Policing and Social Media

This book investigates various public aspects of the management, use, and control of social media by police agencies in Canada. This book aims to illustrate the process by which new information technology—namely, social media—and related changes in communication formats have affected the public face of policing and police work. Schneider argues that police use of social media has altered institutional public police practices in a manner that is consistent with the logic of social media platforms. Policing is changing to include new ways of conditioning the public, cultivating self-promotion, and expanding social control. While each case study presented here focuses on a different social media platform or format, his concern is less with the particular format per se, as these will undoubtedly change, and more with developing suitable analytical and methodological approaches to understanding contemporary policing practices on social media sites.

This book is timely and of major importance given the increasingly central role social media now occupies in global policing, governance, and accountability discourses. […] the book should be of urgent interest to a wide student, academic, and professional readership, including those with a background in policing, science and technology studies, communication studies, cultural studies, criminology, and sociology., In light of the many high-profile and recent police shootings in the United States, and the way that they were framed on YouTube and other social media sites, this book is a significant contribution on the field of policing and information.... [T]his book will be of interest to academics - and people from within police institutions - looking to learn more on social control in an era of new media., Christopher Schneider’s Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media offers an innovative look at how social media has influenced policing practices in Canada.... Schneider’s ground-breaking book […] is the first to trace the origins of social media influence on policing strategies in Canada and raises questions about the long-term implications that social media will have on police conduct and transformations in police work. Schneider’s work is unique in the diversity of approaches [where he] cleverly examines three different social media formats and their impacts on two of Canada’s largest police forces in three concise and critically analyzed chapters. […] Schneider’s research demonstrates the role of social media in challenging the once-enjoyed police monopoly to make claims, define situations, and control narratives., In the concise and accessible Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media, Christopher Schneider paints a picture of the management, use, and control of social media by police agencies in Canada.... This book provides important insight into how law enforcement encountered and adopted social media as central to police work… [A] major strength of the work is when Schneider provides examples of original content produced on social media platforms by Facebook users [where he] carefully analyzes troves of content to highlight big-picture cultural meaning… The accessibility and clarity of the book will spark new questions for scholars.... This book is timely and relevant., This is an original and important contribution … this book’s theoretical contributions surely will influence future work across disciplines. Policing and Social Media is essential reading for scholars of media and crime … It surely would also appeal to anyone with broad interests in social control, social change, social institutions, and the sociocultural effects of new media.

Christopher J. Schneider is associate professor of sociology at Brandon University.