Core Concepts (a Glossary)

Graeme Turner's term for the leveling of the everyday toward celebrity culture and vice versa (Understanding Celebrity, 2004)

People paying sustained attention to the same thing at the same time

Signals or cues in an environment that communicate how to interact with features or things in that environment

to digitally pull or present content together online as related

A step-by-step set of instructions for getting something done to serve humans, whether that something is making a decision, solving a problem, or getting from point A to point B (or point Z).

This term technically refers to reliance on processes that are continuous rather than enacted through specific values (digits), but it can be informally used to mean nearly anything that is not digital.

A form of regulation that challenges the power of companies when their behavior restricts the competitiveness of markets or harms consumers.

Use for a different cultural purpose than originally intended

An explosion of protests against governments in the Middle East in 2011

An inspired, collaborative competition among artists and content creators

The development of computing systems to perform intelligent tasks

A sense of "real"-ness that is associated with trust and closeness in online relationships

The human tendency to want to continue believing what you already believe.

Assumptions about a person, culture, or population

The term used when processes created for computer-based decisionmaking is not shared with or made clear to outsiders.

A sophisticated movement online and offline, fueled by outrage over injustices against black citizens by American institutions including law enforcement today

Fake accounts run by automation.

In the terminology of social network analysis, whenever an individual connects two networked publics (or any two entities, such as two other people), that connector is called a bridge.

One subcategory of older media, including television and radio, that communicates from one source to many viewers.

Information spread without concern for whether or not it's true

A real phenomenon with specific criteria: aggressive behavior, imbalance of power, repeated over time. Defined by Dan Olweus.

A collective attack built upon the practice of using social media to call people out for perceived wrongs

Paulo Gerbaudo's term describing how successful online organizers preplan social activist movements that will ensue on the ground.

Sociologist Erving Goffman's term for the common understanding that in crowded spaces, you may politely acknowledge others, but you do not get into their business.

A collection of words that often occurs together

An application of human rights to media and communication, seeking to ensure that individuals and communities around the world have access to the free expression and the tools they need to be heard.

Groups of people informally bound together by sharing expertise and passion for a joint enterprise

The human tendency for the brain to run through the text of something to select the pieces of it that confirm what you think is already true, while knocking away and ignoring the pieces that don't confirm what you believe.

When different contexts or worlds you associate with overlap or become mixed together

Activist movements that deploy creativity in using the affordances of the internet to promote activist agendas and avoid the pitfalls of oversimplification and appropriation.

A (digital) culture built around certain concepts, which could include products

A branding strategy that tries to exploit existing crowdcultures and/or build new crowdcultures

A concept encompassing all the norms, values, and related behaviors that people who have interacted in a social group over time agree on and perpetuate.

A term entangled in moral panics that caused and used it as parents and educators in the early 2000s struggled to recognize the longstanding issue of bullying in online discourse

Raw material in the world of ideas and information concepts: A list of millions of likes on Instagram, with little understanding yet applied

Computer scientist Cal Newport's term for the very human act of sustained thinking and creation

A research method that involves the study of online communities, cultures, and behaviors through immersive and participatory observation. It adapts traditional ethnographic methods to the digital realm, aiming to understand how people interact, communicate, and form communities in online spaces.

The belief that Internet platforms are means of domination and oppression, particularly for people far from where the platform companies are headquartered.

Information intended to deceive those who receive it.

Based on a changing set of deciders. An examples the way online norms are based on changing deciders including software developers and the evolving practices of publics of users.

An imagined society where everything is terrible

Membership, influence, reinforcement of needs, and emotional connection

A graphic image used via text

A vital part of mental health, this is a skill developed in childhood and adolescence by experiencing strong emotions and developing internal regulatory processes.

Ways of knowing, or how we know what we know

the goal of support through first considering the different circumstances that may lead to varying support needs, and then adjusting support based on need

Considerations of how to minimize harm and do the right thing

Shared cultural expression or history, potentially including elements like religion or language

The affordance of social media to draw matters society guards as private into the public sphere

A term recently popularized by politicians to refer to stories they do not agree with

Types of flawed thinking including utopian and dystopian ideas and technological determinism

Creative work made by a fan of a particular piece of media such as a TV series, video game, etc. featuring characters from said piece of media. These creative works are the backbones of online communities called fandoms.

