Self-representation and Digital Culture

Taking a close look at ordinary people "telling their own story", Nancy Thumim explores self-representations in contemporary digital culture in settings as diverse as reality TV, online storytelling, and oral histories displayed in museums.

Nancy Thumim lectures in Communications Studies at the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS), University of Leeds, UK. Thumims research has been published in edited books and journals, including Critical Discourse Studies, Javnost-The Public and International Journal of Cultural Studies.

"In this elegantly written, clear sighted and yet theoretically rich book, Nancy Thumim offers a wealth of critical insights into the extraordinary contemporary explosion of opportunities presented to the public to represent themselves, speak out and, perhaps, be heard." - Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

"I don't simply 'Like' this book, I love it: self-representation has been studied in bits and pieces, but Nancy Thumim is the first to bring these different approaches together and brilliantly shows how various foms and contexts of self-representations are submitted to generic rules that - in fact - limit expressions of the self. On the other hand her analysis shows compelling sensitivity to the experiences of self-representing individuals who construct their sense of authenticity and uniqueness nevertheless. A must-read acrross the social sciences and humanities."
- Liebet Van-Zoonen, Loughborough University, UK