Literature Review on Communication and Media Studies

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
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1
LITERATURE REVIEW
The academic field of communication and media studies has been rising with the
advancement of technology and changes in the traditional value system existing in the society.
Therefore, to advance the research on the said field, it is important to analyze the social semiotics
and agents that influence this change. The aim of this study is to identify the problems in the
field of communication and media studies. Hence, a review of scholarly literature and theories
pertaining to the field will aid to the construction of the research framework.
In the article “Understanding Social Media Logic” by Jose van Dijck and Thomas
Powell, the authors construct a theoretical background for explaining ‘Social Media Logic’, a
complex form of media logic, a concept developed by Altheide and Snow (Altheid 2013). Social
Media Logic explains the dynamics between the norms, strategies, economies and mechanisms
of social media platforms and their penetration into the society. Djick and Powell identify four
fundamental principles to theorize Social Media Logic, namely programmability, popularity,
connectivity and datafication. These principles define the dynamics of mass media, social media
platforms and offline institutional processes to show the mediation of the social interaction
within a networked society. However, they remark that social media platforms cannot be solely
held responsible for the transformation in the societal processes and dynamics. Instead, they
maintain, the entire dynamics of the guiding principles and social media mechanism is the source
of this transformation (Djick and Powell 2013)
The findings of the study adds insights to the changing nature of the problems in the
field of communication and media studies, where it sheds a new light on the impact of social
media mechanism on the social interactions and values. However, there is one persisting