Table of Contents

What is a Critical Introduction to Social Media?
I FOUNDATIONS
What are Social Media and Big Data?
Social Media as Participatory Culture
Social Media and Communication Power
II APPLICATIONS
The Power and Political Economy of Social Media
Google: Good or Evil Search Engine?
Facebook: Surveillance in the Age of Edward Snowden
Twitter and Democracy: A New Public Sphere?
Weibo and Chinese Capitalism
The Political Economy of Online Sharing Platforms in the Age of Airbnb and Uber
Wikipedia: A New Democratic Form of Collaborative Work and Production?
III CULTURES
Conclusion: Social Media and its Alternatives – Towards a Truly Social Media

About the Author

Christian Fuchs is Professor at the University of Westminster, where he is the Director of the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies and the Director of the Communication and Media Research Institute. His research fields are critical theory, critical media/communication studies, critical digital studies.

Fuchs is a critical theorist of communication and digital media. He is the author of many works about the roles of media, communcation, and the Internet in society.

His books include "Marxist Humanism & Communication Theory" (2021), "Communication and Captalism: A Critical Theory" (2020), "Marxism: Karl Marx′s Fifteen Key Concepts for Cultural & Communication Studies"

(2020), "Nationalism on the Internet" (2020), "Rereading Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism" (2019), "Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter" (2018), "Critical Theory of Communication" (2016), "Reading Marx in the Information Age" (2016), "Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media" (2015), "OccupyMedia!"

(2014), "Digital Labour and Karl Marx" (2014), "Foundations of Critical Media and Information Studies" (2011), "Internet and Society" (2008).

@fuchschristian,

http://fuchsc.net

Reviews

Timely new chapters on China and on the "sharing economy" of Uber and Airbnb strengthen an already vital contribution to communication studies. Through the lens of critical theory, Fuchs provides the essential text for students of our new media world.
*Vincent Mosco*

A definitive book for all social media users who feel powerless and exploited, who long for dignity, freedom, and a more democratic Internet - illuminated, again, by critical theory.
*Jack Qiu*

Christian Fuch’s revised text should be mandatory reading for students, scholars, or anyone trying to understand the changes and continuity that characterize social media. The book is a smart, thorough and well-documented resource that should be useful to all.
*Janet Wasko*