Forum: New Media & Society

The diffusion of the internet in Germany was accompanied by strong attention from the traditional mass media who considered the new medium extensively in their coverage. Their media framing of the internet is analyzed following the four dimensions of framing identified in earlier research on media issues. Central to this process are the argumentation patterns used in this research which were defined with regard to a qualitative analysis of the multimedia discourse. Results of a quantitative content analysis of German news magazine coverage (1995-8) indicate that these media had a strong tendency towards a favorable assessment of the internet. The euphoric and economically optimistic argumentation patterns were most important, and outcomes of the development were evaluated as supporting the emancipation of the individual. However, this particular way of framing the internet issue is only partly reflected in the perceptions of users.

In post-Communist Russia, when talking about new communications technology, one has to ask what is `new’ and what is `old’. Already in the Communist era increasing availability of new communications technology (for example fax machines and email) amplified cheap `small’ technology as an alternative to `big’ and expensive technology controlled by the state. New communications technology, at the crossroads of mass and interpersonal communication, was harder for authorities to control and intensified the process whereby communication has escaped from political control. The introduction of new communications technology has been slow in post-Communist Russia in comparison to western countries because it is constrained by established state structures. The article concludes that although new communications technology provides new opportunities for individuals, old technology and structures set boundaries to the growth of the new.

This article examines the process of expressing oneself in cyberspace through the metaphor of `voice’, by drawing a similarity between the process of speaking and the presentation of the self in cyberspace. The metaphor of voice allows the examination of expressions in cyberspace in a dialogic manner and demonstrates a unique voice that can be produced with the technology of cyberspace. This is a voice that is heteroglossic and hyperconnected, and in the case of the marginalized, this voice has the potential of producing a call that the dominant has a moral obligation to acknowledge. Consequently, the metaphor of voice in cyberspace problematizes the relation between the marginal and the dominant by initiating a crisis of acknowledgment on the part of the dominant. Ultimately, this approach allows for the re-examination and re-invention of the notion of cyber communities and their role in the public sphere. These issues are developed by using Indian diasporic websites as evidence to support the arguments.

This article asks whether, and in what ways, new media technologies contribute to variations in information resources and communication relations from place to place that may encourage social integration or differentiation. Current perspectives on differentiation theory are briefly discussed, and a model is presented which suggests how the generation, circulation and use of information in society create different social milieux or information environments. Recent studies of new media use are used to illustrate how ICTs might contribute to social differentiation.

This article reports the findings of an ethnographic study of internet use conducted in Vancouver, Canada. Our goal was to examine how non-professional users interpret, `domesticate’ (Silverstone, 1994) and creatively appropriate (Feenberg, 1999) the internet in order to integrate it into the relevance structures and activities of their everyday lives. We identify new cultural practices emerging on this basis and reflect on what these practices mean for the social shaping of the internet as a communication medium. The methods of data collection included ethnographic interviews, and `tours’ of the home and computer space of 30 domestic users of the internet in different socio-biographical situations.