Understanding Social Media Logic

Abstract

About the JournalMedia and Communication is an international open access journal dedicated to a wide variety of basic and applied research in communication and its related fields. It aims at providing a research forum on the social and cultural relevance of media and communication processes. Abstract: Over the past decade, social media platforms have penetrated deeply into the mechanics of everyday life, affecting people's informal interactions, as well as institutional structures and professional routines. Far from being neutral platforms for everyone, social media have changed the conditions and rules of social interaction. In this article, we examine the intricate dynamic between social media platforms, mass media, users, and social institutions by calling attention to social media logic-the norms, strategies, mechanisms, and economies-underpinning its dynamics. This logic will be considered in light of what has been identified as mass media logic, which has helped spread the media's powerful discourse outside its institutional boundaries. Theorizing social media logic, we identify four grounding principles-programmability, popularity, connectivity, and datafication-and argue that these principles become increasingly entangled with mass media logic. The logic of social media, rooted in these grounding principles and strategies, is gradually invading all areas of public life. Besides print news and broadcasting, it also affects law and order, social activism, politics, and so forth. Therefore, its sustaining logic and widespread dissemination deserve to be scrutinized in detail in order to better understand its impact in various domains. Concentrating on the tactics and strategies at work in social media logic, we reassess the constellation of power relationships in which social practices unfold, raising questions such as: How does social media logic modify or enhance existing mass media logic? And how is this new media logic exported beyond the boundaries of (social or mass) media proper? The underlying principles, tactics, and strategies may be relatively simple to identify, but it is much harder to map the complex connections between platforms that distribute this logic: users that employ them, technologies that drive them, economic structures that scaffold them, and institutional bodies that incorporate them. www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication Editors-in-Chief

Locked down apps versus the social media ecology: Why do young people and educators disagree on the best delivery platform for digital sexual health entertainment education?

“…Academic and industry research into what makes media content 'spreadable' (Jenkins, Ford & Green, 2013) has identified a number of characteristics that make content more likely to be shared on social media. As van Dijck and Poell (2013) observe, cultures of connectivity within these ecosystems are not simply driven by individuals, or groups of end-users, but involve 'mutual shaping of users, platforms, advertisers, and, more generally, online performative environments ' (8). Our data suggests that adult stakeholders in sexuality education are uncomfortable with the very forms of social media as educational tools.…”

De l’Internet, du Québec, et de l’Internet québécois. Essai sur les nouveaux modes de régulation numérique de la culture

“…Aussi, puisque que la gouvernance est ce principe qui rend possible tout mouvement de données et de contenus, la question est de savoir comment cela se fait. Une première réponse tient dans un mode de gestion qui a la particularité d'être « à distance », d'influer plus ou moins indirectement, de contrôler et de canaliser par l'imposition de balises (Hargittai, 2000;Van Dijck et Poell, 2013). Ce mode de régulation est éminemment politique même si, ou parce qu'il n'est pas basé sur l'usage de la contrainte ou de la force pure.…”

Wprowadzenie do polityki opartej na uwadze

“…appear alongside the old ones, which also include communication in the traditional, increasingly polarized media (see : Szabó, Bene, 2015). Network logic often complements communication through traditional media, but it definitely entails the adaptation of communicators to the new technology (Bennett, Segerberg, 2013;van Dijck, Poell, 2013). This adaptation means that the communicator himself will be responsible for researching, writing and sharing the content, and editors (gatekeepers) cannot be expected to implement this process.…”