Matthew Hindman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691159263
- eISBN:
- 9780691184074
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159263.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
The Internet was supposed to fragment audiences and make media monopolies impossible. Instead, behemoths like Google and Facebook now dominate the time we spend online—and grab all the profits from ...
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The Internet was supposed to fragment audiences and make media monopolies impossible. Instead, behemoths like Google and Facebook now dominate the time we spend online—and grab all the profits from the attention economy. This book explains how this happened. It sheds light on the stunning rise of the digital giants and the online struggles of nearly everyone else—and reveals what small players can do to survive in a game that is rigged against them. The book shows how seemingly tiny advantages in attracting users can snowball over time. The Internet has not reduced the cost of reaching audiences—it has merely shifted who pays and how. Challenging some of the most enduring myths of digital life, the book explains why the Internet is not the postindustrial technology that has been sold to the public, how it has become mathematically impossible for grad students in a garage to beat Google, and why net neutrality alone is no guarantee of an open Internet. It also explains why the challenges for local digital news outlets and other small players are worse than they appear and demonstrates what it really takes to grow a digital audience and stay alive in today's online economy. The book shows why, even on the Internet, there is still no such thing as a free audience.Less
The Internet was supposed to fragment audiences and make media monopolies impossible. Instead, behemoths like Google and Facebook now dominate the time we spend online—and grab all the profits from the attention economy. This book explains how this happened. It sheds light on the stunning rise of the digital giants and the online struggles of nearly everyone else—and reveals what small players can do to survive in a game that is rigged against them. The book shows how seemingly tiny advantages in attracting users can snowball over time. The Internet has not reduced the cost of reaching audiences—it has merely shifted who pays and how. Challenging some of the most enduring myths of digital life, the book explains why the Internet is not the postindustrial technology that has been sold to the public, how it has become mathematically impossible for grad students in a garage to beat Google, and why net neutrality alone is no guarantee of an open Internet. It also explains why the challenges for local digital news outlets and other small players are worse than they appear and demonstrates what it really takes to grow a digital audience and stay alive in today's online economy. The book shows why, even on the Internet, there is still no such thing as a free audience.
Patti M. Valkenburg and Jessica T Piotrowski
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300218879
- eISBN:
- 9780300228090
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300218879.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This book is an illuminating study of the complex relationship between children and media in the digital age. Now, as never before, young people are surrounded by media, thanks to the sophistication ...
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This book is an illuminating study of the complex relationship between children and media in the digital age. Now, as never before, young people are surrounded by media, thanks to the sophistication and portability of the technology that puts it literally in the palms of their hands. Drawing on data and empirical research that cross many fields and continents, this book examines the role of media in the lives of children from birth through adolescence, addressing the complex issues of how media affect the young and what adults can do to encourage responsible use in an age of selfies, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The book looks at both the sunny and the dark side of media use by today's youth, including why and how their preferences change throughout childhood, whether digital gaming is harmful or helpful, the effects of placing tablets and smartphones in the hands of toddlers, the susceptibility of young people to online advertising, the legitimacy of parental concerns about media multitasking, and more.Less
This book is an illuminating study of the complex relationship between children and media in the digital age. Now, as never before, young people are surrounded by media, thanks to the sophistication and portability of the technology that puts it literally in the palms of their hands. Drawing on data and empirical research that cross many fields and continents, this book examines the role of media in the lives of children from birth through adolescence, addressing the complex issues of how media affect the young and what adults can do to encourage responsible use in an age of selfies, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The book looks at both the sunny and the dark side of media use by today's youth, including why and how their preferences change throughout childhood, whether digital gaming is harmful or helpful, the effects of placing tablets and smartphones in the hands of toddlers, the susceptibility of young people to online advertising, the legitimacy of parental concerns about media multitasking, and more.
Jeff Evans, Sally Ruane, and Humphrey Southall (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447348214
- eISBN:
- 9781447348269
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447348214.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
Statistical data and evidence-based claims are increasingly central to our everyday lives. Critically examining ‘Big Data’, this book charts the recent explosion in sources of data, including those ...
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Statistical data and evidence-based claims are increasingly central to our everyday lives. Critically examining ‘Big Data’, this book charts the recent explosion in sources of data, including those precipitated by global developments and technological change. It sets out changes and controversies related to data harvesting and construction, dissemination and data analytics by a range of private, governmental and social organisations in multiple settings. Analysing the power of data to shape political debate, the presentation of ideas to us by the media, and issues surrounding data ownership and access, the authors suggest how data can be used to uncover injustices and to advance social progressLess
Statistical data and evidence-based claims are increasingly central to our everyday lives. Critically examining ‘Big Data’, this book charts the recent explosion in sources of data, including those precipitated by global developments and technological change. It sets out changes and controversies related to data harvesting and construction, dissemination and data analytics by a range of private, governmental and social organisations in multiple settings. Analysing the power of data to shape political debate, the presentation of ideas to us by the media, and issues surrounding data ownership and access, the authors suggest how data can be used to uncover injustices and to advance social progress
Miklos Sarvary
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262016940
- eISBN:
- 9780262301176
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262016940.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management
We live in an “Information Age” of overabundant data and lightning-fast transmission. Yet although information and knowledge represent key factors in most economic decisions, we often forget that ...
