• DOI:10.1515/commun-2014-0029
• Corpus ID: 151988747

Towards a theoretical model of social media surveillance in contemporary society

@article{Fuchs2015TowardsAT,
  title={Towards a theoretical model of social media surveillance in contemporary society},
  author={Christian Fuchs and Daniel Trottier},
  journal={Communications},
  year={2015},
  volume={40},
  pages={113 - 135}
}

• C. Fuchs, D. Trottier
• Published 1 March 2015
• Sociology
• Communications

Abstract ‘Social media’ like Facebook or Twitter have become tremendously popular in recent years. Their popularity provides new opportunities for data collection by state and private companies, which requires a critical and theoretical focus on social media surveillance. The task of this paper is to outline a theoretical framework for defining social media surveillance in the context of contemporary society, identifying its principal characteristics, and understanding its broader societal implications. Social media surveillance is a form of surveillance in which different forms of sociality and individuals different social roles converge, so that surveillance becomes a monitoring of different activities in different social roles with the help of profiles that hold a complex networked multitude of data about humans.