Research Catalog

Friended at the front : social media in the American war zone

Title: Friended at the front : social media in the American war zone / Lisa Ellen Silvestri.
Author: Silvestri, Lisa Ellen.
Publication: Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, [2015]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 16-7154	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

xv, 239 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"For most of us, clicking "like" on social media has become fairly routine. For a Marine, clicking "like" from the battlefield lets his social network know he's alive. This is the first time in the history of modern warfare that US troops have direct, instantaneous connection to civilian life back home. Lisa Ellen Silvestri's Friended at the Front documents the revolutionary change in the way we communicate across fronts. Social media, Silvestri contends, changes what it's like to be at war. Based on in-person interviews and online with the US Marines, Friended at the Front explores the new media habits, attitudes, and behaviors of troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the complications that emerge in their wake. The book pays particular attention to the way US troops use Facebook and YouTube to narrate their experiences to civilian network members, to each other, and, not least of all, to themselves. After she reviews evolving military guidelines for social media engagement, Silvestri explores specific practices amongst active duty Marines such as posting photos and producing memes. Her interviews, observations, and research reveal how social network sites present both an opportunity to connect with civilians back home, as well as an obligation to do so--one that can become controversial for troops in a war zone. Much like the war on terror itself, the boundaries, expectations, and dangers associated with social media are amorphous and under constant negotiation. Friended at the Front explains how our communication landscape changes what it is like to go to war for individual service members, their loved ones, and for the American public at large."--Jacket.

Series Statement

CultureAmerica

Uniform Title

Culture America.

Alternative Title

Social media in the American war zone

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-234) and index.

Contents

List of military abbreviations -- Introduction: new faces of war -- Incongruities across social media and military cultures -- From posting mail to posting status -- Photos from the field -- Marine Corps video memes -- Conclusion: this means war.

Call Number

JFE 16-7154

ISBN

9780700621361 (cloth : alk. paper)
0700621369 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

2015020375

OCLC

910664555

Author

Silvestri, Lisa Ellen.

Title

Friended at the front : social media in the American war zone / Lisa Ellen Silvestri.

Publisher

Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, [2015]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

CultureAmerica

Culture America.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-234) and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 16-7154

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