Chapter 1: Digital media sociology: an
introduction
Goal of Digital Media Sociology
The field aims to look beyond the taken-for-grandness of digital connectivity to
understand its profound social implications. It asks how digital media shape and are
shaped by the social organization of society. This involves developing an abstract
understanding of how digital technology has altered the social order
Sociology as a foundation
Digital media sociology is a subdiscipline of sociology. Sociology studies the social
organization of society, focusing on how people live together and the resulting
opportunities and problems. Core sociological questions revolve around social order
(and cohesion), social inequality, and identity (individual and collective)
Defining Digital Media Sociology:
It studies the interplay between digital media and the social organization of society.
This includes how media are implicated in the social order, how they disrupt or
reproduce power and social inequality, and how they mediate and are products of
meaning-making and identity processes. The field examines these effects at both the
micro-level (changes in everyday practices) and the macro-level (changes to societal
institutions)
Situating the field
Digital media sociology exists adjacent to Media Psychology (focus on individual
cognition, emotion, behavior, and effects). Media Studies (focus on media history,
industries, content, and audiences), and Cultural Sociology (focus on human culture,
norms, and rituals). While distinct, there are overlaps and intersections, and media
sociology often draws on insights from these fields
1
,Core theoretical lens
The course develops a general theoretical lens grounded in sociology to understand
how digitization shapes the social order
1. Social Structure and Agency
2. Duality of Structure
3. Duality of Technology
4. Apparatgeist
5. Technological Affordances
Three Central Questions/Logics of the Book
The handbook focuses in-depth on three core questions, each tied to a
dominant "logic" that digitization has brought to the social order
1. Is 24/7 connectivity a bliss or a burden? (Network Logic)
2. Are social media making us more or less social? (Social Logic)
3. Does datafication empower or disempower? (Personal Logic)
These questions will be analyzed by situating the changes socio-historically and
deconstructing the structures (both social and technological) that make new
ways of doing things seem logical.
2
,Chapter 2: Duality of Structure, Duality of
Technology
Social structure: Why we do the things we do?
Social structure: the way we do things, a set of logics that dictate our behavior in
our everyday life
Social order concerns the ‘rules’ that order society: It is not something bad,
we need rules to live together otherwise there would be chaos
Individuals, through their practices, obey or disobey these rules, thus
reproducing the social order or challenging it
Practices are thus:
§ Inherently relational (=social)
§ Persistent/durable (=historical)
§ Cultural (=contextual)
They might not be the same everywhere
Example: depending on the color of the traffic light we follow rules
Social change occurs when individuals successfully and collectively produce
a new social order
Media sociologists look at how media play a role in shaping the way we do and
organize things, and what opportunities and challenges this brings. To understand
the media sociological lens, we need to understand the interplay between social
structures, individual agency and technological affordances:
3
, Theoretical frameworks
Giddens’ Structuration Theory: The Duality of Structure
o Giddens' Structuration Theory examines the interplay between social
structures and individual agency →the "duality of structure":
1) Social Structures: they are the rules and patterned ways in which people
organize themselves. They represent established systems and patterns of
relationships. These structures can be informal (not codified) or
institutionalized into formal systems and organizations (examples include
gender roles, which prescribe expected behaviors)
Functions of social structures: social structures are not merely
restrictive; they also enable and constrain human action. They
provide rules and resources for meaningful action. Enabling
structures create order, allowing individuals to explore, give
meaning to, and gain control over the world. Constraining
structures set boundaries on what actions are socially appropriate
or condoned.
Traffic rules, for example, constrain by requiring certain behaviors
but enable safe travel
2) Agency: it refers to the capacity for human action. Giddens sees
individuals as knowledgeable and mostly rational actors who actively
produce and reproduce social structure through their actions
2 key aspects of agency:
§ Reflexivity: people have the capacity to reflect upon
existing social structures and one's own role as an agent
reproducing them. This involves engaging in critical reflection
§ Intentional rationality: people have the capacity to
intentionally modify one's behavior in line with certain goals
that can be reasonably justified as worthy
o Mutual constitution: you cannot have agency without social structures and
vice versa
Structure only exists because people create and choose to
follow rules daily. At the same time, structure shapes agency by
enabling and constraining actions → flipsides at the same
coin
4
introduction
Goal of Digital Media Sociology
The field aims to look beyond the taken-for-grandness of digital connectivity to
understand its profound social implications. It asks how digital media shape and are
shaped by the social organization of society. This involves developing an abstract
understanding of how digital technology has altered the social order
Sociology as a foundation
Digital media sociology is a subdiscipline of sociology. Sociology studies the social
organization of society, focusing on how people live together and the resulting
opportunities and problems. Core sociological questions revolve around social order
(and cohesion), social inequality, and identity (individual and collective)
Defining Digital Media Sociology:
It studies the interplay between digital media and the social organization of society.
