Textbook Ch. 9 - Social Media

Question 1

Highlights of this chapter

Answer 1

• In this chapter we will see that, for better or worse, there is nothing neutral about social media. All these platforms have their own unique features, but each of them shapes our behaviour, expectations, and thoughts in ways that usually go unnoticed.

Question 2

Media in term of domination

Answer 2

A mechanism for ensuring that the inequalities of power and wealth that pervade our societies continue to do so.

• social media represented an even more insidious means of exploiting people and keeping the powerless in their place

Question 3

Foucault’s cautions

Answer 3

He says that anytime something becomes so normal so quickly, it means we are all likely to have internalized norms about identity that we probably should not have, or at least should have been more aware of.

Question 4

For tutorial when she ask what we found interesting in the chapter

Answer 4

The author talks about how even without thinking about it, we all want to communicate our presence on social media. We want everyone to know that we are at a cool spot like a concert, or the movie theatre. I never really looked at like that before.

Question 5

Mediatization

Answer 5

Mediatization (or medialization) is a process whereby the mass media influence other sectors of society, including politics, business, culture, entertainment, sport, religion, or education.

Question 6

Broken Windows Theory

Answer 6

it was observed that when a property was damaged, it tended to end in more and more damage occurring. When a property had a policy of fixing every broken window as soon as it was broken, fewer incidents of damage occurred.

• this analogy is useful in what it says about how trust operates in social media. If you can assume that lies will be swiftly corrected, you can reliably assume it is a trustworthy platform. On the other hand, if misinformation is left standing, you can assume that the information is untrustworthy and you will not be able to believe a word you read.

Question 7

The hive mind

Answer 7

the collective thoughts, ideas, and opinions of a group of people (such as Internet users) regarded as functioning together as a single mind.

Question 8

José van Dijck theory

Answer 8

Van Dijck acknowledges that the interests of social media giants are not always aligned with our interests, and that they really have changed the way we do a lot of things.

• she argues that if we want to understand the culture of social media platforms, we need to look at it as an ongoing interplay between the tech giants, the advertisers, the digital architecture and everything we users bring to the table (our creativity, values and weaknesses alike).

Question 9

Convergence culture

Answer 9

The blurring of the boundary between media production and consumption.

• it is also about dissolving distinctions between culture and commerce, and between politics and activism

Question 10

What makes social media meaningful?

Answer 10

How people respond to individual messages, it is about the whole ecosystem it sustains.