Lexington Books Social Media and Social Movements: The Transformation of Communication Patterns

This book examines the increased utilization of social media in daily life and its impact on social movements. The contributors analyze "social media revolutions" such as the Arab Spring, the 15-M movement in Spain, the Occupy Nigeria movement, and the Occupy Gezi movement in Turkey. The contributors to this collection-academics, researchers, and activists-implement diverse methodological approaches, both descriptive and quantitative, to cut across various disciplines, including communication and media studies, cultural studies, politics, sociology, and education. Review This edited volume provides an eclectic, international perspective on the role that social media platforms have played in social revolutions around the world. Although the topic is not new in popular or scholarly discourse, the book brings together a diverse set of authors--representing several demographics and nations--and references events not often included in Western-focused conversations on social media (for example, the 2013 Gezi resistance in Turkey and the massacre, starting in 2010, of wild horses in the Danube delta region of Romania). The volume includes both analytical and critical essays along with a few empirical reports.... [I]n an increasingly crowded marketplace of social media theory and research books, this volume provides needed fresh examples of social media revolutions in the world. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.-- "Choice"This is a very comprehensive work on social media and the potential roles of social media not only in democratic societies but also in societies which resist for democratization.--Ülkü Doğanay, Ankara UniversityThis broad and engaging volume offers diverse entry points onto the dynamic landscape of the contemporary social media revolution.--Todd Wolfson, Rutgers University About the Author Barış Çoban is associate professor in the Communication Sciences Department at Doğuş University.