Soziale Medien

Abstract

This issue combines an interdisciplinary range of approaches to the defining media phenomenon of our time, focusing on semiotic approaches in social media studies. Social media are identified as a place of online manipulation, dark posts and deplatforming processes on Facebook are investigated, and the spread of extremist movements on Telegram is highlighted. Models of attention economics are applicable to the success of social media, if we consider their problematic reconfiguration of our social and communicative priorities. Avoiding a one-sided perspective, the issue also highlights positive aspects of social media, such as the possibility for social movements, the distribution of critical perspectives, and the potential for connecting marginalised communities.