The catchphrase 'Big Data' is on everyone's lips - and describes not only scientific data practices, but also stands for a societal change and a media culture in upheaval.

What influences does Big Data exert on contemporary culture and its power shifts? What media and knowledge technologies facilitate the modeling of Big Data and which narratives, images, and fictions come into play in so doing? And how were large data sets managed and processed in the analog era?

To answer these questions, the reader assembles texts by the leading theorists of the Digital Humanities. His focus is directed towards the contemporary diagnostic and critical data perspectives of Big Data with respect to cultural and historical aspects.

With contributions from Mark Andrejevic, Axel Bruns, dannah boyd, Jean Burgess, David Bollier, Kate Crawford, Alexander R. Galloway, Bruno Latour, Lev Manovich, Jussi Parikka, Richard Rogers, Theo Röhle, Eugene Thacker, and many others.