Zizi Papacharissi is an academician that pays her attention to research in matters concerning social networking. She is a Professor that heads the communication department of The University of Illinois found in Chicago. Her research focuses on the effects of online media as concerns the social and political aspects of society. Much of her research looks further into the current technologies like the web 2.0 technologies and their effects on the social lives and political lives of individuals and consequently the society.
Among her works in online media is Democracy in the Digital Age and A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. In her books and entire contribution to research on online media, Zizi constantly proposes for performative fluency as the only sure way towards universal arguments. She takes time to study individuals and how their personality is presented in the online environment especially in regard to information sharing.
This author also writes much about distraction and its effects on the normal life of human beings. She goes further into explaining distraction from a cultural point of view. She refuses to make assumptions on how far online media can be disruptive and how beneficial this sense of disruption can be. She, therefore, resorts to a deeper examination of disruption in regard to culture, and if it can be beneficial.
According to her views in her book, Zizi chooses to examine and critique the digital environment based on culture and beliefs on justice, equality and democracy. To her, all these factors are crucial and hence require optimization in the digital world. She speaks about autonomy and the will of individuals to express their views in the online media.
Zizi expound more on the dangers of trading off between autonomy and controls as regards the freedom people have to express themselves. According to her, chances of having a clear balance between these two factors are very minimal. She leaves this to the rules of democracy and cultural beliefs to aid control and autonomy in the online media.
Works Cited
Papacharissi, Zizi. A networked self: identity, community and culture on social network sites. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
