Overview

This book interrogates the role of quantification in stories on social media: how do visible numbers (e.g. of views, shares, likes) and invisible algorithmic measurements shape the stories we post and engage with? The links of quantification with stories have not been explored sufficiently in storytelling research or in social media studies, despite the fact that platforms have been integrating sophisticated metrics into developing facilities for sharing stories, with a massive appeal to ordinary users, influencers and businesses alike. With case-studies from Instagram, Reddit and Snapchat, the authors show how three types of metrics, namely content metrics, interface metrics and algorithmic metrics, affect the ways in which cancer patients share their experiences, the circulation of specific stories that mobilize counter-publics and the design of stories as facilities on platforms. The analyses document how numbers structure elements in stories, indicate and produce engagement and become resources for the tellers’ self-presentation. This book will be of interest to students and scholars working in the fields of narrative and social media studies, including narratology, biography studies, digital storytelling, life-writing, narrative psychology, sociological approaches to narrative, discourse and sociolinguistic perspectives.

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9783030480738

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Reviews

Georgakopoulou, Iversen, & Stage invite readers to rethink concepts such as narrative, interaction, tellership, and tellability, as well as the active role of numbers IN and AS social media stories. ... The book stands for an imperative necessity to reflect about equating participation in digital media with democratization, engaging readers in new narrative formats and the pervasive way quantification has entered our lives. It mobilizes a rethinking of key concepts, contributing to storytelling research and social media studies. (Meiriane Martins Aguiar, Language in Society, Vol. 51 (3), 2022)

Author Information

Alex Georgakopoulou is Professor of Discourse Analysis & Sociolinguistics, King’s College London, UK. Stefan Iversen is Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark. Carsten Stage is Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark.

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