Apocalypse? Not Now: Three Myths of New Media

The Internet explosion has spawned quite a few popular myths, and some Eye readers may not know what to believe. I'd like to offer my dismantling of what may be the top three misperceptions.

Raymond, Eric S. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Cyberculture>Multimedia

Belonging and Diaspora: The Chinese and the Internet

The Internet has become a new global phenomenon, enlarging new democratic discourse and has helped to foster new empowerment and learning experiences. It has also been argued that the Internet can be used for social and political mobilisation. In the case of ethnic groups, the Internet can be used to create new communities or to re-create past knowledges, enabling the maintenance and cultural reproduction of 'old' communities. In the case of the Chinese community, it has been pointed out that the Internet while has been useful in creating a Chinese presence, it nonetheless privileges essentialism and communal hegemony. This has been specifically the point made by some cultural theorists. In their study of the Chinese and Chinese-ness, cultural studies theorists have criticised the hegemonic formation implicit in discussions of the Chinese. They point out that the search by diasporic Chinese for an authentic Chinese meaning is inherently flawed and futile. In deconstructing the notion of Chinese and Chinese-ness, they argue that identities are contingent, often multiple and evolving. This paper takes seriously this criticism proffered by cultural theorists. It seeks to examine and locate their claims in the context of the relationship between diasporic politics, communalism and the Internet. The paper starts with a brief overview of the Chinese diaspora; it next examines the relationship between the new information and communication technologies and the Chinese diaspora. It will also look at how this new technology is shaping and changing the way Chinese diasporic lives are experienced. In so doing, it examines the claims advanced by cultural theorists, in particular their analysis of identity and its relationship with diasporic politics and essentialism.

Wong, Loong. First Monday (2003). Articles>Cyberculture>Community Building>Ethnicity

Beyond "Couch Potatoes": From Consumers to Designers and Active Contributors  

The fundamental challenge for computational media is to contribute to the invention and design of cultures in which humans can express themselves and engage in personally meaningful activities. Cultures are substantially defined by their media and tools for thinking, working, learning, and collaborating. New media change (1) the structure and contents of our interests; (2) the nature of our cognitive and collaborative tools; and, (3) the social environment in which thoughts originate and evolve, and mindsets develop.

Fischer, Gerhard. First Monday (2002). Articles>Cyberculture>Web Design>Community

Building a Multiliteracy Center  

David Sheridan shares what he has learned during his 2000-2003 efforts to build a Multiliteracy Center within the University of Michigan's Sweetland Writing Center.

Homicz, Krista and David Sheridan. Kairos (2004). Articles>Education>Cyberculture

The Cyberculture Canon

As the cyberculture field develops toward being a discipline, thoughts of a disciplinary canon are perhaps inevitable.

Eliot, Matthew J. AoIR (2003). Resources>Bibliographies>Cyberculture

Domain Names, Cybersquatting, and Meta Tags  

Discusses Internet technology and intellectual property by delving into some of the legal issues regarding domain names and meta tags. She discusses trademark laws regarding 'cybersquatting' (when people register domain names for the purposes of sale), offers suggestions for protecting a company and using meta tags in Web sites appropriately.

Kagan, Elissa. Intercom (2000). Articles>Cyberculture

The Emotional Potential of The Web

The Internet can connect people who are continents apart, in a way that is genuinely one-on-one and filled with emotion.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2002). Articles>Cyberculture>Online>Emotions

Hipertexto y Edición en la "Cultura Digital"  

Desarrolla conceptos básicos de Internet para dirimir nuevas posibilidades para la comunicación, la cultura y la investigación. Estudio realizado por Marta Graupera Sanz.

