[Air-L] a fourth age of Internet Studies? what glues Internet Studies together?

Wed May 20 08:58:09 PDT 2015

Dear All, Dear Charles;

Within the recently started DIGMEX-network, the fourth wave also contains
the existential dimension:

et.ims.su.se

Cheers,
Amanda

Amanda Lagerkvist
PhD Associate Professor
Wallenberg Academy Fellow

Dept. of Media Studies (IMS/JMK)
Stockholm University
PO. Box 27861
115 93 Stockholm

email: amanda.lagerkvist at ims.su.se
phone: +46 (0)8 161530
mobile: +46 (0)73 6600574
http://www.su.se/
http://www.wallenbergacademyfellows.se
<http://www.wallenbergacademyfellows.se/>
http://et.ims.su.se

Den 2015-05-20 15:32 skrev Heinz, Lisa <ls144009 at ohio.edu>:

>Thank you, Professor Ess, for posting this great summary and question. I
>am not sure I can add to the discussion other than to say that this post
>proved very timely for me. I am currently preparing for my comprehensive
>exams to complete my masters and one major component to the exams is my
>focus on defining Internet Studies and my future role in that.  Two of
>the four texts mentioned have been central to that preparation (Consalvo
>and Ess, and Tsatsou) and now I will locate the other two.
>
>This discussion list in general has been a direct way to build my reading
>list and I am very thankful for it. I will mention that I inadvertently
>stumbled into what Professor Ess defined as the "Fourth Age" of Internet
>Studies as I began my new career in it through gender and  critical
>approaches.  If there is anything else folks want to add to this
>discussion that focuses on this Fourth Age, I would appreciate the
>pointers. 
>
>~~Lisa 
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Lisa M. Heinz
>Masters Student, Media Arts & Studies
>Fall 2015: PhD Student in Mass Communication - Journalism
>Ohio University
>http://Twitter.com/livingrural
>http://LinkedIn.com/in/lisaheinz
>
>
>________________________________________
>From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Charles Ess
><charles.ess at gmail.com>
>Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015 1:36 PM
>To: Air list
>Subject: [Air-L] a fourth age of Internet Studies? what glues Internet
>Studies together?
>
>Dear AoIRists,
>Partly for the sake of a recent lecture at the University Institute of
>Lisbon, (ISCTE-IUL), kindly hosted by Gustavo Cordoso and colleagues, I
>reviewed some work on Internet Studies including:
>
>Mia Consalvo & C. Ess, *The Handbook of Internet Studies*, Blackwell,
>2011.
>
>C. Ess & W. Dutton, *new media and society *15(5: 2013) 633–643
>
>Panayiota Tsatsou, *Internet Studies: Past,  Present, and Future
>Directions. *Ashgate, 2014.
>
>Håkan Selg, *Researching the Use of the Internet — A Beginner’s Guide.
>*Uppsala
>Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 109, 2014.
>
>
>
>What I found (in part):
>
>Internet studies in what Barry Wellman and Bernie Hogan identify as “the
>third age” of Internet Studies – and what Heidi Campbell and Mia Lövheim
>identify as “the third wave” of work in Digital Religion (as a subdomain
>of
>Internet Studies) – continues from the earliest work in CMC a focus on
>community, along with more interdisciplinary / longitudinal studies.
>
>
>
>From the overview Bill Dutton and I took away from our special issue of
>new
>media and society – from among several patterns we described, I further
>highlighted the increasing prominence of critical studies as grounded,
>e.g., in political economy approaches, including a thread of attention to
>how far autonomy, empowerment (of citizens, not simply consumers), gender
>equality, etc. are indeed fostered via Internet-facilitated
>communications,
>where these communications take place in almost entirely commercialized
>spaces aimed at commodification and self-commodification.
>
>A good part of this is extended and developed by Panayiota Tsatsou, who
>argues for a research agenda focusing on:
>
>*1. *the concept of *agency* (versus structure) and the question of
>whether
>agency in relation to the Internet derives from social or
>systemic/structural actors and factors;
>
>*2. *the concept of *power* and the question of *who owns power and the
>implications of power relationships and dynamics *for Internet development
>and effects;
>
>*3. *the concept of *identity* and the question of *whether the Internet
>has an identity and, accordingly, the Internet’s implications for user
>identity*. (2014, 216)
>
>
>
>I then suggested that Campbell and Lövheim’s account of an emerging
>“fourth
>wave” of work in Digital Religion might be a suggestive analogue for how
>Internet Studies will continue to unfold, as including:
>
>1. further refinement and development of *methodological – and, I [Ess -
>but also Tsatsou] would add, ethical -* approaches, as well as the
>creation
>of *typologies* for *categorization* and *interpretation* purposes.
>
>2. *longitudinal* studies on *the / relationship between the
>online–offline
>contexts*
>
>3. reflection on the *social and institutional implication*s of practicing
>religion online
>
>4. what impact, if any, this will have on the *construction of identity,
>community, authority and authenticity* in wider culture.
>
>
>
>Again, matters of identity, agency, relationship, community, and power
>come
>to the fore here.
>
>
>All of this inspired an effort to try to encapsulate these various
>insights
>into something of a heuristic for Internet Studies - a first response to
>the question of "What is it"? and/or the question, as nicely put by Tiago
>Lapa (ISCTE-IUL), "What glues Internet Studies together?".  I offer the
>following as something of a draft - not intended to be exhaustive or
>complete, but something of a starting point, for the sake of asking
>AoIRists: what would you add and/or correct?
>
> ==
>
>Drawing on disciplines throughout the natural sciences, social sciences,
>and the humanities, Internet Studies explores Internet-facilitated human
>(and machine) communication with characteristic (but not exclusive) focus
>on how identity, agency, relationship, community, and power interact with
>the affordances of Internet-based communication technologies, often with a
>careful view towards larger ethical, social, political, cultural,
>economic,
>legal, and other human contexts. Internet Studies further includes
>meta-theoretical development and refinement of various research
>methodologies; specific attention to the ethical challenges and possible
>resolutions to these challenges that arise in the course of such research;
>and the histories of the Internet, including web history as a domain in
>its
>own right.
>
>==
>
>
>Many thanks in advance,
>
>- charles ess
>
>--
>Professor in Media Studies
>Department of Media and Communication
>University of Oslo
>
>Director, Centre for Research in Media Innovations (CeRMI)
>Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations
><https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/>
>President, INSEIT <www.inseit.net>
>
>Postboks 1093
>Blindern 0317
>Oslo, Norway
>c.m.ess at media.uio.no
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