Forum: New Media & Society

Kropczynski, J., & Nah, S. (2011). Virtually networked housing movement: Hyperlink network structure of housing social movement organizations. New Media & Society, 13(5), 689 -703. doi:10.1177/1461444810372786

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:46:27 +0000

Using such theories as resource mobilization and social capital, this article examines how housing social movement organizations (SMOs) in the USA are connected through hyperlink networks. In doing so, this article employed hyperlink network analysis (HNA) through data collected from 26 national housing SMOs. Results indicate that the more bridging ties an organization has, the more central they are to the network. Results also show that the more incoming hyperlinks that a particular organization has, the more central they are to the network. These results suggest that the utilization of bridging social capital by a housing SMO has the potential to increase the ability to mobilize resources by that organization. Furthermore, increasing the number of bridging hyperlinks available on a website can improve the web presence of the SMO furthering the goals of the overall movement.

Pentzold, C. (2011). Imagining the Wikipedia community: What do Wikipedia authors mean when they write about their ‘community’? New Media & Society, 13(5), 704 -721. doi:10.1177/1461444810378364

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:45:27 +0000

This article examines the way Wikipedia authors write their ‘community’ into being. Mobilizing concepts regarding the communicative constitution of communities, the computer-mediated conversation between editors were investigated using Grounded Theory procedures. The analysis yielded an empirically grounded theory of the users’ self-understanding of the Wikipedia community as ethos-action community. Hence, this study contributes to research on online community-building as it shifts the focus from structural criteria for communities to the discursive level of community formation.

Chew, M. M. (2011). Virtual property in China: The emergence of gamer rights awareness and the reaction of game corporations. New Media & Society, 13(5), 722 -738. doi:10.1177/1461444810378480

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:44:07 +0000

This study focuses on the social formation of game virtual property through analyzing two of its major stakeholders in China: online gamers and game corporations. Based on analysis of the opinions, stakes, and demands of the Chinese gamers, I argue that they are developing an incipient ‘gamer rights’ awareness composed of gamers’ entitlements to virtual property ownership as well as to virtual property rights protection by the state and game publishers. Based on analysis of the stakes and strategic actions of Chinese game publishers, I show that these corporations promulgate a self-serving version of gamer rights protection campaigns and pass the social responsibility of virtual property governance to the state. This study’s findings provide empirical evidence to support theoretical and legal recognition of virtual property, government involvement in virtual-world governance, and the ‘right to play’ critique.

Goldberg, G. (2011). Rethinking the public/virtual sphere: The problem with participation. New Media & Society, 13(5), 739 -754. doi:10.1177/1461444810379862

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:42:50 +0000

Responding to the long-standing interest of new media scholars in online participation as a mechanism for political and cultural democracy and empowerment, this article elaborates a critique of online participation. It examines the ways in which online participation has been economized at a fundamental level — the level at which data is transmitted — and argues that this economization draws into question the viability of a public/virtual sphere paradigm. In the process, it implicates public/virtual sphere scholarship in the production of a mode of power — vital or productive power — which has been under-examined in new media scholarship.

Nielsen, R. K. (2011). Mundane internet tools, mobilizing practices, and the coproduction of citizenship in political campaigns. New Media & Society, 13(5), 755 -771. doi:10.1177/1461444810380863

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:41:25 +0000

The internet’s potential for political mobilization has been highlighted for more than a decade, but we know little about what particular kinds of information and communication technologies are most important when it comes to getting people involved in politics and about what this means for the active exercise of engaged citizenship. On the basis of ethnographic research in two congressional campaigns in the USA, I will argue that specific mundane internet tools (like email) are much more deeply integrated into mobilizing practices today than emerging tools (like social networking sites) and specialized tools (like campaign websites). Campaigns’ reliance on mundane internet tools challenges the prevalent idea that sophisticated ‘hypermedia’ turn people into ‘managed citizens’. Instead, I suggest we theorize internet-assisted activism as a process for the coproduction of citizenship and recognize how dependent even well-funded political organizations are on the wider built communications environment and today’s relatively open internet.

Metzgar, E. T., Kurpius, D. D., & Rowley, K. M. (2011). Defining hyperlocal media: Proposing a framework for discussion. New Media & Society, 13(5), 772 -787. doi:10.1177/1461444810385095

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:39:48 +0000

Although the word ‘hyperlocal’ appears regularly in discussions about the future of the news media, there is no agreed-upon definition for the term. Recognizing that shortcoming, we demonstrate the need for a more precise definition. We then propose a definition and criteria for evaluating media operations described as hyperlocal. Finally, we apply our working definition to six operations widely regarded as exemplars of the hyperlocal prototype, comparing each to established standards of journalism and to one another. We conclude that hyperlocal media operations are evolving on a continuum. As they evolve, these organizations will showcase both a range of journalism acting in the public good and engagement facilitated through interactive media. We expect the definition of hyperlocal to evolve, too, as more voices enter the discussion and closer attention is given to the characteristics of websites deemed worthy of the appellation.

Zappavigna, M. (2011). Ambient affiliation: A linguistic perspective on Twitter. New Media & Society, 13(5), 788 -806. doi:10.1177/1461444810385097

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:38:31 +0000

This article explores how language is used to build community with the microblogging service, Twitter (www.twitter.com). Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL), a theory of language use in its social context, is employed to analyse the structure and meaning of ‘tweets’ (posts to Twitter) in a corpus of 45,000 tweets collected in the 24 hours after the announcement of Barak Obama’s victory in the 2008 US presidential elections. This analysis examines the evaluative language used to affiliate in tweets. The article shows how a typographic convention, the hashtag, has extended its meaning potential to operate as a linguistic marker referencing the target of evaluation in a tweet (e.g. #Obama). This both renders the language searchable and is used to upscale the call to affiliate with values expressed in the tweet. We are currently witnessing a cultural shift in electronic discourse from online conversation to such ‘searchable talk’.

Sutko, D. M., & de Souza e Silva, A. (2011). Location-aware mobile media and urban sociability. New Media & Society, 13(5), 807 -823. doi:10.1177/1461444810385202

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:37:03 +0000

Location-aware mobile media allow users to see their locations on a map on their mobile phone screens. These applications either disclose the physical positions of known friends, or represent the locations of groups of unknown people. We call these interfaces eponymous and anonymous, respectively. This article presents our classification of eponymous and anonymous location-aware interfaces by investigating how these applications may require us to rethink our understanding of urban sociability, particularly how we coordinate and communicate in public spaces. We argue that common assumptions made about location-aware mobile media, namely their ability to increase one’s spatial awareness and to encourage one to meet more people in public spaces, might be fallacious due to pre-existing practices of sociability in the city. We explore these issues in the light of three bodies of theory: Goffman’s presentation of self in everyday life, Simmel’s ideas on sociability, and Lehtonen and Mäenpää’s concept of street sociability.

Hargittai, E., & Litt, E. (2011). The tweet smell of celebrity success: Explaining variation in Twitter adoption among a diverse group of young adults. New Media & Society, 13(5), 824 -842. doi:10.1177/1461444811405805

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:34:41 +0000

What motivates young adults to start using the popular microblogging site Twitter? Can we identify any systematic patterns of adoption or is use of the service randomly distributed among internet users of this demographic? Drawing on unique longitudinal data surveying 505 diverse young American adults about their internet uses at two points in time (2009, 2010), this article looks at what explains the uptake of Twitter during the year when the site saw considerable increase in use. We find that African Americans are more likely to use the service as are those with higher internet skills. Results also suggest that interest in celebrity and entertainment news is a significant predictor of Twitter use mediating the effect of race among a diverse group of young adults. In contrast, interest in local and national news, international news, and politics shows no relationship to Twitter adoption in this population segment.

Mawyer, A. (2011). Review article: The game’s afoot, Watson: Culture and crisis in play. New Media & Society, 13(5), 843 -847. doi:10.1177/1461444811406399

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:30:53 +0000

Lloyd, A. (2011). Book review. New Media & Society, 13(5), 848 -849. doi:10.1177/1461444811406396

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:28:37 +0000

Schaefer, P. (2011). Book review: Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2010. xxvii + 495 pp. ISBN 0226550273, $25.00 (pbk). New Media & Society, 13(5), 849 -851. doi:10.1177/14614448110130051102

maggienms — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:27:45 +0000

Jensen, K. B., & Helles, R. (2011). The internet as a cultural forum: Implications for research. New Media & Society, 13(4), 517 -533. doi:10.1177/1461444810373531

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:42:46 +0000

Twenty-five years ago, Horace Newcomb and Paul Hirsch proposed a model for studying television as a cultural forum, as the most common reference point for public issues and concerns, particularly in American society. Over the last decade, the internet has emerged as a new communicative infrastructure and cultural forum on a global scale. Revisiting and reworking Newcomb and Hirsch’s classic contribution, this article: first, advances a model of the internet as a distinctive kind of medium comprising different communicative genres — one-to-one, one-to-many as well as many-to-many communication; and, second, the article presents an empirical baseline study of their current prevalence. The findings suggest that while blogs, social network sites and other recent genres have attracted much public as well as scholarly attention, ordinary media users may still be more inclined to engage in good old-fashioned broadcasting and interpersonal interaction. Despite a constant temptation to commit prediction, future research is well advised to ask how old communicative practices relate to new media.

