The availability of various technological platforms enables individuals to feel a deeper sense of connectivity and contribution to their social circles and the world around them. This growing dependence on social networking platforms has altered the ways in which society functions and communicates. Social Media and the Transformation of Interaction in Society is a definitive reference source for timely scholarly research evaluating the impact of social networking platforms on a variety of relationships, including those between individuals, governments, citizens, businesses, and consumers. Featuring expansive coverage on a range of topics relating to social media applications and uses across industries, this publication is a critical reference source for professionals, educators, students, and academicians seeking current research on the role and impact of new media on modern society. This publication features authoritative, research-based chapters across a range of relevant topics including, but not limited to, computer-mediated communication, nonprofit projects, disaster response management, education, cyberbullying, microblogging, digital paranoia, user interaction augmentation, and viral messaging.

"This book is a definitive reference source for timely scholarly research evaluating the impact of social networking platforms on a variety of relationships by featuring expansive coverage on a range of topics relating to social media applications and uses across industries"--

This book examines the increased utilization of social media in daily life and its impact on social movements. The contributors analyze “social media revolutions” such as the Arab Spring, the 15-M movement in Spain, the Occupy Nigeria movement, and the Occupy Gezi movement in Turkey. The contributors to this collection—academics, researchers, and activists—implement diverse methodological approaches, both descriptive and quantitative, to cut across various disciplines, including communication and media studies, cultural studies, politics, sociology, and education.

Once celebrated for connecting people and circulating ideas, social media are facing mounting criticisms about their anticompetitive reach, addictive design, and toxicity to democracy. Known cumulatively as the “techlash,” journalists, users, and politicians are asking social media platforms to account for being too big, too engaging, and too unruly. In the age of the techlash, strategies to regulate how platforms operate technically, economically, and legally, are often stacked against individual tactics to manage the effects of social media by disconnecting from them. These disconnection practices—from restricting screen time and detoxing from device use to deleting apps and accounts—often reinforce rather than confront the ways social media organize attention, everyday life, and society. Reckoning with Social Media challenges the prevailing critique of social media that pits small gestures against big changes, that either celebrates personal transformation or champions structural reformation. This edited volume reframes evaluative claims about disconnection practices as either restorative or reformative of current social media systems by beginning where other studies conclude: the ambivalence, commodification, and complicity of separating from social media.

Regina Luttrell and Adrienne A. Wallace present an engaging introduction of social media’s integration with modern society. Recognizing categories of relational, societal, and self while analyzing the social media environment, this introductory mass communications textbook establishes a framework for understanding how technology, culture, democracy, economy, and audience fragmentation interact with each media industry differently and relate to media literacy. Armed with this knowledge, future professional communicators gain a better understanding of their audience and the level to which their strategies influence the public. Social Media and Society empowers students as consumers and creators of social media and illustrates that, while the tools of communication have changed, the goals of social connection and influence have not. Features of this unique text include the following: Relational/Societal/Self boxes provide a framework for analysis of media and society In Theory boxes attaching theory to practice Learning tools and enhanced pedagogy, such as Learning Objectives, Chapter Wrap-Up; Critical Thinking Questions, Media Sources, and End of Chapter Activities Comprehensive Glossary of key terms Full-color visuals capturing key trends and up-to-date data

As media becomes more readily available in the digital age, it also becomes more vulnerable to tampering and manipulation, making techniques for verifying reliable news and media sources essential. Understanding online technologies’ role in shaping the media environment allows for insight into the correlations between the rapidly transforming media landscape and its unwanted effect on news and content tampering. Cross-Media Authentication and Verification: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of verifying the newsgathering and publishing process. While highlighting topics including human authentication, information evaluation, and tampered content, this book is ideally designed for researchers, students, publishers, and academicians seeking current research on media authenticity and misinformation.

This book offers a comprehensive new analysis of the contemporary media landscape, looking at the central theories of the digital society, and the hot topics and key research methods in the field.