Book Review: Social Media: Pedagogy and Practice, edited by Kehbuma Langmia, Tia C. M. Tyree, Pamela O’Brien, and Ingrid Sturgis

Abstract

Social Media: Pedagogy and Practice. Kehbuma Langmia, Tia C. M. Tyree, Pamela O'Brien, and Ingrid Sturgis, eds. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2014. 274 pp. $34.99 pbk.Some studies showed that youths in many countries around the world today continue to spend hours a day on one form of social media or another. These digital natives are readily adopting the technology as the center of their learning, socialization, and communication. Yet, many faculty members remain wary of the academic benefits these new technologies bring to the classroom. Social Media: Pedagogy and Practice attempts to enlighten educators, scholars, and practitioners about social media and help them find the balance of technology and pedagogy to develop the first wave of college-level social media courses.Edited by Kehbuma Langmia of Howard University, Pamela O'Brien of Bowie State University, Tia Tyree of Howard University, and Ingrid Sturgis of Howard University, this collection is a product of the discussions and research presented at the 2011 and 2012 Social Media Technology Conference and Workshops, co-hosted by Howard University and Bowie State University. The volume collects thirteen chapters-each an article on its own-covering social media as pedagogical tools, social media practices in the United States, and international social media practices.The first six chapters are dedicated to discussing how social media can be brought into the classroom and research projects. Tia Tyree, in her article about creating social media courses for college students, highlighted the need for respecting the ways utilize new technologies to enhance their comprehension of certain subject matters and to acquire new skills. In the new millennium, she wrote, students have increased opportunities to determine the time and manner in which learning occurs. She urged educators to opt for a student-centered rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to working with in the online learning environment. Echoing Tyree's call, Kehbuma Langmia and Stella-Monica Mpande recommended critical evaluations of social media in terms of intercultural thinking, learning disparities, deconstruction of meaning, and identity formation over social media.To help scholars and practitioners incorporate social media data into communication research, William Hart and Erica Taylor in chapter 5 devised a step-by-step guide to writing a quantitative research paper on social media. From writing the introduction or problem statement to writing the discussion section, Hart and Taylor gave examples from a social media case study and highlighted aspects that are specifically relevant to communication research, such as using the #socialmediaresearch hashtag on Twitter.The second section of this volume seeks to examine the use of social media in the United States. Jayne Cubbage studied how the increasing use of new media and Internet technologies among African Americans helps to mobilize the community in taking steps to improve their social and living conditions, in political and economic ways. Her research concluded that community involvement may be bolstered with more use of social media. Following that, in chapter 9, Jamila Cupid and Lenise Wallace emphasized how various social media platforms, such as Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, can be used as social branding tools for college to seek employment. …