Understanding Digital Culture

Miller, Vincent
Vincent Miller is Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent

"This is an outstanding book. It is one of only a few scholarly texts that successfully combine a nuanced theoretical understanding of the digital age with empirical case studies of contemporary media culture. The scope is impressive, ranging from questions of digital inequality to emergent forms of cyberpolitics."

- Nick Gane, York University

"Well written, very up-to-date with a good balance of examples and theory. It's good to have all the major issues covered in one book."
- Peter Millard, Portsmouth University

"This is just the text I was looking for to enable first year undergraduates to develop their critical understanding of the technologies they have embedded so completely in their lives."
- Chris Simpson, University College of St Mark & St John

This is more than just another book on Internet studies. Tracing the pervasive influence of 'digital culture' throughout contemporary life, this text integrates socio-economic understandings of the 'information society' with the cultural studies approach to production, use, and consumption of digital media and multimedia.
Refreshingly readable and packed with examples from profiling databases and mashups to cybersex and the truth about social networking, Understanding Digital Culture :

Crosses disciplines to give a balanced account of the social, economic and cultural dimensions of the information society. Illuminates the increasing importance of mobile, wireless and converged media technologies in everyday life. Unpacks how the information society is transforming and challenging traditional notions of crime, resistance, war and protest, community, intimacy and belonging. Charts the changing cultural forms associated with new media and its consumption, including music, gaming, microblogging and online identity. Illustrates the above through a series of contemporary, in-depth case studies of digital culture. This is the perfect text for students looking for a full account of the information society, virtual cultures, sociology of the Internet and new media.

An account of digital culture in everyday life that explains the social, economic and cultural dimensions of the information society.

Introduction
Revolutionary Technologies?
Determinisms
The Social Determinism of Technology
Technological Enablement
Base, Superstructure, Infrastructure
The Structure of the Book
Chapter 1: Key Elements of Digital Media
Technical Processes
Digital
Networked
Interactive
Hypertextual/Hypermediated
Automated
Databased
Cultural Forms
Context (or Lack of It)
Variability
Rhizome
Process
Immersive Experiences
Telepresense
Virtuality
Simulation
Case Study: What Are Video Games? A Conundrum of Digital Culture
Are Video Games 'Narratives'?
Are Video Games 'Games'?
Are Video Games 'Simulations'?
Chapter 2: The Economic Foundations of the Information Age
Post-Industrialism
Problems with the Post-Industrial Thesis
The Information Society
Post-Fordism and Globalization
Informationalism and the Network Society
The Structure of Networks
The Space Flows and Timeless Time
Network Economy and network Enterprise
Weightless Economies, Intellectual Property and the Commodification of Knowledge
Weightless Money
Weightless Services
Weightless Products
The Advantages of a Weightless Economy
(Intellectual) Property in a Weightless Economy
Information Feudalism
Chapter 3: Convergence and the Contemporary Media Experience
Technological Convergence
Regulatory Convergence
Media Industry Convergence
Concerns about Media Convergence
Convergence Culture and the New Media Experience
The Creation of Cross-Media Experiences
Participatory Media Culture
Collective Intelligence
Producers, Consumers and 'Produsage'
Case Study: The Changing Culture Industry of Digital Music
The Digitalization of Music and Its Discontents
'Mash-Ups' and the Crisis of Authorship in Digital Culture
Digital Music Cultures and Music Consumption
Chapter 4: Digital Inequality: Social, Political and Infrastructural Contexts
'Digital Divides' and 'Access'
Domestic Digital Divides
Global Digital Divides
Mobile Phones, Access and the Developing World
Economic Reasons
Social Reasons
Legislative Reasons
The Benefits of Mobile Telephony for the Developing World
Chapter 5: 'Everyone Is Watching': Privacy and Surveillance in Digital Life
The Changing Cultural Contexts of Privacy
Privacy as a Legal Construction: A Contradiction
Digital Surveillance: Spaces, Traces and Tools
Key Tools of Digital Surveillance
The Rise of Surveillance: Causes and Processes
Security Imperatives: Surveillance and the Nation State
Surveillance, Control Imperatives and Bureaucratic Structures
Techno-Logic
Commercial Imperatives and the Political Economy of Surveillance
Marketing and Personal Data Collection
Databases, Data-Mining, and Discourses
The Power of Profiling
Databases and Profiling: Pro's and Con's
Why Care about Surveillance Society?
Chapter 6: Information Politics, Subversion and Warfare
The Political Context of Information Politics
ICT-Enabled Politics
Visibility
Internal Organisation and Mobilisation
External Collaboration and Coordination
Flexible Organisation and 'Smartmobs'
Permanent Political Campaigns: Linear Collaboration
An Internet Public Sphere?
Digital Disobedience: ICT-Based Activism
ICTs and Mainstream Politics
Cyber Politics by Another Means: Cyber Warfare
Cyber Warfare as Network-Centric Warfare
Cyber Warfare as Information Warfare
Cyber Warfare as Espionage
Cyber Warfare as Economic Sabotage
Cyber Warfare as Critical Infrastructure Attack
Adjunct Attacks
Chapter 7: Digital Identity
'Objects to Think With': Early Internet Studies and Post-Structuralism
Personal Home Pages and the 'Re-Centring' of the Individual
Personal Blogging, Individualisation and the Reflexive Project of the Self
Social Networks, Profiles and Networked Identity
Avatar and Identity
Case Study: Cybersex, Online Intimacy and the Self
The Late-Modern Context of Love and Intimacy
Cybersex: A Novel Form of Intimacy
Chapter 8: Social Media and the Problem of Community: Space, Relationships, Networks
Searching for Lost Commu