Computer technology has transformed many fundamental parts of life: how we work and play, how we communicate and consume, how we create knowledge and learn, even how we understand politics and participate in public life. Reading Digital Culture is a comprehensive collection of the most influential essays on digital media written in recent years.

"This book examines the complexity of World of Warcraft from a variety of perspectives, exploring the cultural and social implications of the proliferation of ever more complex digital gameworlds.The contributors have immersed themselves in the World of Warcraft universe, spending hundreds of hours as players (leading guilds and raids, exploring moneymaking possibilities in the in-game auction house, playing different factions, races, and classes), conducting interviews, and studying the game design - as created by Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer, and as modified by player-created user interfaces. The analyses they offer are based on both the firsthand experience of being a resident of Azeroth and the data they have gathered and interpreted.The contributors examine the ways that gameworlds reflect the real world - exploring such topics as World of Warcraft as a "capitalist fairytale" and the game's construction of gender; the cohesiveness of the gameworld in terms of geography, mythology, narrative, and the treatment of death as a temporary state; aspects of play, including "deviant strategies" perhaps not in line with the intentions of the designers; and character - both players' identification with their characters and the game's culture of naming characters." -- BOOK JACKET.

"This is an outstanding book. It is one of only a few scholarly texts that successfully combine a nuanced theoretical understanding of the digital age with empirical case studies of contemporary media culture. The scope is impressive, ranging from questions of digital inequality to emergent forms of cyberpolitics." - Nick Gane, York University "Well written, very up-to-date with a good balance of examples and theory. It′s good to have all the major issues covered in one book." - Peter Millard, Portsmouth University "This is just the text I was looking for to enable first year undergraduates to develop their critical understanding of the technologies they have embedded so completely in their lives." - Chris Simpson, University College of St Mark & St John This is more than just another book on Internet studies. Tracing the pervasive influence of ′digital culture′ throughout contemporary life, this text integrates socio-economic understandings of the ′information society′ with the cultural studies approach to production, use, and consumption of digital media and multimedia. Refreshingly readable and packed with examples from profiling databases and mashups to cybersex and the truth about social networking, Understanding Digital Culture: Crosses disciplines to give a balanced account of the social, economic and cultural dimensions of the information society. Illuminates the increasing importance of mobile, wireless and converged media technologies in everyday life. Unpacks how the information society is transforming and challenging traditional notions of crime, resistance, war and protest, community, intimacy and belonging. Charts the changing cultural forms associated with new media and its consumption, including music, gaming, microblogging and online identity. Illustrates the above through a series of contemporary, in-depth case studies of digital culture. This is the perfect text for students looking for a full account of the information society, virtual cultures, sociology of the Internet and new media.

From our bank accounts to supermarket checkouts to the movies we watch, strings of ones and zeroes suffuse our world. Digital technology has defined modern society in numerous ways, and the vibrant digital culture that has now resulted is the subject of Charlie Gere’s engaging volume. In this revised and expanded second edition, taking account of new developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, Charlie Gere charts in detail the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, literature and other areas. After tracing the historical development of digital culture, Gere argues that it is actually neither radically new nor technologically driven: digital culture has its roots in the eighteenth century and the digital mediascape we swim in today was originally inspired by informational needs arising from industrial capitalism, contemporary warfare and counter-cultural experimentation, among other social changes. A timely and cutting-edge investigation of our contemporary social infrastructures, Digital Culture is essential reading for all those concerned about the ever-changing future of our Digital Age. “This is an excellent book. It gives an almost complete overview of the main trends and view of what is generally called digital culture through the whole post-war period, as well as a thorough exposition of the history of the computer and its predecessors and the origins of the modern division of labor.”—Journal of Visual Culture

The AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report is a publication which looks at the impact of the internet on our society. Its aim is to delve into the transformation happening within the arts and culture sector and to help entities and professionals create experiences that are in line with the expectations of 21st century consumers. The first part of the 2018 edition brings together texts from professionals in the arts and culture sector as well as from experts in the digital field, in order to get up to speed on important issues regarding main trends. Every year the second part of the edition (Focus) looks at the changes happening among readers and reading material. The aim is to outline a map of digital reading material. Mario Tascón takes a close look at our most connected cities that have been created by the latest interconnected devices and the Internet of Things. He then analyses the role that cultural spaces are destined to perform within these cities. Next, JosО Manuel MenОndez and David Jimeno Bermejo describe the latest challenges faced by immersive technologies and its growing role within the ecosystem of digital content. The Experimental UNIT of the University of Valencia reviews its experience with the use of digital design and analyses how the latest possibilities of mobile devices can offer resources for the construction of the museography debate. Jovanka Adzic discusses a burning issue. In her analysis on the evolution of social networks and their continuously expanding influence on our way of life, she also takes a look at the problem of fake news on the internet. Jovanka goes on to refl ect on the competitive advantage of FANG obtained through large volumes of social data, within an economy driven by Big Data. Elena Neira takes a look at the impact of consumption of on-screen culture and the business models that are based on subscriptions— the so-called “Netfl ix model”. And Emma Rodero – in line with this year’s central theme of Focus – examines the theme of orality and analyses the growing influence of sound and voice in the digital era. Pablo GervЗs builds on the concept of computational creativity and its impact on literary creation. We have a total of seven articles by renowned experts to help us learn and reflect on the changes affecting our society as a whole and to give us a glimpse of new opportunities for the sector of arts and culture. Every year the second part of the edition (Focus) reflects and explains – through the use of best-practice examples both nationally and internationally – the biggest changes happening among readers and reading material in the digital era. The main objective of this section is to present a unified view on the matter. Authors Luis Miguel Cencerrado, Elisa Yuste and Javier Celaya outlines a map to help us navigate with ease through all types of texts; highlighting the role of the reader in the current context of hybrid literature (paper, digital, audio, visual, transmedia, etc.) which is favoured by the digital era we live in. The annual review is published in both Spanish and English, in PDF and EPUB format and can be downloaded for free under the licence of Creative Commons. The publication can be downloaded on the AcciЧn Cultural EspaЦola website in the section digital publications. A copy can also be obtained from major distributors of national and international digital books.

From Facebook to the iPhone, from YouTube to Wikipedia, from Grand Auto Theft to Second Life, this book explores media's important issues and debates. It covers topics such as digital television, digital cinema, game culture, digital democracy, the World Wide Web, digital news, online social networking, music & multimedia and virtual communities.

This book centres on the use of the Bible within contemporary digital social media culture and gives an overview of its use online with examples from brand-new research from the CODEC Research Centre at Durham University, UK. It examines the shift from a propositional to a therapeutic approach to faith from a sociological standpoint. The book covers two research projects in particular: the Twitter Gospels and Online Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. It explores the data as they relate to Abby Day’s concept of performative belief, picking up on Mia Lövheim’s challenge to see how this concept works out in digital culture and social media. It also compares the data to various construals of contemporary approaches to faith performative faith, including Christian Smith and Melissa Lundquist Denton’s concept of moralistic therapeutic deism. Other research is also compared to the findings of these projects, including a micro-project on Celebrities and the Bible, to give a wider perspective on these issues in both the UK and the USA. As a sociological exploration of Digital Millennial culture and its relationship to sacred texts, this will be of keen interest to scholars of Biblical studies, religion and digital media, and contemporary lived religion.

There is a complex and contested terrain of cultural heritage in the library, archive and museum context. Information Literacy and Cultural Heritage explores this landscape and covers perspectives from museums, archives and libraries, highlighting the role of memory and contested history in the collection, description and presentation of cultural heritage. The book argues that the convergence of libraries, archives and museums in digital preservation should be extended to include the development of combined lifelong learning programmes, teaching both information literacy skills and awareness of cultural heritage.This title is structured into seven chapters, covering cultural heritage in the library, archive and museum context; digital information contexts; an overview of information literacy models of stages and processes, as well as models of standards, competencies and performance indicators. The book then examines the role of critical thinking and lifelong learning; proposes a generic model of information literacy and cultural heritage for lifelong learning; offers guidelines for adapting the model to local contexts; and offers a conclusion. - Covers cultural heritage in the museums, archives and library context - Explores the place of cultural heritage and social issues in the digital information context - Reviews existing models of information literacy processes, standards and indicators

How to grasp poetry in its contemporary digital situation, a situation wherein poetry travels across digital and analoge media platforms and intended or not collaborates with computers? Situating Scandinavian Poetry in the Computational Network environment investigates how heterogeneous forms of poetry in Scandinavia interact with and work in a digital media environment, how digital programmable and network media intervene with and shape new poetic forms or remediate older forms of poetry, and how digital and digitalized poetry through its self-reflexivity sheds light on digital media technology and its role for poetry and potentially for literature and aesthetics more in general. In doing so, it also argues for the importance of close reading poetry in digital media. It includes an historical and theoretical approach to poetry in digital media and analysis of poetic works in Scandinavia. The book is written within the framework of posthumanism and what N. Katerine Hayles calls "technogenesis", and makes up the argument that contemporary poetry constitutes and is constituted by a computational network environment of human and non-human subjects, wherein poems travels in an egalitarian media ecology . The book is relevant for researchers and students in the field of poetry, students and researchers in the field of literary studies, media studies and digital culture studies, and teachers interested in presenting newer forms of poetry for their students.