Bruno Campanella - Recognition in the Age of Social Media

In this talk, Dr. Bruno Campanella presents arguments from his book Recognition in the Age of Social Media (Polity, 2024), which reflects on processes of recognition on social media platforms.

Recognition theory

Campanella revisits traditional recognition theory, exploring its application in media and communication studies, and highlights the new challenges brought by social media's pervasiveness in daily sociability. He critiques existing studies on mediated recognition for not fully addressing the significant impact of platforms on contemporary processes of recognition and argues that individuals need to acquire new skills to give visibility to their online self-realization.

The role of platform algorithms

However, the very definition of this and how to achieve it is changed by the role of platform algorithms in determining visibility. They interfere in how individuals and social groups are valued in society. In short, Campanella aims to unpack how recognition dynamics on platforms lead to new "personal dispositions" connected to the economic logics of platform society.

After the lecture, Professor Annette Markham will be the first respondent.

Bios

Dr. Bruno Campanella is associate professor in Media and Cultural Studies at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil. He holds a PhD. in Communication and Culture from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and an MA in Transnational Communications and the Global Media from Goldsmiths College. He has authored works on reality TV, fan culture, media recognition, celebrity, and television studies.

Prof. Dr. Annette Markham is Professor of Media Literacy and Public Engagement in the department of Media and Culture at Utrecht University, Netherlands. She holds a PhD in organizational theory (Purdue University, 1997), with special emphasis on interpretive qualitative methods. She has been researching the impact of digitalization on identity and organizing practices since 1995 and now holds specializations in the lived experience of human/machine interactions, impact of datafication and algorithmic logics on social practices, and critical approaches to digital and algorithmic identity.