Misunderstanding the Internet

by James Curran, Natalie Fenton, Des Freedman

The growth of the internet has been spectacular. There are now more than 3 billion internet users across the globe, some 40 per cent of the world’s population. The internet’s meteoric rise is a phenomenon of enormous significance for the economic, political and social life of contemporary societies. However, much popular and academic writing about the internet continues to take a celebratory view, assuming that the internet’s potential will be realised in essentially positive and transformative ways. This was especially true in the euphoric moment of the mid-1990s, when many commentators wrote about the internet with awe and wonderment. While this moment may be over, its underlying technocentrism – the belief that technology determines outcomes – lingers on and, with it, a failure to understand the internet in its social, economic and political contexts. Misunderstanding the Internet is a short introduction, encompassing the history, sociology, politics and economics of the internet and its impact on society. This expanded and updated second edition is a polemical, sociologically and historically informed guide to the key claims that have been made about the online world. It aims to challenge both popular myths and existing academic orthodoxies that surround the internet.

Genres: History, Technology, Nonfiction

234 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths College, London. He has published over 18 books, including Culture Wars: The Media and British Left (with Ivor Gaber and Julian Petley) (Edinburgh University Press, 2005), Power without Responsibility (with Jean Seaton), 6th edition (Routledge, 2003), Mass Media and Society (ed. with Michael Gurevitch), 4th edition (Arnold, 2005) and Media and Power (Routledge, 2002).

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you need an antidote to Clayshirkyitis, this book is it! A trio of Goldsmiths academics apply academic rigour to the popular view of the internet as a panacea for all society's political, economic and cultural ills.

In examining the ownership structure of the "New" media, and its influence on political movements at home and abroad, they mainly succeed in shaking the received wisdom of the twenty-first century. Prophecies are shown not to have come true, stories of "Twitter revolutions" are debunked and, generally, myth is sorted from reality. In the last chapter, having cleared the ground, they start to set out some policy aims for governments to counterbalance the effects of big business on the culture of the web. It's at this point that I have to wonder whether, really, there is enough political will and clearsightedness to achieve such a thing without stifling creativity. And to move to another talking point from the same chapter, would Vint Cerf approve of their proposed "Cerf Tax"? Reading this http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/... , it seems unlikely...

But don't let my scepticism put you off. This is definitely a book more people should read. It is bang-up-to-date, engagingly written and full of insight.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice collection of essays that both individually and collectively do a fabulous job of putting Internet scholarship into historical context and also into context with the prevalent behaviors and actions of everyday users. I especially appreciated the volume's introduction and conclusion, which synthesize the main claims that are made about the Internet and put them in close conversation with the realities. In the conclusion, Curran et. al go a step further to suggest a number of regulations and behaviors they would like to see manifest online. Their suggestions are both smart and well-informed, a testament to the broad and objective synthesis that underlines the book as a whole.

[Geir Ruud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great questions and very few answers in this academic book. The critical view of "internet gurus" and the hypearound them makes it interesting if you are in the business in one way or another.