Eynon, R., & Helsper, E. (2011). Adults learning online: Digital choice and/or digital exclusion? New Media & Society, 13(4), 534 -551. doi:10.1177/1461444810374789

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:42:03 +0000

Using a nationally representative British survey, this article explores the extent to which adults are using the internet for learning activities because they choose to (digital choice) or because of (involuntary) digital exclusion. Key findings suggest that reasons for (dis)engagement with the internet or the uptake of different kinds of online learning opportunities are somewhat varied for different groups, but that both digital choice and exclusion play a role. Thus, it is important for policy initiatives to better understand these groups and treat them differently. Furthermore, the more informal the learning activity, the more factors that play a significant role in explaining uptake. Policies designed to support individuals’ everyday interests, as opposed to more formal kinds of learning, are likely to be more effective in increasing people’s productive engagement with online learning opportunities.

Tripp, L. M. (2011). ‘The computer is not for you to be looking around, it is for schoolwork’: Challenges for digital inclusion as Latino immigrant families negotiate children’s access to the internet. New Media & Society, 13(4), 552 -567. doi:10.1177/1461444810375293

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:41:21 +0000

While studies have addressed the role of the internet in the family, the perspectives of Latino immigrant families are largely missing from the research. This article draws primarily on interview data with first-generation Latino immigrant families living in urban Los Angeles to analyze how parents and their middle school-aged children negotiate access to and use of the internet. Parents in the study were torn between a belief in the educational importance of the internet and a strong sense of anxiety about online risks. Their parenting strategies reflected these anxieties and inadvertently contributed to limiting children’s online opportunities. Outside of school, young people only had periodic access to the internet, which was used primarily for doing homework. While young people also found ways to pursue their own interests and motivations online, they had limited opportunities for more open-ended exploration and self-directed learning.

Peng, T., & Zhu, J. J. H. (2011). A game of win-win or win-lose? Revisiting the internet’s influence on sociability and use of traditional media. New Media & Society, 13(4), 568 -586. doi:10.1177/1461444810375976

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:40:37 +0000

This study examines the influence of internet adoption and internet usage on sociability and use of traditional media. With empirical data collected in Hong Kong between 2003 and 2005, it confirms that adoption and usage are two distinct processes, with different social impacts. It is found that, on average, internet users spend significantly less time on traditional media than nonusers, while both groups spend the same amount of time on social activities. Furthermore, users’ sociability and use of traditional media are positively correlated with each other, while among nonusers there is no such correlation. When the spotlight is turned on internet users, a new measurement, called ‘sophistication of internet usage’, is employed to examine the impact of internet use on traditional media use and sociability. It is found in the study that internet use does not influence users’ sociability and use of traditional media, regardless of the length of internet adoption history, which disconfirms the so-called ‘novelty effect’.

Bond, E. (2011). The mobile phone = bike shed? Children, sex and mobile phones. New Media & Society, 13(4), 587 -604. doi:10.1177/1461444810377919

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:39:54 +0000

This article explores children’s use of mobile phones in relation to their intimate, sexual relationships and in their development of gendered sexual identities in their everyday lives. Implications of risk and mobile phones are reflected in current media discourse and contemporary public discussions. While the concept of risk remains at the centre of current sociological debate, children have only recently been seen as active social actors within social science. Based on the accounts of 30 young people aged between 11 and 17, the article adopts a social constructivist perspective to explore the relationship between young people’s talk of sexuality and sexual acts in their discussions of mobile phone use, within the wider theoretical debates about risk and self-identity.

Im, Y., Kim, E., Kim, K., & Kim, Y. (2011). The emerging mediascape, same old theories? A case study of online news diffusion in Korea. New Media & Society, 13(4), 605 -625. doi:10.1177/1461444810377916

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:39:11 +0000

This article aims to re-examine the main ideas of traditional diffusion study in the context of the internet. Two news stories, one initiated by an established news organization and one uploaded by an individual internet user, were selected for our case study. The study analyzed how a news story gets carried on through various websites of media organizations and individuals.We found that the original stories undergo transformations in terms of content and form over time in the diffusion process. The authors hence introduce a new concept, ‘seed news’, in order to explain this transformative online news diffusion phenomenon. The concept of seed news may subsume the manifold and dynamic process of diffusion, addition, displacement, evolution, and decline of the news story. It also comes to terms with the multifarious dimensions of transmission and the active interplay between the media and users, or among the users themselves.

Towner, T. L., & Dulio, D. A. (2011). An experiment of campaign effects during the YouTube election. New Media & Society, 13(4), 626 -644. doi:10.1177/1461444810377917

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:38:20 +0000

The 2008 US presidential election was called the ‘YouTube Election’. However, scholars know little about how the internet influences attitudes toward politics. To address this, we conduct an experiment to test the effects of exposure to the YouTube channel, ‘YouChoose’08’, on young adults during the 2008 US presidential election. We find that those exposed to YouChoose’08 exhibit more cynicism toward the US government, yet also had a heightened sense that they influence the political system. Exposure to YouChoose’08 had no influence on attitudes toward candidates or internet sources.

Bjarnason, T., Gudmundsson, B., & Olafsson, K. (2011). Towards a digital adolescent society? The social structure of the Icelandic adolescent blogosphere. New Media & Society, 13(4), 645 -662. doi:10.1177/1461444810377918

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:37:41 +0000

The adolescent production of blogs has created an adolescent public sphere that transcends both intimate circles of friends and the adolescent communities of specific schools or neighborhoods. Almost all 15—16 year old adolescents in Iceland regularly read blogs and many read blogs on a daily basis. Blogs by best friends and adolescents in the concrete adolescent community are most popular but a third of the population follows blogs that originate in the more abstract adolescent society. About three out of four girls and one out of three boys maintain their own blogpages and read blogs by other adolescents on a regular basis. Adolescents that write blogs are more involved in various activities associated with higher status in adolescent communities but lower status in the adult-controlled school community. The adolescent blogosphere may constitute an emergent digital adolescent society where inequalities in adolescent communities are reproduced.

Xiao Wang, & McClung, S. R. (2011). Toward a detailed understanding of illegal digital downloading intentions: An extended theory of planned behavior approach. New Media & Society, 13(4), 663 -677. doi:10.1177/1461444810378225

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:36:55 +0000

Because theory-based research can provide a better understanding of the psychological motivations and reasons why college students intend to engage in illegal digital downloading, this project is conducted from the perspectives of the theory of planned behavior, attitude functional theory and the social norms approach. Based on a survey of 552 college students, results revealed that students who believed that illegal downloading would help save money and was convenient and those who did not want to be termed as being afraid of risk were more likely to download illegally, whereas those who had illegality concerns and high moral standards were less likely to download illegally. In addition, perceived social approval for downloading, but not the perceived frequency of others’ downloading behaviors, predicted intentions to download. This study argues that the integration of the three theoretical frameworks provides more meaningful, yet parsimonious guidance for designing antipiracy campaigns.

Poor, N. (2011). Review article: Hoping they’ll stand still long enough to study them: Cell phone users and their phones. New Media & Society, 13(4), 678 -682. doi:10.1177/1461444811398345

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:36:08 +0000

Patchin, J. W. (2011). Book review: Shaheen Shariff and Andrew H. Churchill (eds), Truths and Myths of Cyber-bullying: International Perspectives on Stakeholder Responsibility and Children’s Safety. New York: Peter Lang, 2010. xvii + 301 pp. ISBN 9781433104664, $33.95 (pbk). New Media & Society, 13(4), 683 -685. doi:10.1177/1461444811399058

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:34:41 +0000

Jyh Wee Sew. (2011). Book review: Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. viv + 276 pp. ISBN 9780393072228, $26.95 (hbk). New Media & Society, 13(4), 685 -686. doi:10.1177/14614448110130041102

maggienms — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:34:17 +0000

Ling, R., & Horst, H. A. (2011). Mobile communication in the global south. New Media & Society, 13(3), 363 -374. doi:10.1177/1461444810393899

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:34:06 +0000

Mobile communication has become a common phenomenon in most parts of the world. There are indeed more mobile subscriptions than there are people who use the internet. For many people outside of the metropolitan areas of Europe and North America, this is literally their first use of electronically mediated interaction. This preface to the special issue of New Media & Society examines mobile communication in a global context. Through an overview of eight articles situated in the global south, we describe how mobile communication sheds light upon notions of information, appropriation and development and how it is challenging, and in many cases changing, notions of gender. While the mobile phone reshapes development and micro dynamics of gendered interactions, it is not necessarily a revolutionary tool. Existing power structures may be rearranged, but they are nonetheless quite stable. The analysis of mobile communication in the global south helps us to understand the rise of innovative practices around information and communication technologies and, in turn, enables us to develop theory to understand these emergent empirical realities.