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We live in an “Information Age” of overabundant data and lightning-fast transmission. Yet although information and knowledge represent key factors in most economic decisions, we often forget that data, information, and knowledge are products created and traded within the knowledge economy. This book describes the information industry—the far-flung universe of companies whose core business is to sell information to decision makers. These companies include such long-established firms as Thomson Reuters (which began in 1850 with carrier pigeons relaying stock market news) as well as newer, dominant players like Google and Facebook. The book highlights the special characteristics of information and knowledge, and analyzes the unusual behaviors of the markets for them. It shows how technology contributes to the spectacular growth of this sector and how new markets for information change our economic environment. Research in economics, business strategy, and marketing has shown that information is different from other goods and services; this is especially true in competitive settings and may result in strange competitive market outcomes. For example, the book points out, unreliable information may be more expensive than reliable information; information sellers may be better off inviting competitors into their market because this may allow them to increase their prices; and competition may lead to increased media bias—but this may benefit consumers who want to discover the truth. The book explores the implications of these and other peculiarities for information buyers and sellers.Less
We live in an “Information Age” of overabundant data and lightning-fast transmission. Yet although information and knowledge represent key factors in most economic decisions, we often forget that data, information, and knowledge are products created and traded within the knowledge economy. This book describes the information industry—the far-flung universe of companies whose core business is to sell information to decision makers. These companies include such long-established firms as Thomson Reuters (which began in 1850 with carrier pigeons relaying stock market news) as well as newer, dominant players like Google and Facebook. The book highlights the special characteristics of information and knowledge, and analyzes the unusual behaviors of the markets for them. It shows how technology contributes to the spectacular growth of this sector and how new markets for information change our economic environment. Research in economics, business strategy, and marketing has shown that information is different from other goods and services; this is especially true in competitive settings and may result in strange competitive market outcomes. For example, the book points out, unreliable information may be more expensive than reliable information; information sellers may be better off inviting competitors into their market because this may allow them to increase their prices; and competition may lead to increased media bias—but this may benefit consumers who want to discover the truth. The book explores the implications of these and other peculiarities for information buyers and sellers.
Barry M. Katz
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029636
- eISBN:
- 9780262330923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029636.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
The concluding chapter examines the nature of professional practice as it has matured over the last 20 years. The chapter shows in detail how design evolved from the shaping of objects to become an ...
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The concluding chapter examines the nature of professional practice as it has matured over the last 20 years. The chapter shows in detail how design evolved from the shaping of objects to become an essential part of the strategies of some of the world’s most influential companies and organizations. We examine the contributions to this process of labs such as the Interval Research Corporation, the established consultancies and their second- and third-generation successors, companies ranging from Apple and Adobe to Google and Facebook, and in the context of specific category-defining products including the Amazon Kindle, the Nest Learning Thermostat, and the Tesla Model S. The chapter concludes with a review of the extension of design practice into the realm of social enterprise and the application of design methodologies to issues of poverty, health, and civil rights.Less
The concluding chapter examines the nature of professional practice as it has matured over the last 20 years. The chapter shows in detail how design evolved from the shaping of objects to become an essential part of the strategies of some of the world’s most influential companies and organizations. We examine the contributions to this process of labs such as the Interval Research Corporation, the established consultancies and their second- and third-generation successors, companies ranging from Apple and Adobe to Google and Facebook, and in the context of specific category-defining products including the Amazon Kindle, the Nest Learning Thermostat, and the Tesla Model S. The chapter concludes with a review of the extension of design practice into the realm of social enterprise and the application of design methodologies to issues of poverty, health, and civil rights.
M. E. J. Newman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199206650
- eISBN:
- 9780191594175
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206650.003.0004
- Subject:
- Physics, Theoretical, Computational, and Statistical Physics
This chapter focuses on information networks, consisting of items of data linked together in some way. Information networks are all, so far as we know, man-made, with perhaps the best known example ...
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This chapter focuses on information networks, consisting of items of data linked together in some way. Information networks are all, so far as we know, man-made, with perhaps the best known example being the World Wide Web. There are also some networks which could be considered information networks but which also have social aspects to them. Examples include networks of email communications, networks on social-networking websites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, and networks of weblogs and online journals.Less
This chapter focuses on information networks, consisting of items of data linked together in some way. Information networks are all, so far as we know, man-made, with perhaps the best known example being the World Wide Web. There are also some networks which could be considered information networks but which also have social aspects to them. Examples include networks of email communications, networks on social-networking websites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, and networks of weblogs and online journals.
Jacqueline Ryan Vickery
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036023
- eISBN:
- 9780262339339
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036023.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
It’s a familiar narrative in both real life and fiction, from news reports to television storylines: a young person is bullied online, or targeted by an online predator, or exposed to sexually ...