Graupera Sanz, Marta. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social (1999). (Spanish) Articles>Communication>Cyberculture>Hypertext

Imagined Electronic Community  

In contemporary business texts corporate sponsored online communities are described as central to the commercial development of the Internet. This paper presents a history of how online community has been represented in models of Internet commerce. It critically examines the arguments, narratives and rhetorical strategies drawn on within business texts to represent online community. The paper discusses why academics have an interest in involving themselves in helping organize alternative models of online community formation in the context of moves to corporatize and commodify higher education.

Werry, Chris. First Monday (1999). Articles>Cyberculture>Community Building

International Communication Via the Internet: Processes, Modalities, and Socialization Using Computer-Mediated Communication  

Using case studies gathered from teaching projects, this paper analyses both electronic mail, and real-time chat data of pairs of American-Australian students. Results show distinct patterns of interaction concomitant with small group theory, but with marked differences with respect to modality. Survey data reveals idiosyncratic preferences for using either e-mail or real-n-me chat. Analysis of the actual discourse highlights contextual cultural difficulties such as level of language proficiency and organisational norms.

Duin, Ann Hill and Ray Archee. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Cyberculture>Regional>Australia

The New Literacies of the Digital Age  

Text is no longer privileged as the solitary literacy of the educated, nor is it a more sophisticated form of communication than pictures. Alphabetic literacy closely intertwines with visual literacy in the Digital Age to become the foundation of the multiple literacies required by the information explosion. Hence, effective communication must be synesthetic, employing as many senses as is possible in the given medium. Audience aware authors must carefully consider all the literacies that the reader employs when he or she interfaces with a message.

Stern, Caroline M. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Cyberculture

Questions About Blogs Nobody Seems To Answer

Here are some deep questions about blogs that seem to be overlooked. For example, can you post too frequently? What is coming next in popularity, wikis or glogs? Why do many business people express no interest in blogging? Can you answer any of these 16 probing questions about blogs and blogging?

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2005). Articles>Cyberculture>Usability>Blogging

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies

A collection of scholarly resources in cyberculture studies.

Silver, David. RCCS. Resources>Directories>Cyberculture

Rhetoric, Community, and Cyberspace

Traditional notions of the rhetorical community as the locus of shared beliefs and values have been challenged increasingly and from several directions--from radical and post-liberal democratic political theory, from cultural studies and cultural criticism, and, most recently, from the perspective of the ill-defined and elusive 'place' called cyberspace. At the heart of these challenges is the problem of the relationship of the community to those outside it or on its margins, an uneasy relationship that is variously characterized as a tension between communitarianism and liberalism, between ourselves and Others, between a culture and its marginalized individuals, and as a complex relationship between the One and the Many. Contemporary notions of the rhetorical community characterize this community less as the locus of shared beliefs and values than as a public space or forum within which diverse and sometimes conflicting beliefs and values can be articulated and negotiated. We believe that new computer-mediated communication environments have the potential to become contemporary rhetorical communities--public spaces or forums--within which limited or local communities and individuals can develop mutual respect and understanding via dialogue and discussion. We recently tested our belief in a colloquium at Diversity University MOO, an electronic 'place' or cyberspace where individuals can 'meet' and 'chat' in real time.2 Our colloquium revealed to us a kind of rhetoric and a kind of community that seems quite unlike anything that we have seen before--seventeen 'voices' from different places all 'speaking' at once in the same 'place' and 'speaking' in fragments rather than complete discourses.

Zappen, James P., Laura J. Gurak and Stephen Doheny-Farina. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Articles>Cyberculture>Rhetoric>Online

The Rhetorical Dimensions of Cyberspace  

The sophisticated command of language, it has been said, is what distinguishes the human being from all other species of animals. The power to create and employ linguistic signifiers in order to communicate with relative certainty (deconstructionist theory notwithstanding) that which is signified, and the power to co-create meaning within social contexts by using these linguistic tools are hallmarks of our humanity, for better or for worse, which have been throughout the ages subjects of intense interest, study, scholarship, and debate. It is through the use of these linguistic tools that we share experience and investigate the nature of our being, pose the questions who are we, what are we, and even why are we, speculate about the answers, then test and challenge claims to truth derived from our speculating/answering process. In many ways, we are bound on all sides of our conscious being by language and thus share basic needs to see and to understand the complex nature of that which binds us. The study of that complexity is called rhetoric, and those of us who call ourselves rhetoricians, no matter our personal theoretical preferences, hold to our belief that language is empowering, that the observation and analysis of oral and written communication can make us better communicators ourselves and can serve as pedagogical tools for empowering others.