Sey, A. (2011). ‘We use it different, different’: Making sense of trends in mobile phone use in Ghana. New Media & Society, 13(3), 375 -390. doi:10.1177/1461444810393907

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:32:36 +0000

Drawing on ideas from the sustainable livelihoods approach to poverty reduction and the concept of technology appropriation, this article discusses findings from a mixed methods study exploring mobile phone use in Ghana. The results suggest that most respondents value their phone for the connectivity it affords with a variety of personal and professional contacts. In this sense, the mobile phone is not an overt means of poverty reduction for respondents but an integral part of their lives, in which it serves multiple functions. The study contributes empirical data to the emerging body of research on mobile phone communication in African countries.

Palackal, A., Nyaga Mbatia, P., Dzorgbo, D., Duque, R. B., Ynalvez, M. A., & Shrum, W. M. (2011). Are mobile phones changing social networks? A longitudinal study of core networks in Kerala. New Media & Society, 13(3), 391 -410. doi:10.1177/1461444810393900

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:31:51 +0000

Mobile telephony has diffused more rapidly than any Indian technology in recent memory, yet systematic studies of its impact are rare, focusing on technological rather than social change. We employ network surveys of separate groups of Kerala residents in 2002 and again in 2007 to examine recent shifts in mobile usage patterns and social relationships. Results show (1) near saturation of mobiles among both the professionals and nonprofessionals sampled, (2) a decrease in the number of social linkages across tie types and physical locations, and (3) a shift towards friends and family but away from work relationships in the core networks of Malayalis. We interpret these findings as support for the bounded solidarity thesis of remote communication that emphasizes social insulation and network closure as mobiles shield individuals from their wider surroundings.

de Souza e Silva, A., Sutko, D. M., Salis, F. A., & de Souza e Silva, C. (2011). Mobile phone appropriation in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. New Media & Society, 13(3), 411 -426. doi:10.1177/1461444810393901

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:31:03 +0000

This qualitative case study describes the social appropriation of mobile phones among low-income communities in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) by asking how favela (slum) residents appropriate cell phones. Findings highlight the difficulty these populations encounter in acquiring and using cell phones due to social and economic factors, and the consequent subversive or illegal tactics used to gain access to such technology. Moreover, these tactics are embedded in and exemplars of the cyclic power relationships between high-and low-income populations that constitute the unique use of mobile technologies in these Brazilian slums. The article concludes by suggesting that future research on technology in low-income communities focus instead on the relationship of people to technology rather than a dichotomization of their access or lack thereof.

Vold Lexander, K. (2011). Texting and African language literacy. New Media & Society, 13(3), 427 -443. doi:10.1177/1461444810393905

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:30:17 +0000

Mobile communication has become an important part of everyday life in Senegal, and text messages have turned out to be highly multilingual. So far Senegalese language policy has supported the use of the official language, French, in education and in writing in general, while the majority language, Wolof, has dominated the oral sphere. As SMS texts tend to include use of Wolof and other African languages as well as French, the question is whether texting will pave the way for African language literacy practices. The aim of this article is to study texting’s potential impact on the status of African languages as written languages through the investigation of SMS messages written and received by fifteen students from Dakar. Ethnographic tools have been used to collect text messages in Wolof, Fulfulde and French, as well as English, Spanish and Arabic, and also data on the context of communication and on the writers’ and receivers’ interpretations of the use of different languages. The analysis shows that African languages are given different roles and values in texting, being used in monolingual messages, in functional codeswitching and in mixed code messages.

Soleil Archambault, J. (2011). Breaking up ‘because of the phone’ and the transformative potential of information in Southern Mozambique. New Media & Society, 13(3), 444 -456. doi:10.1177/1461444810393906

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:29:25 +0000

In Southern Mozambique, most people have a story about themselves or a couple they know who split up ‘because of the phone’ (por causa do telefone). Although some stories are more dramatic than others, the kinds of misunderstandings they represent are described as the mobile’s biggest drawback. Based on research on mobile phone use among young adults in the city of Inhambane, the article focuses on instances when connections backfire and when mobile phone communication generates conflict. It examines the ways in which mobile communication participates in the circulation of and access to information: not necessarily the kind of ‘useful information’ referred to by endorsers of the ‘ICT for Development’ perspective, but rather information that is meant to remain secret. The aim is to provide an alternative perspective on the transformative potential of mobile communication in the hopes of enhancing our understanding of the impacts of the spread of the technology.

Madianou, M., & Miller, D. (2011). Mobile phone parenting: Reconfiguring relationships between Filipina migrant mothers and their left-behind children. New Media & Society, 13(3), 457 -470. doi:10.1177/1461444810393903

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:28:36 +0000

The Philippines is an intensely migrant society with an annual migration of one million people, leading to over a tenth of the population working abroad. Many of these emigrants are mothers who often have children left behind. Family separation is now recognized as one of the social costs of migration affecting the global south. Relationships within such transnational families depend on long-distance communication and there is an increasing optimism among Filipino government agencies and telecommunications companies about the consequences of mobile phones for transnational families. This article draws on comparative research with UK-based Filipina migrants — mainly domestic workers and nurses — and their left-behind children in the Philippines. Our methodology allowed us to directly compare the experience of mothers and their children. The article concludes that while mothers feel empowered that the phone has allowed them to partially reconstruct their role as parents, their children are significantly more ambivalent about the consequences of transnational communication.

Wallis, C. (2011). Mobile phones without guarantees: The promises of technology and the contingencies of culture. New Media & Society, 13(3), 471 -485. doi:10.1177/1461444810393904

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:27:48 +0000

The mobile phone’s global diffusion has generated hope in its ability to enable individuals in developing countries to increase their income and life opportunities. However, numerous socio-cultural factors contribute to the outcomes of technology in diverse contexts. This article uses Alcoff’s (2006) theory of positionality and the notion of socio-techno practices to examine mobile phones and the labor relations of young rural-to-urban migrant women working in the low-level service sector in Beijing. This study argues that the women’s gender, age, class, and rural origin produce particular constraints on their ability to generate higher income and find better jobs. It also reveals that some employers use mobile phones for surveillance of employees, which was not likely before since most migrant women do not have landlines. This article shows that as much as the mobile phone is a liberatory and equalizing technology, it can also reinforce rather than upset patriarchal power relationships.

Chib, A., & Chen, V. H. (2011). Midwives with mobiles: A dialectical perspective on gender arising from technology introduction in rural Indonesia. New Media & Society, 13(3), 486 -501. doi:10.1177/1461444810393902

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:26:57 +0000

Mobile phones were introduced to rural midwives in tsunami-affected Indonesia, allowing them to contact medical experts and communicate with patients. Ninety-two interviews were conducted with midwives, coordinators, doctors, and village representatives. This study applies a dialectical perspective to supplement the analytical frame of the ICT for healthcare development model (Chib et al., 2008), by addressing the multi-dimensionality of benefits and barriers. The theory of dialectical tension (Baxter and Montgomery, 1996) situates the conceptual discussion around the struggles between autonomy and subordination within gender roles, personal growth versus technological competency, and issues of economic and resource control in traditional hierarchies. We find that midwives engage in legitimization strategies, develop peer support, and focus on strategic issues to develop the capacity for agency and autonomy, despite socio-organizational barriers. Specific recommendations are offered, focusing on the resourcefulness and desire of women.

