Kim Barbour – författare

The definitive and first major text on personas in contemporary cultureModern social media and communication technologies have reshaped our identities and transformed contemporary culture, revealing an expanded and intensified reforming of our collective online behavior. Billions of people worldwide are increasingly engaged in the production, presentation, and modification of their public selves—curating personas through various social media and fundamentally altering how we interact in the twenty-first century. The study of persona is essential to understanding contemporary culture, yet literature in this emerging field is scarce. Filling a gap in current knowledge, Persona Studies: An Introduction is the first major work to examine the construction, delivery, and curation of public identities in contemporary online culture. This timely book helps readers navigate the changing cultural landscape while laying the groundwork for further research and application of persona studies. Three case studies are included—examining personas of the artist, gamer, and professional­—to illustrate how personas continue to transform identity and reshape contemporary culture. From the historical precursors of the current iteration of persona to emerging configurations of public self, this unique work offers readers a broad introduction to the evolving theories and concepts of how persona defines the contemporary condition and its relation to technology and collective identity. To summarize, the book: Analyzes how identities linked to data are cultivated, curated and mined for various purposesDiscusses the mediated blending of media and different types of interpersonal communicationExplores tools for the investigation and analysis of persona, including Prosopographic field studies and information visualizationTranslates new research, concept, theories, methods, and approaches into clear case studies and applicationsExamines the personalization of public, private, and intimate information in the building of new personasPersona Studies: An Introduction is an innovative resource for students, academics, researchers, and professionals in fields covering digital and social media, technology and culture, mass media and communications, social and media psychology and sociology, and professional studies.

The definitive and first major text on personas in contemporary cultureModern social media and communication technologies have reshaped our identities and transformed contemporary culture, revealing an expanded and intensified reforming of our collective online behavior. Billions of people worldwide are increasingly engaged in the production, presentation, and modification of their public selves—curating personas through various social media and fundamentally altering how we interact in the twenty-first century. The study of persona is essential to understanding contemporary culture, yet literature in this emerging field is scarce. Filling a gap in current knowledge, Persona Studies: An Introduction is the first major work to examine the construction, delivery, and curation of public identities in contemporary online culture. This timely book helps readers navigate the changing cultural landscape while laying the groundwork for further research and application of persona studies. Three case studies are included—examining personas of the artist, gamer, and professional­—to illustrate how personas continue to transform identity and reshape contemporary culture. From the historical precursors of the current iteration of persona to emerging configurations of public self, this unique work offers readers a broad introduction to the evolving theories and concepts of how persona defines the contemporary condition and its relation to technology and collective identity. To summarize, the book: Analyzes how identities linked to data are cultivated, curated and mined for various purposesDiscusses the mediated blending of media and different types of interpersonal communicationExplores tools for the investigation and analysis of persona, including Prosopographic field studies and information visualizationTranslates new research, concept, theories, methods, and approaches into clear case studies and applicationsExamines the personalization of public, private, and intimate information in the building of new personasPersona Studies: An Introduction is an innovative resource for students, academics, researchers, and professionals in fields covering digital and social media, technology and culture, mass media and communications, social and media psychology and sociology, and professional studies.

This book works to unpack and explicate women’s personas. Drawing on global gender studies and feminist research, the author examines how ‘woman’ has been constructed socially, culturally, and politically throughout different historical periods and feminist movements. Case studies look at how women in different personal and professional settings construct, enact, and navigate their personas against a backdrop of shifting discourses on gender relations, continued patriarchal dominance, and western neoliberal capitalism. Chapters also delve into how women’s personas are constructed online through activism and community building. The author examines the diversity, flexibility, and slipperiness of the ways being a woman is experienced and strategically performed.This book will be useful for scholars and students in Gender Studies, Sociology, Psychology, and Media Studies.