportunities for progressive communities to thrive online, as well as widespread problems with commercial exploitation, disinformation, and hate speech. Twitter's growth over the past decade, like that of much social media, has far surpassed its creators' vision. Twitter charts this trajectory in the format of a platform biography: a new, streamlined approach to understanding how platforms change over time. Through the often surprising, fast-moving story of Twitter, it illuminates the multiple forces--from politics and business to digital ideologies--that came together to shape the evolution of this revolutionary platform. Jean Burgess and Nancy K. Baym build a rich narrative of how Twitter has evolved as a technology, a company, and a culture, from its origins as a personal messaging service to its transformation into one of the most globally influential social media platforms, where history and culture is not only recorded but written in real time.

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