[Air-L] New Open Access Book: Social Media in South India

[Major, Alison]

*****Apologies for any cross-posting*****

UCL Press is delighted to announce the publication of a brand new open access book that may be of interest to readers of this list, Social Media in South India. Download it free from https://goo.gl/venXV4

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Social Media in South India

Shriram Venkatraman

Download free: https://goo.gl/venXV4

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This title is available in both free open access (PDF) and print editions (paperback, £15.00 | hardback, £35.00).
One of the first ethnographic studies to explore use of social media in the everyday lives of people in Tamil Nadu, Social Media in South India provides an understanding of this subject in a region experiencing rapid transformation. The influx of IT companies over the past decade into what was once a space dominated by agriculture has resulted in a complex juxtaposition between an evolving knowledge economy and the traditions of rural life. While certain class tensions have emerged in response to this juxtaposition, a study of social media in the region suggests that similarities have also transpired, observed most clearly in the blurring of boundaries between work and life for both the old residents and the new.
Venkatraman explores the impact of social media at home, work and school, and analyses the influence of class, caste, age and gender on how, and which, social media platforms are used in different contexts. These factors, he argues, have a significant effect on social media use, suggesting that social media in South India, while seeming to induce societal change, actually remains bound by local traditions and practices.

Download free:  https://goo.gl/venXV4

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About Why We Post

Why do we post on social media? Is it true that we are replacing face-to-face relationships with on-screen life? Are we becoming more narcissistic with the rise of selfies? Does social media create or suppress political action, destroy privacy or become the only way to sell something? And are these claims equally true for a factory worker in China and an IT professional in India?

With these questions in mind, nine anthropologists each spent 15 months living in communities in China, Brazil, Turkey, Chile, India, England, Italy and Trinidad. They studied not only platforms but the content of social media to understand both why we post and the consequences of social media on our lives. Their findings indicate that social media is more than communication - it is also a place where we now live.

This series explores and compares the results in a collection of ground-breaking and accessible ethnographic studies. To find out more, visit http://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we-post<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we->

About UCL Press

UCL Press is the UK's first fully open access university press. Re-established at UCL in 2015, UCL Press publishes peer-reviewed scholarly monographs, edited collections, textbooks and journals, by both UCL academics and non-UCL academics. All its books are made available as free, downloadable PDFs from its website, as well as in print for sale through retailers at affordable prices, and many of its books are also made available on a free, enhanced, browser-based platform. Its mission is to make its published outputs available to a global audience, irrespective of their ability to pay. Find out more at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press.

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