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Social media is said to radically change the way in which public communication takes place: information diffuses faster and can reach a large number of people, but what makes the process so novel is that online networks can empower people to compete with traditional broadcasters or public figures. This book critically interrogates the contemporary relevance of social networks as a set of economic, cultural and political enterprises and as a public sphere in which a variety of political and socio-cultural demands can be met. It examines policy, regulatory and socio-cultural issues arising from the transformation of communication to a multi-layered sphere of online and social networks. The central theme of the book is to address the following questions: Are online and social networks an unstoppable democratizing and mobilizing force? Is there a need for policy and intervention to ensure the development of comprehensive and inclusive social networking frameworks? Social media are viewed both as a tool that allows citizens to influence policymaking, and as an object of new policies and regulations, such as data retention, privacy and copyright laws, around which citizens are mobilising. Petros Iosifidis is Professor in Media Policy at City University London. He is author of six books and numerous articles in refereed journals. He is Editor of theInternational Journal of Digital Television and Co-Editor of the Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business Book Series. Mark Wheeler is Professor of Political Communications at London Metropolitan University. He is the author four books including Politics and the Mass Media(Blackwell, 1997), European Television Industries (British FiIm Institute, 2005) (with Petros Iosifidis and Jeanette Steemers), Hollywood: Politics and Society(British Film Institute, 2006) and Celebrity Politics (Polity, 2013). He has contributed to numerous peer reviewed articles to academic journals and has written many chapters in collected editions.

Intro -- FACTUM 19 Conference Preface -- FACTUM 19 - Fashion Communication Conference -- Keynotes -- Program Committee -- Contents -- Digital Fashion Communication -- Understanding Fashion Consumption in the Networked Society: A Multidisciplinary Approach -- Abstract -- 1 Fashion Consumption in the Networked Society -- 2 The Research: Methodology, First Data and Main Findings -- References -- Digitalized Dynamic Fashion Illustration, Using Motion Graphics -- Abstract -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Background -- 2.1 Tangible Dynamic Textiles and Garments: The Typology and Cases -- 2.2 Virtual Dynamic Graphical Patterns in Tangible Fashion Using Computational Technology -- 3 Digitalized Dynamic Fashion Illustration Using Motion Graphics: Graphical Patterns in Motion -- 3.1 Theme -- 3.2 Method -- 3.3 Dynamic Digital Fashion Illustration with a Sample -- 4 Findings and Discussions -- References -- Digital Fashion Communication: The Influence of Instagram-Queer-Makeup Artists and Their Future Developments on the Industry -- Abstract -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The 5 Future Developments of Contemporary Communication -- 2.1 Fashion, Fetishism, Branding and New Augmented Technology -- 2.2 Social Networks and New Forms of Augmented Sexuality -- 2.3 Paradigm Shifts, Code, Complexity and Pleasure -- 2.4 Clouds and the Internet of Things for Transhuman Desire -- 2.5 Sociology and Ethics -- 3 History of Queer Art and Media -- 4 Instagram Queer Makeup Artists -- 5 Future Developments on Beauty Industry -- 6 Prototype of a "Virtual Makeup" Device -- 7 Final Results -- References -- Multimodal Neural Machine Translation of Fashion E-Commerce Descriptions -- Abstract -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Related Work -- 3 Methodology -- 3.1 UNMT Baseline -- 3.2 MNMT Baseline -- 3.3 MNMT with Alignment Model Based on Stacked Cross-Attention -- 4 Experimental Setup -- 4.1 Dataset.

Neither a sharing nor economy -- Peer production -- Collaborative media production and consumption -- Collaborative social activism and hacktivism -- Collaborative knowledge creation -- Collaborative gadgets -- Being together online -- Controversies and the future of collaborative society.

This paper presents a critical examination of the social interactions among Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) participants. Drawing on the conceptual framework of "third places" and prior empirical studies, this study aims to map the social world of a popular MMOG, EverQuest II, primarily relying on unobtrusively collected behavioral server logs. Analysis of network patterns revealed that the social architecture of the world was quite effective in shaping the structure of interaction, as the involvement in various social networks was influenced by class choice and character level. However, sociability among players was quite diffuse, with a sizable number of players opting to play solo despite the built-in mechanisms that encourage collaborative play.