Ytreberg, E. (2011). Review article: Convergence: Essentially confused? New Media & Society, 13(3), 502 -508. doi:10.1177/1461444810397651

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:26:10 +0000

Harrington, S. (2011). Book review: Matthew David, Peer to Peer and the Music Industry: The Criminalization of Sharing. London: Sage, 2010. xiv + 186 pp. £62.00 (hbk) ISBN 9781847870056. New Media & Society, 13(3), 509 -510. doi:10.1177/1461444810397503

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:25:39 +0000

Fish, A. (2011). Book review: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2010. ix + 224 pp. $24.95 (hbk) ISBN 9780307269645. New Media & Society, 13(3), 510 -513. doi:10.1177/14614448110130031102

maggienms — Wed, 25 May 2011 23:24:49 +0000

Malin, B. J. (2011). A very popular blog: The internet and the possibilities of publicity. New Media & Society, 13(2), 187 -202. doi:10.1177/1461444810369889

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:17:27 +0000

This article outlines two modes of publicity, a publicity of promotion and a publicity of openness, and then considers their implications for traditional broadcast versus online communications. Although the structure of the internet makes it particularly good at developing a publicity of openness, the economics, regulatory structure and technology of the traditional broadcast media make them far better at developing promotional publicity. I trace a series of examples that demonstrate this inequality and discuss the implications of this disparity for the economics of attention. Ultimately, I argue, discussions of the democratic possibilities of the internet must take account of the relative lack of promotional publicity online.

Theocharis, Y. (2011). Young people, political participation and online postmaterialism in Greece. New Media & Society, 13(2), 203 -223. doi:10.1177/1461444810370733

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:16:52 +0000

According to Inglehart’s postmaterialist theory, young people brought up in periods of high economic and physical security, surrounded by better opportunities for education, are more likely to prioritise postmaterialist values. Postmaterialists are strongly inclined to support new forms of collective action and extra-institutional activity. Internet researchers have reported that internet users are mainly young, well educated and affluent, thus denoting a similarity to the demographic characteristics of postmaterialists. This article presents some evidence regarding the existence of postmaterialist values in the online realm of Greece, attempting to demonstrate how postmaterialism influences online and offline political activity. The findings indicate a trend on the part of young people to display a postmaterialist orientation, accompanied by a disinterest in traditional forms of political participation. Postmaterialism is positively associated with internet use and is a weak contributing factor to online and offline extra-institutional participation.

Skalski, P., Tamborini, R., Shelton, A., Buncher, M., & Lindmark, P. (2011). Mapping the road to fun: Natural video game controllers, presence, and game enjoyment. New Media & Society, 13(2), 224 -242. doi:10.1177/1461444810370949

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:16:09 +0000

This investigation examines how video game interactivity can affect presence and game enjoyment. Interactivity in the form of natural mapping has been advocated as a possible contributor to presence experiences, yet few studies to date have investigated this potential. The present work formulates a preliminary typology of natural mapping and addresses how several types of mapping impact the experience of a video game, with the expectation that more natural mapping leads to increased spatial presence affecting enjoyment. Two studies were conducted. In the first study, 48 participants played a golfing video game using one of two controller types (Nintendo Wiimote or gamepad). In the second, 78 participants played a driving video game using an even more natural controller (steering wheel) or one of three other controller types. Participants then completed measures of perceived naturalness, presence, and enjoyment. Results of both studies were generally consistent with expectations.

Kreiss, D., Finn, M., & Turner, F. (2011). The limits of peer production: Some reminders from Max Weber for the network society. New Media & Society, 13(2), 243 -259. doi:10.1177/1461444810370951

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:15:23 +0000

In the last few years, a powerful consensus has emerged among scholars of digitally enabled peer production. In this view, digital technologies and social production processes are driving a dramatic democratization of culture and society. Moreover, leading scholars now suggest that these new, hyper-mediated modes of living and working are specifically challenging the hierarchical structures and concentrated power of bureaucracies. This paper first maps the assumptions underlying the new consensus on peer production so as to reveal the sources of its coherence. It then revisits Max Weber’s account of bureaucracy. With Weber in mind, the paper aims to expose analytical weaknesses in the consensus view and offer a new perspective from which to study contemporary digital media.

Shin, D. (2011). Understanding e-book users: Uses and gratification expectancy model. New Media & Society, 13(2), 260 -278. doi:10.1177/1461444810372163

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:14:31 +0000

Despite the increasing popularity of and interest in e-books, there has been little research that evaluates book consumers’ actual interest in and preferences for digital content, and the factors that influence reading habits. To help fill this void, this study examines users’ experience of e-books in order to identify the areas of development, using Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT) and Diffusion Theory (DT). The integration of these theories forms the basis of an extended UGT Expectancy concept. Users’ responses to questions about cognitive perceptions and continuous use were collected and analyzed with various factors derived from the theories. The findings confirm the significant roles played by users’ cognitive perceptions and also suggest the importance of affective factors. In the proposed extended model, the moderating effects of confirmation/gratification and demographics of the relations among the variables are found to be significant. The model integrates current research on e-books and suggests a cluster of antecedents related to technology acceptance.

Xigen Li. (2011). Factors influencing the willingness to contribute information to online communities. New Media & Society, 13(2), 279 -296. doi:10.1177/1461444810372164

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:13:15 +0000

This study examines the factors that influence the willingness to contribute information to online communities from the perspectives of the discretionary database and expectancy theory. The study identified four groups of variables and tested their predictive value on the willingness to contribute information to online communities. The findings confirmed the effect of the perceived value of contributing and the likelihood of getting a reward for the willingness to contribute. Cost of contribution was not a significant predictor of the willingness to contribute information. Benefit from, and interest in, the community were significant predictors, but community affinity was not. Among the four groups of variables, social approval was the strongest predictor of the willingness to contribute.

Tatarchevskiy, T. (2011). The ‘popular’ culture of internet activism. New Media & Society, 13(2), 297 -313. doi:10.1177/1461444810372785

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:12:24 +0000

How does the internet contribute to changes in civic engagement in the USA? To answer this question we must examine the institutional context of US marketizing civil society and the cultures of good citizenship constructed online. Drawing upon the findings from a case study of ONE, a campaign targeting extreme poverty and the spread of AIDS, I demonstrate how the internet may function as a space of new divisions of labor between civil society organizational actors and lay activists. While organizational actors use Web 2.0 to make activism convenient and standardized, the public is asked to participate in what I term ‘visual labor’, creating and representing images of community online that legitimize the organization’s claims. At the same time, volunteer action is understood largely as performative. Ultimately, the article confronts the understanding of the internet as a post-bureaucratic democracy and emphasizes its cultural role in communicative capitalism.

Kperogi, F. A. (2011). Cooperation with the corporation? CNN and the hegemonic cooptation of citizen journalism through iReport.com. New Media & Society, 13(2), 314 -329. doi:10.1177/1461444810373530

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:11:25 +0000

The literature on online citizen journalism tends to construe user-generated citizen media as inherently counter-hegemonic, as the emerging, as yet unformed but nonetheless virile antithesis to the traditional media. This article argues that while the vigorous profusion of web-based citizen media has the potential to inaugurate an era of dynamic expansion of the deliberative space and even serve as a counterfoil to the suffocating dominance of the discursive space by the traditional, mainstream media, we are now witnessing a trend toward the aggressive cooptation of these citizen media by corporate media hegemons. To demonstrate this, I study ‘iReport.com,’ a YouTube-type, user-generated citizen news site launched by the Cable News Network (CNN). I argue that the trend toward corporate-sponsored citizen media may, in the final analysis, blur the distinction between citizen and mainstream journalism.

Kopacz, M., & Lee Lawton, B. (2011). The YouTube Indian: Portrayals of Native Americans on a viral video site. New Media & Society, 13(2), 330 -349. doi:10.1177/1461444810373532

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:10:33 +0000

Mainstream media messages contain limited, distorted and negative images of Native Americans, thus promoting continued ethnic marginalization. Community-oriented online venues like the viral video sites have opened up new platforms for depiction. This study employed a quantitative content analysis to examine a sample of YouTube videos relating to Native Americans. The findings reveal a number of promising patterns, suggesting that messages broadcast by viral video sites may depart from the rigid stereotypical depictions of Native Americans in traditional media.

Herman, B. D. (2011). Review article: New media law and policy. New Media & Society, 13(2), 350 -356. doi:10.1177/1461444811401256

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:09:48 +0000

Arceneaux, N. (2011). Book review: Esther Milne, Letters, Postcards, Email: Technologies of Presence. New York: Routledge, 2010. 264 pp.: ISBN 0415993288, $95.00 (hbk). New Media & Society, 13(2), 357 -358. doi:10.1177/1461444810390776

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:09:12 +0000

Brewin, M. (2011). Book review: Elihu Katz and Paddy Scannell (eds), The End of Television? Its Impact on the World (So Far). Los Angeles, CA: Sage (for the Academy of Political and Social Sciences), 2009. 236 pp.: ISBN 9781412977661, $22.00 (pbk). New Media & Society, 13(2), 359 -360. doi:10.1177/14614448110130021102

maggienms — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:08:36 +0000

Jankowski, N., Jones, S., & Park, D. (2011). Ten years and onwards. New Media & Society, 13(1), 3 -6. doi:10.1177/1461444811399185

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:15:55 +0000

Fengshu Liu. (2011). The norm of the ‘good’ netizen and the construction of the ‘proper’ wired self: The case of Chinese urban youth. New Media & Society, 13(1), 7 -22. doi:10.1177/1461444809360701

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:15:27 +0000

The strong concern in Chinese society about young people and the internet suggests a norm about how to relate to the net, reflecting and transcending the tension found in other societies between the societal expectations of the internet and young people’s actual uses of it. This article explores how the tension between different internet discourses in China is being played out in young people’s negotiation of a ‘proper’ wired self. Adopting a discourse analysis approach, the study shows that the participants drew on three interrelated dual interpretative repertoires. The duality inherent in these repertoires allows the informants to position themselves either as the rational, responsible and mature users or the opposite, and people who use the net differently from themselves as the ‘other’.

