This volume puts together the works of a group of distinguished scholars and active researchers in the field of media and communication studies to reflect upon the past, present, and future of new media research. The chapters examine the implications of new media technologies on everyday life, existing social institutions, and the society at large at various levels of analysis. Macro-level analyses of changing techno-social formation – such as discussions of the rise of surveillance society and the "fifth estate" – are combined with studies on concrete and specific new media phenomena, such as the rise of Pro-Am collaboration and "fan labor" online. In the process, prominent concepts in the field of new media studies, such as social capital, displacement, and convergence, are critically examined, while new theoretical perspectives are proposed and explicated. Reflecting the inter-disciplinary nature of the field of new media studies and communication research in general, the chapters interrogate into the problematic through a range of theoretical and methodological approaches. The book should offer students and researchers who are interested in the social impact of new media both critical reviews of the existing literature and inspirations for developing new research questions.

Contents

Preface Ronald E. Rice 1. Introduction: Challenges for New Media Research Francis L. F. Lee, Louis Leung, Jack Linchuan Qiu and Donna S. C. Chu Part I: Techno-Social Formations 2. What’s the Use of the Public Sphere in the Age of the Internet? Frank Webster 3. The Internet and Democratic Accountability: The Rise of the Fifth Estate William H. Dutton 4. Surveillance Technologies and Social Transformation: Emerging Challenges of Socio-Technical Change David Lyon 5. The Probability Archive: From Essence to Uncertainty in the Mediation of Knowledge John Hartley 6. The Internet and Social Mobilization in China Yong Hu Part II: Recurring Issues 7. Online Social Network Sithe Concept of Social Capital Charles Steinfield, Nicole Ellison, Cliff Lampe and Jessica Vitak 8. A Retrospective on Convergence, Moral Panic, and the Internet Sharon Strover 9. The Emerging Ecology of Online News Stuart Allan 10. Who Would Miss Getting News Online and Why (Not)? Hsiang Iris Chyi and Mengchieh Jacie Yang 11. The Influence of Third-Person Effects on Support for Restrictions of Internet Pornography Among College Students in Shanghai and Hong Ven-hwei Lo, Ran Wei, Clement Y. K. So and Zhang Guoliang Part III: Emerging Media 12. A Networked Self: Identity Performance and Sociability on Social Network Sites Zizi Papacharissi 13. The Internet in Flux: Twitter and the Interpretative Flexibility of Microblogging José van Dijck 14. Exploring the Pro-Am Interface between Production and Produsage Axel Bruns 15. Fanatical Labor and Serious Leisure: A Case of Fansubbing in China Donna S.C. Chu 16. From TV to Online to Mobile Phones: A National Study of U.S. College Studen...