The collective name for the fan community of a particular piece of media

Also called an echo chamber, this is a phenomenon in which we only see news and information we like and agree with, leading to political polarization. (Term coined by Eli Pariser.)

Speed, Visuals, Performances, Inclusiveness, Masked leadership

danah boyd emphasizes these are far more pronounced than in offline communication (It's Complicated, pg. 11). They are: persistence (online content and expressions can last for a very long time), visibility (many audiences and publics may be able to see what you post over time), spreadability (it's nearly effortless to share content posted online), and searchability (content posted online can be searched for.)

An iteration of the self that links individuals with how they are perceived by others.

Online celebrities and microcelebrities whose popularity is leveraged to sway the opinions, preferences, and purchasing decisions of their audience.

The bridge to making meaning from data, such as a research article interpreting findings from a study, or a newspaper article making sense of observed phenomena

The strategic use of information and its anticipated effects on receivers to influence the power dynamics in a conflict

Kimberle Crenshaw's theory that different identity categories and associated forms of oppression intersect and must be taken into account

A symbol, derived from ancient Roman mythology, of something that simultaneously works toward two opposing goals.

The outcome of synthesizing information by considering it in our minds among all of our understandings of and experiences in the world

The negotiation of multiple truths as a way of understanding or "knowing" something

A term by Yang et al (2013) to describe how college students chose different media platforms as benchmarks in the progression of a romantic relationship

The system in Saudi Arabia whereby every woman must get the approval of a male guardian for decisions about her body and life including passport applications, travel, and marriage.

Something culturally significant - a concept or a form of media - that spreads from person to person, often being modified as it does so

A way of presenting yourself like a celebrity: setting up your profile and "brand" online, gaining followers, and revealing things about yourself in strategic and controlled ways

Inaccurate information that is spread without the intention to deceive.

Fears spread among many people about a threat to society at large

The science of how computers can understand what is asked of them through language

A shorthand name for a key set of features that have made the internet what it is today.

A concept meaning that the more the platform is used, the more valuable it is - because the more likely it is where we go to interact with family, friends, customers, or all of these. A shorthand definition is "the more, the merrier."

The more the platform is used, the more valuable it is - because the more likely that platform is where we go to interact with family, friends, customers, or all of these

These are sets of people paying sustained attention to the same thing at the same time that intersect and connect online

Translated from Spanish as "not one less", this is a hemispheric movement expressing outrage over violence against women in the Americas, this movement began in Argentina and led to an August 2016 demonstration in Lima that was characterized as the largest demonstration ever seen in Peru.

An agreement between the US, Mexico, and Canada in the early 1990s forging interdependence between their economies, including subsidies for corporations taking over Mexican land to grow cheap crops.

A group of people, connected online, that share a common interest

The psychology theory finding and predicting that people behave online in ways they would not in person. For more information see Suler, J. (2004). The Online Disinhibition Effect. Cyberpsychology & behavior : the impact of the Internet, multimedia and virtual reality on behavior and society, 7 3, 321-6 .

According to Cheryl Cuillier of the UA Libraries, "teaching and learning materials in the public domain or openly licensed that allow free reuse and remixing."

Political scientist David Karpf's term for the networked groups of people responding together who he argues form the most important agents for change in American political advocacy today.

The threat faced by any spreading movement for complex causes to be reduced to a simplistic phrase or meaning as the movement spreads.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz's theory that the more selection we have, the less likely we are to choose something and feel satisfied with our choice

Uneven, or even completely one-sided, as in an interaction or relationship where one individual is more familiar with another, such as a celebrity or a fictional character.

Also called the additive style, this is a linguistic style in which elements are presented, one simple sentence after the other, and there are few elaborate sentences

This concept from Judith Butler's her 1990 book Gender Trouble asserts that roles like gender are only constructed through our performances of them; they would not exist without our acting them into existence.