Dimmick, J., Feaster, J. C., & Hoplamazian, G. J. (2011). News in the interstices: The niches of mobile media in space and time. New Media & Society, 13(1), 23 -39. doi:10.1177/1461444810363452

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:14:44 +0000

The recent growth of mobile channels has provided steadily increasing opportunities for individuals to access news and other mass-mediated content. Media ecological perspectives argue that the introduction of such new technologies can shift the existing biases in prevailing social systems. According to one ecological perspective, the theory of the niche, when new media technologies are successfully introduced into a domain, displacement may occur unless some alteration is made to the resource base. Interstices are conceptualized as the gaps in the routines of media users between scheduled activities. Through the use of a diary method, participants logged access to news using a variety of communication technologies, including mobile channels. Results indicated that traditional media occupied traditional niches with little evidence of displacement, while mobile channels occupied a new niche: access in the interstices.

Haas, S. M., Irr, M. E., Jennings, N. A., & Wagner, L. M. (2011). Communicating thin: A grounded model of Online Negative Enabling Support Groups in the pro-anorexia movement. New Media & Society, 13(1), 40 -57. doi:10.1177/1461444810363910

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:13:55 +0000

The pro-anorexia movement provides support for those with anorexia and adopts an ‘anti-recovery’ view of the disease.The internet has allowed pro-anorexia followers (proanas) to exchange messages in anonymous virtual communities where they encourage one another to be thin. Through the analysis of pro-ana websites using grounded theory, four themes encompassing eight communicative strategies were identified: 1) co-constructing an ana personal identity; 2) self-loathing ana; 3) advising ana; and, 4) group ana encouragement. An emergent grounded model explicates underlying theoretical principles that indicate a new type of social support group, the Online Negative Enabling Support Group (ONESG), in which members encourage negative or harmful behaviors, accept ‘self’ or ‘other’ negative messages without correction from others and co-construct an affectionate ‘enabling in-group’ that evolves online ‘weak-tie’ support into ‘strong ties’ used to combat stigma in their offline world.

Busch, L. (2011). To come to a correct understanding of Buddhism: A case study on spiritualizing technology, religious authority, and the boundaries of orthodoxy and identity in a Buddhist Web forum. New Media & Society, 13(1), 58 -74. doi:10.1177/1461444810363909

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:13:01 +0000

This study examines the Buddhist message forum, E-sangha, to analyze how this forum’s founder and moderators ‘spiritualized the Internet’ (Campbell, 2005a, 2005b) using contemporary narratives of the global Buddhist community, and in doing so, provided these actors with the authority to determine the boundaries of Buddhist orthodoxy and identity and validate their control of the medium through social and technical means. Through a structural and textual analysis of E-sangha’s Web space, this study demonstrates how Web producers and forum moderators use religious community narratives to frame Web environments as sacred community spaces (spaces made suitable for religious activities), which inherently allows those in control of the site the authority to set the boundaries of religious orthodoxy and identity and hence, who can take part in the community.

Gordon, E., & Manosevitch, E. (2011). Augmented deliberation: Merging physical and virtual interaction to engage communities in urban planning. New Media & Society, 13(1), 75 -95. doi:10.1177/1461444810365315

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:12:12 +0000

The goal of this article is two-fold: to introduce the concept of augmented deliberation and to demonstrate its implementation in a pilot project.We look specifically at a project called Hub2. This community engagement project employed the online virtual world Second Life to augment community deliberation in the planning of a neighborhood park in Boston, Massachusetts. The local community was invited to gather in a physical space and a virtual space simultaneously, and a physical moderator and virtual designer orchestrated deliberation.This project demonstrates the design values central to augmented deliberation: (1) it is a multimedia group communication process which balances the specific affordances of digital technologies with the established qualities of face-to-face group deliberation; (2) it emphasizes the power of experience; and (3) it promotes sustainability and reproducibility through digital tracking. Augmented deliberation, when properly designed, provides a powerful mechanism to enable productive and meaningful public deliberation. The article concludes with directions for further research.

Upton, A. (2011). Contingent communication in a hybrid multi-media world: Analysing the campaigning strategies of SHAC. New Media & Society, 13(1), 96 -113. doi:10.1177/1461444810365304

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:11:26 +0000

Drawing upon Niklas Luhmann’s theoretical work, this article considers the strategic and tactical use of contingent communication within Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty’s (SHAC) communication subsystem network. While acknowledging the importance of system stability to the functioning of social systems, the article pinpoints Luhmann’s underestimation of uncertainties within communication as a significant error in theorizing relationships between systems and their environments. It also considers how new media and information communication technologies (ICTs) have enabled SHAC, a British-based though internationally renowned animal rights protest group, to both reinforce the universal connections existing between all its communicating agents and maintain the operation of communication within the social subsystem. Through a critical examination of the eight stages of SHAC’s communication subsystem network, the article underscores how these communicative forms are constantly displaced by context, user, medium and receiver, because indeterminacies are constitutive of communication.

Marwick, A. E., & Boyd, D. (2011). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society, 13(1), 114 -133. doi:10.1177/1461444810365313

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:10:36 +0000

Social media technologies collapse multiple audiences into single contexts, making it difficult for people to use the same techniques online that they do to handle multiplicity in face-to-face conversation. This article investigates how content producers navigate ‘imagined audiences’ on Twitter. We talked with participants who have different types of followings to understand their techniques, including targeting different audiences, concealing subjects, and maintaining authenticity. Some techniques of audience management resemble the practices of ‘micro-celebrity’ and personal branding, both strategic self-commodification. Our model of the networked audience assumes a many-to-many communication through which individuals conceptualize an imagined audience evoked through their tweets.

McEwen, R. N. (2011). Tools of the trade: Drugs, law and mobile phones in Canada. New Media & Society, 13(1), 134 -150. doi:10.1177/1461444810365306

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:09:41 +0000

Observations of mobile phone use suggest that this medium facilitates existing social practices when used as a tool within, and at times outside, socially determined definitions of ‘normal’ or ‘deviant’ behavior. Written from a social construction of technology perspective, this article examines the mobile phone as a contemporary technology in the context of its use in illegal drug-dealing and the law enforcement of those practices in Canada. The relationship between illegal drug-dealing and law enforcement responses is critically analyzed, highlighting the way groups representing both sides utilize mobile phone technologies to achieve their divergent goals. Existing constitutional guidelines employed by law enforcement to support the use of mobile and wireless technologies for surveillance are considered, particularly considering the notion of privacy. The article concludes by challenging assumptions that mobile phones are primarily personal artifacts, and instead describes the inherently social nature of mobile communications, thereby calling for a re-conceptualization of current ideology on privacy.

Tondeur, J., Sinnaeve, I., van Houtte, M., & van Braak, J. (2011). ICT as cultural capital: The relationship between socioeconomic status and the computer-use profile of young people. New Media & Society, 13(1), 151 -168. doi:10.1177/1461444810369245

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:09:01 +0000

This study explores the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and the computer-use profile of 1241 school students in Flanders, the northern region of Belgium. More specifically, the article examines whether varying patterns of computer access, attitudes, competencies and uses can be seen as constituting differences in cultural capital. Additionally, gender was included in the survey as an important background characteristic in digital divide research. Path analysis was used to model the complex relationships between the influencing factors upon the ICT-related variables. What emerged from the analyses was that SES affects the computer-use profile only moderately. No relationship between SES and computer ownership was found. Moreover, the acquisition of ICT competencies can no longer be attributed to computer ownership. Apart from a small effect on ICT use (a higher SES tends to be associated with more ICT use), SES does not seem to affect the computer-use profile of young people in Flanders. The results of this study indicate that the existing differences in SES on computer-use profile are not sufficiently marked to deduce that ICT can be seen as an indicator of differing cultural capital.

