Social Media, Social Justice and the Political Economy of Online Networks

Praise for Social Media, Social Justice, and the Political Economy of Online Networks

"Richly researched, comprehensive in schope and eminently readable, Social Media, Social Justice is a valuable resource for readers seeking to understand one of the most complex and unavoidable social issues of our day."

—Next Generation Indie Book Awards Judge

"Jeff Blevins offers an incisive look at the political economy of today’s online media. The data visualizations in Social Media, Social Justice, and the Political Economy of Online Networks set the bar in interactive learning. I raise my glass to you, Jeff Blevins!"

—Lulu Rodriguez, Global Programs Lead, Iowa State University

"Set against the larger processes restructuring communicative power, Jeffrey Layne Blevins and James Jaehoon Lee's study of digital rhetoric helps explain the confluence of forces that have indelibly marked the recent constitution of contemporary U.S. politics. They successfully combine political economic approaches with network analysis techniques to show how social media is the political frontline for social justice advocates as well as those interested in disrupting these causes."

—Scott Timke, PhD, author of CAPITAL, STATE, EMPIRE: THE NEW AMERICAN WAY OF DIGITAL WARFARE

"This open-access monograph from Univ. of Cincinnati Press showcases a fascinating collaboration at the UC Digital Scholarship Center. Jeff Blevins and James Lee's study of the political economy of Twitter's discourse network by deploying the social (handles), indexical (hashtags), and textual dimension of tweets."

—Ankit Basnet, digital humanities scholar, University of Cincinnati

"I had the privledge of taking a sneak peak at this book before its free (!) full-text (!) version went live. Such a timely project and a great resource to use in the classroom."

—Volha Kananovich, assistant professor of journalism, Appalachian State University

About the Authors

Jeffrey Layne Blevins is Head of the Journalism Department at the University of Cincinnati and editor of the scholarly journal Democratic Communiqué. A frequent opinion-editorial columnist, Dr. Blevins’s commentary on media policy and ethics has appeared in USA Today, Cincinnati Enquirer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other venues. In 2009 he served as a federal grant reviewer for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

James Jaehoon Lee is Director of the Digital Scholarship Center, Associate Dean of Research for Libraries, and Associate Vice Provost for Digital Scholarship at the University of Cincinnati.

The authors are grateful for the research assistance of Ezra Edgerton, a fellow in the Digital Scholarship Center at the University of Cincinnati; Alexandra Pasqualone, when she was a master’s student in the Department of History and Graduate Assistant in the Digital Scholarship Center; and Katie Coburn when she was a Journalism major at the University of Cincinnati.