The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory: Magic, Metaphor, Power Book

The World Wide Web is the most well-known, celebrated, and promoted contemporary manifestation of "cyberspace." To date, however, most of the public discourse on the Web falls into the category of explanatory journalism -- the Web has remained largely unmapped in terms of contemporary cultural research. This book, however, begins that mapping by bringing together more than a dozen well-known scholars across the humanities and social sciences to explore the Web as a cultural technology characterized by a nexus of economic, political, social, and aesthetic forces. Engaging the thematic issues of the Web as a space where magic, metaphor, and power converge, the chapters cover such subjects as The Web and Corporate Media Systems, Conspiracy Theories and the Web; The Economy of Cyberpromotion, The Bias of the Web, The Web and Issues of Gender,and so on. Contributors: Jody Berland, Jodi Dean, Sean Cubitt, Greg Elmer, Andrew Herman, Steven Jones, Nancy Kaplan, Robert McChesney, Vincent Mosco, Stuart Moulthrop, Theresa Senft, Rob Shields, John Sloop, Thomas Swiss, and David Tetzlaff.Read More