Forum: New Media & Society

This article considers the role of ‘active’ video games — specifically the Nintendo ‘Wii’ — as technologies that foster control over corporeality. New media scholars have examined the politics of embodiment and hybridity as they relate to video games, yet have paid limited attention to the ways in which new gaming technologies might contribute to contemporary systems of ‘government’, or what Foucault calls the ‘conduct of conduct’. Borrowing from influential social theorists, the article argues that, by undergoing what Latour labels ‘translation’ (by merging with the body), the Wii invokes and reinscribes governmental and post-disciplinary rationalities. The analysis concludes by contending that the Wii might be a particularly influential innovation in risk-based post-disciplinary societies: rather than connecting ‘at-risk’ subjects to human experts, the Wii functions as an active and autonomous quasi-object risk expert, able to diagnose ‘problematic’ tendencies and prescribe basic behavioural remedies.

The international success of formats such as Pop Idol and Big Brother owes much to the ways in which they combine a number of broadcast and digital platforms under the aegis of a common ‘brand’. The article argues that the media industry strategists behind such formats have come to rely on extending existing broadcast conventions of liveness and eventfulness by means of audience participation via digital return channels. It argues that such participation invites a sense of presence, heightened immediacy and involvement in the live event. The article emphasizes how such features are being developed by the broadcast media industry to exploit audience participation for the purposes of revenue, competitive edge and strategic expansion.

This article examines the extent to which internet practice is associated with sociability in south Louisiana. Known for having a long and unique history of traditional values and a high frequency of social interaction, this sub-region is ideal to test the contradictory findings of previous research. Based on a survey of 371 randomly selected residents, the study utilizes 11 sociability and eight internet measures. The descriptive findings are consistent with the diffusion of innovations perspective, while regression analyses suggest that internet practice is associated with both more and less sociability, depending on what measures are used.

This article illuminates the roles of the internet in the unique intersection between adolescence and immigration. The data presented were gathered through in-depth interviews with 70 teenage immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel. The analysis suggests that the internet provides valuable resources for personal growth and empowerment, as it helps to develop and strengthen many aspects of young immigrants’ evolving identity during a critical period of social and material disadvantage, when they are engaged in settling into and adjusting to a new society. This case study highlights the importance of researching the internet’s roles in the lives of disadvantaged populations, and the potential of this medium for closing knowledge and social gaps.

Research has shown consistently that news consumption both online and offline is related positively to interpersonal discussion, political involvement and political engagement. However, little consideration has been given to the role that new sources of information may exert on different forms of political engagement. Based on secondary analysis of data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, this article contrasts the influence of traditional sources of information online with that of emergent sources (blogs) in predicting further political discussion, campaigning and participation in both the online and the offline domains. The results show that the use of traditional sources online is related positively to different types of political engagement, both online and offline. Most interestingly, the article finds that blog use emerges as an equally important predictor of political engagement in the online domain. Its analyses provide support for the contention that asserts the democratic potential of the internet.

This study explores the ethical beliefs and practices of two distinct groups of bloggers — personal and non-personal — through a worldwide web survey. A stratified purposive sample of 1224 bloggers provided information about their blogging experience, blogging habits and demographics. They were asked about their beliefs and practices for four ethical principles: truth-telling, attribution, accountability and minimizing harm. The findings reveal that the two groups differ in terms of who they are and what they do in their weblogs (blogs). In addition, there were significant differences in the extent to which they value and adhere to the four principles, and some interesting similarities. For example, both groups believe that attribution is most important and accountability least important. Scholars have proposed blogging ethics codes, and this study found that bloggers themselves support such a code.

This article situates the general aggression model within the social structure of gameplay. Testing a mediated model of play, group gaming is examined in order to demonstrate how certain gameplay situations can promote hostile expectation bias or the tendency to predict how others would think, feel and act aggressively during social conflict. Demonstrating the casual structure inherent within complex gameplay, this study presents a needed step forward in the gaming literature. The mediated model presented departs from the typically examined direct effect model. Further, completing the model, this study suggests that when state hostility is heightened, hostile expectation bias increases.

Information and communication technology innovations (ICT) are considered to be of central importance to social and economic developments. Various innovation theories offer classifications to predict and assess their impact. This article reviews the usefulness of selected approaches and their application in the convergent communications sector. It focuses on the notion of disruption, the comparatively new distinction between disruptive and sustaining innovations, and examines how it is related to other innovation-theoretical typologies. According to the literature, there is a high frequency of disruptive changes in the field of internet protocol-based innovations in combination with wireless technology. A closer analysis reveals that these classifications and assessments not only differ in detail but are even contradictory. The article explains these differences by highlighting delicate choices that have to be taken by analysts applying the disruption concept. It argues that its applicability is comparatively low in the convergent communications sector and generalizations of single-firm assessments are hardly valid.