Understanding Social Media

Reviews / Votes

[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. -- Graham Meikle, University of Westminster 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. -- A. Moore, St. Thomas University 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). -- Naomi Racz, Independent Scholar 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. -- Rebecca Bishop, Independent Scholar, Sydney