Abstract
Using our four-part framework of mediation, model, mobilization, and wealth effects, this chapter analyzes social media as a case study of technology and inequality. The digital mediation of social relationships has evolved from personal profiles and networks of friends and followers to an information feed that keeps users updated about new content in their social network. The attractiveness of social media as an online activity is unprecedented. Like the search industry, social media has found a lucrative advertising-based business model that requires careful decisions about how commercial messages are injected into people’s social news streams. Social media information feeds are now controlled by proprietary algorithms that try to highlight enticing and commercially relevant content, making the resulting social media industry highly concentrated (though not as concentrated as search) and highly profitable.
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Allen, J.P. (2017). Technology and Inequality Case Study: Social Media. In: Technology and Inequality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56958-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56958-1_7
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