This book explores how the Internet presents radical ways of organising and producing media that offer political and cultural alternatives, both to ways of doing business and to how we understand the world and our place in it. The book is characterised by in-depth case studies. Topics include the media of new social movements and other radical political organisations (including the far right); websites produced by fans of popular culture; and media dedicated to developing a critical, 'public' journalism. It locates these studies in appropriate theoretical and historical contexts, while remaining accessible to a student audience. Major themes: *The use of the Internet by political groups such as the anti-capitalist and environmental movements, as well as the far right *Radical forms of creativity and distribution: the anti-copyright and sampling/file-sharing movements, and their role as cultural critics in a corporate world *The development and maintenance of a global, 'digital public sphere' of protest through such practices as 'hacktivism' *The use of new media technologies to transform existing media forms and practices, such as news media and Internet radio. This is the first book devoted entirely to 'alternative' ways of political organisation and cultural production on the Internet. The author is one of the leading international experts in the study of alternative media, and this book is an authoritative guide to all aspects of these phenomena: the cultural, the political, the economic and the social. The range of topics covered will make it an attractive text for a wide range of media and cultural studies and computing courses.
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Atton's book gives a good background to types of alternative media while relying on a solid knowledge of contemporary Internet theory... A detailed and articulate reading of Internet usage. -- Paul Booth, Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies Atton's book gives a good background to types of alternative media while relying on a solid knowledge of contemporary Internet theory... A detailed and articulate reading of Internet usage.
About the Author
Chris Atton is Reader in Journalism at the School of Communication Arts, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the author of Alternative Literature (Gower, 1996) and Alternative Media (Sage, 2002) and the editor of special issues on alternative media for the leading international journals Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism and Media, Culture and Society.
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First Sentence
In an insightful essay that argues for the necessity of a cultural studies approach to the Internet, Sterne has pointed to the prevalence within academic studies of considering the Internet as a 'millennial cultural force' (1999: 258, original emphasis). Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In an insightful essay that argues for the necessity of a cultural studies approach to the Internet, Sterne has pointed to the prevalence within academic studies of considering the Internet as a 'millennial cultural force' (1999: 258, original emphasis). Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Who's really dominant in the Internet-sphere? Perhaps no one and everyone!
20 Sep 2008
By Gaurav Sharma
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
There is an age old argument that the big media dominate the internet. Then again net-purists argue that it is first true medium for the masses. Through a sequence of case studies, the author Chris Atton dwells on how divergent groups are using the World Wide Web to further their own agenda. This may or may not be interpreted as electronic pigeon hole creation (pseudo ones or real ones).
A form of cyberactivism is acquiring certain patterns, a study of which Atton describes as the "Alternative Internet". The big question is what level of emphasis should we place on the "Alternative Internet"? The same questions maybe asked of just about anything that's become popular (or not) on the web. Additionally, perhaps don't we all like to browse the net for what interests us and seldom for what we are likely to disagree with.
Using this book as a reference point for my academic essays and dissertation, I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with some of the author's conjecture in equal measure. That is part and parcel of an academic discussion. Overall, I found it to be a good read and worth keeping on my bookshelf upon conclusion of my course.
As a journalist myself, I found Chapter 2 (Radical Online Journalism) and Chapter 3 (Far-Right Media on the Internet: Culture, Discourse and Power) to be a good (and sometimes uncomfortable) insight into the respective subjects. The author stresses that he's not "celebrating the internet." True to his word, he's adding his thoughts to a healthy and much needed debate on it. I would recommend this book to media, digital media and cultural studies students and to anyone having an interest in the Internet.
A form of cyberactivism is acquiring certain patterns, a study of which Atton describes as the "Alternative Internet". The big question is what level of emphasis should we place on the "Alternative Internet"? The same questions maybe asked of just about anything that's become popular (or not) on the web. Additionally, perhaps don't we all like to browse the net for what interests us and seldom for what we are likely to disagree with.
Using this book as a reference point for my academic essays and dissertation, I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with some of the author's conjecture in equal measure. That is part and parcel of an academic discussion. Overall, I found it to be a good read and worth keeping on my bookshelf upon conclusion of my course.
As a journalist myself, I found Chapter 2 (Radical Online Journalism) and Chapter 3 (Far-Right Media on the Internet: Culture, Discourse and Power) to be a good (and sometimes uncomfortable) insight into the respective subjects. The author stresses that he's not "celebrating the internet." True to his word, he's adding his thoughts to a healthy and much needed debate on it. I would recommend this book to media, digital media and cultural studies students and to anyone having an interest in the Internet.
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