Personal Media and Everyday Life

This book argues that the plethora of new genres, apps and services in digital personal media must be understood historically and sociologically, and insists that sociology, media and communication theory can provide insight beyond surveys on media use and effects. It introduces key terms like ’personal media’, ’personalisation’ and the ’lifeworld’ in order to embed current media use in a proper historical context and theoretical framework. Theorists like McLuhan, Goffman, Habermas, Luhmann, Bauman, de Certeau and Foucault are discussed to indicate the formative power of personal media in daily life. This book argues that mass communication models will not do in examining the use of personal media. Key communication theories are discussed along with the concepts of skills, social capital and social network.