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It’s a familiar narrative in both real life and fiction, from news reports to television storylines: a young person is bullied online, or targeted by an online predator, or exposed to sexually explicit content. The consequences are bleak; the young person is shunned, suicidal, psychologically ruined. In this book, Jacqueline Ryan Vickery argues that there are other urgent concerns about young people’s online experiences besides porn, predators, and peers. We need to turn our attention to inequitable opportunities for participation in a digital culture. Technical and material obstacles prevent low-income and other marginalized young people from the positive, community-building, and creative experiences that are possible online. Vickery explains that cautionary tales about online risk have shaped the way we think about technology and youth. She analyzes the discourses of risk in popular culture, journalism, and policy, and finds that harm-driven expectations, based on a privileged perception of risk, enact control over technology. Opportunity-driven expectations, on the other hand, based on evidence and lived experience, produce discourses that acknowledge the practices and agency of young people rather than seeing them as passive victims. Vickery first addresses how the discourses of risk regulate and control technology, then turns to the online practices of youth at a low-income, minority-majority Texas high school. She considers the participation gap and the need for schools to teach digital literacies, privacy, and different online learning ecologies. Finally, she shows that opportunity-driven expectations can guide young people’s online experiences in ways that balance protection and agency.Less
It’s a familiar narrative in both real life and fiction, from news reports to television storylines: a young person is bullied online, or targeted by an online predator, or exposed to sexually explicit content. The consequences are bleak; the young person is shunned, suicidal, psychologically ruined. In this book, Jacqueline Ryan Vickery argues that there are other urgent concerns about young people’s online experiences besides porn, predators, and peers. We need to turn our attention to inequitable opportunities for participation in a digital culture. Technical and material obstacles prevent low-income and other marginalized young people from the positive, community-building, and creative experiences that are possible online. Vickery explains that cautionary tales about online risk have shaped the way we think about technology and youth. She analyzes the discourses of risk in popular culture, journalism, and policy, and finds that harm-driven expectations, based on a privileged perception of risk, enact control over technology. Opportunity-driven expectations, on the other hand, based on evidence and lived experience, produce discourses that acknowledge the practices and agency of young people rather than seeing them as passive victims. Vickery first addresses how the discourses of risk regulate and control technology, then turns to the online practices of youth at a low-income, minority-majority Texas high school. She considers the participation gap and the need for schools to teach digital literacies, privacy, and different online learning ecologies. Finally, she shows that opportunity-driven expectations can guide young people’s online experiences in ways that balance protection and agency.
Daniel Kreiss
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199782536
- eISBN:
- 9780199950614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782536.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter looks closely at how the Obama campaign integrated its new media and field efforts for the primaries and general election. While Dean’s campaign collapsed in part because of the large ...
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This chapter looks closely at how the Obama campaign integrated its new media and field efforts for the primaries and general election. While Dean’s campaign collapsed in part because of the large disconnect between the national campaign and what was taking place on the ground in Iowa, Obama’s staffers worked to ensure that new media efforts furthered the field efforts. To this end, the campaign’s online organizers worked with supporters on the MyBO platform and Facebook, creating distributed supporter operations that furthered the campaign’s field efforts in the primaries, especially the 23 state contests that took place on Super Tuesday. As field staffers hit the ground in these states, they had access to hundreds of willing volunteers who were already mobilized and active in their communities. The chapter also shows how online organizing efforts played a crucial role in support of field operations during the general election.Less
This chapter looks closely at how the Obama campaign integrated its new media and field efforts for the primaries and general election. While Dean’s campaign collapsed in part because of the large disconnect between the national campaign and what was taking place on the ground in Iowa, Obama’s staffers worked to ensure that new media efforts furthered the field efforts. To this end, the campaign’s online organizers worked with supporters on the MyBO platform and Facebook, creating distributed supporter operations that furthered the campaign’s field efforts in the primaries, especially the 23 state contests that took place on Super Tuesday. As field staffers hit the ground in these states, they had access to hundreds of willing volunteers who were already mobilized and active in their communities. The chapter also shows how online organizing efforts played a crucial role in support of field operations during the general election.
Lynn Schofield Clark
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199899616
- eISBN:
- 9780199980161
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199899616.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Marriage and the Family
In this chapter, we learn more about how young people experience parental approaches to digital and mobile media. As they get older, young people increasingly desire respect and connection from their ...
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In this chapter, we learn more about how young people experience parental approaches to digital and mobile media. As they get older, young people increasingly desire respect and connection from their peers, and they seek these through self-expression that's enabled with digital and mobile media. Young people need to learn how much to reveal about themselves online in order to seem accessible, and how much to withhold so as not to come across as needy and insecure. They need to figure out how to reveal something of themselves so that others they care about will recognize and acknowledge them, while also discovering how much to rely on popular culture to define themselves; and, finally, they need to figure out how to present themselves as engaged in certain pursuits, like gaming or academics, without alienating themselves from peer cultures that do not offer support for such practices.Less
In this chapter, we learn more about how young people experience parental approaches to digital and mobile media. As they get older, young people increasingly desire respect and connection from their peers, and they seek these through self-expression that's enabled with digital and mobile media. Young people need to learn how much to reveal about themselves online in order to seem accessible, and how much to withhold so as not to come across as needy and insecure. They need to figure out how to reveal something of themselves so that others they care about will recognize and acknowledge them, while also discovering how much to rely on popular culture to define themselves; and, finally, they need to figure out how to present themselves as engaged in certain pursuits, like gaming or academics, without alienating themselves from peer cultures that do not offer support for such practices.