Debrett, M. (2011). Review article: Post network, post broadcast: Television’s third age. New Media & Society, 13(1), 169 -175. doi:10.1177/1461444810379733

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:08:08 +0000

Robards, B. (2011). Book review. New Media & Society, 13(1), 176 -178. doi:10.1177/1461444810386189

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:07:25 +0000

Row, H. (2011). Book review: Jesper Juul, A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010. viii + 252 pp.: ISBN 9780262013376, $24.95 (hbk). New Media & Society, 13(1), 178 -180. doi:10.1177/14614448110130011202

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:06:55 +0000

Avon Whidden, R. (2011). Book review: Sharon Kleinman (ed.), The Culture of Efficiency: Technology in Everyday Life. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. 416 pp.: ISBN: 1433104202, $34.95 (pbk). New Media & Society, 13(1), 180 -181. doi:10.1177/14614448110130011203

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:06:21 +0000

Thank You to NM&S reviewers, 2010. (2011). New Media & Society, 13(1), 182 -184. doi:10.1177/1461444811399186

maggienms — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:04:50 +0000

Etling, B., Kelly, J., Faris, R., & Palfrey, J. (2010). Mapping the Arabic blogosphere: politics and dissent online. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1225 -1243. doi:10.1177/1461444810385096

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:52:15 +0000

This study explores the structure and content of the Arabic blogosphere using link analysis, term frequency analysis, and human coding of individual blogs. We identified a base network of approximately 35,000 Arabic-language blogs, mapped the 6000 most-connected blogs, and hand coded over 3000. The study is a baseline assessment of the networked public sphere in the Arabic-speaking world, which mainly clusters nationally. We found the most politically active areas of the network to be clusters of bloggers in Egypt, Kuwait, Syria, and the Levant, as well as an ‘English Bridge’ group. Differences among these indicate variability in how online practices are embedded in local political contexts. Bloggers are focused mainly on domestic political issues; concern for Palestine is the one issue that unites the entire network. Bloggers link preferentially to the top Web 2.0 sites (e.g. YouTube and Wikipedia), followed by pan-Arab mainstream media sources, such as Al Jazeera.

Smyrnaios, N., Marty, E., & Rebillard, F. (2010). Does the Long Tail apply to online news? A quantitative study of French-speaking news websites. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1244 -1261. doi:10.1177/1461444809360699

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:51:32 +0000

The multiplicity of news available on the web is frequently presented as a positive factor leading to pluralism. The web is expected to offer a wider range of content than offline media, as the Long Tail theory more largely suggests. But such an assumption has to be proved by empirical evidence. The research presented in this article aims at testing this hypothesis through a transdisciplinary quantitative study based on a sample of several thousands of articles drawn from different categories of French-speaking websites. In fact, the editorial identification of topical issues and the lexicometric analysis of the headlines both suggest a more complex situation. The spectrum of issues that websites deal with is simultaneously characterized by diversity as well as high concentration on a few major and redundant issues. These results highlight the necessity to question the ideal of pluralism that the web is supposed to embody.

Arceneaux, N., & Schmitz Weiss, A. (2010). Seems stupid until you try it: press coverage of Twitter, 2006-9. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1262 -1279. doi:10.1177/1461444809360773

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:50:41 +0000

While critics of Twitter, the most popular microblogging application, dismiss the service as frivolous, proponents tout a variety of educational, political and commercial uses. Drawing from social construction theories of technology, this research uses the grounded theory approach to analyze press coverage of this emerging technology from 2006 through the first months of 2009. While the specifics of Twitter may be new, this research demonstrates that the public response to this web tool is similar to the public reaction to earlier communication technologies including the telegraph, radio and the internet. Despite vocal skepticism from some, the research shows newspapers, magazines and blogs have promoted and actively encouraged Twitter’s diffusion.

Antony, M. G., & Thomas, R. J. (2010). ‘This is citizen journalism at its finest’: YouTube and the public sphere in the Oscar Grant shooting incident. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1280 -1296. doi:10.1177/1461444810362492

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:49:58 +0000

On 1 January 2009, Oscar Grant was shot and killed in a subway station by Bay Area Rail Transit officers. This event was recorded by several passengers on their cellphones and later uploaded to the video-sharing website YouTube. The videos generated significant protests among online and offline communities, and were eventually used as evidence in the ensuing trial. This study employed a critical thematic analysis to examine audience responses to this act of citizen journalism on YouTube. Results indicated that although some viewers critiqued the video quality and the cameraperson’s passivity, several supportive comments praised the cameraperson’s presence of mind and courage. Furthermore, some viewers called for resistance and retaliation, while others advocated a more prudent response. We argue that these findings necessitate a reconceptualization of traditional notions of the guard-dog media and the public sphere to accommodate new media technologies.

Paasonen, S. (2010). Labors of love: netporn, Web 2.0 and the meanings of amateurism. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1297 -1312. doi:10.1177/1461444810362853

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:49:14 +0000

The blurred boundaries between producers and consumers and the increased centrality of user-generated content have been seen as characteristic of Web 2.0 and contemporary media culture at large. In the context of online pornography, this has been manifested in the popularity of amateur pornography and alt porn sites that encourage user interaction. Netporn criticism has recently formed an arena for thinking through such transformations. Aiming to depart from the binary logic characterizing porn debates to date, netporn criticism nevertheless revokes a set of divisions marking the amateur apart from the professional, the alternative from the mainstream and the independent from the commercial. At the same time, such categories are very much in motion on Web 2.0 platforms. Addressing amateur pornography in terms of immaterial and affective labor, this article argues for the need to find less dualistic frameworks for conceptualizing pornography as an element of media culture.

Chan, M. (2010). The impact of email on collective action: a field application of the SIDE model. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1313 -1330. doi:10.1177/1461444810363451

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:48:24 +0000

A field experiment conducted in a church community tested the counterintuitive notion that individuals were more likely to respond affirmatively to donation requests made through email than face to face. According to social identity perspectives of computer-mediated communication, email increases the salience of group attributes and reduces cognitive perceptions of interpersonal differences. These processes depersonalize individuals who then become more sensitive to group norms and expectations. Analyses demonstrated that the predicted positive interaction was moderated by the degree of in-group identification, such that low identifiers were more likely to respond to email calls when the salience of social identity was heightened.

Groening, S. (2010). From ‘a box in the theater of the world’ to ‘the world as your living room’: cellular phones, television and mobile privatization. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1331 -1347. doi:10.1177/1461444810362094

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:47:43 +0000

The ability to receive and view television programs (and other moving image material) on the cellular phone should be seen as part of a larger system of asserting private space in an environment that is crowded with both people and technology. I begin with Walter Benjamin’s notion that the rise of the private individual can be indexed to the set of practices that transform the dwelling place into an interiorization of the external world through the collection of images and objects while at the same time acting as a place of refuge from the external world. Linking those observations to Raymond Williams’ notion of mobile privatization, I argue that the contradictory impulses of moving through the world while retreating from it are the product of economic and social structures which act to isolate individuals from each other while connecting them to the products of corporate media, and do not arise from any inherent traits within cellular phone technology.

Shifman, L., & Blondheim, M. (2010). The medium is the joke: online humor about and by networked computers. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1348 -1367. doi:10.1177/1461444810365311

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:46:54 +0000

This article explores the uncharted territory of reflexive internet humor about networked computers. A combined quantitative—qualitative analysis of 250 texts sampled from popular websites yielded a map of the main themes underpinning this massive corpus of humor. We analyzed them in relation to three grand theories of the nature of humor — superiority, release, and incongruity — locating each theme on a matrix deriving from the theories: (i) a superiority axis, running between the powerful and weak players in the networked environment; (ii) an incongruity axis, running from the purely human to the strictly technical, and (iii) a release axis reflecting degrees of tension generated by the former two dualities. Our analysis suggests that humor about networked computers extends to a comment on the nature of humanness in a bewildering age of artificial intelligence. The communication of this reflexive comment may be shaping a global community of computer users.

Niederer, S., & van Dijck, J. (2010). Wisdom of the crowd or technicity of content? Wikipedia as a sociotechnical system. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1368 -1387. doi:10.1177/1461444810365297

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:46:07 +0000

Wikipedia is often considered as an example of ‘collaborative knowledge’. Researchers have contested the value of Wikipedia content on various accounts. Some have disputed the ability of anonymous amateurs to produce quality information, while others have contested Wikipedia’s claim to accuracy and neutrality. Even if these concerns about Wikipedia as an encyclopaedic genre are relevant, they misguidedly focus on human agents only. Wikipedia’s advance is not only enabled by its human resources, but is equally defined by the technological tools and managerial dynamics that structure and maintain its content. This article analyses the sociotechnical system — the intricate collaboration between human users and automated content agents — that defines Wikipedia as a knowledge instrument.

