Nick Couldry– Social Media: Human Life :”…In the era of digital media, a normative turn is under way in communications research which is quite different from the more specialist concern with journalistic ethics…The impetus to such normative reflection is twofold: first, an unprecedented deepening of how media outputs and media-related expectations are embedded in our lives. And, second, the increasing salience of social media platforms in the stimulation of economic demand on which capitalism depends…” Read the rest here

Tim Jordan-  Why I Joined Facebook and Still Regret It:”…I joined Facebook with my arm (metaphorically) bent a long way up my back by my family…Looking back…two aspects…troubled me about social media, and continue to do so…These two aspects also constitute for me core themes of social media research: divisions of public and private, and the enclosure of social relations in online spaces…”  Read the rest here

Mike Ananny- From Noxious to Public? Tracing Ethical Dynamics of Social Media Platform Conversions: “When do social media platforms become public platforms—and what do such conversions have to teach us about the ethics of sociotechnical power?… An emerging set of software platforms that enable peer-to-peer exchanges outside of traditional marketplaces—often problematically grouped under under the misnomer “sharing economy”…Periodically…convert from “noxious markets” to public platforms…”  Read the rest here

Hector Postigo- Social Media: The Unbearable Lightness of Meaning: “Milan Kundera, in his classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being undertook a consideration of the ephemeral…we might consider our research into social media as exploring…an ancient ruin…upon which we hang our joys, our agonies, our desire…What becomes of social media, whether it will serve human flourishing or the “banality of evil” will depend on how we…”Read the rest here