[Air-L] New book - Psychoanalysis and Digital Culture: Audiences, Social Media, and Big Data

[Jacob Johanssen]

I am pleased to announce the publication of my book
Psychoanalysis and Digital Culture: Audiences, Social Media, and Big Data
(Routledge)

Psychoanalysis and Digital Culture offers a comprehensive account of our
contemporary media environment—digital culture and audiences in
particular—by drawing on psychoanalysis and media studies frameworks. It
provides an introduction to the psychoanalytic affect theories of Sigmund
Freud and Didier Anzieu and applies them theoretically and methodologically
in a number of case studies. Johanssen argues that digital media
fundamentally shape our subjectivities on affective and unconscious levels,
and he critically analyses phenomena such as television viewing, Twitter
use, affective labour on social media, and data-mining.

How does watching television involve the body? Why are we so drawn to
reality television?
Why do we share certain things on social media and not others? How are
bodies represented on social media?
How do big data and data mining influence our identities? Can algorithms
help us make better decisions?

These questions amongst others are addressed in the chapters of this
wide-ranging book. Johanssen shows in a number of case studies how a
psychoanalytic angle can bring new insights to audience studies and digital
media research more generally. From audience research with viewers of the
reality television show Embarrassing Bodies and how they unconsciously used
it to work through feelings about their own bodies, to a critical
engagement with Hardt and Negri's notion of affective labour and how
individuals with bodily differences used social media for their own
affective-digital labour, the book suggests that an understanding of affect
based on Freud and Anzieu is helpful when thinking about media use. The
monograph also discusses the perverse implications of algorithms, big data
and data mining for subjectivities. In drawing on empirical data and
examples throughout, Johanssen presents a compelling analysis of our
contemporary media environment.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: Psychoanalysis, Affect, and Digital Culture: Debates,
Theories, and Methods
2. Audiences, Affect, and the Unconscious
3. Affect, Biography, and Watching Reality Television
4. Unable to Tweet: Inhibition and the Compulsion to Share
5. Affective Labour and the Body: Theoretical Developments
6. Affective Labour on Social Media
7. The Perverse Logic of Big Data
8. Conclusion

More information can be found here:
https://www.routledge.com/Psychoanalysis-and-Digital-Culture-Audiences-Social-Media-and-Big-Data/Johanssen/p/book/9781138484443

A preview of the book can be downloaded here:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351052054


Jacob Johanssen
Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of
Westminster
J.Johanssen at westminster.ac.uk