Nyre, L. (2010). Review Article: Sound studies is still tuning in. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1388 -1393. doi:10.1177/1461444810377067

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:45:03 +0000

Lagerkvist, J. (2010). Book Review: Book Reviews. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1394 -1396. doi:10.1177/1461444810379577

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:44:23 +0000

Bunting, B. (2010). Book Review: Adriana de Souza e Silva and Daniel M. Sutko, eds, Digital Cityscapes: Merging Digital and Urban Playscapes, New York: Peter Lang, 2009. xi + 371 pp. ISBN 9781433105326, $36.95 (pbk). New Media & Society, 12(8), 1396 -1398. doi:10.1177/14614448100120081102

maggienms — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:43:47 +0000

Dirksen, V., Huizing, A., & Smit, B. (2010). ‘Piling on layers of understanding’: the use of connective ethnography for the study of (online) work practices. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1045 -1063. doi:10.1177/1461444809341437

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:41:52 +0000

This article explores the notion of connective ethnography as a modern form of ethnography. In the concept of connective ethnography presented in this article, the sensitivity to ‘the making of context’ includes both the sense of a local physical context as well as the increasing connections between information resources in the form of people, systems and texts. Based on the empirical material of a study conducted on the appropriation of virtual community in a corporate setting, a specific combination of online and offline methods and the data they together generate are evaluated for capturing the dynamics of online social practices. In doing so, special attention is paid to the application of social network analysis to online (log file) data.

Carpenter, S. (2010). A study of content diversity in online citizen journalism and online newspaper articles. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1064 -1084. doi:10.1177/1461444809348772

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:41:06 +0000

The presence of a diversity of information offers citizens access to a range of ideas, expertise and topics. In this study, a measure of content diversity was created to determine whether online citizen journalism and online newspaper publications were serving this function in the USA. Based on the findings from a quantitative content analysis (n = 962), online citizen journalism articles were more likely to feature a greater diversity of topics, information from outside sources and multimedia and interactive features. The findings suggest online citizen journalism content adds to the diversity of information available in the marketplace.

Mitchelstein, E., & Boczkowski, P. J. (2010). Online news consumption research: An assessment of past work and an agenda for the future. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1085 -1102. doi:10.1177/1461444809350193

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:40:08 +0000

This article assesses the main findings and dominant modes of inquiry in recent scholarship on online news consumption. The findings suggest that the consumption of news on the internet has not yet differed drastically from the consumption of news in traditional media. The assessment shows that the dominant modes of inquiry have also been characterized by stability rather than change (because research has usually drawn on traditional theoretical and methodological approaches). In addition, these modes of inquiry exhibit three systematic limitations: the assumption of a division between print, broadcast, and online media; the notion that the analysis should treat media features and social practices separately; and the inclination to focus on ordinary or extraordinary patterns of phenomena but not on both at the same time. On the basis of this assessment, this article proposes an integrative research agenda that builds on this scholarship but also contributes to solve some of its main limitations.

Davis, J. (2010). Architecture of the personal interactive homepage: constructing the self through MySpace. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1103 -1119. doi:10.1177/1461444809354212

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:39:24 +0000

From a symbolic interactionist perspective, this work looks at the construction of self and identity through MySpace. Using ethnographic methods, I look to answer two questions: (1) how does the physical architecture of the personal interactive homepage (PIH) facilitate interaction and self presentation in particular ways? (2) How does self presentation through the PIH impact processes of negotiated self construction more largely? I discuss three architectural aspects of MySpace which influence the self construction process in particular ways. First, self presentation is predominately overt rather than covert. Second, the structure of MySpace allows for actor contextualization of ambiguous symbols. Third, MySpace facilitates a presentation created temporally prior to negotiation. These findings imply that through the PIH, actors may be granted greater control over the ways in which their self presentation is received, negotiated and interpreted.

Farnsworth, J., & Austrin, T. (2010). The ethnography of new media worlds? Following the case of global poker. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1120 -1136. doi:10.1177/1461444809355648

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:38:30 +0000

This article relates the current transformation of ethnographic practice to the emergence of new media technologies. It contrasts multi-sited ethnography with actor network theory’s method of following the construction of new media worlds through chains of mediators. The authors exemplify this through the extraordinary emergence of global poker and its shifting constitution across the entire spectrum of traditional and new media technologies. They argue that poker vividly illustrates how following makes sense of these emergent new worlds while at the same time it is an excellent vehicle for problematizing key issues of ethnographic practice.

Nam, Y., & Barnett, G. A. (2010). Communication media diffusion and substitutions: longitudinal trends from 1980 to 2005 in Korea. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1137 -1155. doi:10.1177/1461444809356334

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:37:40 +0000

This study analyzes longitudinal trends in Korean use of (1) domestic mail, (2) international mail, (3) domestic telephone calls, (4) international outgoing telephone calls, (5) telex, (6) mobile telephones, (7) televisions and (8) the internet to examine the media’s displacement or supplementary effects.The results show that international mail, domestic telephone and telex can be best described by a quadratic indicating they are undergoing disadoption while the trends for domestic mail and international telephone calls show exponential growth. Correlations confirmed that new media have displaced international mail, domestic telephone and telex, yet they do not substitute for domestic letters and international telephone calls. Finally, television, mobile telephones and the internet are at the exponential or logistic growth stage and supplement each other.

Schmitz Weiss, A., & Domingo, D. (2010). Innovation processes in online newsrooms as actor-networks and communities of practice. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1156 -1171. doi:10.1177/1461444809360400

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:36:56 +0000

This article explores two different but complementary theoretical approaches to frame innovation in online media: actor-network theory and community of practice.The principles and key concepts of each are presented and their suitability to the analysis of innovation in journalism is discussed through four newsroom cases.The findings demonstrate that these theories are efficient tools to understand and analyze the actors involved in innovation decisions in the newsroom, the dynamics of the negotiation and learning processes among the journalists and the factors constraining and fostering evolution when innovations are implemented or disregarded in the newsroom.

Freelon, D. G. (2010). Analyzing online political discussion using three models of democratic communication. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1172 -1190. doi:10.1177/1461444809357927

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:36:01 +0000

Research examining online political forums has until now been overwhelmingly guided by two broad perspectives: (1) a deliberative conception of democratic communication and (2) a diverse collection of incommensurable multi-sphere approaches. While these literatures have contributed many insightful observations, their disadvantages have left many interesting communicative dynamics largely unexplored. This article seeks to introduce a new framework for evaluating online political forums (based on the work of Jürgen Habermas and Lincoln Dahlberg) that addresses the shortcomings of prior approaches by identifying three distinct, overlapping models of democracy that forums may manifest: the liberal, the communitarian and the deliberative democratic. For each model, a set of definitional variables drawn from the broader online forum literature is documented and discussed.

Campbell, H. A., & La Pastina, A. C. (2010). How the iPhone became divine: new media, religion and the intertextual circulation of meaning. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1191 -1207. doi:10.1177/1461444810362204

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:35:11 +0000

This article explores the labeling of the iPhone as the ‘Jesus phone’ in order to demonstrate how religious metaphors and myth can be appropriated into popular discourse and shape the reception of a technology. We consider the intertextual nature of the relationship between religious language, imagery and technology and demonstrate how this creates a unique interaction between technology fans and bloggers, news media and even corporate advertising. Our analysis of the ‘Jesus phone’ clarifies how different groups may appropriate the language and imagery of another to communicate very different meanings and intentions. Intertextuality serves as a framework to unpack the deployment of religion to frame technology and meanings communicated. We also reflect on how religious language may communicate both positive and negative aspects of a technology and instigate an unintentional trajectory in popular discourse as it is employed by different audiences, both online and offline.

