Now that's what I call digital

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

by Erving Goffman

Published in 1959, this was Goffman’s first and most famous book. As recently as 2007, he was listed as the sixth most-cited intellectual in the humanities and social sciences by The Times Higher Education Guide. In particular, Goffman’s application and development of a simple theatrical analogy to articulate how and why social roles play out, in what has been called ‘micro-sociology’, has me giggling with familiarity and a certain amount of professional relief. A truly seminal work. 

 

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

by Marshall McLuhan

McLuhan’s most penetrating and subtle lessons are often buried, like media treasure, under his now too-familiar ‘global village’ and ‘medium is the message’ insights. The clue here is in the (1964, note) title. We have come to think of man as an extension of media – a paradigm built on passive consumption of content. McLuhan’s most contemporary insight was that the power shifted to the user by new media technologies would transform human experience – independent of content. Enter, 40 to 50 years on, 24/7 connectedness, smartphones and social media – along with a lot of ongoing soul-searching in media and marketing.

 

Modernity and Self-Identity

by Anthony Giddens

A single quote sums up, I think, the raison d’être of the book and its enormous resonance in the age of Facebook: “A person’s identity is not to be found in behaviour, nor – important though this is – in the reactions of others, but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative going. The individual’s biography, if she is to maintain regular interaction with others in the day-to-day world, cannot be wholly fictive. It must continually integrate events which occur in the external world, and sort them into the ongoing ‘story’about the self.” The richness, authority and relevance of this profound book, published in 1991, make it a crucial, continuously fertile reference.

 

Mediated

by Thomas de Zengotita

While de Zengotita is in many senses an inheritor to the three giants I have already mentioned, he is also an ideal entry point and guide to the work that has gone before. In Mediated (2005), de Zengotita brings explosively to life the texture of modern connected existence as a reflexive performance – one where we have all, metaphorically or literally, learned to live life on camera. The quote that lives with me always is: “I didn’t discover Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan discovered me.”

 

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

by Edward Tufte

This revered academic has financed, produced and published his own exquisite books, all of which deal with the effective presentation and communication of data. Ironically, given their determinedly analogue form, they all feature, beautifully articulated and illustrated, some of the most important learnings about a subject that will only increase in urgency as the digital age unfolds. Tufte’s position is that information falls short in communication if it fails to intuitively and persuasively tell its audience a compelling story. This has nothing to do with PowerPoint. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information is a great starting point, but you may well end up owning the set. I did. 

 

Flow – The Psychology of Optimal Experience

by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I believe Steve Jobs’s uncanny ability to read the mind of the connected consumer – far better even than they could themselves – was rooted in this essential 1990 work. When great artists, sportspeople, performers and, most importantly, people like you and me, encounter that all-too-rare, yet unforgettable experience of being ‘in the zone’, we have some of the most satisfying and uplifting times of our lives.Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced Mee-hy  Cheek-sent-ma-hy-ee, according to Wikipedia) has made a career out of examining and articulating these most compelling of experiences. Flow, to my mind, is digital brand equity in a bottle. A must-own work.

 

Communication Power

by Manuel Castells

Castells is an academic at the very top of his game. That game is explaining to the rest of us what matters about our connected life. But be prepared: all of his work is so thoroughly thought through and researched that the reading can be a challenge. The recent Castells work that I keep returning to is this one, a typically exhaustive but still often exhilarating examination of the fundamental shifts in power – satisfyingly, of course, across to the connected, tribal consumer (us) – bestowed by digital media. If you’re interested in the ‘why’ of the digital age, Castells, and this masterpiece, are for you.

 

Brand Media Strategy – Integrated Communications Planning in a Digital Era

by Anthony Young

This is one ‘how’ book that you can’t afford to ignore. Focusing on the critical challenge of planning and briefing truly integrated media campaigns, Young lays out a no-nonsense, pragmatic set of insights and recommendations, clearly built on hard-won experience at the sharp end.

 

Web Analytics 2.0

by Avinash Kaushik

To get past metrics, I’m afraid you first need to get them. If, like me, you’d rather not know, but also know you can’t afford not to care, Avinash is your man. He covers a dry, highly detailed subject with humour, passion and, above all, huge credibility. Let it be noted, however, that even after a few hours in his company, you still won’t know how – still less how much – to move the spend to digital that you know you should. Counting it is far from the same as knowing what it’s worth.

 

All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

by Adam Curtis 

There is, of course, a very dark side to media and the digital revolution. If you’d like to explore it with the most credible, least star-struck of guides, renowned documentary maker Adam Curtis should figure in your plan. Combine the beady eye of Michael Moore with the production values of Man Alive and the light, rather weary tone of a 1950s radio newscaster and you’ve got Mr Curtis. This short series scrutinises the less obvious, and less beguiling, impacts of the blind acceptance and adoption of technology by modern society. You may not find the editorial stance entirely to your taste, but this is television of the most urgent quality.

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Michael Bayler is the co-author of the marketing technology manifesto, Promiscuous Customers: Invisible Brands (Capstone, 2002) [email protected].

 

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