{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","title":"Digital Capitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2021022153","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","id":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","uuid":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","title":"Digital Capitalism","normalized_title":"digitalcapitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2021022153","isbns":["2021022153","9781032119182","9781032119205","9781003222149","2405518376"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":343,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Digital%20Capitalism","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/search"},"page":{"printed_page":182,"pdf_page":196,"physical_index":196,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"55213be47e97e96d8a6ce1a2ba8d76ebdb4f7cf9bf7f235e973604984cb80e5f"},"chapter":"DIGITAL CAPITALISM","content":"Most definitions of social media are enumerative (for a list of example definitions, see Fuchs 2017, chapter 2). They lack an understanding of communication theory and the social. The term “social media” takes on different meanings depending on what concept of the social is foregrounded. Example understandings of the social are Émile Durkheim’s concept of social facts, Max Weber’s categories of social action and social relations, Ferdinand Tönnies’ notion of community, or Karl Marx’s understanding of the social as social problems and social co-production that implies the need for social ownership (Fuchs 2017, chapter 2).\n\nGiven that we live in a stratified global class society that is full of social problems and inequalities, I consider the tradition of theories of society that go back to Karl Marx as the most suited framework for the social sciences and humanities, including the study of media, communication, and digital/social media (Fuchs 2008, 2011, 2014a, 2014c, 2015a, 2016a, 2016b). There are at least six elements in Marx’s works that are of key relevance for understanding communications today (Fuchs 2016b; Fuchs and Mosco 2016a, 2016b):\n\n1) Praxis communication: Marx was not just a critical political economist but also a critical journalist and polemicist, whose writing style can inspire critical thought today;\n\n2) Global communication: Marx stressed the connection of communication technology and globalisation. In an age, where there are lots of talk about both the Internet and globalisation, we should remind ourselves that technology-mediated globalisation has had a longer history;\n\n3) Dialectical philosophy: Marx elaborated a critical theory of technology that is based on dialectical logic. Dialectical philosophy can help us to avoid one-sided analyses of the media (Fuchs 2014c);\n\n4) Class analysis: Marx stressed the relevance of the connection of labour, value, commodities, and capital. He analysed modern society as a class society. Focusing on class today can counter the positivism of analyses of society as information society, network society, knowledge-based society, post-industrial society, and so on;\n\n5) Crisis and social struggles: Marx described class struggle and crisis as factors in the historical dynamics of class societies. Class structures and struggles are in complex ways reflected on and entangled into mediated communication;\n\n182\n\nThemes","previous_page":181,"next_page":183}