The world is in the midst of a social media paradigm. Once viewed as trivial and peripheral, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WeChat have become an important part of the information and communication infrastructure of society. They are bound up with business and politics as well as everyday life, work, and personal relationships. This international Handbook addresses the most significant research themes, methodological approaches and debates in the study of social media. It contains substantial chapters written especially for this book by leading scholars from a range of disciplinary perspectives, covering everything from computational social science to sexual self-expression.

Introduction - Jean Burgess, Alice Marwick and Thomas PoellPart One: Histories and Pre-Histories1. Pushing Back: Social Media as an Evolutionary Phenomenon - John Hartley2. Early Social Computing: The Rise and Fall of the BBS Scene (1977 - 1995) - Aaron Delwiche3. Alternative Histories of Social Media in Japan and China - Mark McLelland, Haiqing Yu, and Gerard Goggin4. From Hypertext to Hype and Back Again: Exploring the Roots of Social Media in Early Web Culture - Michael StevensonPart Two: Approaches and Methods5. Digital Methods for Cross-platform Analysis - Richard Rogers6. A Computational Analysis of Social Media Scholarship - Jeremy Foote, Aaron Shaw and Benjamin Mako Hill7. Digital Discourse: Locating Language in New/Social Media - Crispin Thurlow8. Ontology - Nick Couldry and Jannis Kallinikos9. Analysing Social Media Images - Simon Faulkner, Farida Vis and Francesco D'Orazio10. Ethnography - Jolynna Sinanan and Tom McDonald11. Web History and Social Media - Niels Brügger12. The Incomplete Political Economy of Social Media - Siva VaidhyanathanPart Three: Platforms, Technologies and Business Models13. The Affordances of Social Media Platforms - Taina Bucher and Anne Helmond14. Governance of and by Platforms - Tarleton Gillespie15. Social Media App Economies - Rowan Wilken16. Labor and Social Media: the Exploitation and Emancipation of (Almost) Everyone Online - Jack Linchuan Qiu17. Silicon Valley and the Social Media Industry - Alice Marwick18. Alternative Social Media: From Critique to Code - Robert W. GehlPart Four: Cultures and Practices19. Personal Connection and Relational Maintenance in Social Media Use - Kelly Quinn & Zizi Papacharissi20. Television Viewing and Fan Practice in an Era of Multiple Screens - Rhiannon Bury21. Trolling, and Other Problematic Social Media Practices - Gabriele de Seta22. Memes - Kate Miltner23. Self-Representation in Social Media - Jill Walker Rettberg24. Sexual Expression in Social Media - Kath Albury25. Privacy and Surveillance - Daniel TrottierPart Five: Social and Economic Domains26. Social Media Marketing - Michael Serazio and Brooke Erin Duffy27. Social Media and Journalism - Alfred Hermida28. Social Media and the Cultural and Creative Industries - Terry Flew29. Politics 2.0: Social Media Campaigning - Jessica Baldwin-Philippi30. Social Media and New Protest Movements - Thomas Poell & José van Dijck31. Lively Data, Social Fitness and Biovalue: the Intersections of Health and Fitness Self-Tracking and Social Media - Deborah Lupton32. Social Media Platforms and Education - José van Dijck and Thomas Poell33. Scholarly Communication in Social Media - Katrin Weller and Isabella Peters