A lively and comprehensive deep dive into the diverse world of social media, going well beyond the usual platforms that dominate our online landscape. A beautiful volume with one-of-a-kind illustrations, inspired by field guides for birds.
A Field Guide to Social Media is an approachable introduction to social media written by leading scholars in the field. Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci and Ethan Zuckerman, along with several coauthors, argue that social media is, and should be seen as, a pluriverse--"a world where many worlds fit." It encompasses everything from neighborhood forums to extremist message boards, from encrypted chat apps to professional networks, and from question-and-answer sites to algorithmically-driven video sharing platforms.
The authors go well beyond Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok to show that social media can and does represent many different values and business models, offer many different affordances, and serve many different audiences, from Brazil to Nigeria to Russia and China and more.
This book looks across different platforms and issues--including algorithms, child abuse, free speech, content moderation, memes, surveillance, and more--to offer a comprehensive overview of the space that lends itself to repeated use in different contexts, from classrooms to startups to policymaking. And finally, it offers an international perspective rarely found in contemporary discussions of social media.
一本生動且全面深入探討社群媒體多元世界的著作，遠遠超越主宰我們網路景觀的那些常見平台。
這是一本配有獨一無二插圖的精美書籍，靈感來自鳥類野外圖鑑。
《社群媒體野外指南》（A Field Guide to Social Media）是由該領域的頂尖學者撰寫、易於理解的社群媒體入門書。Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci、Ethan Zuckerman 與數位共同作者主張，社群媒體本身就是、也應該被視為一種「多元世界（pluriverse）」──「一個能容納眾多世界的世界」。它涵蓋的範圍極為廣泛，從鄰里論壇到極端主義留言板，從加密聊天應用程式到專業社群，從問答網站到由演算法驅動的影片分享平台，無所不包。
本書遠遠超越 Facebook、Twitter、YouTube 與 TikTok，展現社群媒體如何、以及確實能夠代表各種不同的價值觀與商業模式，提供各式各樣的功能與使用可能性，並服務來自巴西、奈及利亞、俄羅斯、中國等地的不同受眾。
本書橫跨不同平台與議題──包括演算法、兒童虐待、言論自由、內容審核、迷因、監控等──為社群媒體領域提供全面性的概觀，並且適合在各種情境中反覆參考使用，無論是課堂教學、新創公司或政策制定。最後，本書也提供了當代社群媒體討論中難得一見的國際視角。
Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci is a law student at the University of Chicago Law School. He previously held fellowships with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Ethan Zuckerman is Associate Professor of Public Policy, Information, and Communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Director of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure. He is the author of
Mistrust and
Rewire. Previously, he directed the Center for Civic Media at MIT and taught at the MIT Media Lab.
Chand Rajendra-Nicolucci 是 Chicago Law School 的法律系學生。他曾先後在 Columbia University 的 Knight First Amendment Institute，以及 University of Massachusetts Amherst 的 Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure 擔任研究員。
Ethan Zuckerman 是 University of Massachusetts Amherst 公共政策、資訊與傳播學副教授，也是 Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure 主任。他著有《Mistrust》和《Rewire》。此前，他曾主持 MIT 的 Center for Civic Media，並在 MIT Media Lab 任教。
