This book illuminates the complex relationship between social media, identity, and youth in the Global South. By examining the profound impact on the psychosocial well-being and economic prospects of young people across diverse regions, the collection present empirical evidence from scholars spannin
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g Asia, Africa, North America, Central, and South America. Contributors show how young people experience adverse side-effects online, such as social withdrawal, or animosity to others, and how good social health and social media use can help young people develop economic resources, become independent, and socially responsible. Additionally, the book explores the role of social media channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, in the rise of cyberbullying, sexting, and online radicalization; how these platforms re-negotiate identity in developing countries and compromise productivity; and how the behaviour of celebrities on said platforms influence youth behaviour. Structured into five thematic sections, this book presents a nuanced understanding of the well-being implications arising from social media use among young people hailing from diverse socio-cultural and economic backgrounds and political exigencies.
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"Disinformation represents a danger to the integrity and legitimacy of the electoral process. From our research based on the 2021 Czech parliamentary elections, we introduce a model for measuring the resilience of citizens to disinformation. This model is then used to draw conclusions about the impa
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ct of disinformation on their voting behaviour. We argue that it is important to understand this impact in the context of pre-existing beliefs and opinions, and therefore in terms of disinformation reinforcing rather than changing existing views. In particular, we demonstrate how feeling disappointed with one political party can make people more inclined to endorse disinformation that targets it." (Abstract)
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"Beinahe täglich posten oder liken wir etwas auf Twitter, Facebook oder Instagram. Als Orte direkter Kommunikation und Interaktion sind die Sozialen Medien längst zu Plattformen für die Verhandlung und Verbreitung kultureller Ausdrucksformen unseres Alltags geworden. Doch bei näherer Betrachtung
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entziehen sich die komplexen Prozesse medial vermittelter Interaktionen und Artikulationen von Akteur*innen, die gemeinsam kulturelle Bildungsräume und -prozesse im Rahmen informeller, digitaler Alltagspraktiken realisieren, dem einfachen Zugriff. Ausgehend von der Interdependenz von Technik, Aisthesis und Artikulation entfalten die Beiträger*innen des Bandes aus unterschiedlichen disziplinären Perspektiven den Versuch eines (Auf-)Lesens von Spuren kultureller Bildungs- und Transformationsprozesse in Sozialen Medien." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Joan Kristin Bleicher beleuchtet umfassend zentrale Aspekte der Medialität des Internets. Im Fokus stehen dabei nicht nur Rahmenbedingungen und die historische Entwicklung. Es werden auch Angebotsschwerpunkte, theoretische Fragen, Ästhetik, Nutzungs- und Wirkungspotenziale des Internets sowie Reg
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ulierungstendenzen thematisiert. Das Buch hat einführenden Charakter und richtet sich an Studierende der Medien-, Kultur- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. Es eignet sich auch für Interessierte anderer Fachrichtungen, die sich über dieses Schlüsselmedium unserer Zeit informieren möchten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Southeast Asia’s Internet users are far more diverse than usually reported. They range from the urban youth with laptops and high-speed Wi-Fi, to the older generation semi-rural and rural users with affordable mobile phones for Facebook and WhatsApp. Southeast Asians generally trust social media
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platforms more than in Western societies. This trust in social media reflects a lack of trust in local mainstream media and official sources of information. What campaign information (and disinformation) is being spread and which ones are most successful are essential for understanding how voters in Southeast Asia use and trust social media. Social media platforms and Southeast Asia’s “app industry” need clearer and enforced regulation on their use of data and the extent to which they can sell data to advertisers. These advertisers include, but are not limited to, politicians and political parties. Since the future of social media usage will likely lie in closed groups, the role of big data analyses that have dominated research on social media over the past ten years, is likely to regress. Instead, ethnographic scholars who can access these groups and engage with their particular interests and identities are more likely to be useful in understanding the digital sphere in the future." (Executive summary)
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"This report identifies social media threats - surveillance, addiction, disinformation, polarisation, dangerous speech - on social cohesion, human rights, violence and democracy and then identifies creative options for addressing those threats through: building a better bridge between offline dialog
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ue and online platforms; helping tech companies improve their platform design and moderation; supporting civic tech and peace tech options for addressing social media threats; mobilizing civil society to develop campaigns to address social media threats directly or through leveraging pressure on tech companies and governments; leveraging financial and legal pressure on tech companies; recognizing the education and research necessary to develop better long-term solutions." (Introduction, pages 1-2)
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"Social Theory after the Internet focuses on everyday uses and effects of the internet, including information seeking and big data, and explains how the internet has gone beyond traditional media in, for example, enabling Donald Trump and Narendra Modi to come to power. Schroeder puts forward a soph
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isticated theory of the role internet plays, and how both technological and social forces shape its significance. He provides a sweeping and penetrating study, theoretically ambitious and at the same time always empirically grounded." (Back cover)
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"[...] technological changes in the media sector have opened up a range of new analytical opportunities for understanding the impact that media can have across a range of relevant criteria. Thus, the field of media impact assessment is in a period of rapid innovation and change, in which new approac
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hes to defining and measuring impact are being developed and adopted. The goal of this report is to provide a comprehensive overview and assessment of the approaches being employed in this formative period of assessing media impact, with a focus on what is termed here a social value perspective. Social value in this context refers to analytical approaches that extend beyond financial measures of success to take into account criteria such as improving the well-being of individuals and communities across a wide range of dimensions that are central goals of most public interest media initiatives. This report seeks to identify relevant analytical approaches, methodologies, and metrics for assessing media impact in an effort to develop a baseline inventory of analytical tools, methods, and metrics that can inform further work in this area; and to identify approaches that appear particularly promising. The key themes that emerge from the media impact literature include: 1. The importance of media impact assessment maintaining a high degree of methodological flexibility and diversity [...] 2. The availability of a broad range of performance metrics [...] 3. The centrality of audience engagement to impact assessment." (Executive summary, page 4-5)
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