Synopses & Reviews
With the term ‘new media’ in use for decades now, one wonders if innovative digital forms and platforms can still be considered ‘new’ at all. Yet even as the lines have grown blurred between ‘new’ and ‘traditional’ media forms, there is much to learn about the dynamics surrounding the growth and adoption of new media.
A Companion to New Media Dynamics presents a state-of-the-art collection of multidisciplinary readings that examine the origins, evolution, and cultural underpinnings of the media of the digital age in terms of dynamic change.
Contributed by an international cast of top researchers, cultural entrepreneurs, and emerging scholars, various chapters reflect on the historical, technical, cultural, and political changes that underlie the emergence of new media, as existing patterns and assumptions are challenged by the forces of ‘creative destruction’ and innovation, both economic and cultural. At the same time, readings reveal how several of the familiar themes from ‘old’ media remain – questions of identity, sexuality, politics, relationships, and meaning. Topics explored include everything from the ownership and regulation of new media to their form and cultural uses, including questions of access, agency, and consumer co-creation. Providing a wealth of innovative insights, A Companion to New Media Dynamics is an indispensable resource to the development, current place, and future directions of new media practices within contemporary culture.
Review
“We are fortunate indeed to have this tour d'horizon of young and middle-aged media across Europe, North America, and Asia. It features an array of established and emergent writers whose clear prose and thorough research mark out their work.”
- Toby Miller, co-author of Greening the Media
Review
“Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate and research collections.” (
Choice, 1 September 2013)
“I highly recommend the all encompassing and widely landmark book to any new and old media leaders, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, technologists, academics, students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, government officials, public policy makers, nonprofit executives, and anyone interested in the ever changing and dynamic landscape of new media. This book provides insights and ideas that will provide the seed for future change and innovation across the entire new and old media environment.” (Blog Business World, 16 March 2013)
Synopsis
A Companion to New Media Dynamics presents a state-of-the-art collection of multidisciplinary readings that examine the origins, evolution, and cultural underpinnings of the media of the digital age in terms of dynamic change
- Presents a state-of-the-art collection of original readings relating to new media in terms of dynamic change
- Features interdisciplinary contributions encompassing the sciences, social sciences, humanities and creative arts
- Addresses a wide range of issues from the ownership and regulation of new media to their form and cultural uses
- Provides readers with a glimpse of new media dynamics at three levels of scale: the ‘macro’ or system level; the ‘meso’ or institutional level; and ‘micro’ or agency level
About the Author
John Hartley is Professor of Cultural Science and Director of the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. His books include
Creative Industries (2005),
Television Truths (2008),
Story Circle (2009), and
Digital Futures for Cultural and Media Studies (2012).
Jean Burgess is Deputy Director, ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology. She is co-author of YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture (2009), and co-editor of Studying Mobile Media: Cultural Technologies, Mobile Communication, and the iPhone (2012).
Axel Bruns is Associate Professor, ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology. He is the author of Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage (2008) and Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production (2005).
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors ixAcknowledgments xix
Introducing Dynamics: A New Approach to ‘‘New Media’’ 1
John Hartley, Jean Burgess, and Axel Bruns
Part 1 Approaches and Antecedents 13
1 Media Studies and New Media Studies 15
Sean Cubitt
2 The Future of Digital Humanities Is a Matter of Words 33
Willard McCarty
3 Media Dynamics and the Lessons of History 53
Thomas Pettitt
4 Literature and Culture in the Age of the New Media 73
Peter Swirski
5 The Economics of New Media 90
John Quiggin
6 The End of Audiences? 104
Sonia Livingstone and Ranjana Das
7 The Emergence of Next-Generation Internet Users 122
Grant Blank and William H. Dutton
8 NationalWeb Studies 142
Richard Rogers, Esther Weltevrede, Erik Borra, and Sabine Niederer
Part 2 Issues and Identities 167
Agency 169
9 In the Habitus of the New 171
Zizi Papacharissi and Emily Easton
10 Long Live Wikipedia? 185
Andrew Lih
Mobility 191
11 Changing Media with Mobiles 193
Gerard Goggin
12 Make Room for the Wii 209
Ben Aslinger
Enterprise 219
13 Improvers, Entertainers, Shockers, and Makers 221
Charles Leadbeater
14 The Dynamics of Digital Multisided Media Markets 231
Patrik Wikstr¨om
Search 247
15 Search and Networked Attention 249
Alexander Halavais
16 Against Search 261
Pelle Snickars
Network 275
17 Evolutionary Dynamics of the MobileWeb 277
Indrek Ibrus
18 Pseudonyms and the Rise of the Real-Name Web 290
Bernie Hogan
Surveillance 309
19 New Media and Changing Perceptions of Surveillance 311
Anders Albrechtslund
20 Lessons of the Leak 322
Christoph Bieber
Part 3 Forms, Platforms, and Practices 337
Culture and Identity 339
21 Cybersexuality and Online Culture 341
Feona Attwood
22 Microcelebrity and the Branded Self 346
Theresa M. Senft
23 Online Identity 355
Alice E. Marwick
24 Practices of Networked Identity 365
Jan-Hinrik Schmidt
Politics, Participation, and Citizenship 375
25 The Internet and the Opening Up of Political Space 377
Stephen Coleman
26 The Internet as a Platform for Civil Disobedience 385
Cherian George
27 Parody, Performativity, and Play 396
Jeffrey P. Jones
28 The Politics of ‘‘Platforms’’ 407
Tarleton Gillespie
29 From Homepages to Network Profiles 417
Axel Bruns
Knowledge and New Generations 427
30 The New Media Toolkit 429
Mark Pesce
31 Materiality, Description, and Comparison as Tools for Cultural Difference Analysis 439
Basile Zimmermann
32 Learning from Network Dysfunctionality 450
Tony D. Sampson and Jussi Parikka
33 Young People Online 461
Lelia Green and Danielle Brady
34 Beyond Generations and New Media 472
Kate Crawford and Penelope Robinson
Index 480