Studying Social Media

This chapter makes visible the infrastructures of our social media environments. By leaning on our earlier media and technology studies literature (McLuhan, Kittler, Williams), science and technology studies (Rositer), computational science and digital cultures (Goffman, Senft, Marwick, boyd), this chapter maps out the production of social media data and how that data is used, managed, moved and monetised across networks. Specifically, it will explore the shifting public sphere towards the digital sphere, legal and regulatory implications of social media, the political economy of social media, networks and the users within these spaces.