A partial identity created by you to represent yourself in a specific situation. Example: A social network account or your online blog

An ecosystem that connects people and companies while retaining control over the terms of these connections and ownership of connection byproducts such as data

A subcategory of older paper-based media such as newspapers, books, and magazines, that many users access individually.

A notion relating to self-determination that is too complicated to be reduced to one simple idea

A phrase used by danah boyd to emphasize how in face-to-face communication, one can generally see who is paying attention and choose whether to speak to them, making communications private by default and public by design. Note this is flipped from how it is on social media. (It's Complicated, p. 61)

A selective presentation of your identity online. This term can also refer to information collected by others about your actions and characteristics and without your knowledge or intention, such as data drawn from a search you conduct or a series of websites you've visited.

A phrase used by danah boyd to emphasize the work required to controlling the privacy of social media posts - the opposite of face to face communication, which is private by default, public by design. (It's Complicated, p. 61.)

Media organizations that are funded by governments to pursue a social purpose, while retaining editorial independence from politicians.

Using observations and conversations or interviews as human research instruments

The visible perception of whiteness, blackness, Latinidad, or other categorization related to people's characteristics such as skin color

Reflecting on one's own experiences and biases

Part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act in the United States, protecting online platforms from liability for the content that their users post.

A 21st-century genre of popular art and media production

A 2013 article by Amy Hasinoff promoting the idea that sexting can be empowering for young women, and unveiling the complications that arise when laws designed to punish people for circulating pornographic images and abusing children are applied to young people who are expressing sexuality over phones and online

The imagining or compelling by fandom audiences of a romantic relationship between two characters

Coined by Evgeny Morozov, this concept relates to critiques of online activism as inferior to more traditional forms of activism, with organizing online perceived as so fast, easy, and risk-free, it results in insufficient gains or change.

Fear of embarrassment or humiliation, leading to the avoidance of social situations.

A network of individuals held together by pre-established interpersonal relationships.

Online platforms that allow users to create a public profile and interact with other users on the website

The study of how human beings use language and to what purpose

Coined by researcher Clyde Wayne Crews in 2001, the observation that the Internet is increasingly splintering into a set of distinct networks due to differing regulatory regimes.

The affordance that it's nearly effortless to share content posted online; the ability for media to be spread to many people, who may then choose to use, modify, and/or spread it further

The affordance of social media allows people who will be gathering in person also to get a sense of what others are thinking before they meet face-to-face and continue sharing their ideas after they leave the meeting.

Paulo Gerbaudo's term for a meaningful public place that serves as a theatrical stage for activism to be seen and performed, such as park at a city center, a football field, the Olympic medal ceremonies, or a memorial statue.

Blending of old and new media. For example, cellular phones were once shaped more like analog (non-digital) phones.

The fallacy of believing that technologies are fully responsible for grand shifts in our world, instead of acknowledging the more complicated interplay of forces behind the phenomenon in question

China’s combination of technology and policy that cuts the country off from platforms that are dominant elsewhere in the world, used as both a tool for enabling local entrepreneurship and political censorship.

A construct; an idea of "everyone, everywhere" that people imagine, and refer to when they want to add emphasis to the effects of one-to-many speech

Algorithms' decisions become invisible, irreversible, and infinite.

The more a "called out" person has to lose – status, some important position, wealth, etc. – the more suspicious people are of those who call them out or denounced them, because they might believe that the denunciation is not completely disinterested

A situation where a problem requires finding a balance among competing ideals, and choosing to emphasize one value may cause harm to another.

An idealized or perfect imaginary view of society

The effort influencers invest in curating and maintaining their online presence to attract and retain followers

An individual who has adopted a virtual avatar to represent them online, usually as online entertainers on platforms such as YouTube

Named by O'Reilly Media in the early 2000s, this concept describes integration of user contributions such as likes and votes into online sites.

“a state of happiness and contentment, with low levels of distress, overall good physical and mental health and outlook, or good quality of life,” according to the American Psychological Association (APA).

“a dynamic state of physical, mental, and social well-being,” according to the American Psychological Association (APA).

Cooperation from human software developers, and cooperation on the part of users.

An army of mostly poor, rural, indigenous people rose up against the Mexican government in 1994, and successfully used the early internet to reach out for witnesses and support.