NAOMI S. BARON
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195313055
- eISBN:
- 9780199871094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313055.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter focuses on the way people present themselves to a select group of friends online based on data from two sources: a study of instant messaging (IM) away messages collected by college ...
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This chapter focuses on the way people present themselves to a select group of friends online based on data from two sources: a study of instant messaging (IM) away messages collected by college students in fall 2002, coupled with a spring 2006 study of how college students were using and responding to Facebook. If personal bulletin boards are tangible devices for communicating with classmates who are physically proximate, virtual platforms such as IM and social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace offer additional outlets for conveying information or socializing. However, online sites are also places for constructing images of how one wish others to perceive him or her. Away messages are part of a broad suite of IM functions enabling users to send synchronous messages to individuals but also to “present” themselves to members of their buddy list or anyone knowing their screen name. This chapter also looks at the use of mobile phones, chat, and text messaging to send informational/discursive messages that invite communication now or in the future.Less
This chapter focuses on the way people present themselves to a select group of friends online based on data from two sources: a study of instant messaging (IM) away messages collected by college students in fall 2002, coupled with a spring 2006 study of how college students were using and responding to Facebook. If personal bulletin boards are tangible devices for communicating with classmates who are physically proximate, virtual platforms such as IM and social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace offer additional outlets for conveying information or socializing. However, online sites are also places for constructing images of how one wish others to perceive him or her. Away messages are part of a broad suite of IM functions enabling users to send synchronous messages to individuals but also to “present” themselves to members of their buddy list or anyone knowing their screen name. This chapter also looks at the use of mobile phones, chat, and text messaging to send informational/discursive messages that invite communication now or in the future.
Andreas Wimmer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199927371
- eISBN:
- 9780199980536
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199927371.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Social Theory
The most often noticed feature of social networks in U.S. society is their high degree of racial homogeneity, which has been attributed to the preference for individuals of the same racial background ...
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The most often noticed feature of social networks in U.S. society is their high degree of racial homogeneity, which has been attributed to the preference for individuals of the same racial background (i.e., racial boundary making or “racial homophily”). This chapter unpacks racial homogeneity using a theoretical framework that distinguishes between various tie formation mechanisms and their effects on the racial composition of networks, exponential random graph modelling that can disentangle them empirically, and a rich new dataset based on the Facebook pages of a cohort of college students. It first shows that racial homogeneity results not only from racial homophily proper, but also from homophily among co-ethnics of the same racial background (an aggregation effect) and from balancing mechanisms such as the tendency to reciprocate friendship or to befriend the friends of one’s friend that generate homogeneity without homophily (and amplification effect). In a second step, the importance of racial homophily is put further into perspective. Modelling the overall network structure, we demonstrate that balancing mechanisms, propinquity mechanisms based on co-residence, and homophily among elite students or those hailing from particular states are more important in the tie formation process than is racial homophily.Less
The most often noticed feature of social networks in U.S. society is their high degree of racial homogeneity, which has been attributed to the preference for individuals of the same racial background (i.e., racial boundary making or “racial homophily”). This chapter unpacks racial homogeneity using a theoretical framework that distinguishes between various tie formation mechanisms and their effects on the racial composition of networks, exponential random graph modelling that can disentangle them empirically, and a rich new dataset based on the Facebook pages of a cohort of college students. It first shows that racial homogeneity results not only from racial homophily proper, but also from homophily among co-ethnics of the same racial background (an aggregation effect) and from balancing mechanisms such as the tendency to reciprocate friendship or to befriend the friends of one’s friend that generate homogeneity without homophily (and amplification effect). In a second step, the importance of racial homophily is put further into perspective. Modelling the overall network structure, we demonstrate that balancing mechanisms, propinquity mechanisms based on co-residence, and homophily among elite students or those hailing from particular states are more important in the tie formation process than is racial homophily.
Lee A. Bygrave
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199687343
- eISBN:
- 9780191767494
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199687343.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Intellectual Property, IT, and Media Law
The book is concerned with the following issues: (i) what is the role of contract in governance of the Internet; (ii) why does contract play that role; and (iii) what is its utility and legitimacy in ...
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The book is concerned with the following issues: (i) what is the role of contract in governance of the Internet; (ii) why does contract play that role; and (iii) what is its utility and legitimacy in doing so? In casting light on these issues, the book also describes the general role played by statute in Internet governance along with the reasons for that role. The book shows that contract is often preferred over statute because it enables flexible micro-management of the digital environment more easily than statute does. However, the book also shows that the relative roles played by each type of instrument are fluid and that statute is assuming an increasingly salient position in particular contexts. At the same time, the book queries some of the assumptions commonly made about the utility and legitimacy of contract. In particular, it highlights strong hierarchical elements in many of the contractual relations in the field—elements that manifest and engender strong power imbalances. Despite these power imbalances, the book finds that there are slim prospects for introducing any new international statutory overlay that dramatically reduces the role of contract in the field.Less
The book is concerned with the following issues: (i) what is the role of contract in governance of the Internet; (ii) why does contract play that role; and (iii) what is its utility and legitimacy in doing so? In casting light on these issues, the book also describes the general role played by statute in Internet governance along with the reasons for that role. The book shows that contract is often preferred over statute because it enables flexible micro-management of the digital environment more easily than statute does. However, the book also shows that the relative roles played by each type of instrument are fluid and that statute is assuming an increasingly salient position in particular contexts. At the same time, the book queries some of the assumptions commonly made about the utility and legitimacy of contract. In particular, it highlights strong hierarchical elements in many of the contractual relations in the field—elements that manifest and engender strong power imbalances. Despite these power imbalances, the book finds that there are slim prospects for introducing any new international statutory overlay that dramatically reduces the role of contract in the field.
