What is web personalisation? Critically discuss its main advantages and disadvantages as a social media advertising tool?

Guidance

For general guidance see the guidelines for writing essays and reports.

What Key Features Do I Look For? Familiarity with relevant texts Evidence - the stronger the better Argument - coherent and balanced Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories Understanding of relevant concepts Reflexivity - reflections on methodology Examples - insightfully analysed Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here. For examples of essays by UWA students click here.

Advice for this particular assignment: Define the concept of web personalisation, especially how it relates to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Offer an account of how algorithms filter the content of these sites. From your reading, discuss how such filtering helps and hinders advertisers and consumers. Illustrate your points with examples drawn from your research. Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is likely to be an advantage.

Some suggested reading

• Barabasi, A.-L. (2011) 'Introduction and Keynote to "A Networked Self"', in Zizi Papacharissi (2011) A Networked Self: Identity, Community and Culture on Social Network Sites. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-14.
• boyd, dana & Ellison, N. B. (2007) 'Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship' Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1): 210-30.
• boyd, dana (2011) 'Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications'. In Zizi Papacharissi (Ed.) A Networked Self: Identity, Community and Culture on Social Network Sites. London: Routledge, pp. 39-58.
• Chandler, Daniel & Munday, Rod (2011) A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Fuchs, Christian (2013) Social Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage.
• Gangadharbatla, H. (2012) 'Social Media and Advertising Theory', in Shelly Rodgers & Esther Thorson (Eds.) Advertising Theory. London: Routledge, pp. 402-16.
• Lister, Martin, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant & Kieran Kelley (2009) New Media: A Critical Introduction (Second Edition). London: Routledge.
• Madrigal, Alexis, C. (2014) 'How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood' The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/how-netflix-reverse-engineered-hollywood/282679/.
• Pariser, E. (2011) The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You. New York: Penguin Press.
• Piercy, Nigel F. (2001) Market-Led Strategic Change: A Guide to Transforming the Process of Going to Market. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
• Shirky, Clay (2008) Here Comes Everybody. London. Penguin.
• Shirky, Clay (2010) Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. New York: Penguin Press.
• Solomon, Michael R., Gary Bamossy, Søren Askegaard & Margaret K. Hogg (2009) Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.
• Ugander, Johan, Brian Karrer, Lars Backstrom & Cameron Marlow (2011) 'The Anatomy Of the Facebook Social Graph' [WWW document] URL http://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.4503v1