Social media freaks : digital identity in the network society

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Title:

Author:

Kidd, Dustin author.

ISBN:

9780813350660

Personal Author:

Kidd, Dustin author.

Physical Description:

xi, 272 pages ; 23 cm

General Note:

Source of cataloging data: WCP

Abstract:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Social media, art, and the network society -- The social structure of social media -- Leave Britney alone : sexuality perspectives on social media -- Disabling a meme : disability perspectives on social media -- GamerGate : gender perspectives on social media -- Occupy Wall Street : class perspectives on social media -- Black lives matter : racial perspectives on social media -- Social media toolbox -- Conclusion : a social media revolution?

Subject Term:

Social media.

Identity (Psychology) and mass media.

Social participation.

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Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library	Book	HM742 .K53 2017	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

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.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

What makes this book a valuable resource lies neither in the novelty of the question it asks nor in the method it deploys to answer that question. The question of whether and how social media can help transform relations of power has been asked numerous times. In addition, the once-novel method of virtual ethnography is now just another research strategy in the research toolkit because social media is increasingly an inseparable part of the everyday lives of ethnographers and their informants. What makes the book valuable, therefore (especially for use in undergraduate classes), is that Temple University sociologist Kidd uses this methodology along with the accessible versions of a range of sociological theories (from queer theory to the Deleuzian rhizome) to study several cases in which the question above finds a relatively optimistic answer: in spite of the hegemonic forces in social media, "freaks"--those who are pushed to the margins of the society--use the same online tools to embrace their identities and turn them into a source of empowerment. Students can easily relate to the cases discussed in the book, ranging from the Gamergate controversy to Black Lives Matter. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All general and undergraduate collections. --Amir-Pouyan Shiva, University of Minnesota

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
1 Social Media, Art, and the Network Society	p. 1
2 The Social Structure of Social Media	p. 31
3 Leave Britney Alone: Sexuality Perspectives on Social Media	p. 69
4 Disabling a Meme: Disability Perspectives on Social Media	p. 97
5 GamerGate: Gender Perspectives on Social Media	p. 121
6 Occupy Wall Street: Class Perspectives on Social Media	p. 145
7 Black Lives Matter: Racial Perspectives on Social Media	p. 169
8 Social Media Toolbox	p. 193
9 Conclusion: A Social Media Revolution?	p. 219
Appendix: Digital Media Literacy	p. 231
Glossary	p. 233
References	p. 241
Index	p. 257

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