The Internet Is for Cats: How Animal Images Shape Our Digital Lives
Author:   Jessica Maddox
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
ISBN:  

9781978827929


Pages:   254
Publication Date:   14 October 2022
Recommended Age:   From 16 to 99 years
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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The Internet Is for Cats: How Animal Images Shape Our Digital Lives


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Overview

LOL cats. Grumpy Cat. Dog-rating Twitter. Pet Instagram accounts. It’s generally understood the internet is for pictures of cute cats (and dogs, and otters, and pandas). But what motivates people to make and share these images, and how do they relate to other online social practices?    The Internet is for Cats examines how animal images are employed to create a lighter, more playful mood, uniting users within online spaces that can otherwise easily become fractious and toxic. Placing today’s pet videos, photos, and memes within a longer history of mediated animal images, communication scholar Jessica Maddox also considers the factors that make them unique. She explores the roles that animals play within online economies of cuteness and attention, as well as the ways that animal memes and videos respond to common experiences of life under neoliberalism.    Conducting a rich digital ethnography, Maddox combines observations and textual analysis with extensive interviews of the people who create, post and share animal media, including TikTok influencers seeking to make their pets famous, activists tweeting about wildlife conservation, and Redditors upvoting every cute cat photo. The Internet is for Cats will leave you with a new appreciation for the human social practices behind the animal images you encounter online.   

Full Product Details

Author:   Jessica Maddox
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
Imprint:   Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.064kg
ISBN:  

9781978827929


ISBN 10:   197882792
Pages:   254
Publication Date:   14 October 2022
Recommended Age:   From 16 to 99 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

"Contents List of Illustrations Introduction    1          Kittens in Context                     2          “I’ve Heard People on TikTok Love This"": Attention as Materiality and Looking Relation      3          Beyond Doomscrolling in an Internet of Cute           4          “You Can’t Buy Happiness, But You Can Rescue It”: Neoliberal Pets and Animals  5          Feels Good, Man: Collisions, Collusions, and Cloaks in Pet and Animal Social Media       6          Nature is Healing, We are the Virus: Beyond Signifiers                                                       Appendix Acknowledgments Bibliography   Index"

Reviews

By exploring the ambivalent overlaps between attention, cuteness, toxicity, and neoliberalism - among other key themes - in animal imagery sharing practices, The Internet is for Cats is essential reading for understanding how and why the fun of animal memes is serious cultural business. --Whitney Phillips author of You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape


Author Information

JESSICA MADDOX is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

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