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What's the Matter with the Internet?
Paperback / softback
Main Details
Title |
What's the Matter with the Internet?
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Authors and Contributors |
By (author) Mark Poster
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Series | Electronic Mediations |
Physical Properties |
Format:Paperback / softback | Pages:228 | Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 149 |
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Category/Genre | Internet guides and online services |
ISBN/Barcode |
9780816638352
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Classifications | Dewey:306.46 |
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Audience | |
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Publishing Details |
Publisher |
University of Minnesota Press
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Imprint |
University of Minnesota Press
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Publication Date |
15 May 2001 |
Publication Country |
United States
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Description
In What's the Matter with the Internet?, leading cultural theorist Mark Poster offers a sophisticated and astute assessment of the potential the new medium has to redefine culture and politics. Avoiding the mindless hype and meaningless jargon that has characterized much of the debate about the future of the Web, he details what truly distinguishes the Internet from other media and the implications these novel properties have for such vital issues as authorship, national identity and global citizenship, the fate of ethnicity and race, and democracy.Arguing that the Internet demands a social and cultural theory appropriate to the specific qualities of cyberspace, Poster reformulates the ideas of thinkers associated with our understanding of post-modern culture and the media (including Foucault, Deleuze, Heidegger, Baudrillard, and Derrida) to account for and illuminate the virtual world, paying particular attention to its political dimensions and the nature of identity. In this innovative analysis, Poster acknowledges that although the colonization of the Internet by corporations and governments does threaten to retard its capacity to bring about genuine change, the new medium is still capable of transforming both contemporary social practices and the way we see the world and ourselves.
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