What's the Matter with the Internet?

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title What's the Matter with the Internet?
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Mark Poster
SeriesElectronic Mediations
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:228
Dimensions(mm): Height 229,Width 149
Category/GenreInternet guides and online services
ISBN/Barcode 9780816638352
ClassificationsDewey:306.46
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher University of Minnesota Press
Imprint University of Minnesota Press
Publication Date 15 May 2001
Publication Country United States

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.