Social media penetrate our lives: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and many other platforms define daily habits of communication and creative production. This book studies the rise of social media, providing both a historical and a critical analysis of the emergence of major platforms in the context of a rapidly changing ecosystem of connective media. Author Jos? van Dijck offers an analytical prism that can be used to view techno-cultural as well as socio-economic aspects of this transformation as well as to examine shared ideological principles between major social media platforms. This fascinating study will appeal to all readers interested in social media.

Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsChapter 1: Engineering Sociality in a Culture of Connectivity1.1 Introduction1.2 From Networked Communication to Platformed Sociality1.3 Making the Web Social: Coding Human Connections.1.4 Making Sociality Saleable: Connectivity as a Resource1.5 The Ecosystem of Connective Media in a Culture of ConnectivityChapter 2: Disassembling Platforms, Reassembling Sociality2.1 Introduction2.2 Combining Two Approaches2.3 Platforms as Techno-cultural Constructs2.4 Platforms as Socio-economic Structures2.5 Connecting Platforms, Reassembling SocialityChapter 3: Facebook and the Imperative of Sharing3.1 Introduction3.2 Coding Facebook: The Devil is in the Default3.3 Branding Facebook: What You Share Is What You Get3.4 Shared norms in the Ecosystem of Connective MediaChapter 4: Twitter and the Paradox of Following and Trending4.1 Introduction4.2 Asking the Existential Question: What is Twitter?4.3 Asking the Strategic Question: What Does Twitter Want?4.4 Asking the Ecological Question: What Will Twitter Be?Chapter 5: Flickr between Communities and Commerce5.1 Introduction5.2 Flickr Between Connedtedness and Connectivity5.3 Flickr Between Commons and Commerce5.4 Flickr Between Participatory and Connective CultureChapter 6: YouTube: The Intimate Connection between Television and Video-sharing6.1 Introduction 179-2156.2 Out of the Box: Video-sharing Challenges Television6.3 Boxed In: Channeling Television into the Connective Flow6.4 YouTube as A Gateway to Connective CultureChapter 7: Wikipedia and the Principle of Neutrality7.1 Introduction7.2 The Techno-cultural Construction of Consensus7.3 A Consensual Apparatus between Democracy and Bureaucracy7.4 A Nonmarket Space in the Ecosystem?Chapter 8: The Ecosystem of Connective Media: Locked In, Fenced Off, Opt Out?8.1 Introduction8.2 Locked In: The Algorithmic Basis of Sociality8.3 Fenced Off: Vertical Integration and Interoperability8.4 Opt Out? Connectivity as IdeologyBibliographyIndex