Tony D. Sampson

For the former actor, see Tony Sampson.
Sampson in 2017

Tony D. Sampson (born 1964) is a British academic author who writes about philosophies of affect, digital media cultures and labour, marketing power, design/brand thinking, social and immersive user experiences and neurocultures. He is best known for his widely cited and debated academic publications on virality,[1] network contagion and neuroculture. This work is influenced by the 19th century French sociologist, Gabriel Tarde and concerns contemporary analyses of viral phenomena and affective and emotional contagion on the Internet. In 2017 Sampson published The Assemblage Brain, a book about the culture of the affective brain explored through digital media, the neurosciences, business (marketing), cybernetics and political power. His most recent publication, A Sleepwalker's Guide to Social Media (2020),[2] explores the power dynamic of a post-Cambridge Analytica social media environment wherein the marketing logic of virality/growth helps to inflame contagions of race hate, posing a threat to democracy.

  1. ^ Sampson, Tony D (2012). Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-7005-5.
  2. ^ Sampson, Tony D (2020). A Sleepwalker's Guide to Social Media. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 9781509537419.