Hi all Some list colleagues might be interested in my new book, Social Media: Communication, Sharing and Visibility<https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415712231>, which is published this month by Routledge. You can read the introduction on the Routledge website, and an extract from Chapter 6 is available here<http://culturedigitally.org/2016/02/first-look-graham-meikle-social-media-communication-sharing-and-visibility/>, thanks to the lovely people at Culture Digitally.

From the back cover:

Social media platforms have captured the attention and imagination of many millions of people, enabling their users to develop and display their creativity, to empathize with others, and to find connection, communication and communion. But they are also surveillance systems through which those users become complicit in their own commercial exploitation. In this accessible book, Graham Meikle explores the tensions between these two aspects of social media.

From Facebook and Twitter to Reddit and YouTube, Meikle examines social media as industries and as central sites for understanding the cultural politics of everyday life. Building on the new forms of communication and citizenship brought about by these platforms, he analyzes the meanings of sharing and privacy, internet memes, remix cultures and citizen journalism. Throughout, Social Media engages with questions of visibility, performance, platforms and users, and demonstrates how networked digital media are adopted and adapted in an environment built around the convergence of personal and public communication.

"Engaging, sharp, and clairvoyant, Social Media: Communication, Sharing, and Visibility explains how social media enable connection, expression and awareness in everyday life, in ways that are both mundane and significant. A compelling read and a rigorous overview of what the social stands for, in social media." -Zizi Papacharissi, University of Illinois at Chicago. “Especially given the speed with which social media moves, and its ambiguous boundaries, finding a single narrative that brings together the theory and practice of social media is difficult. Graham Meikle has provided the early researcher of social media with a gift in this structured overview of the field, and a platform for further investigation and understanding.” -Alexander Halavais, Arizona State University. Cheers, gm -------------------- Professor Graham Meikle Communication and Media Research Institute, School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster, HA1 3TP, UK Twitter: @graham_meikle<https://twitter.com/graham_meikle> Phone: +44 (0)20 3506 8381 LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/gmeikle Latest book Social Media: Communication, Sharing and Visibility<https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415712231> published February 2016 The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW. This message and its attachments are private and confidential. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and remove it and its attachments from your system.