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

Fri May 22 03:38:02 PDT 2015

Thanks in turn, Lisa - so heartening to know that this may be of help in
some way or another.
Let me also reiterate your spot-on call:
 If there is anything else folks want to add to this discussion that
focuses on this Fourth Age, I would appreciate the pointers.

There has been some discussion on a Facebook thread helpfully started up by
André Brock that has also been excellent for adding criticisms,
emendations, additions, etc.  Once I manage to figure out how to respond to
and incorporate all of that, along with responses I hope to get from
colleagues next week at the Department of Journalism, Media, and
Communication (JMK) at the University of Gothenburg - if a new and improved
version thus emerges, I will happy share onlist.

Again, many thanks,
- charles

On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 3:32 PM, Heinz, Lisa <ls144009 at ohio.edu> wrote:

> 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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