Jose van Dijck
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199970773
- eISBN:
- 9780199307425
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970773.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This book studies the rise of social media in the first decade of the twenty-first century, up until 2012. It provides both a historical and a critical analysis of the emergence of networking ...
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This book studies the rise of social media in the first decade of the twenty-first century, up until 2012. It provides both a historical and a critical analysis of the emergence of networking services in the context of a changing ecosystem of connective media. Such history is needed to understand how the intricate constellation of platforms profoundly affects our experience of online sociality. In a short period of time, services like Facebook, YouTube and many others have come to deeply penetrate our daily habits of communication and creative production. While most sites started out as amateur-driven community platforms, half a decade later they have turned into large corporations that do not just facilitate user connectedness, but have become global information and data mining companies extracting and exploiting user connectivity. Offering a dual analytical prism to examine techno-cultural as well as socio-economic aspects of social media, the author dissects five major platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Wikipedia. Each of these microsystems occupies a distinct position in the larger ecosystem of connective media, and yet, their underlying mechanisms for coding interfaces, steering users, filtering content, governance and business models rely on shared ideological principles. Reconstructing the premises on which these platforms are built, this study highlights how norms for online interaction and communication gradually changed. “Sharing,” “friending,” “liking,” “following,” “trending,” and “favoriting” have come to denote online practices imbued with specific technological and economic meanings. This process of normalization is part of a larger political and ideological battle over information control in an online world where everything is bound to become “social.”Less
This book studies the rise of social media in the first decade of the twenty-first century, up until 2012. It provides both a historical and a critical analysis of the emergence of networking services in the context of a changing ecosystem of connective media. Such history is needed to understand how the intricate constellation of platforms profoundly affects our experience of online sociality. In a short period of time, services like Facebook, YouTube and many others have come to deeply penetrate our daily habits of communication and creative production. While most sites started out as amateur-driven community platforms, half a decade later they have turned into large corporations that do not just facilitate user connectedness, but have become global information and data mining companies extracting and exploiting user connectivity. Offering a dual analytical prism to examine techno-cultural as well as socio-economic aspects of social media, the author dissects five major platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Wikipedia. Each of these microsystems occupies a distinct position in the larger ecosystem of connective media, and yet, their underlying mechanisms for coding interfaces, steering users, filtering content, governance and business models rely on shared ideological principles. Reconstructing the premises on which these platforms are built, this study highlights how norms for online interaction and communication gradually changed. “Sharing,” “friending,” “liking,” “following,” “trending,” and “favoriting” have come to denote online practices imbued with specific technological and economic meanings. This process of normalization is part of a larger political and ideological battle over information control in an online world where everything is bound to become “social.”
Galen Strawson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199579938
- eISBN:
- 9780191731112
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579938.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Cognitive phenomenology starts from something that has been obscured in much recent analytic philosophy: the fact that lived conscious experience isn't just a matter of sensation or feeling, but is ...
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Cognitive phenomenology starts from something that has been obscured in much recent analytic philosophy: the fact that lived conscious experience isn't just a matter of sensation or feeling, but is also cognitive in character, through and through. This is obviously true of ordinary human perceptual experience, but cognitive phenomenology is also concerned with something more exclusively cognitive, which we may call propositional meaning‐experience, e.g. occurrent experience of linguistic representations as meaning something, as this occurs in thinking or reading or hearing others speak.Less
Cognitive phenomenology starts from something that has been obscured in much recent analytic philosophy: the fact that lived conscious experience isn't just a matter of sensation or feeling, but is also cognitive in character, through and through. This is obviously true of ordinary human perceptual experience, but cognitive phenomenology is also concerned with something more exclusively cognitive, which we may call propositional meaning‐experience, e.g. occurrent experience of linguistic representations as meaning something, as this occurs in thinking or reading or hearing others speak.
Tiffany Jenkins
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198753537
- eISBN:
- 9780191917004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198753537.003.0020
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Mortuary Archaeology
In October 2011, graphic images of a blood-stained and dead Muammar Gaddafi were sent around the internet. For some time after his death, his dead body was ...
