The Brexit referendum on Twitter:a mixed-method computational analysis investigates how Twitter worked in shaping political discourse and its potential for fuelling populism in the month leading to the referendum.

Tweeting Brexit presents the most thorough examination of the role that the most political social network, Twitter, played in creating, negotiating, and challenging Brexit narratives during the process of UK’s exiting of the European Union. Working with multiple methods, from digital media analysis to interviews, and a wide variety of data, the book offers scrutiny of Brexit-related tweets and discourses they promote and gives voice to key actors – UK citizens, political and media actors – to explain why and how they’ve used Twitter to talk about Brexit and with what outcomes. In doing so, the author engages with, and enhances, a range of theoretical discussions central to our understanding of the role of social media in politics, from permanent campaigning on social media to social media journalism. With a reach far beyond the central Brexit case study, the book discusses new trends and practices in political communication and contextualises them with references to empirical evidence. The book is key reading for all students and researchers in digital media and politics, digital methods, and related areas, as well as anyone interested in developing their understanding of the role that Twitter plays in political communications.

Dissecting 45 million tweets from the period that followed the Brexit referendum, this book presents an extensive analysis of social media manipulation. The book examines emerging changes in partisan politics, nationalist and populist values, as well as broader societal changes that are feeding into polarization and echo-chamber communication. It pulls the curtain back on the techniques employed to interfere with, and potentially distort, the public discussion. Making complex data accessible to non-technical audiences, this unique post-mortem of the Brexit referendum contributes to our understanding of social media disinformation in the UK and beyond.

"Rich and compelling. . .Lynskey’s account of the reach of 1984 is revelatory.” --George Packer, The Atlantic An authoritative, wide-ranging, and incredibly timely history of 1984--its literary sources, its composition by Orwell, its deep and lasting effect on the Cold War, and its vast influence throughout world culture at every level, from high to pop. 1984 isn't just a novel; it's a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell's final work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes--Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, 2+2=5--that gain potency with every year. Particularly in 2016, when the election of Donald Trump made it a bestseller ("Ministry of Alternative Facts," anyone?). Its influence has morphed endlessly into novels (The Handmaid's Tale), films (Brazil), television shows (V for Vendetta), rock albums (Diamond Dogs), commercials (Apple), even reality TV (Big Brother). The Ministry of Truth is the first book that fully examines the epochal and cultural event that is 1984 in all its aspects: its roots in the utopian and dystopian literature that preceded it; the personal experiences in wartime Great Britain that Orwell drew on as he struggled to finish his masterpiece in his dying days; and the political and cultural phenomena that the novel ignited at once upon publication and that far from subsiding, have only grown over the decades. It explains how fiction history informs fiction and how fiction explains history.

This book maps Twitter discourses on marginalised environmental concerns during the UK’s 2016 EU referendum campaign. Focusing on EU institutional influence in British environmental protection policy and charting the roles played by ENGOs and British political parties, it reveals how British environmental politics extended onto Twitter.

Edited by John Mair, Tor Clark, Neil Fowler, Raymond Snoddy and Richard Tait They were the two volcanic surprises in world politics in 2016 - Brexit, the UK vote to leave the European Union in June, and the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States in November. Neither was predicted by the polls, neither pleased the establishment in both countries. Both will have long-term ramifications, good and bad, for decades to come. But what role did the media on both sides of the Atlantic play as midwives to these 'populist' revolts? Was it wary enough? Did the media, in all its various forms, act as watchdog or lapdog? With the 2017 UK General Election results fresh in our minds, this is a timely and cogent analysis of how we arrived at where we are. This book - the 20th in the acclaimed Abramis 'hackademic' series (mixing academics and journalists between the same covers) attempts to answer those big questions and more. The contributors include some of journalism and academia's most distinguished names, from the introduction by Channel 4's Jon Snow through to the postscript by the BBC's Nick Robinson.

Social network analysis applications have experienced tremendous advances within the last few years due in part to increasing trends towards users interacting with each other on the internet. Social networks are organized as graphs, and the data on social networks takes on the form of massive streams, which are mined for a variety of purposes. Social Network Data Analytics covers an important niche in the social network analytics field. This edited volume, contributed by prominent researchers in this field, presents a wide selection of topics on social network data mining such as Structural Properties of Social Networks, Algorithms for Structural Discovery of Social Networks and Content Analysis in Social Networks. This book is also unique in focussing on the data analytical aspects of social networks in the internet scenario, rather than the traditional sociology-driven emphasis prevalent in the existing books, which do not focus on the unique data-intensive characteristics of online social networks. Emphasis is placed on simplifying the content so that students and practitioners benefit from this book. This book targets advanced level students and researchers concentrating on computer science as a secondary text or reference book. Data mining, database, information security, electronic commerce and machine learning professionals will find this book a valuable asset, as well as primary associations such as ACM, IEEE and Management Science.