Monberg, J. (2010). Review Article: New media and the city. New Media & Society, 12(7), 1208 -1214. doi:10.1177/1461444810385319

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:34:18 +0000

Lievrouw, L. A. (2010). Book Review: Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant, and Kieran Kelly, New Media: A Critical Introduction (2nd edn.). London and New York: Routledge, 2009. xvi + 446 pp. ISBN 9780415431613, $125.00 (pbk). New Media & Society, 12(7), 1215 -1218. doi:10.1177/1461444810376916

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:33:43 +0000

Wiese Leek, D. (2010). Book Review: Christine Harold, Ourspace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. ix + 190 pp. ISBN 978816649556, $20.00 (pbk). New Media & Society, 12(7), 1218 -1220. doi:10.1177/14614448100120071102

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:33:14 +0000

Hopke, J. (2010). Book Review: James Schwoch, Global TV: New Media and the Cold War, 1946—69. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 256 pp. ISBN 978252075698. $25.00 (pbk). New Media & Society, 12(7), 1220 -1222. doi:10.1177/14614448100120071103

maggienms — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:32:32 +0000

Farman, J. (2010). Mapping the digital empire: Google Earth and the process of postmodern cartography. New Media & Society, 12(6), 869 -888. doi:10.1177/1461444809350900

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:26:37 +0000

The process of cartography and the ideological problems that accompany this process has taken on new significance in the digital age with the proliferation of digital maps and geographic information systems such as Google Earth. This study begins by analyzing the history of digital mapping and its connection to an indexical, ontological reality. I demonstrate how Google Earth, by incorporating a social network that engages users as embodied interactors rather than disembodied voyeurs, is able to present user-generated content and dialog spatially on the very object that such content critiques. Ultimately, this study argues for ways that users can recontextualize and subvert ‘master representations’ of visual media within the authorial structure rather than re-authoring the existing software and structures.

Birch, H., & Weitkamp, E. (2010). Podologues: conversations created by science podcasts. New Media & Society, 12(6), 889 -909. doi:10.1177/1461444809356333

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:25:01 +0000

Podcasts are media files that can be automatically aggregated and downloaded via the internet, and transferred to portable media players. Combined with online discussion facilities, podcasts represent flexible and potentially valuable tools for communicating about science. This pilot project aimed to assess the role of science podcasts in stimulating discussions, or ‘podologues’, about science through detailed analyses of a sample of five popular science podcasts. Two main methods were used: content analysis of online discussion forums and blogs associated with the five podcasts and interviews with listeners. The results show that podcasts are regarded as valuable sources of scientific information by listeners and that blogs and forums can act as public spaces for audience members to share knowledge, develop their own ideas about science and provide feedback to media producers. Larger, more detailed studies are required to further understand the value of podcasts for stimulating public discourse about science.

Usher, N. (2010). Goodbye to the news: how out-of-work journalists assess enduring news values and the new media landscape. New Media & Society, 12(6), 911 -928. doi:10.1177/1461444809350899

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:23:17 +0000

This article explores the cultural dimensions of the demise of legacy newspapers by looking at the words of journalists who have either been laid off, who have taken a ‘voluntary buyout,’ or who have left the industry in order to stay ahead of what they see as inevitable. Their voices are incorporated here through their goodbye letters, emails, speeches, columns and blog postings — their ‘final’ musings about the news industry in a new media world. This article performs a thematic analysis of the content of these texts. Findings reveal that these ‘goodbye’ journalists are wedded to an idea of journalism that no longer — and may have never — existed and blame their problems on Wall Street rather than self-reflexively examining the role of their own occupational values and practices in a changing media environment.

Brophy, J. E. (2010). Developing a corporeal cyberfeminism: beyond cyberutopia. New Media & Society, 12(6), 929 -945. doi:10.1177/1461444809350901

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:21:49 +0000

This article discusses — and rejects — cyberutopia, an idealized theory of internet use that requires users to leave their bodies behind when online. The author instead calls for a cyberfeminist perspective in relation to studying the internet and other new media, centrally locating corporeality and embodiment. The underutilized concept of intra-agency is then employed to develop liminality in relation to the experience of going online. The author then outlines different versions of cyberfeminism and endorses that which addresses the relationships between the lived experiences of users and the technology itself. The article concludes with a call for theorists to expand and enrich the concepts used to study new media.

Lüders, M., Prøitz, L., & Rasmussen, T. (2010). Emerging personal media genres. New Media & Society, 12(6), 947 -963. doi:10.1177/1461444809352203

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:20:45 +0000

In this article we argue that the concept of genre has a valuable function within sociological theory, particularly for understanding emerging communicative practices within social and personal media. Genres span the whole range of recognizable forms of communication, play a crucial role in overcoming contingency and facilitate communication. Their function is to enhance composing and understanding of communication by offering interpretative, recognizable and flexible frames of reference. As such, genres generate a sense of stability in modern complex societies. Genres ought to be seen as an intermediary level between the levels of media and text, however influenced by both. They operate as interaction between two interdependent dimensions, conventions and expectations, both of which are afforded by media and specific texts. In this article these relationships are illustrated through two cases of emerging personal media genres: the online diary and the camphone self-portrait.

Tillema, T., Dijst, M., & Schwanen, T. (2010). Face-to-face and electronic communications in maintaining social networks: the influence of geographical and relational distance and of information content. New Media & Society, 12(6), 965 -983. doi:10.1177/1461444809353011

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:19:17 +0000

Using data collected among 742 respondents, this article aims at gaining greater insight into (i) the interaction between face-to-face (F2F) and electronic contacts, (ii) the influence of information content and relational distance on the communication mode/ service choice and (iii) the influence of relational and geographical distance, in addition to other factors, on the frequency of F2F and electronic contacts with relatives and friends. The results show that the frequency of F2F contacts is positively correlated with that for electronic communication, pointing at a complementarity effect.With respect to information content and relational distance, we find, on the basis of descriptive analyses, that synchronous modes/services (F2F and telephone conversations) are used more for urgent matters and that asynchronous modes (in particular email) become more influential as the relational distance increases. Finally, ordered probit analyses confirm that the frequency of both F2F and electronic communication declines when the physical and relational distance to social network members increases.

Graham, R. (2010). Group differences in attitudes towards technology among Americans. New Media & Society, 12(6), 985 -1003. doi:10.1177/1461444809341436

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:18:15 +0000

What are the key indicators determining groups’ attitudes towards the use of ICT in the United States? Nationally representative data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project (N = 4100) were used to address this question. This research found that (1) the most salient divider in the American population with respect to attitudes towards ICT is education; (2) the two social groups reporting the highest levels of social improvement were respondents under the age of 30, and older African-Americans with low educational levels; (3) higher income but lower educated respondents who are over 30 and are not African-Americans report relatively low levels of social improvement. In effect, the population surveyed was stratified based upon their attitudes about ICT use in their everyday life. This stratification system is clearly of a different nature than our past understanding of haves and have-nots based upon ICT access.

Evens, T., De Marez, L., Hauttekeete, L., Biltereyst, D., Mannens, E., & Van de Walle, R. (2010). Attracting the un-served audience: the sustainability of long tail-based business models for cultural television content. New Media & Society, 12(6), 1005 -1023. doi:10.1177/1461444809354211

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:16:45 +0000

Digital television services not only provide promise for interactive services, but also for long tail-based business models in terms of tailor-made content. As the share of culture in total linear television programming is diminishing owing to the supremacy of audience rating concerns, digital television services could act as an alternative gateway to deliver culture to a wider audience. This article presents the results of a market pilot study using the established video-on-demand (VOD) platform of Flanders’ main digital television operator for the wide-scale delivery of performing arts videos. Despite the promising pilot study results, we doubt whether the long tail principle is applicable to the delivery of avant-garde material to develop a viable digital television service.

Powell, A. (2010). Review Article: Method, methodology, and new media. New Media & Society, 12(6), 1025 -1031. doi:10.1177/1461444810372889

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:15:46 +0000

McGeough, R. (2010). Book Review: Stephen Coleman and Jay G. Blumler, The Internet and Democratic Citizenship: Theory, Practice and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. ix + 220 pp. ISBN 978—0—52181752—3, $23.99 (pbk). New Media & Society, 12(6), 1033 -1035. doi:10.1177/1461444810371307

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:15:06 +0000

Dinu, L. F. (2010). Book Review: Christina Spurgeon, Advertising and New Media. New York: Routledge, 2008. x + 242 pp. ISBN 978—0—415—43034—0, $108.00 (hbk). New Media & Society, 12(6), 1035 -1037. doi:10.1177/14614448100120061002

maggienms — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:13:05 +0000

Faiola, A., Davis, S. B., & Edwards, R. L. (2010). Extending knowledge domains for new media education: integrating interaction design theory and methods. New Media & Society, 12(5), 691 -709. doi:10.1177/1461444809353014

maggienms — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:56:39 +0000

Over the last 10 years, new media has ascended to a prominent place in many fields that utilize communication technologies. At the same time, new media education has evolved in such a way that students are often not prepared to understand the social context of new media design and development. To produce new media professionals who are adequately prepared to meet the needs of an online hyper-social marketplace, new media curricula must reflect those human-centered theories and practices found within the discipline of interaction design, in addition to formal new media technical knowledge. The authors propose a new three-by-three theoretical model, referred to as Knowledge-Operators-and-Domains (KOD). Applying this model suggests an approach that extends the practical boundaries of new media to include a range of human-centered theories and practices, such as ethnography and usability-based studies.