[an error occurred while processing this directive] Week 7: Social effects: 'cybersociety' and virtual communities
There are many versions of the social impact of digital technologies. Here we will focus on the question of whether new media are transforming communities and social life as further aspects of the 'information society'. We engage with some of the issues around virtual communities.  Starting with Rheingold's much cited (and contested) proposition that new media creates new kinds of human communities ? e.g. 'virtual communities' in 'cyberspace' we look at contemporary notions of community and communication technologies.

You need to be familiar with at least two of the following communication networks:
IRC
ICQ
MUDS/MOOS
Active Worlds (or any graphic avatar environment)
The Well
Nettime
Chat rooms
Bulletin boards
News Groups

Core Reading
o Cherny, Lynn and Weise, Elizabeth Reba. Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace. Washington: Seal Press. 1996 (Section 2: Communities of Interest)
o Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford: Blackwell, 1996, (Chapter 4)
o M.A. Smith and P. Kollock, Communities in Cyberspace, Routledge, 1999
o Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, London: Secker & Warburg, 1994, full text online at http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book

Supplementary Reading
o Steven G. Jones, Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995.
o David Brown, Cybertrends: Chaos, Power and Accountability in the Information Age, London: Viking, 1997.
o Bassett, Caroline. Virtually Gendered in Gelder, K and Thornton, S (eds.) The Subcultures Reader. London: Routledge, 1997.
o Baym, Nancy. Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, And Online Community. Thousand Oaks, London; Sage, 2000.
o Kendall, Lori. Hanging Out in the Virtual Pub: Masculinites Online. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2002.

Two key European reports document the debate over whether the development of the 'Information Society' should be guided by the market or by public intervention:

o High-Level Group on the Information Society [Chairman Martin Bangemann], Europe and the Global Information Society, Brussels: CEC, 1994 online at http://www.medicif.org/Dig_library/ECdocs/reports/Bangemann.htm
o High Level Group of Experts [of the European Commission], Building the European Information Society for us all, online at http://www.cvut.cz/ascii/cc/icsc/NII/forum/Building.html
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Page Created By: Kate O'Riordan
Email: k.s.o-riordan@sussex.ac.uk
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