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New Media: A Critical Introduction

Chapter · February 2003

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NEW MEDIA: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION

MARTIN LISTER / J O N DOVEY / SETH GIDDINGS / IAIN GRANT / KIERAN KELLY

R Routledge
Taylor &. Francis Group

LONDON AND NEW YORK

CONTENTS 1.6.4 The many virtues of Saint
McLuhan 84
List of illustrations vii 1.6.5 Conclusion: the extent of the
List of case studies viii 'extensions of man' 90
Authors' biographies ix Bibliography 92

INTRODUCTION 1 2 NEW MEDIA AND VISUAL CULTURE 97

2.1 New technologies and the issues for
1 NEW MEDIA AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES 9 visual culture 97
1.1 What are new media? 9 2.2 Visual culture 98
1.1.1 'The media'as an institution 9 2.3 Visuality 101
1.1.2 The intensity of change 10 2.4 Could there be a distinct digital visual
1.1.3 The ideological connotations of culture? 102
the new 11 2.5 New image technologies 104
1.1.4 Non-technical and inclusive 11 2.6 Immersive virtual reality 107
1.1.5 Distinguishing between kinds 2.6.1 Is VR a new 'visual' medium? 107
of new media 12 2.6.2 The importance of that which
1.2 The characteristics of new media: hardly exists 110
some defining concepts 13 2.6.3 Spheres collide: from imitation
1.2.1 Digitality 14 to simulation - VR's
1.2.2 Interactivity 19 operational history 112
1.2.3 Hypertext 23 2.6.4 VR: the actuality and the
1.2.4 Dispersal 30 hyperbole 115
1.2.5 Virtuality 34 2.6.5 VR: trimming the metaphors 119
1.2.6 Which virtual reality? 35 2.6.6 VR as a discursive object 123
1.2.7 Cyberspace 35 2.6.7 VR's cultural resources 124
1.2.8 Conclusion 37 2.7 VR as a medium of art: a quantum
1.3 Change and continuity 37 leap forward? 125
1.3.1 Introduction 37 2.7.1 What is Alberti's window? 126
1.3.2 Measuring'newness' 38 2.7.2 The camera lens and the
1.4 What kind of history? 44 industrialisation of perspective 127
1.4.1 Teleological accounts of new 2.7.3 Perspective as symbolic form 129
media 45 2.7.4 The condition of Alberti's
1.4.2 New media and the modernist window after VR 133
concept of progress 53 2.7.5 Frames and surfaces 135
1.4.3 The return of the Middle Ages 2.8 Digital cinema 136
and other media archaeologies 56 2.8.1 Virtual VR 137
1.4.4 A sense of deja vu 58 2.8.2 Virtual realism 138
1.4.5 Conclusion 59 2.8.3 Special effects and hyperreality 146
1.5 Who was dissatisfied with old 2.8.4 Thoroughly (post)modern
media? 59 Melies, or the return of the
1.5.1 The question 59 repressed in digital cinema 149
1.5.2 The technological imaginary 60 2.8.5 Audiences and effects 154
1.5.3 The discursive construction of Bibliography 159
new media 62
1.5.4 Conclusion 68 3 NETWORKS USERS AND ECONOMICS 164
1.5.5 The return of the Frankfurt School 3.0 Introduction 164
critique in the popularisation of 3.1 Networks: communities, audiences
new media 68 and users 164
1.5.6 Conclusion 71 3.2 What is the Internet? 165
1.6 New media: determining or 3.3 Networks and identity 166
determined? 72 3.4 Learning to live in the interface 168
1.6.1 The status of McLuhan and 3.5 Networks and communities 172
Williams 72 3.6 Visionary communities 173
1.6.2 Mapping Marshall McLuhan 75 3.7 Defining community online 174
1.6.3 Williams and the social shaping 3.8 Networks as public spheres 176
of technology 80 3.9 The net as postmodern public sphere 178
 CONTENTS

3.10 Critique of the net as public sphere 180 4.4.2 Video games as new technology 263
3.11 The post-web Internet 181 4.4.3 Play 269
3.12 Remediation and economics 182 4.4.4 Playing with a computer 272
3.13 Towards theorising web users 184 4.4.5 Conclusion: cyberspace in
3.14 Raymond Williams fixes base and everyday life 279
superstructure 186 Bibliography 280
3.15 Media studies and political economy 188
3.16 The social form of new media 190 5 CYBERCULTURE: TECHNOLOGY, NATURE
3.17 New media and post-industrial AND CULTURE 287
economies 192 5.1 Cyberculture and cybernetics 289
3.18 The development of the new 5.1.1 Technology as real and material:
economy 195 media studies' blindspot? 289
3.19 Technological agency, economics and 5.1.2 Studying technology 290
politics: inventions and developments 196 5.1.3 What is technology? 290
3.20 Technological agency, economics and 5.1.4 How to proceed? 291
politics: globalisation and 5.1.5 Technology and nature: the
telecommunications 197 cyborg 293
3.21 The digital divide 199 5.1.6 Technology and culture 293
3.22 Uneven globalisation 200 5.1.7 Nature and culture 294
3.23 Investment in new media: intention 5.1.8 A problem with binary
and use 205 definitions 295
3.24 Intellectual property rights, 5.1.9 We have never been binary:
determined and determining 206 Latour and 'actor-network
3.25 Information as commodity 211 theory' 296
3.26 Fragmentation and convergence 212 5.1.10 Media as technology 297
3.27 Conclusion 215 5.2 Revisiting determinism: physicalism,
Bibliography 216 humanism and technology 299
5.2.1 Physicalism and technological
4 NEW MEDIA IN EVERYDAY LIFE 219 determinism 300
4.1 Everyday life in cyberspace 219 5.2.2 Causalities 301
4.1.1 Cyberspace in everyday life: 5.2.3 Agencies 307
the material and the virtual 219 5.2.4 Determinisms 310
4.1.2 Why everyday life? 220 5.3 Biological technologies: the history
4.1.3 Why cyberspace? 221 of automata 314
4.1.4 Key questions 222 5.3.1 Automata: the basics 315
4.2 The domestic shaping of new media 223 5.3.2 Clockwork: technology and
4.2.1 Telecommuting from the smart nature, combined 318
house 223 5.3.3 Self-augmenting engines:
4.2.2 Selling the black box 225 steampower against nature 326
4.2.3 Consuming new media 228 5.3.4 The construction of inanimate
4.2.4 Home computers: new media reason 335
ethnography 235 5.3.5 Life and intelligence in the
4.2.5 Edutainment edutainment digital age 343
edutainment 239 5.3.6 Conclusion 351
4.2.6 Home pages: everyday identity 5.4 Theories of cyberculture 353
in global networks 244 5.4.1 Cybernetics and human-
4.3 New media, identity and the machine relations 353
everyday 247 5.4.2 Cybernetics and the virtual 360
4.3.1 Identity workshops 248 5.4.3 Cybernetics and culture 365
4.3.2 Key positions 249 5.4.4 Cyberculture and the body 368
4.3.3 The subject of (new) media 253 5.4.5 Conclusion: science, cyberculture
4.3.4 Consuming cybersubjectivities 259 and the humanities 375
4.4 Gameplay 260 Bibliography 377
4.4.1 New media's 'other' 261
Glossary 383
Index 393

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