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Social Sciences
Special Issues
Social Media, Internet and Society
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Social Media, Internet and Society

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2016) | Viewed by 52754

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jenny L. Davis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, James Madison University, MSC 7501, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA
Interests: social psychology; self and identity; cultural sociology; technology and society; new and social media; the body and embodiment; qualitative research methods; experimental research methods
Mr. David A. Banks

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA
Interests: self-organization; design studies; new and social media; qualitative research methods; critical making; social theory; urban studies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on theoretically driven work that examines the mutually influential relationship between humans, platforms, devices, and code. Articles can be wholly theoretical or incorporate empirical data, broadly defined, that illustrates a theoretical argument and/or complicates existing theoretical debates. A partial list of suggested topics includes network formation and maintenance, race and racism, big data, small data, gender and sexism/cis-ism, intersectionalities, courtship and dating, sex and sexuality, algorithms and curation, privacy and publicity, digital dualism, augmented reality, popular discourses of new and social media, embodied technology, social media ecologies, prosumption/identity prosumption, political processes, and labor and exploitation. Articles published in this Special Issue will counter utopic and dystopic renderings of technological pervasiveness, and move beyond descriptive analyses. Instead, the issue will push theoretical advancements that illuminate the multifaceted relationship between humans and information communication technologies. To optimize interdisciplinarity and a broad reach, authors are encouraged to write clearly and avoid disciplinary jargon.

Dr. Jenny L. Davis, PhD
Mr. David A. Banks, Doctoral Candidate
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Digital
  • Social Media
  • Internet and society
  • Code
  • Algorithms

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

242 KiB  
Article
Black Twitter: A Response to Bias in Mainstream Media
by Latoya A. Lee
Soc. Sci. 2017, 6(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6010026 - 05 Mar 2017
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 15396
Abstract
This paper seeks to shed light on the ways people of color, in the United States, are using social media to challenge racial bias. As part of this investigation, this paper draws on Critical Race Theory, Feminist Theory, and Digital New Media studies [...] Read more.
This paper seeks to shed light on the ways people of color, in the United States, are using social media to challenge racial bias. As part of this investigation, this paper draws on Critical Race Theory, Feminist Theory, and Digital New Media studies to examine the extent to which social media, while seen as a place for ‘play’ can also operate as a digital homespace, a space used as a tool for black women and men to (re)construct their bodies and identities, challenging the “controlling images” widespread in mainstream media and society at large. This paper employs the methods of content analysis and participant observation and find that these social media forums are not transformative by themselves but instead have little moments that make for resistance and a digital homespace. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Media, Internet and Society)
1562 KiB  
Article
Fat People of Color: Emergent Intersectional Discourse Online
by Apryl A. Williams
Soc. Sci. 2017, 6(1), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6010015 - 14 Feb 2017
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 18828
Abstract
Though the general populace has been introduced to the idea of thin privilege, the fat activist movement has been slow in gaining momentum. This is due, in part, to the symbolic annihilation of “fat” people in media. Within the fat activist framework, women [...] Read more.
Though the general populace has been introduced to the idea of thin privilege, the fat activist movement has been slow in gaining momentum. This is due, in part, to the symbolic annihilation of “fat” people in media. Within the fat activist framework, women of color are often further excluded from the overarching discourse and white privilege is sometimes unacknowledged. Taking an intersectional approach, I examine the Tumblr page, Fat People of Color. I use Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) to examine the images and conversations posted by users. Findings reveal that Fat People of Color uses an intersectional, communal approach to posit counter-narratives against normative ideas about white thinness. This research contributes to an understudied area of sociological inquiry by presenting an analysis of the experience of “fat” women of color within a feminist framework. Ignoring the variation of experiences strengthens the types of privileges that fat activism and feminism hope to dismantle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Media, Internet and Society)
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2661 KiB  
Article
The #nofilter Self: The Contest for Authenticity among Social Networking Sites, 2002–2016
by Meredith Salisbury and Jefferson D. Pooley
Soc. Sci. 2017, 6(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6010010 - 20 Jan 2017
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 17436
Abstract
This study traces appeals to authenticity, over time, in the promotional material of leading social-networking sites (SNSs). Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the public-facing websites of major SNS platforms—beginning with Friendster in 2002—were sampled at six-month intervals, with promotional language and visuals [...] Read more.
This study traces appeals to authenticity, over time, in the promotional material of leading social-networking sites (SNSs). Using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the public-facing websites of major SNS platforms—beginning with Friendster in 2002—were sampled at six-month intervals, with promotional language and visuals examined for authenticity claims. The authors tracked these appeals, with attention to changes in promotional copy, through to July 2016, among the most popular social media services (as determined by English-language web presence and active monthly user figures or, when unavailable, reported network size). The study found that nearly all SNSs invoked authenticity—directly or through language like “real life” and “genuine”—in their promotional materials. What stood out was the profoundly reactive nature of these claims, with new services often defining themselves, openly or implicitly, against legacy services’ inauthenticity. A recurring marketing strategy, in other words, has been to call out competitors’ phoniness by substituting (and touting) some other, differently grounded mode of authenticity. Since the affordances of social sites, even those touting evanescence or anonymity, make them vulnerable to similar charges, the cycle gets replayed with numbing regularity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Media, Internet and Society)
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