Digital Commons Network^™

Online Social Breast-Working: Representations Of Breast Milk Sharing In The 21st Century, Cari L. Rotstein

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the controversial subject of online breast milk sharing through the lens of Social Positioning Theory and interpretative repertoire analysis. I examine medical statements, Facebook wall posts on the Human Milk 4 Human Babies Global group and selected Canadian provincial groups, as well as a selection of Canadian print news media coverage pertaining to milk sharing to discover how this practice is discussed. I argue that the medical literature discusses milk sharing as unsafe, informal, and a generally unacceptable means of obtaining breast milk, whereas the HM4HB group members discuss it as a safe, intimate experience between donor …

Social Net-Working: Exploring The Political Economy Of The Online Social Network Industry, Craig Butosi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explores the nascent political economy of the online social network industry. Exemplars of online social networking, Facebook and Twitter have often been understood as revolutionary New Media tools. My findings show that these social networks are taking on a logic of capitalist production and accumulation, calling into question their revolutionary character. Evidence suggests that user-generated content are now being commodified and exchanged for profit.

A critical discourse analysis of Facebook and Twitter’s privacy policy and terms-of-use reveals that these texts primarily function as work contracts rather than treatises on privacy protection. Drawing on the work of Karl Marx, …

Social Media For Academic Libraries, David J. Fiander

FIMS Publications

This chapter discusses the value of the academic library engaging with its users via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The chapter provides some background on research into how libraries have experimented with using Facebook for outreach and how the user community has responded. It gives a brief outline of the process for creating a rich Facebook page for an academic library system and tips for how to market a Facebook page or Twitter account, and how to use social media accounts to promote the library’s services. Finally, it provides some guidance for how an academic library should think …

‘America’S “Engagement” Delusion: Critiquing A Public Diplomacy Consensus’, Hamilton Bean, Edward Comor

FIMS Publications

The Obama administration has embraced ‘engagement’ as the dominant concept informing US public diplomacy. Despite its emphasis on facilitating dialogue with and among Muslims overseas, this article demonstrates that, in practice, engagement aims to leverage social media and related technologies to persuade skeptical audiences to empathize with American policies. Indeed, its primary means of implementation – participatory interactions with foreign publics – is inherently duplicitous. Through the authors’ description of how engagement is rooted in long-standing public relations and corporate marketing discourses, and in light of the historical and structural foundations of anti-Americanism, this contemporary public diplomacy strategy is shown …