Understanding Social Media
- Sam Hinton - University of Canberra, Australia
- Larissa Hjorth - RMIT University, Australia
Understanding Social Media provides a critical and timely conceptual toolbox for navigating the evolution and practices of social media. Taking an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach, this book provides a clear and concise explanation of the key concepts but also goes beyond specific brands, sites and practices to show readers how to place social media more critically within the changing media and cultural landscape.
As an aid to understanding, key concepts in each chapter are illustrated by case studies to give real-world examples of theory in action. Cutting across the many dimensions of social media, from the political, economic and visual, this book explores the industries, ideologies and cultural practices that are increasingly becoming part of global popular culture.
[O]f the three books under review here, this is the one I would ask my undergraduate students to read (indeed, I already have). It's clear and straightforward, and is organized around thematic categories of social media practice, rather than around specific firms and platforms or around familiar tropes from media and cultural studies.
Hinton and Hjorth have written an excellent introduction to the emergent field of social media studies. They examine a wide variety of pressing issues, including user-generated content, citizen journalism, location-based services (such as Google Maps and Foursquare) and the commercial applications of social data... Understanding Social Media has a broad focus and treats diverse social matter from deviantART to Kony 2012. It would be particularly useful for anyone needing a detailed overview of the field. In this sense, the book is very successful.
Understanding Social Media potentially has a wide appeal for both non-academic and academic audiences in a range of disciplines. For political scientists, this book would be a valuable introduction to thinking about how social media shapes issues such as political activism, global divides, journalism and 'the politics of everyday life' (p. 136).
A solid overview of current research and debates in the analysis of social networks, Understanding Social Media is a useful text for all students of digital media.
This book is useful for a general overview of Social Media and the implications it has. However it is generic in nature and would benefit from specific case studies and questions to reflect on.
This book provided very nice coverage of issues surrounding the widespread adoption of social media. It served as a great introduction for undergraduate students in media design.
The book provided a great introduction to social media for media design students. Coverage was concise and engaging.
A fine book in the stream of recent social media text books. Will recommend it to students with a focus on social media.
Excellent introductory text in this area. Have suggested this text for dissertation students too.
My students found "Understanding Social Media" very helpful for their individual research projects. It helped them to grasp current phenomena, such as Internet Memes.
