Social Theory: After The Internet Media, Technology, And Globalization

Front-Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 2
Title page......Page 4
Copyright information......Page 5
Acknowledgments......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
List of figures......Page 12
1.1 Theories of media, new and old......Page 14
1.2 Summary of the argument......Page 19
1.3 The autonomy of the media (sub)system......Page 23
1.4 The role of the media in politics, culture 
and the economy: separate and different......Page 26
1.5 A limited attention space......Page 28
1.6 Who’s afraid of technological determinism?......Page 31
1.7 Chapter overview......Page 34
2.1 Theories of digital media and politics......Page 41
2.2 Media systems in Sweden and America......Page 45
2.3 Digital media and politics in Sweden and America......Page 48
2.4 Media systems in China and India......Page 58
2.5 Digital media and politics in China and India......Page 64
3 Digital media and the 
rise of right-wing populism......Page 73
3.1 Trump’s ascent via Twitter......Page 76
3.2 The Sweden Democrats’ alternative media......Page 80
3.3 Modi’s religious nationalism on Twitter......Page 83
3.4 Containing online nationalists in China......Page 87
3.5 Prospects for mediated politics......Page 91
4 The internet in everyday 
life I: sociability......Page 95
4.1 Tethered togetherness......Page 96
4.2 The spread of social media......Page 98
4.3 Sociability and social divides......Page 101
4.4 Visual co-presence......Page 104
4.5 Alone or together?......Page 106
4.6 Globalizing sociability......Page 110
5.1 A new information infrastructure......Page 114
5.2 Seeking information......Page 116
5.3 Search engine uses......Page 117
5.4 Search engines as gatekeepers......Page 121
5.5 Does Google shape what we know?......Page 122
5.6 The Web of information......Page 128
5.7 Is the Web global?......Page 133
5.8 Wikipedia......Page 135
5.9 Information seeking and gatekeeping......Page 137
6 Big data: shaping knowledge, shaping everyday life......Page 139
6.1 Defining big data......Page 140
6.2 Advancing academic knowledge about 
digital media......Page 144
6.3 The uses and limits of big data 
in the social sciences......Page 146
6.4 Facebook’s ‘Brave New Worlds’......Page 152
6.5 Targeting publics, and the uses and 
limits of big data in everyday life......Page 155
6.6 Big data and policy in different media systems......Page 159
7.1 Media, globalization, technology......Page 162
7.2 The uses and limits of theory......Page 164
7.3 Technological determinism revisited......Page 166
7.4 Mediated politics......Page 168
7.6 Big data and targeting......Page 171
7.7 Digital versus traditional media......Page 174
7.8 Separate changes and limited impact......Page 177
7.9 What is to be done?......Page 180
Notes......Page 183
References......Page 189
Index......Page 202
Back-Cover......Page 210