New Media: A Critical Introduction

by Lister; Martin

• ISBN13: 9780415431613
• ISBN10: 0415431611
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-01-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

New Media: A Critical Introductionis a comprehensive introduction to the culture, history, technologies and theories of new media. Written especially for students, the book considers the ways in which 'new media' really are new, assesses the claims that a media and technological revolution has taken place and formulates new ways for media studies to respond to new technologies. The authors introduce a wide variety of topics including: how to define the characteristics of new media; social and political uses of new media and new communications; new media technologies, politics and globalization; everyday life and new media; theories of interactivity, simulation, the new media economy; cybernetics, cyberculture, the history of automata and artificial life. Substantially updated from the first edition to cover recent theoretical developments, approaches and significant technological developments, this is the best and by far the most comprehensive textbook available on this exciting and expanding subject. At www.newmediaintro.com you will find: additional international case studies with online references specially created You Tubevideos on machines and digital photography a new '¬ÜVirtual Camera'¬" case study, with links to short film examples useful links to related websites, resources and research sites further online reading links to specific arguments or discussion topics in the book links to key scholars in the field of new media.

Author Biography

Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings and Kieran Kelly are members of the Department of Culture, Media and Drama, in the Faculty of Creative Arts and Iain Grant is Head of Field in Philosophy, in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, all at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. vii
List of case studies	p. x
Authors' biographies	p. xi
Preface to the second edition	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The book's purpose	p. 1
Our approach to the subject	p. 1
The book's historical dimension	p. 4
The book's emphasis on wider questions of culture and technology	p. 4
The book's organisation	p. 4
How to use the book	p. 5
The book's parts	p. 5
New Media and New Technologies	p. 9
New media: do we know what they are?	p. 9
The characteristics of new media: some defining concepts	p. 13
Change and continuity	p. 44
What kind of history?	p. 51
Who was dissatisfied with old media?	p. 77
New media: determining or determined?	p. 77
Bibliography	p. 99
New Media and Visual Culture	p. 105
What happened to Virtual Reality (VR)?	p. 105
The virtual and visual culture	p. 109
The digital virtual	p. 112
Immersion: a history	p. 114
Perspective, camera, software	p. 124
Virtual images/images of the virtual	p. 124
Digital cinema	p. 132
Bibliography	p. 158
Networks, Users and Economics	p. 163
Introduction	p. 163
What is the Internet?	p. 164
Historicising net studies	p. 165
Economics and networked media culture	p. 169
Political economy	p. 173
The social form of new media	p. 176
Limits on commercial influence	p. 178
Globalisation, neo-liberalism and the Internet	p. 179
The digital divide	p. 181
Boom and bust in the information economy	p. 187
Intellectual property rights, determined and determining	p. 189
Music as new media	p. 191
The Long Tail	p. 197
Going viral	p. 200
Fragmentation and convergence	p. 202
Wiki worlds and Web 2.0	p. 204
Identities and communities online	p. 209
Being anonymous	p. 209
Belonging	p. 213
Living in the interface	p. 216
The Internet and the public sphere	p. 218
User-generated content: we are all fans now	p. 221
YouTube and post television	p. 225
Conclusion	p. 231
Bibliography	p. 232
New Media in Everyday Life	p. 237
Everyday life in cyberspace	p. 237
Everyday life in a media home	p. 243
The technological shaping of everyday life	p. 254
The everyday posthuman: new media and identity	p. 266
Gameplay	p. 286
Conclusion: everyday cyberculture	p. 307
Bibliography	p. 307
Cyberculture: Technology, Nature and Culture	p. 317
Cyberculture and cybernetics	p. 319
Revisiting determinism: physicalism, humanism and technology	p. 328
Biological technologies: the history of automata	p. 343
Theories of cyberculture	p. 381
Bibliography	p. 413
Glossary	p. 418
Index	p. 431
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