Internet

by Cantoni,Lorenzo

• ISBN13: 9780415352253
• ISBN10: 0415352258
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Lorenzo Cantoni and Stefano Tardini's absorbing introduction considers the internet as a communication technology; the opportunities it affords us, the limitations it imposes and the functions it allows. From music to gaming, information gathering to eLearning; eCommerce to eGovernment. Internet explores: the political economy of the internet hypertext computer mediated communication websites as communication conceptualizing users of the internet internet communities and practices

Author Biography

Stefano Tardini is the executive director of the eLearning Lab of the University of Lugano in Switzerland. Lorenzo Cantoni is Professor of the School of Communication Sciences at the University of Lugano in Switzerland.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Series editor's preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xiii
Figure acknowledgements	xiv
List of abbreviations	xvi
Introduction	1	(4)
1 The political economy of the internet	5	(38)
1.1 Communication and technologies: a sociological perspective	7	(11)
1.2 Stages in the development of the technologies of the word	18	(5)
1.3 A four-layer taxonomy of the technologies of the word	23	(2)
1.4 History of the internet	25	(5)
1.5 Internet and its contexts	30	(13)
2 Computer mediated communication (CMC): features and technologies	43	(28)
2.1 Mapping CMC	44	(7)
2.2 The features of CMC	51	(10)
2.3 Technical aspects: a brief overview	61	(10)
3 Hypertext	71	(26)
3.1 Hypertexts and hypermedia	71	(9)
3.2 Some insights from ancient rhetoric	80	(10)
3.3 The history of hypertext	90	(3)
3.4 Earlier hypertext theories	93	(4)
4 Websites as communication	97	(26)
4.1 The Website Communication Model	98	(3)
4.2 Contents and services (and their localization)	101	(9)
4.3 Accessibility tools	110	(1)
4.4 Publishers	111	(12)
5 Conceptualizing users of the internet: traces and search engines	123	(28)
5.1 Users	123	(7)
5.2 Relevant context/world	130	(4)
5.3 Internet search engines	134	(17)
6 Internet: communities and practices	151	(38)
6.1 Mass media in the time of the internet	152	(5)
6.2 Virtual communities	157	(14)
6.3 eGovernment	171	(5)
6.4 eLearning	176	(6)
6.5 eBusiness and eCommerce	182	(7)
Conclusion	189	(4)
Further reading and resources	193	(8)
References	201	(18)
Index	219