現代信息技術,以其多元、快速的優勢使人們對中國的民主抱以樂觀的態度。公民參與是一個健康的民主制度的核心要素,如何促進公民的政治參與一直是政治參與研究領域的焦點問題。在互聯網時代,尤其是社交媒體的出現,其廉價、方便、互動性的技術優勢大大增加了政治參與的可行性。大學學生是"互聯網一代"和中國知識分子的代表。因此,了解他們的社會媒體使用行為如何影響其政治知識、政治感知和政治行為、對於認識未來中國的政治變革是重要的。本研究提出"社交媒體使用"及"在線新聞使用"兩個概念,並以此視作政治參與和民主實踐研究範疇下的新討論焦點。 ; 本研究主要探討以下問題:(1)大學生通過何種渠道在線獲取新聞;(2)大學生使用不同的媒體平台獲取新聞的情況如何;(3)在線新聞使用同傳統新聞媒體使用之間的關係如何;(4)計算機能力,互聯網自我效能感,在線和離線新聞使用,社交媒體使用,政治知識,政治效能,政治信任和政治參與等核心變量之間的關係; 以及(5)計算機能力,互聯網自我效能感,在線和離線新聞使用,社交媒體使用之於政治知識、政治感知和政治參與的相對重要性。 ; 本研究採用定量的研究方法。研究的主體是對中國大陸在校大學本科及研究生進行問卷調查;調查前,焦點小組輔助研究結構建立與問卷設計。問卷調查採用多階層整群抽樣的方法,在北京抽取了兩所"elite工程"大學,在長春及杭州各抽取一所非"elite工程"大學的學生參與,樣本數量為624人。研究結果顯示,當中97.4% 的受訪者均使用互聯網獲取新聞。因子分析結果顯示,中國內地大學生主要經由三種信息渠道在線獲取新聞,分別是海外新聞渠道、社交媒體渠道,以及官方新聞渠道。不同信息渠道的使用者其政治常識、政治效能和政治信任亦有所區別。同時,本研究還發現傳統新聞同網絡新聞的使用之間存在互補的關係。 ; 研究結果顯示,人口學變量超越社交媒體和在線新聞使用兩個變量對中國內地大學生的政治認知及政治知識的形成發揮最重要的作用。研究還發現社交媒體和在線新聞在促進線上和線下政治參與方面具有很大潛力。結論部分將詳述本研究的貢獻與實踐意義。 ; Citizen participation is a core element of a healthy democracy, and what facilitates citizens' political activities has long been a central interest in political participation research. In the age of the Internet, especially with the appearance of social media, political participation is greatly facilitated by technology that makes information inexpensive, accessible, and interactive. Modern information technology, with its pluralism and fast speed, has made people optimistic about democracy. University students represent the Net generation and intellectuals in China; therefore, understanding how their social media use affects political knowledge, perception, and participation is valuable, to bring political change to China in the future. ; Expanding the line of previous research, this study aims to address the question of the democratic implications of social media use and online news seeking from the vantage point of how individuals seek news online and how such use may be related to several key indications of individuals' engagement in political life as citizens. Specifically, this study examines (a) the sources through which university students ...

Background: The self-presentation of suicidal acts in social media has become a public health concern. Aims: This article centers on a Chinese microblogger who posted a wrist-cutting picture that was widely circulated in Chinese social media in 2011. This exploratory study examines written reactions of a group of Chinese microbloggers exposed to the post containing a self-harming message and photo. In addition, we investigate the pattern of information diffusion via a social network. Methods: We systematically collected and analyzed 5,971 generated microblogs and the network of information diffusion. Results: We found that a significant portion of written responses (36.6%) could help vulnerable netizens by providing peer-support and calls for help. These responses were reposted and diffused via an online social network with markedly more clusters of users – and at a faster pace – than a set of randomly generated networks. Conclusions: We conclude that social media can be a double-edged sword: While it may contagiously affect others by spreading suicidal thoughts and acts, it may also play a positive role by assisting people at risk for suicide, providing rescue or support. More research is needed to learn how suicidally vulnerable people interact with online suicide information, and how we can effectively intervene.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter One Social Media 101 -- Chapter Two Learning the Basics -- Chapter Three Building Your Social Media Chops -- Chapter Four Going to Work -- Chapter Five A Booming Field -- Glossary -- For More Information -- For Further Reading -- Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover

Daily life is connected life, its rhythms driven by endless email pings and responses, the chimes and beeps of continually arriving text messages, tweets and retweets, Facebook updates, pictures and videos to post and discuss. Our perpetual connectedness gives us endless opportunities to be part of the give-and-take of networking. Some worry that this new environment makes us isolated and lonely. But in Networked, Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman show how the large, loosely knit social circles of networked individuals expand opportunities for learning, problem solving, decision making, and personal interaction. The new social operating system of "networked individualism" liberates us from the restrictions of tightly knit groups; it also requires us to develop networking skills and strategies, work on maintaining ties, and balance multiple overlapping networks. Rainie and Wellman outline the "triple revolution" that has brought on this transformation: the rise of social networking, the capacity of the Internet to empower individuals, and the always-on connectivity of mobile devices. Drawing on extensive evidence, they examine how the move to networked individualism has expanded personal relationships beyond households and neighborhoods; transformed work into less hierarchical, more team-driven enterprises; encouraged individuals to create and share content; and changed the way people obtain information. Rainie and Wellman guide us through the challenges and opportunities of living in the evolving world of networked individuals.

PurposeOnline reviews derived from peer communications have been increasingly viewed as an important approach for consumers to gather pre-purchase information. This study aims to examine factors affecting online reviews adoption in social network communities and then indicates the underlying mechanism of this process based on an extended information adoption model (IAM).Design/methodology/approachUsing the data collected from 242 users of a social network community via an online survey, the proposed model is empirically assessed by partial least squares-based structural equation model (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results show that both perceived diagnosticity and perceived serendipity are drivers of online reviews adoption in social network communities. Meanwhile, community identification is not only an antecedent of diagnosticity and serendipity perceived by community members, but also motivates source credibility which, in turn, positively influences argument quality. Finally, the importance of argument quality and source credibility in reviews adoption process is also presented.Originality/valueThis study extends the IAM and enriches the literature regarding online reviews adoption. It deepens the understanding of serendipitous experiences and community identification in social networking context by addressing their important roles in the authors' extended IAM.

List of figuresList of boxesAcknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Social movement research methods 3 Origins of social movement studies 4 Political opportunity, resource mobilisation, and social movement organisation 5 Social movements, old and new 6 Protest and culture 7 Religious movements and social movements 8 Struggles over space 9 Media and movements 10 Legal mobilisation, protest policing, and criminal justice activism 11 Global activism 12 Conclusion References