Baldwin, Beth W. and Tim Flood. RhetNet (1996). Books>Rhetoric>Cyberculture

Richard Saul Wurman: Helping Us Understand Information  

Technical communicators should familiarize themselves with the work of some of the popular theoreticians of the information age. Richard Saul Wurman is one of them. With a background as an architect, graphic designer, and cartographer, and experience in designing user guides for tourists and redesigning the Yellow Pages, Wurman offers many theories and insights that are applicable to our profession. This paper summarizes some of his ideas and suggests ways in which they apply to our work.

Casey, Charlotte and Lois Lindahl. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Cyberculture>Theory

Socnet Specialist

A rationale for joining as many social networking sites as possible, if you are a marketing professional.

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2007). Articles>Cyberculture>Marketing>Social Networking

A Sounding Board for the Self: Virtual Community as Ideology    

Claims about the emergence of a new type of social aggregation--"virtual community"--cover a type of ideological discourse about social interactions. The main cultural resource fueling this ideology is the counterculture and its social project. Virtual community, both as a discursive and as a social practice, is a culmination rather than a resolution of the modern conflict between community and individuality. Presenting virtual community as a panacea for modern social tensions, especially that between individualistic and communitarian ideals, hides from sight not only some of the negative aspects of on-line social life (cliquish behavior and incivility) but also the role played by communication technology in fragmenting modern society.

Matei, Sorin Adam. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Cyberculture>Community Building>Online

The Cultural Metamorphosis of the Internet. Hypertext and Publishing in the 'Digital Culture' (Notes Regarding Communicative Convergence)  

Focuses on the cultural significance of hypertext and online publishing possibilities for culture, education, research and communication.

Graupera Sanz, Marta. Tower of Babel. Articles>Publishing>Cyberculture>Hypertext

Toward Broadening our Research Agenda in Cyberspace

Competing visions of society's future in the online world continue to abound, tending most often to offer dichotomous scenarios of such a society: on the one hand are the cautionary tales of the new information technology as a potential danger, which 'threaten[s] a loss of tens of millions of jobs in the years ahead' and brings with it the potential to 'isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience'. On the other hand are the technological optimists who see great possibilities for community and humanity; for 'drawing people into greater world harmony' and creating orderly, efficient, and fun electronic worlds with few negative side effects. How, then, within the context of such dichotomous positions can we critically analyze the possible social and humanistic outcomes of life in cyberspace?

Gurak, Laura J. Computer-Mediated Communication (1996). Articles>Cyberculture

Troubling Aspects of the Online Realm

Find out how the blogosphere is portrayed as stupid, how automatic reloading of web pages annoys users, how it's very difficult or impossible to scroll text entry boxes, why search engines need filters, why usability is not "dead" for web design, why delete must not automatically open the next email message, why "view profile" must not be omitted, and why all user actions need prominent "action succeeded" messages and "view action results" page links.

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Cyberculture>Interaction Design>Usability

Under, Over and Around the Net: Interrupting the Uptopian Subect of the Internet

I would like to examine the claims that pure subjectivity, free of outside 'political' associations such as gender or nationality, can be achieved in electronic communication.

Palmer, Terri. EServer (1994). Articles>Cyberculture>Theory

Why Are You Here?

Whether we’re designing experimental sites or keeping an online diary, we go to the web in search of meaning. Will we find it? Or will we build it ourselves?

Cohen, Scott Jason. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Cyberculture