This book provides a cutting-edge introduction to Internet-facilitated
crime-watching and examines how social media have shifted the landscape
for producing, distributing, and consuming footage of crime. In this
thought-provoking work, Mark Wood examines the phenomenon of antisocial
media: participatory online domains where footage of crime is
aggregated, sympathetically curated, and consumed as entertainment.
Focusing on Facebook pages dedicated to hosting footage of street
fights, brawls, and other forms of bareknuckle violence, Wood
demonstrates that to properly grapple with antisocial media, we must
address not only their content, but also their software. In doing so,
this study goes a long way to addressing the fundamental question: how
have social media changed the way we consume crime?
Synthesizing criminology, media theory, software studies, and digital
sociology, Antisocial Media is media criminology for the Facebook age.
It is essential reading for students and scholars interested in social
media, cultural criminology, and the crime-media interface.