Social Media Study

In 2021, when the gavel fell at Christie’s on the sale of Mike Winkelmann’s Everydays series—a compilation of 5,000 digital artworks—it made a thunderous announcement: Non-fungible tokens had arrived. The ludicrous world of CryptoKitties and Bored Apes had just produced a piece of art worth $69.3 million (at least according to the highest bidder). On that day, the traditional art market—the largest unregulated market in the world—put its stamp of approval on a very new and carnivalesque digital reality. But what did it mean for these two worlds to collide?

In this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable.

From the explosion of fake news to the challenges of the 24-hour news cycle, legendary journalist Bob Schieffer examines political journalism today and those who practice it. Based on interviews with over 40 media leaders, Schieffer provides an inside look at the changing role of media and asks whether today's citizens are more informed or just overwhelmed.

In The Invisible Toolbox, Kim shares with parents the single most important thing they can do to foster their child's future-learning potential and nurture the parent-child bond that is the foundation for a child's motivation to learn. She is convinced that the simple act of reading aloud has a far-reaching impact that few of us fully understand and that the importance of that act has recently been further occluded by our nearly universal saturation in technology.

Taking listeners back to the days of TaB cola, dot matrix printers, and digging through the couch for just one more quarter, Alex Rubens combines his knowledge of the tech industry and experience as a gaming journalist to conjure the wild silicon frontier of the 8-bit ’80s. 8-Bit Apocalypse: The Untold Story of Atari's Missile Command offers the first in-depth, personal history of an era for which fans have a lot of nostalgia.

For decades, technology encouraged people to squander their time and intellect as passive consumers. Today, technology has finally caught up with human potential. In Cognitive Surplus, Internet guru Clay Shirky forecasts the thrilling changes we will all enjoy as new digital technology puts our untapped resources of talent and goodwill to use at last.

Inside this audiobook, you will find insights for ministry leaders who are considering the use of live streaming as an outreach tool for their church. This audiobook will help church leaders understand how they can leverage the power of live streaming as a visual bridge connecting your church to the world.

In the second half of 2020 and continuing into 2021, protests against racial injustice spread across the United States after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis Police Department officers. What transpired during this troubled time cast a bright light on the contemporary relationship between the press and police in the United States. The relationship between these two fundamental institutions is, however, a long and complicated one.

Die Tagesschau ist die wichtigste Nachrichtenmarke des Landes. Millionen Menschen informieren sich täglich bei ihr. Doch immer mehr Zuschauende beklagen eine einseitige Berichterstattung: Über die Flüchtlingskrise, die Coronazeit, den Klimawandel oder die Kriege in Gaza und der Ukraine. Alexander Teske hat sechs Jahre bei der Tagesschau die Themen der Sendungen geplant. In seinem Blick hinter die Kulissen zeigt er wie Karrieristen, Machtkämpfe und politische Überzeugungen die Sendung prägen. Teske hinterfragt die Nähe zur Politik, die Rolle der Experten und den Umgang mit der AfD.

From the popular and award-winning staff writer for The Atlantic, an eye-opening look at how the current media landscape has incentivized us to see our fellow citizens as characters in an ongoing entertainment—and how we can fight back against this phenomenon.

Misinformation isn’t just noise—it’s a strategic weapon used to sway elections, distort reality, and weaken democracy. Democracy Unveiled exposes the tactics behind political manipulation, revealing how digital platforms, media bias, and psychological tricks shape public perception. This book breaks down real-world examples from the 2024 election cycle, illustrating the growing influence of disinformation and providing listeners with the tools to think critically, identify deception, and protect democratic values.

Not all national decisions are made in the open. Behind press conferences and parliamentary debates lies a complex web of influence—where corporate elites, special interest groups, and lobbyists hold the true levers of power. This book unveils the hidden forces shaping legislation, policy, and even public perception. From sophisticated media campaigns to secret political funding, it exposes how unelected power can redirect the course of an entire nation. Real-world case studies, insider accounts, and investigative data are woven together to illuminate the backstage mechanics of politics.

In addition to slave uprisings and escapes on the Underground Railroad, enslaved people also resisted their mistreatment through small acts in their everyday lives. Discover the many forms of resistance to slavery. Inspired by a belief that knowledge is power, Read Woke Books seek to amplify the voices of people who are not white, provide information about groups that have been disenfranchised, share perspectives of people who have been underrepresented or oppressed, challenge social norms and disrupt the status quo, and encourage listeners to take action in their community.

Black Revolutionaries is an accessible yet rigorously argued history of the Black Panther Party (BPP), one of the emblematic organizations of the 1960s. Joe Street highlights the complexity of the BPP's history through three key themes: the BPP's intellectual history, its political and social activism, and the persecution its members endured. Together, these themes confirm the BPP's importance in understanding Black America's response to white oppression in the 1960s and 1970s.

“God isn’t really good.” "God doesn’t want the best for you.” “God could never forgive that sin." “God could never truly love you." These lies are as old as time, and yet how readily we still believe them to this day. Believing the lies of Satan leads to a life of defeat and despair. But it doesn’t have to be this way! In The Devil’s Newsroom, Pastor Jeff Schreve tackles Satan’s fake news head on.

Mit "Manufacturing Consent" legten Edward S. Herman und Noam Chomsky im Jahr 1988 ein umfassendes Werk zur Funktionsweise der Massenmedien in kapitalistischen Demokratien vor, das heute als eine der meistgelesenen Studien zum Thema gilt. Fein und detailliert zeigen die Autoren, wie die Medien einen gesellschaftlichen Konsens herstellen, der den herrschenden wirtschaftlichen und politischen Interessen folgt.

Wie YouTube das Weltbild formt: ein exklusiver Investigativ-Bericht. Der Aufstieg der Video-Plattform zur globalen Supermacht. Die Macht des YouTube-Algorithmus über den Alltag seiner Nutzerinnen. YouTube ist weit mehr als eine Video-Plattform: Mit mehr als zwei Milliarden User*innen und 500 Stunden Video-Uploads pro Minute ist die Google-Tochter die mächtigste Bildmaschine aller Zeiten. Der YouTube-Algorithmus entscheidet, wie wir die Welt sehen.

While hardly a new phenomenon, masculinity—which includes elements of toughness, independence, and leadership, among others—roared onto the national political stage in America with the 2016 candidacy, election, and presidency of Donald Trump. Research into masculinity dates back over a century, but little attention has been paid to the specific role of masculinity in politics beyond the conventional wisdom that it, rather than femininity, is the dominant force.

In the midst of widespread mass shootings in America, a common motif stands out: the perpetrators of these attacks often view themselves as vigilante saviors, whose job it is to regulate society in a way that exterminates their enemies. In this critique, Rachel Wagner makes the case that this unfortunate phenomenon is best understood through the idea of the cowboy apocalypse. She shows that across US media, from video games and movies to novels and TV, a story arc has been created that provides a complete myth about the end of the world and the future after that.

Veiled Threats challenges the idea that women in violent terrorist groups lack agency. Too often, these women are assumed to be controlled by men: their fathers, their husbands, or some other male relative. Mia Bloom contests this narrow understanding. Although extremist groups often control different aspects of women's lives, including their religious obligations or dress, jihadi women have asserted themselves in myriad ways. Bloom interrogates the prevailing perceptions about women's involvement in violent extremism exclusively as victims: manipulated, drugged, or coerced.