Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media

Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media

<ul>Everything you need to know about new media in one accessible, easy to navigate volume!</ul> From <i>Facebook</i> to the <i>iPhone</i>, from <i>YouTube</i> to <i>Wikipedia</i>, from <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> to <i>Second Life</i> - this book explores new media’s most important issues and debates in an accessible and engaging text for newcomers to the field. <p> With technological change continuing to unfold at an incredible rate, <i>Digital Cultures</i> rounds-up major events in the media’s recent past to help develop a clear understanding of the theoretical and practical debates that surround this emerging discipline. It addresses issues such as:<ul> <li> What is new media? <li> How is new media changing our lives? <li> Is new media having a positive or negative effect on culture and human communication?</ul> Each chapter contains case studies which provide an interesting and lively balance between the well-trodden and the newly emerging themes in the field. <p> Topics covered include digital television, digital cinema, gaming, digital democracy, mobile phones, the World Wide Web, digital news, online social networking, music and multimedia, virtual communities and the digital divide. <p> <i>Digital Cultures</i> is an essential introductory guide for all media and communication studies students, as well as those with a general interest in new media and its impact on the world around us.