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In October 2011, graphic images of a blood-stained and dead Muammar Gaddafi were sent around the internet. For some time after his death, his dead body was displayed at a house in Misrat, where masses of people queued to see it. His corpse provided a focus for the Libyan people, as proof that he really was dead and could finally be dominated. When Osama bin Laden was killed by the American military in May that same year, unlike Gaddafi, the body was absent, but the absence was significant. Shortly after he was killed a decision was taken not to show pictures of the dead body and it was buried at sea. The American military appear to have been concerned it would become a physical site for his supporters to congregate, and the photographs used by different sides in a propaganda war. Both cases reflect an aim to control the dead body and associated meanings with the person; that is not unusual: after the Nuremberg trials, the Allied authorities cremated Hermann Göring—who committed suicide prior to his scheduled hanging—so that his grave would not become a place of worship for Nazi sympathizers. These examples should remind us that dead bodies have longer lives than is at first obvious. They are central to rituals of mourning, but beyond this, throughout history, they have also played a role in political battles and provided a—sometimes contested—focus for reconciliation and remembrance. They have political and social capital and are objects with symbolic potential. In The Political Lives of Dead Bodies the anthropologist Katherine Verdery explores the way the dead body has been used in this way and why it is particularly effective. Firstly, she observes, human remains are effective symbolic objects because their meaning is ambiguous; that is whilst their associated meanings are contingent on a number of factors, including the individual and the cultural context, they are not fixed and are open to interpretation and manipulation: ‘Remains are concrete, yet protean; they do not have a single meaning but are open to many different readings’ (Verdery 1999: 28).
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In October 2011, graphic images of a blood-stained and dead Muammar Gaddafi were sent around the internet. For some time after his death, his dead body was displayed at a house in Misrat, where masses of people queued to see it. His corpse provided a focus for the Libyan people, as proof that he really was dead and could finally be dominated. When Osama bin Laden was killed by the American military in May that same year, unlike Gaddafi, the body was absent, but the absence was significant. Shortly after he was killed a decision was taken not to show pictures of the dead body and it was buried at sea. The American military appear to have been concerned it would become a physical site for his supporters to congregate, and the photographs used by different sides in a propaganda war. Both cases reflect an aim to control the dead body and associated meanings with the person; that is not unusual: after the Nuremberg trials, the Allied authorities cremated Hermann Göring—who committed suicide prior to his scheduled hanging—so that his grave would not become a place of worship for Nazi sympathizers. These examples should remind us that dead bodies have longer lives than is at first obvious. They are central to rituals of mourning, but beyond this, throughout history, they have also played a role in political battles and provided a—sometimes contested—focus for reconciliation and remembrance. They have political and social capital and are objects with symbolic potential. In The Political Lives of Dead Bodies the anthropologist Katherine Verdery explores the way the dead body has been used in this way and why it is particularly effective. Firstly, she observes, human remains are effective symbolic objects because their meaning is ambiguous; that is whilst their associated meanings are contingent on a number of factors, including the individual and the cultural context, they are not fixed and are open to interpretation and manipulation: ‘Remains are concrete, yet protean; they do not have a single meaning but are open to many different readings’ (Verdery 1999: 28).
William Rathouse
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198753537
- eISBN:
- 9780191917004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198753537.003.0024
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Mortuary Archaeology
In 2007, English Heritage and the National Trust initiated a public consultation process regarding the display of human remains at the Alexander Keiller ...
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In 2007, English Heritage and the National Trust initiated a public consultation process regarding the display of human remains at the Alexander Keiller Museum at Avebury. This was a response to contemporary Pagan calls for reburial of a child’s skeleton displayed there (BBC News 2007; Jenkins 2011 and this volume; Tatham this volume; Thackray and Payne 2009; Historic England 2015). This chapter derives from ethnographic research (semistructured interviews and participant observation fieldwork) undertaken between April 2008 and March 2012 for a doctoral research project as well as nearly twenty years of personal engagement with the British Pagan community. This project was designed to provide qualitative analysis of relations between heritage and archaeological professionals and contemporary Pagans and did not attempt to establish any quantitative data on the proportions of people in these groups who hold particular views. It focused on the arguments and ideas behind contestation of sites and human remains. This chapter examines how the archaeology of ancient human remains aids contemporary Pagans to reinvent beliefs and emulate practices of the pre-Christian past. It also explores how excavation and display of human remains provides an arena for counter-cultural elements of contemporary Paganism to contest the authority of the heritage establishment. The sheer diversity of values, practices, and expression make it challenging to define contemporary Paganism. Pagans usually conceptualize the divine as immanent in nature either as pantheism (the divine permeates reality) or panentheism (the divine permeates reality but also exists beyond it). The divine may be seen as unified (monotheism), gendered polarities of the God and the Goddess (duotheism), or multi-faceted (polytheism). Additionally, some Pagans may be animists, which Harvey (2005: xi) defines as the belief that the world is inhabited by many persons, only some of whom are human, or even be atheists. Harvey (2005: 28, 2013: 206–10) suggests that religions may be better defined by their practices and behaviours rather than their beliefs. This is slightly harder to do with Paganism since most Wiccans and Druids tend to practice their rites by standing in circles of fellow Pagans and invoking elemental spirits at the four cardinal directions, while many Shamans, Heathens, and other reconstructionists do not.
