Review by Choice Review
Taken together, these 31 essays offer the most comprehensive scholarly evaluation of Twitter to date. Weller (GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany) and her fellow editors eschew protracted discussion of any one facet of Twitter in favor of broad coverage of the social medium. Thus, readers can skim a variety of topics to find material that reflects their own interests in using and studying Twitter as a communication technology. The first of the book's two sections (about one-fourth of the volume) addresses the conceptual roots of Twitter as a unique communication platform "at once intensely personal and highly public" (as the editors write in the introduction). The book then delves into a variety of methodological tools, explained by leading scholars, which represent a range of epistemological and ontological perspectives. The balance of the volume covers Twitter through several lenses and disciplines, including popular culture, advertising, public relations, marketing, journalism, and activism. Of special note is the introductory chapter, which historicizes Twitter as it evolved from friend-following service to real-time event monitor to storage house for personal data. This book is accessible enough for novice readers and detailed enough to encourage future research by active scholars. --Nicholas D. Bowman, West Virginia University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
