Charting Jamaica and social media experience

UNIVERSITY OF the West Indies (UWI) lecturer Dr Lloyd Waller says the book STREAMING: Social Media, Mobile Lifestyles "captures the interconnected configurations of youth, social media and social life".

The book, which is authored by Dr Marcia Forbes, was recently launched in Kingston. Speaking at the book launch, which was streamed live online, Dr Waller noted that the book "provides a rich scholarly and empirical account of the experiences, behaviour and discourses in Jamaica regarding the use of online social media by Jamaican youth, within a global context".

Dr Waller regards the book as "well suited for several courses offered at the UWI". These included:

Principles and Practices of Electronic Governance, a graduate course in the Department of Government that explores the connection between Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and good governance.

Internet and Democracy, an undergraduate course offered by the Department of Government.

Criminalists and Cybercrime, an undergraduate course offered at the UWI's Open Campus.

According to Dr Waller "all these courses require students to have an understanding of the cosmologies of digital social life to be able to make the connection between ICTs, political life and governance (and) this book allows students to do just that". He described STREAMING: Social Media, Mobile Lifestyles as "filled with narratives and representations of digital social lifestyles in Jamaica, exploring critical issues such as gender differences and the spectrum of online social ecosystems".

He adds that the book fills the information gap which exists where the Jamaican experience is concerned. "And for this I am extremely grateful," says Dr Waller.