Facebook as a Tool for Producing Sociality and Connectivity by José van Dijck

José van Dijck, "Facebook as a tool for producing sociality and connectivity," Television & New Media 13:2 (2012), pp. 160-176.

Topic

This article written by Jose van Dijck uses three storylines of the movie The Social Network (2010) as introduction to three main concepts: public sphere, private sphere and corporate sphere.

Based on Jurgen Habermas’s theory of communication, the author discusses three key points on social media. First, the author does not agree that social media platforms inaugurate a new public sphere. Second, the article argues private sphere in social media, which challenges norms for personal communication and privacy laws. Finally, the author analyzes Facebook’s business model to illustrate corporate sphere in social media.

Thesis

Throughout the article, the author’s strongest opinion is that social media platforms are less a recalibration of these three spheres; rather, the complex interpenetration of sphere typifies our current culture where sociality and connectivity are increasingly produced through networked platforms (161).

For first section on public sphere, the author points out that social media is not “free space” for the unregulated exchange of public opinion at the level of political communication and ownership is hard to find in social media at level of political economy. Therefore social media platforms do not inaugurate a new public sphere.

When it comes to private sphere, the author believes what challenges communication norms is the fact that Facebook triggers the disclosure of personal information in exchange for participation (167).

In the last section, the article points out that the face book’s business model is based on three potential economic values: attention, popularity and connectivity. Business strategies of social media should keep a balance between social media as meeting places, working places and market places.  

Background information

José van Dijck is a professor of Comparative Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She has also served as a visiting scholar or professor at University of Technology, Sydney; Concordia University, Montreal; UC-Santa Cruz; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Georgia Institute of Technology; and the University of Washington. Van Dijck's research areas include media and science, media technologies, digital culture, popularization of science and medicine, and television and culture.

The publisher, Television & New Media, is an international journal devoted to the most recent trends in the critical study of television and new media.

Because of Topics for the journal engage with critical and interdisciplinary research into media technologies, platforms, privacy, surveillance and so on, I would say that the audience is professionals, scholars and students interested in new media.

Sources

SAGE. Television & New Media. Web. Apr 11, 2014. http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal200756/title

mw. prof. dr. J.F.T.M. (José) van Dijck. Web. Apr 11, 2014. 

http://www.uva.nl/over-de-uva/organisatie/medewerkers/content/d/i/j.f.t.m.vandijck/j.f.t.m.van-dijck.html

José van Dijck, "Facebook as a tool for producing sociality and connectivity," Television & New Media 13:2 (2012), pp. 160-176.