This includes how media are implicated in the social order, how they disrupt or
reproduce power and social inequality, and how they mediate and are products of
meaning-making and identity processes. The field examines these effects at both the
micro-level (changes in everyday practices) and the macro-level (changes to societal
institutions)
Situating the field
Digital media sociology exists adjacent to Media Psychology (focus on individual
cognition, emotion, behavior, and effects). Media Studies (focus on media history,
industries, content, and audiences), and Cultural Sociology (focus on human culture,
norms, and rituals). While distinct, there are overlaps and intersections, and media
sociology often draws on insights from these fields
1
,Core theoretical lens
The course develops a general theoretical lens grounded in sociology to understand
how digitization shapes the social order
1. Social Structure and Agency
2. Duality of Structure
3. Duality of Technology
4. Apparatgeist
5. Technological Affordances
Three Central Questions/Logics of the Book
The handbook focuses in-depth on three core questions, each tied to a
dominant "logic" that digitization has brought to the social order
1. Is 24/7 connectivity a bliss or a burden? (Network Logic)
2. Are social media making us more or less social? (Social Logic)
3. Does datafication empower or disempower? (Personal Logic)
These questions will be analyzed by situating the changes socio-historically and
deconstructing the structures (both social and technological) that make new
ways of doing things seem logical.
2
,Chapter 2: Duality of Structure, Duality of
Technology
Social structure: Why we do the things we do?
Social structure: the way we do things, a set of logics that dictate our behavior in
our everyday life
Social order concerns the ‘rules’ that order society: It is not something bad,
we need rules to live together otherwise there would be chaos
Individuals, through their practices, obey or disobey these rules, thus
reproducing the social order or challenging it
Practices are thus:
§ Inherently relational (=social)
§ Persistent/durable (=historical)
§ Cultural (=contextual)
They might not be the same everywhere
Example: depending on the color of the traffic light we follow rules
Social change occurs when individuals successfully and collectively produce
a new social order
Media sociologists look at how media play a role in shaping the way we do and
organize things, and what opportunities and challenges this brings. To understand
the media sociological lens, we need to understand the interplay between social
structures, individual agency and technological affordances:
3
, Theoretical frameworks
Giddens’ Structuration Theory: The Duality of Structure
o Giddens' Structuration Theory examines the interplay between social
structures and individual agency →the "duality of structure":
1) Social Structures: they are the rules and patterned ways in which people
organize themselves. They represent established systems and patterns of
relationships. These structures can be informal (not codified) or
institutionalized into formal systems and organizations (examples include
gender roles, which prescribe expected behaviors)
Functions of social structures: social structures are not merely
restrictive; they also enable and constrain human action. They
provide rules and resources for meaningful action. Enabling
structures create order, allowing individuals to explore, give
meaning to, and gain control over the world. Constraining
structures set boundaries on what actions are socially appropriate
or condoned.
Traffic rules, for example, constrain by requiring certain behaviors
but enable safe travel
2) Agency: it refers to the capacity for human action. Giddens sees
individuals as knowledgeable and mostly rational actors who actively
produce and reproduce social structure through their actions
2 key aspects of agency:
§ Reflexivity: people have the capacity to reflect upon
existing social structures and one's own role as an agent
reproducing them. This involves engaging in critical reflection
§ Intentional rationality: people have the capacity to
intentionally modify one's behavior in line with certain goals
that can be reasonably justified as worthy
o Mutual constitution: you cannot have agency without social structures and
vice versa
Structure only exists because people create and choose to
follow rules daily. At the same time, structure shapes agency by
enabling and constraining actions → flipsides at the same
coin
4
