[ecrea] new book: Thomas Allmer - Critical Theory and Social Media: Between Emancipation and Commodification

NEW BOOK: Allmer, Thomas. 2015. Critical Theory and Social Media:
Between Emancipation and Commodification. London: Routledge.

MORE INFORMATION: www.routledge.com/9781138808768
<http://www.routledge.com/9781138808768>

DESCRIPTION

Social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are
enormously popular: they are continuously ranked among the most
frequently accessed websites worldwide. However there are as yet few
studies which combine critical theoretical and empirical research in
the context of digital and social media. The aim of this book is to
study the constraints and emancipatory potentials of new media and to
assess to what extent digital and social media can contribute to
strengthen the idea of the communication and network commons, and a
commons-based information society.

Based on a critical theory and political economy approach, this book
explores:

*the foundational concepts of a critical theory of media, technology,
and society
*users’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards the antagonistic
character and the potentials and risks of social media
*whether technological and/or social changes are required in order to
bring about real social media and human liberation.

'Critical Theory and Social Media' examines both academic discourse on,
and users’ responses to, new media, making it a valuable tool for
international scholars and students of sociology, media
and communication studies, social theory, new media, and information
society studies. Its clear and interesting insights into corporate
practices of the global new media sector will mean that it appeals to
critical social media users around the world.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part I: Theoretical Foundations

1. Critical Theory and Dialectics
2. Critical Internet and Social Media Studies
3. Critical (Internet) Privacy Studies: Ideology Critique
4. Critical (Internet) Surveillance Studies: Commodity Critique

Part II: Case Study

5. Traditional and Critical Research of Privacy and Surveillance on
Social Media
6. Empirical Results: (Dis)Advantages of Social Media

Part III: Techno-Social Revolution

7. Critical Theory, Dialectics, and the (Dis)Advantages of Social Media
8. Conclusion

AUTHOR BIO

Thomas Allmer is Lecturer in Social Justice at the University of
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. His research focuses on critical theory and
political economy of media and communication. He is the author of
'Towards a Critical Theory of Surveillance in Informational
Capitalism' (Peter Lang, 2012).

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Dr Thomas Allmer
Lecturer in Social Justice
University of Edinburgh
Moray House School of Education
Institute for Education, Community & Society
+44 131 651 6674
(thomas.allmer /at/ ed.ac.uk) <mailto:(thomas.allmer /at/ ed.ac.uk)>
http://allmer.uti.at

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