Chapter 8: 'new media' in a 'new world'?

The chapter title’s question and quotation marks try to suggest a deep scepticism about the idea that ‘new media’ have totally transformed a deeply embedded set of cultural power structures familiarities. Yet there are signs that they are changing the world in substantial ways. You’ll find here a discussion of the major histories, figures and debates that shape this hotly contested part of contemporary media, and media studies. The chapter is organised under these headings:

• ‘Newness’ and histories

This includes work on UGC (User Generated Content) which is also explored in Chapter 14 (From ‘audiences’ to ‘users’), as well as via a special Case Study on this website: UGC, Social Media and the BBC

• Academic approaches
• Openness, collaboration and ‘users’
• ‘The long tail’
• Digital copies and the ‘enclosure’ of information
• New media, old metaphors
• ‘New media’, vanishing resources

As for the other chapters, there is a list of links here as indicated in the book for reference and further study.