Navigating New Media Networks

Understanding and Managing Communication Challenges in a Networked Society

By (author) Bree McEwan Contributions by Miriam Sobre-Denton

Publication date:

13 August 2015

Length of book:

208 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739186206

Navigating New Media Networks examines the changes introduced into society through the increasing use of communication technology. The development of a networked society has allowed individuals to acquire the social resources and support needed to thrive in the modern world, but it has also placed great pressure on the individual to conduct the communication work needed to form and maintain relationships. McEwan explores this issue by delving into topics like identity, privacy, communication competence, online communities, online social support, mediated relational maintenance, and mobile communication. This work will be of interest to scholars of sociology, psychology, and communication.

Chapter 1: Navigating Networks
Chapter 2: Communication Competence
Chapter 3: Identity and Impression Management
Chapter 4: Privacy Management in Collapsed Contexts
Chapter 5: Online Friendship Formation
Chapter 6: Where Online Relationships Are Formed
Chapter 7: Maintaining Network Connections
Chapter 8: Online Social Support
Chapter 9: Virtual Cosmopolitanism in a Networked Society, by Miriam Sobre-Denton
Chapter 10: Always On, Always In the Network: The Influence of Mobile
Chapter 11: Waypoints

Released in the 'Studies in New Media' series, this volume is described by the publisher as introducing 'several challenges related to mediated interpersonal communication including identity performance, privacy management, relationship formation, relational maintenance, social support'—specifically, networking. The question at stake: Will individuals need network connections in order to thrive in the modern world? . . . McEwan summarizes networking technologies and their social significance. The crux of the discussion is the move from social groups toward a society based on networked individualism. Taking observations from current scholarship, she seeks to clarify identity types such as the 'crystallized self,' the hyperpersonal self, and the idealized self-image. In so doing she emphasizes competencies for searchable and shareable communication on networks using micro blogging; mass-personal, many-to-many methods; mediated messages; and the established-identity model. McEwan also includes the dark side of the issue—flaming, lurking, and trolling (including RIP trolling). . . ..This volume joins Beyond New Media, by Art Herbig, Andrew Herrmann, and Adam Tyman (CH, May'15, 52-4595), published in the same series. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; professionals.