Product Description

Virtual Culture marks a significant intervention in the current debate about access and control in cybersociety exposing the ways in which the Internet and other computer-mediated communication technologies are being used by disadvantaged and marginal groups - such as gay men, women, fan communities and the homeless - for social and political change.

The contributors to this book apply a range of theoretical perspecitves derived from communication studies, sociology and anthropology to demonstrate the theoretical and practical possibilities for cybersociety as an identity-structured space.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #689278 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author

Steve Jones is professor and head of the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is author/editor of numerous books, including Doing Internet Research, The Encyclopedia of New Media, CyberSociety, and Virtual Culture. He is co-founder and president of the Association of Internet Researchers and co-editor of New Media & Society, an international journal of research on new media, technology, and culture. He also edits New Media Cultures, a series of books on culture and technology for Sage Publications, and Digital Formations, a series of books on new media for Peter Lang Publishers.

Customer Reviews

A thoughtful, wide-ranging book on virtual culture
In eleven intriguing contributions, Jones and his colleagues probe more deeply into the issues of individual identity and social communication in cyberspace. Jones looks into the social landscape of internet. McLaughlin, Osborne and Ellison examine community in the telepresence environment, an issue that will become increasingly important for business and education as well as for the leisure activities with cyberspace communities have previously been known. MacKinnon returns to the issue of proper conduct and the punishment of misbehavior by considering the ability of virtual communities to punish offending personae. Dietrich addresses feminist issues in a medium known for its heavily sexist content, an essay that combines brilliant critical insights with an occasional descent into jargon. Breslow considers internet as a society, a cybersociety located within two larger societies, the intellectual world of the college campus and the broad world of civil society at large.

Reviewed in: "Information, Place and Policy: Six Titles for a Basic Library," _Built Environment_, vol. 24, no. 2/3, p. 192.