Introduction: Social Media Histories, Contexts, Development

This chapter introduces the key themes relating to the role of social media in contemporary society. It considers the development of social media in the context of theories of techno-social change, such as diffusions of innovation and moral panics. It locates the technologies and processes of social media against its traditional media and communication background. The contrast, continuities and overlaps with mass media will form the thematic underpinning for the more recent history of social media, from the late twentieth-century Internet-based immediate antecedents to the present-day platforms. This section also maps the rest of the book and introduces some key ideas about the research and study of social media, in preparation for Chap. 2 .