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In 2007, English Heritage and the National Trust initiated a public consultation process regarding the display of human remains at the Alexander Keiller Museum at Avebury. This was a response to contemporary Pagan calls for reburial of a child’s skeleton displayed there (BBC News 2007; Jenkins 2011 and this volume; Tatham this volume; Thackray and Payne 2009; Historic England 2015). This chapter derives from ethnographic research (semistructured interviews and participant observation fieldwork) undertaken between April 2008 and March 2012 for a doctoral research project as well as nearly twenty years of personal engagement with the British Pagan community. This project was designed to provide qualitative analysis of relations between heritage and archaeological professionals and contemporary Pagans and did not attempt to establish any quantitative data on the proportions of people in these groups who hold particular views. It focused on the arguments and ideas behind contestation of sites and human remains. This chapter examines how the archaeology of ancient human remains aids contemporary Pagans to reinvent beliefs and emulate practices of the pre-Christian past. It also explores how excavation and display of human remains provides an arena for counter-cultural elements of contemporary Paganism to contest the authority of the heritage establishment. The sheer diversity of values, practices, and expression make it challenging to define contemporary Paganism. Pagans usually conceptualize the divine as immanent in nature either as pantheism (the divine permeates reality) or panentheism (the divine permeates reality but also exists beyond it). The divine may be seen as unified (monotheism), gendered polarities of the God and the Goddess (duotheism), or multi-faceted (polytheism). Additionally, some Pagans may be animists, which Harvey (2005: xi) defines as the belief that the world is inhabited by many persons, only some of whom are human, or even be atheists. Harvey (2005: 28, 2013: 206–10) suggests that religions may be better defined by their practices and behaviours rather than their beliefs. This is slightly harder to do with Paganism since most Wiccans and Druids tend to practice their rites by standing in circles of fellow Pagans and invoking elemental spirits at the four cardinal directions, while many Shamans, Heathens, and other reconstructionists do not.
Duncan Sayer and Tony Walter
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198753537
- eISBN:
- 9780191917004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198753537.003.0026
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Mortuary Archaeology
A number of recent events inside and outside of the heritage sector have triggered a lively and largely constructive debate about the excavation, display, ...
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A number of recent events inside and outside of the heritage sector have triggered a lively and largely constructive debate about the excavation, display, and conservation of human remains in the UK (see Jenkins 2008, 2010; Moshenska 2009; Sayer 2009, 2010a; Parker Pearson et al. 2011; Giesen 2013). Two events have been of particular significance: the reburial of human remains prompted by requests to museums from the Pagan community, and independently of these requests the Ministry of Justice decided to revisit its conditions for the excavation of human remains (Parker Pearson et al. 2013). In the short term, these issues seem to have been resolved through open consultation and campaigning by archaeologists. British archaeologists consider that they have public support; public-facing archaeology develops strong links within local communities, the Portable Antiquities Scheme engages members of the public in the discovery of metal objects on a national scale, and TV and Radio programmes regularly include archaeology or excavation as their central theme. There are various ways to engage with archaeology outside of a traditional museum environment: people can shift soil or sit back and read about it in numerous academic and popular books, in magazines, and digitally on the internet. This chapter discusses this new digital environment by describing and analysing three events in British burial archaeology which deliberately sought coverage online and within global media. These are: 1) the burial campaign which was instrumental in raising the profile of the reburial problem in England; 2) the discovery of a cow and woman buried in the same grave in a fifth- and sixth-century cemetery at Oakington, Cambridgeshire; 3) the investigation of King Richard III’s final resting place in the city of Leicester. One of us was instrumental in publicizing the first two events; neither of us was involved in the third. We will refer also to a recent case in East Anglia where negative media publicity came unsought by the archaeologists concerned. In the mid-twentieth century, archaeology found a place in mass broadcasting and early shows like Animal, Vegetable and Mineral or Chronicle captured the public imagination (Bailey 2010).
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A number of recent events inside and outside of the heritage sector have triggered a lively and largely constructive debate about the excavation, display, and conservation of human remains in the UK (see Jenkins 2008, 2010; Moshenska 2009; Sayer 2009, 2010a; Parker Pearson et al. 2011; Giesen 2013). Two events have been of particular significance: the reburial of human remains prompted by requests to museums from the Pagan community, and independently of these requests the Ministry of Justice decided to revisit its conditions for the excavation of human remains (Parker Pearson et al. 2013). In the short term, these issues seem to have been resolved through open consultation and campaigning by archaeologists. British archaeologists consider that they have public support; public-facing archaeology develops strong links within local communities, the Portable Antiquities Scheme engages members of the public in the discovery of metal objects on a national scale, and TV and Radio programmes regularly include archaeology or excavation as their central theme. There are various ways to engage with archaeology outside of a traditional museum environment: people can shift soil or sit back and read about it in numerous academic and popular books, in magazines, and digitally on the internet. This chapter discusses this new digital environment by describing and analysing three events in British burial archaeology which deliberately sought coverage online and within global media. These are: 1) the burial campaign which was instrumental in raising the profile of the reburial problem in England; 2) the discovery of a cow and woman buried in the same grave in a fifth- and sixth-century cemetery at Oakington, Cambridgeshire; 3) the investigation of King Richard III’s final resting place in the city of Leicester. One of us was instrumental in publicizing the first two events; neither of us was involved in the third. We will refer also to a recent case in East Anglia where negative media publicity came unsought by the archaeologists concerned. In the mid-twentieth century, archaeology found a place in mass broadcasting and early shows like Animal, Vegetable and Mineral or Chronicle captured the public imagination (Bailey 2010).
