Our recent developments into the realm of technology has facilitated a great deal of mediums for creative expression. We can count here: television, radio, cinema, podcasts, social media, blogs, vlogs and many others. A person equipped with a thorough understanding of media can easily make their own online persona with which they can attain celebrity. The media skills have become more relevant for our present generation than ever before given the proliferation of such mentioned technologies. In order to develop the said skills it is necessary to pursue a degree in the field and couple it with extracurricular readings.
The Bookoteca Team has put forward three of the most relevant media studies books for the online realm.
We begin our incursion in the field of media, by studying the story of the most relevant media giant of our present day: Google. The Google Story is the narration of the remarkable internet giant’s success. Based on industry research and inside research from Google’s premises, the book outlines the creation and growth of the tech giant. The Google culture is different from most companies someone is accustomed to work for. With stock being better valued than GM and Ford combined, Google prides itself on the latest technology adoption and benefits it offers to their employees. The Google Story takes us from the early stages of the company, which was founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1998, and their incredible path to success. Their initial mission was to change the world via a search engine that organises all the information on the web at no cost to the users of the service. Even though they have achieved this mission in more than 100 languages, Google has not stopped there and has added a number of services to complement their initial offer. We can count: mail services, library services, analytics, ads, and plenty of other cohorts of usability offers. The book shows us even the unorthodox approach the company took to challenge Microsoft’s market dominance and deliver incredible results on Wall Street’s listings.
The second recommendation we thought of was Social Media Explained. This is an ultimate modern classic written by Mark Schaefer. This book equips you with the necessary tools and knowledge to understand social media marketing. Mark answers interesting questions such as: Is social media marketing for every business? How do you measure your success? Where do you start? How do you create a strategy and What platforms work well for which type of business? Social Media Explained offers even a step by step guide in social media strategy formulation. For the media student who wants to dig deeper into social media, this volume is the go to place for understanding the realm of social media in depth.
Third, but not last we come forward with David Kirkpatrick’s book: The Facebook Effect. This is the incredible story of Mark Zuckerberg, the college student who has reinvented the social media platform. His company is one of the most successful and powerful internet companies in the world at this point in time. The tale of the book moves us from the very beginning of facebook as a college student project to the strategic smarts and luck to keep the company ahead of its competitors. The Facebook Effect narrates the vision, motivation and his refusal to compromise on his remarkable journey.
Hopefully those selections will prove valuable for anyone trying to trying to dig deeper into the realm of internet media.