The Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication

Communication technologies, including the Internet, social media, and countless online applications, create the infrastructure and interface through which many of our interactions take place today. This form of networked communication creates new questions about how we establish relationships, engage in public, build a sense of identity, and delimit the private domain. Digital technologies have also enabled new ways of observing the world; many of our daily interactions leave a digital trail that, if followed, can help us unravel the rhythms of social life and the complexity of the world we inhabit, including dynamics of change. The analysis of digital data requires partnerships across disciplinary boundaries that—although on the rise—are still uncommon. Social scientists, computer scientists, network scientists, and others have never been closer to their goal of trying to understand communication dynamics, but there are not many venues in which they can engage in an open exchange of methods and theoretical insights. This book opens that space and creates a platform to integrate the knowledge produced in different academic silos so that we can address the big puzzles that beat at the heart of social life in this networked age.