There has been a data rush in the past decade brought about by online communication and, in particular, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, among others), which promises a new age of digital enlightenment. But social data is compromised: it is being seized by specific economic interests, it leads to a fundamental shift in the relationship between research and the public good, and it fosters new forms of control and surveillance. Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data explores how we perform critical research within a compromised social data framework. The expert, international lineup of contributors explores the limits and challenges of social data research in order to invent and develop new modes of doing public research. At its core, this collection argues that we are witnessing a fundamental reshaping of the social through social data mining.

Our lives are more mediated than ever before. Adults in economically advanced countries spend, on average, over eight hours per day interacting with the media. The news and entertainment industries are being transformed by the shift to digital platforms. But how much is really changing in terms of what shapes media content? What are the impacts on our public and imaginative life? And is the Internet a democratising tool of social protest, or of state and commercial manipulation? Drawing on decades of research to examine these and other questions, Understanding Media interrogates claims about the Internet, explores how representations in TV and film may influence perceptions of self, and traces overarching trends while attending to crucial local context, from the United States to China, Norway to Malaysia, and Brazil to Britain. Understanding Media is an accessible and essential guide to the world's most influential force - the contemporary media.

The Mediation of Poverty: The News, New Media, and Politics discusses the influence of the increasing use of digital technologies on media and political responses to poverty in the United Kingdom and Canada. Considering poverty politics at symbolic and structural levels, Joanna Redden uses a frame analysis of mainstream and alternative news content to identify which narratives dominate poverty coverage, what is missing from mainstream news coverage, and what can be learned by looking at alternative sources of news and information. The Mediation of Poverty argues that news coverage privileges and embeds neoliberal approaches to the issue of poverty in Canada and the United Kingdom. Interviews with journalists, politicians, researchers, and activists enable discussion, on a micro level, of the changing nature of news, politics, and activism, and how these changes influences poverty politics. Redden raises concerns about how the speed of digitally-mediated working environments is reshaping even foreclosing opportunities for communication, reflection, and contestation in a way that reinforces the dominance of market-based thinking, and limits political responses to poverty."

"The definitive book on the social, political, and economic dimensions of data." - Vincent Mosco, author of The Smart City in a Digital World "An essential handbook for those invested in reclaiming our digital space." - Payal Arora, author of The Next Billion Users and FemLab Co-Founder In an age of datafication, the systematic collection, analysis and exploitation of data impacts all aspects of our social lives. Crucially, there are winners and losers in this. From access to services, to the risk of being wrongfully targeted, to our very understanding of the social world and what we think matters in it. Data Justice is a cutting-edge exploration of the power relations that lay at the heart of our datafied lives. It outlines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice, exploring how societies are, will, and should be affected by data-driven technology and automation. From data capitalism and data colonialism, to data harms and data activism - this book is an expert guide to the debates central to understanding the injustices of life in a datafied society. It is also an urgent and impassioned call to challenge and reimagine these injustices. To work collectively to achieve a fairer and more just future. Data Justice is an essential resource for anyone working and studying across critical data studies, and anyone interested in the social consequences of big data, smart technology and AI. Dr Lina Dencik, Dr Arne Hintz, Dr Joanna Redden and Dr Emiliano Trere are co-Directors of the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University.

There has been a data rush in the past decade brought about by online communication and, in particular, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, among others), which promises a new age of digital enlightenment. But social data is compromised: it is being seized by specific economic interests, it leads to a fundamental shift in the relationship between research and the public good, and it fosters new forms of control and surveillance. Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data explores how we perform critical research within a compromised social data framework. The expert, international lineup of contributors explores the limits and challenges of social data research in order to invent and develop new modes of doing public research. At its core, this collection argues that we are witnessing a fundamental reshaping of the social through social data mining.

"The definitive book on the social, political, and economic dimensions of data." - Vincent Mosco, author of The Smart City in a Digital World "An essential handbook for those invested in reclaiming our digital space." - Payal Arora, author of The Next Billion Users and FemLab Co-Founder In an age of datafication, the systematic collection, analysis and exploitation of data impacts all aspects of our social lives. Crucially, there are winners and losers in this. From access to services, to the risk of being wrongfully targeted, to our very understanding of the social world and what we think matters in it. Data Justice is a cutting-edge exploration of the power relations that lay at the heart of our datafied lives. It outlines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice, exploring how societies are, will, and should be affected by data-driven technology and automation. From data capitalism and data colonialism, to data harms and data activism - this book is an expert guide to the debates central to understanding the injustices of life in a datafied society. It is also an urgent and impassioned call to challenge and reimagine these injustices. To work collectively to achieve a fairer and more just future. Data Justice is an essential resource for anyone working and studying across critical data studies, and anyone interested in the social consequences of big data, smart technology and AI. Dr Lina Dencik, Dr Arne Hintz, Dr Joanna Redden and Dr Emiliano Trere are co-Directors of the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University.