Could you please include in the announcements Shameless self promotion alert!! And the usual apologies for cross posting I am delighted to announce my book: Uncovering Commenting Culture: Trolls, Fanboys and Lurkers is now available from Palgrave. I hope that it may be of interest to some of you, for your students or as a suggestion for order for your library. http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319702346 Uncovering Online Commenting Culture - Trolls, Fanboys | Renee Barnes | Palgrave Macmillan<http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319702346> www.palgrave.com This book charts commenting territory and outlines why we behave in certain ways online, and helps us to understand it....

From the cover:

In today’s digital world our social interactions often take place in the form of written comments. We chat, disagree, worship, vent, confess, and even attack in written form in public digital spaces. Drawing on scholarly literature from media and cultural studies, psychology and sociology, Uncovering Commenting Culture charts this commenting territory and outlines why we behave in these ways online. In this timely book, Renee Barnes provides a participatory model for understanding commenting culture that is based on the premise that our behaviours online–including those that cause us most the concern–are not so much an internet problem as a social problem. By looking at a wide variety of online commenting habitats, from the comment threads following news stories, through to specialist forums and social media platforms, the volume provides a comprehensive understanding of the role of online commenting in society and provides suggestions for how we might mitigate bad behaviours. About the book: * Systematically looks at why we behave the way we do online, in all spaces from the comment threads of news stories, to specialist forums, through to social media platforms * Draws on a broad range of research including that from media and cultural studies, psychology and anthropology * Fills a gap by providing scholars who are turning increasing attention to the online realm, and students navigating new media, a method for interpreting online comments’ role in society Dr Renee Barnes Program Co-ordinator BCI (Hons), BComm (Hons) Senior Lecturer, Journalism Faculty of Arts, Business and Law USC Office: DG.21 Phone: +61 (0)7 5430 1260 Twitter: @renbarau Web: http://bit.ly/reneebarnes University of the Sunshine Coast CRICOS Provider No. 01595D<http://bit.ly/reneebarnes> USC, Locked Bag 4, Maroochydore DC, Queensland, 4558 Australia. CRICOS Provider No: 01595D Please consider the environment before printing this email. This email is confidential. If received in error, please delete it from your system.