Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social Media
In this essay I argue that social media need to be understood as part of complex environments of communicative opportunities which I conceptualize as polymedia. This approach shifts our attention from social media as discrete platforms to the ways users navigate environments of affordances in order...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2015-04-01
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| Series: | Social Media + Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115578675 |
| _version_ | 1818276909680689152 |
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| author | Mirca Madianou |
| author_facet | Mirca Madianou |
| author_sort | Mirca Madianou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this essay I argue that social media need to be understood as part of complex environments of communicative opportunities which I conceptualize as polymedia. This approach shifts our attention from social media as discrete platforms to the ways users navigate environments of affordances in order to manage their social relationships. Ethnography emerges as the most appropriate method to capture the relational dynamics that underpin social media practices within polymedia. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T22:53:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0833cbce4ae74b1cb8caed36c8569b7d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-3051 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T22:53:08Z |
| publishDate | 2015-04-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Media + Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-0833cbce4ae74b1cb8caed36c8569b7d2022-12-22T00:09:00ZengSAGE PublishingSocial Media + Society2056-30512015-04-01110.1177/205630511557867510.1177_2056305115578675Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social MediaMirca MadianouIn this essay I argue that social media need to be understood as part of complex environments of communicative opportunities which I conceptualize as polymedia. This approach shifts our attention from social media as discrete platforms to the ways users navigate environments of affordances in order to manage their social relationships. Ethnography emerges as the most appropriate method to capture the relational dynamics that underpin social media practices within polymedia.https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115578675 |
| spellingShingle | Mirca Madianou Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social Media Social Media + Society |
| title | Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social Media |
| title_full | Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social Media |
| title_fullStr | Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social Media |
| title_full_unstemmed | Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social Media |
| title_short | Polymedia and Ethnography: Understanding the Social in Social Media |
| title_sort | polymedia and ethnography understanding the social in social media |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115578675 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mircamadianou polymediaandethnographyunderstandingthesocialinsocialmedia |