Virality : contagion theory in the age of networks / Tony D. Sampson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sampson, Tony D.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imitation.

Social interaction.

Crowds.

Tarde, Gabriel de, 1843-1904.

Tarde, Gabriel de.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (235 p.) : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This title presents a contagion theory fit for the age of networks. Unlike memes and microbial contagions, virality does not restrict itself to biological analogies and medical metaphors. It instead points toward a theory of contagious assemblages, events, and affects. Contagion is not necessarily a positive or negative force of encounter; it is how society comes together and relates. The book argues that a biological knowledge of contagion has been universally distributed by way of the rhetoric of fear in the antivirus industry and other popular discourses surrounding network culture.

Contents:

Resuscitating Tarde's diagram in the age of networks

What spreads? from memes and crowds to the phantom events of desire and belief

What diagram? toward a political economy of desire and contagion

From terror contagion to the virality of love

Tardean hypnosis : capture and escape in the age of contagion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-221) and index.

ISBN:

1-4529-4681-7

0-8166-8292-5

OCLC:

815383358