Web.Studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age [Hardcover]

David Gauntlett (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0340760486 | ISBN-13: 978-0340760482

This exciting and engaging book explores the ways in which people, organizations, and companies are using the Internet to project their interests and concerns into the world. Beginning with an introduction to cyberculture studies and ways to studying the web, Web.Studies moves on to consider everyday web life, web art and culture, web business, and global web politics and protest. Topics covered range from fan websites, web identities, and web design trends, to global capitalism and web allure, cybercrime and the politics of hacking and propaganda warfare via the web. Throughout the book are suggestions for ways in which students can use the web to further their own research. While there has been an explosion of books on the Internet, this is the first to offer students and general readers a comprehensive and coherent introduction to the new web base media culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fascinating essays... Written by experts in their repsective fields, each of the 24 essays takes an insightful look at some aspect of Web culture. A thought-provoking, wide-ranging glimpse at how the Web can reform, instruct, control and promote freedom of thought, this timely book will be a worthwhile addition to any library."--Choice

From the Inside Flap

'Web.Studies sets the agenda for a new period of media research, one that gets to grips with the significance of new communications technologies and the global spaces in which they are so rapidly developing. I believe that this book will help considerably to take media studies in new directions.' - Professor Kevin Robins, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK

'Like the Web itself, Web.Studies is by turns stimulating, informative, and provocative. It provides a useful and diverse collection of resources that will help us to understand the Web as a social and cultural medium, not just as a form of "information technology".' - Professor David Buckingham, Institute of Education, University of London, UK

"In Web.Studies, Gauntlett and the chapter authors have successfully provided a resource of scholarly discussions about Web cultures that take into consideration the broad range of social, economic, and political interactions that take place on the Web. Each of the three major sections of Web.Studies offers a unique and inclusive approach to the study of cyberculture. ... Taken as a whole, Web.Studies could serve as a rich survey piece for an undergraduate cyberculture course because it tackles many Web issues in short, understandable, and succinct chapters. On another level, some of the chapters offer theoretical and philosophical perspectives and citations more appropriate for advanced cyberculture studies which could be used to spur critical investigations into the unique avenues within Web cultures." -- Ryan Burns, Department of Communication, University of Oklahoma.

"In his book Web Studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age, editor David Gauntlett sets out an interesting review of media studies and the Web, from both a sociological and cultural studies perspective. ... Web studies is excellent for both humanities students who are interested in aspects of the Web but are unsure where to start and for those who wish to discover what the Web has to offer. This book requires no specialist knowledge or prior-reading in the subject area to be able to understand what is being said. Web studies is, overall, a most enjoyable read." -- Cesar Basanta, Lecturer in Social Sciences and Research Methodology, Bath Spa University College.

"Web.Studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age offers a fresh approach to a topic that has already seen a good deal of critical commentary. While a number of recent books focus on the way in which the best of textuality has informed the Web, David Gauntlett, the book's editor, has succeeded in illustrating the potential of following the opposite path. This collection of short, focused essays provides a ' web-like' variety of content, complete with links, in the form of URL boxes at the end of each chapter, and an impressive level of hypertextual referentiality between the entries. In short, this book is a 'killer site'. Overall, this book does a number of things very well and it does them at a time when there is a dearth of quality writing in this area. Web.Studies brings the best of the Web's tendency toward the succinct and informative and binds it in an affordable and useable format. It would make an excellent textbook for undergraduate media studies and could serve as an entry point for the digitally dubious members of the real world." -- Patrick Finn, University of Victoria

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers (November 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340760486
• ISBN-13: 978-0340760482
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,999,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'Real' web studies. Hooray!, March 29, 2001

By 

Maureen Burns (Queensland, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: web.studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age (Paperback)

David Gauntlett has compiled an excellent and wide ranging book of/about World Wide Web studies.His introduction is energetic, ambitious and cheeky. His enthusiasm is refreshing and contagious, and his points about the lack of web-specific publications, and about the dearth of interesting media studies, are accurate.I'm not sure that he's right about web studies as the antidote, but this book might just shame you (me) into building a website, particulary if you are writing about/ teaching/ studying the web.

The book is divided into Four Parts. 'Web Studies'; 'Web Life, Arts and Culture'; 'Web Business', 'Global Web Communities, Politics and Protest'.There are several chapters in each, which were selected from 140 proposals. The structure works well, with issues from web design to commercial futures to web crime to web democracy all getting careful analysis. It is a splendid resource for teaching undergraduate courses; and deserves to be much quoted in postgraduate work and research.

Not only does the book concentrate on the Web rather than the vaguer or larger categories of the virtual, the cyber or the Internet, the different chapters raise theoretical issues by presenting specific case studies.The web and Indian Diaspora; BBC goes Online, artists on the web. I especially liked 'The Teacher Review Debate' which stimulates thinking about power relations on and off the web. No ungrounded abstract generalities here, no cyberhype, no virtual thinking. What a relief! At last! Hooray! Gripping reading.

At the end of each chapter is a list of useful websites, so be prepared for an hour or seven of web surfing along with your favourite chapters. The writing styles vary with the authors, and all are polished and approachable.

If you are a media studies or cultural studies academic, if you are a media studies or cultural studies student, or if you use the web; you'll find plenty to interest you in this book. Passion, fun, fascinating theory and cocking a snook all in the one tome. I liked it a lot, really (and/not virtually).

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, varied, up-to-date and very readable, April 3, 2001

By 

Helen (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: web.studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age (Paperback)

This is an excellent book about the Web and Web culture. It's much more readable than other books in this area and it covers an impressive range of topics. Would be very useful on courses in this area, I would expect, but I read it as a 'lay' reader and found it both educational and enjoyable!