José van Dijck
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199970773
- eISBN:
- 9780199307425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970773.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
The third chapter relates the history of Facebook between 2004 and 2012, more particularly the evolution of the notion of “sharing” over the years. Sharing is an ambiguous term: it relates to users ...
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The third chapter relates the history of Facebook between 2004 and 2012, more particularly the evolution of the notion of “sharing” over the years. Sharing is an ambiguous term: it relates to users distributing personal information to each other, but also implies the spreading of that personal information to third parties. As the terms “friending” and “liking” were imputed with specific techno-economic meanings, Facebook’s ideology of sharing pretty much set the standard for other platforms and the ecosystem as a whole. Users contested Facebook’s expanded notions of privacy and information control over the years by resisting changes at the levels of technology and governance, as well as by protesting new business models, such as the insertion of promoted “friend” stories in their Timelines. Facebook’s distribution of “social” norm has been widespread because its Like and Share buttons have been effectively exported to other platforms, promoted by the frictionless sharing stratagem.Less
The third chapter relates the history of Facebook between 2004 and 2012, more particularly the evolution of the notion of “sharing” over the years. Sharing is an ambiguous term: it relates to users distributing personal information to each other, but also implies the spreading of that personal information to third parties. As the terms “friending” and “liking” were imputed with specific techno-economic meanings, Facebook’s ideology of sharing pretty much set the standard for other platforms and the ecosystem as a whole. Users contested Facebook’s expanded notions of privacy and information control over the years by resisting changes at the levels of technology and governance, as well as by protesting new business models, such as the insertion of promoted “friend” stories in their Timelines. Facebook’s distribution of “social” norm has been widespread because its Like and Share buttons have been effectively exported to other platforms, promoted by the frictionless sharing stratagem.
Rosanna Hertz and Margaret K. Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190888275
- eISBN:
- 9780190888305
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190888275.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Marriage and the Family, Gender and Sexuality
This is a book about unprecedented families—networks of strangers linked by genes, medical technology, and the human desire for affinity and identity. It chronicles the chain of choices that couples ...
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This is a book about unprecedented families—networks of strangers linked by genes, medical technology, and the human desire for affinity and identity. It chronicles the chain of choices that couples and single mothers make—how to conceive, how to place sperm donors in their family tree, and what to do when it suddenly becomes clear that there are children out there that share half their child’s DNA. Do shared genes make you family? Do children find anything in common? What becomes of the random networks that arise once the members of the families of donor siblings find one another? Based on over 350 interviews with children and parents from all over the United States, Hertz and Nelson explore what it means to children to be a donor sibling and what it’s like to be a parent who discovers four, six, or even a dozen children who share half the DNA of one’s own child. At the heart of their investigation are remarkable relationships woven from tenuous bits of information and fueled by intense curiosity. The authors suggest that donor siblings are expanding the possibilities for extended kinship in the United States.Less
This is a book about unprecedented families—networks of strangers linked by genes, medical technology, and the human desire for affinity and identity. It chronicles the chain of choices that couples and single mothers make—how to conceive, how to place sperm donors in their family tree, and what to do when it suddenly becomes clear that there are children out there that share half their child’s DNA. Do shared genes make you family? Do children find anything in common? What becomes of the random networks that arise once the members of the families of donor siblings find one another? Based on over 350 interviews with children and parents from all over the United States, Hertz and Nelson explore what it means to children to be a donor sibling and what it’s like to be a parent who discovers four, six, or even a dozen children who share half the DNA of one’s own child. At the heart of their investigation are remarkable relationships woven from tenuous bits of information and fueled by intense curiosity. The authors suggest that donor siblings are expanding the possibilities for extended kinship in the United States.
Aoife Lenihan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199795437
- eISBN:
- 9780199919321
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795437.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter considers the language ideologies present in—and expressed through—the metalinguistic discourse of Facebook's “translations” application and in the metalinguistic commentary of Facebook ...
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This chapter considers the language ideologies present in—and expressed through—the metalinguistic discourse of Facebook's “translations” application and in the metalinguistic commentary of Facebook “translators” as a community. The case study presented here offers an insight into the ways language ideologies are produced by the community of translators who are themselves also facilitated (and encouraged) by the corporate context of Facebook Inc. New media open up a world of multilingual possibility but one which is inevitably structured by language policing, verbal hygiene, and a range of language ideological debates about endangerment, purism, and parallelism.Less
This chapter considers the language ideologies present in—and expressed through—the metalinguistic discourse of Facebook's “translations” application and in the metalinguistic commentary of Facebook “translators” as a community. The case study presented here offers an insight into the ways language ideologies are produced by the community of translators who are themselves also facilitated (and encouraged) by the corporate context of Facebook Inc. New media open up a world of multilingual possibility but one which is inevitably structured by language policing, verbal hygiene, and a range of language ideological debates about endangerment, purism, and parallelism.
