Social media users fracture into tribes, but social media ecosystems are globally interconnected technically, socially, culturally, and economically. At the crossroads, Sun presents theory, method, and case studies to uncover the global interconnectedness of social media design and to bridge differences. She articulates a critical design framework with design tools to redress asymmetrical relations in everyday practice, and provides three cross-cultural social media design and use cases: Facebook Japan, Weibo, and global competition of WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, and KakaoTalk. She calls to reshape the crossroads into a design square where differences are nourished as resources, where diverse discourses interact for innovation, and where alternative epistemes thrive.

Social media users fracture into tribes, but social media ecosystems are globally interconnected technically, socially, culturally, and economically. At the crossroads, Huatong Sun, author of Cross-Cultural Technology Design, presents theory, method, and case studies to uncover the global interconnectedness of social media design and reorient universal design standards. Centering on the dynamics between structure and agency, Sun draws on practice theories and transnational fieldwork and articulates a critical design approach. The "CLUE2 (CLUE squared)" framework extends from situated activity to social practice, and connects macro institutions with micro interactions to redress asymmetrical relations in everyday life. Why were Japanese users not crazed about Facebook? Would Twitter have had been more successful than its copycat Weibo in China if not banned? How did mobilities and value propositions play out in the competition of WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, and KakaoTalk for global growth? Illustrating the cultural entanglement with a relational view of design, Sun provides three provocative accounts of cross-cultural social media design and use. Concepts such as affordance, genre, and uptake are demonstrated as design tools to bind the material with the discursive and leap from the critical to the generative for culturally sustaining design. Sun calls to reshape the crossroads into a design square where differences are nourished as design resources, where diverse discourses interact for innovation, and where alternative design epistemes thrive from the local. This timely book will appeal to researchers, students, and practitioners who design across disciplines, paradigms, and boundaries to bridge differences in this increasingly globalized world.

Over 50 years ago, Pepsi sponsored the UNICEF pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair's. They worked with the Walt Disney Company to develop an attraction called the "Children of the World" which boasted a song and included a boat ride that passed by "animated figures frolicking in miniature settings of many lands of the world". This song correctly anticipated the effect communication technology has on how people interact with one another. A line in the song declares that "Though the mountains divide and the oceans are wide / It's a small world after all". Indeed, computer mediated-communication technologies, through cell phones, satellite phones, or the computer-based technologies of Skype or Facetime have trivialised the ability to connect to anyone at anytime, anywhere on the planet. Fast forward 25 years and the software phenomenon known as social media has further compressed not only time and space, but has also democratised news and information. Pundits talk about the 24/7 news cycles where news is available from anyone around the world and from around the clock. This new software has made the local global and the global local.

Social media has revolutionized how individuals, communities, and organizations create, share, and consume information. Similarly, social media offers numerous opportunities as well as enormous social and economic ills for individuals, communities, and organizations. Despite the increase in popularity of social networking sites and related digital media, there are limited data and studies on consumption patterns of the new media by different global communities. Analyzing Global Social Media Consumption is an essential reference book that investigates the current trends, practices, and newly emerging narratives on theoretical and empirical research on all aspects of social media and its global use. Covering topics that include fake news detection, social media addiction, and motivations and impacts of social media use, this book is ideal for big data analysts, media and communications experts, researchers, academicians, and students in media and communications, information systems, and information technology study programs.

Many designs that appear in today's society will circulate and encounter audiences of many different cultures and languages. With communication comes responsibility; are designers aware of the meaning and impact of their work? An image or symbol that is acceptable in one culture can be offensive or even harmful in the next. A typeface or colour in a design might appear to be neutral, but its meaning is always culturally dependent. If designers learn to be aware of global cultural contexts, we can avoid stereotyping and help improve mutual understanding between people. Politics of Design is a collection of visual examples from around the world. Using ideas from anthropology and sociology, it creates surprising and educational insight in contemporary visual communication. The examples relate to the daily practice of both online and offline visual communication: typography, images, colour, symbols, and information. Politics of Design shows the importance of visual literacy when communicating beyond borders and cultures. It explores the cultural meaning behind the symbols, maps, photography, typography, and colours that are used every day. It is a practical guide for design and communication professionals and students to create more effective and responsible visual communication.

This text examines the possibilities for scaling design solutions to global warming. The featured projects showcase leading-edge design innovations at multiple scales.

This book gathers together a number of leading design historians whose research points the way forward, aiming to address and promote changes to design history.