Daniel Kreiss-The Networked Democratic Spectator:  “…Social media afford “active spectatorship” around media events…political elites who produce media events cannot ignore these active audiences exercising performative scrutiny…At rare but significant moments, social media afford and even make possible collective identification, participation, and social action…”  Read the rest here

Tamara Shepherd- Mapped, Measured, and Mined: The Social Graph and Colonial Visuality: “…The social graph is a visual representation of relationships between social media users, arranged as a web of networked nodes…NSA whistleblower Bill Binney has said that the agency’s goal is to “build a social network of everyone in the world.” Doesn’t this sound suspiciously like Zuckerberg’s goal…” Read the rest here

Mary L. Gray- Putting Social Media in Its Place: A Curatorial Theory for Media’s Noisy Social Worlds: “…”We tend to approach media and information communication technologies as if they are solid objects with intrinsic features able to broker the defining difference between life and death, war…But media are not tangible tools we hold with a sure grip…We need to shift from a media effects paradigm that narrowly focuses on the brightest signals of social media use and turn to…a curatorial theory of social media…” Read the rest here

Tarleton Gillespie-Platforms Intervene: “…So platforms matter . . . but that is not the end of the story…platforms don’t just guide, distort, and facilitate social activity—they also delete some of it…This is, of course, something we “know” already….this familiarity obscures some important issues. First, many users do not know all that much about the deliberate interventions platforms make…” Read the rest here