Lessons from the History of Internet Studies

This chapter offers a broad overview of Internet Studies. The key challenge of Internet Studies research focuses on the discovery of concepts, models, theories, and related frameworks that give a more empirically valid understanding of the factors influencing the Internet and its societal implications. The Internet can be used in everyday life and work, and in a converging media world. The study of Internet policy and regulation has focused on issues of freedom of expression, privacy, and ‘Internet governance’. Then, the chapter briefly discusses the issue on the definition of the Internet, and how its resolution is connected to how narrowly or broadly people draw the history of the Internet and the boundaries of the field. It is observed that studies of politics, relationships, news, and other phenomena are exploring the Internet within a larger ecology of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Also, the Internet and related ICTs are globally important.

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“Retweet for More”: The Serialization of Porn on the Twitter Alter Community

Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images ◽

10.3998/gs.1703 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Ruepert Jiel Dionisio Cao

Keyword(s):

Gay Men ◽

Collective Identity ◽

Social Engagement ◽

Short Form ◽

Social Needs ◽

Internet Studies ◽

Production And Consumption ◽

History Of ◽

Media Platform ◽

Twitter Users

This article examines the notion of seriality in the context of the Filipino alter community, a network of Twitter users producing, distributing, and consuming pornographic images. The alter community is prominent among Filipino gay men who satisfy their need for sexual arousal, collective identity, and validation of their sexuality in the alter community. Seriality is influenced by technological features and affordances of a media platform. In the case of Twitter, the platform’s short form formats and real-time content generation fosters a particular kind of seriality. This essay analyzes data from online observations, content analysis of tweets and profiles, and interviews and is informed by theories on seriality, gay sexuality, and Internet studies. In situating seriality within the context of gay amateur porn economy, this article argues that serial pornography is instrumental in satisfying both present and long-standing affective, sexual, and social needs of gay men. These needs, this essay claims, stem from long history of minoritization of homosexuality. As Twitter renders older tweets ephemeral and quantifies social engagement, seriality enables gay men to satisfy the aforementioned needs longer. Furthermore, this essay proposes that serial porn on Twitter brings new insights to how seriality is conceived. Serial porn images are strategically and carefully constructed narratives of sexual encounters aimed at garnering higher social engagement and validation. Thus, serial narratives can resolve present and urgent affective tensions and needs that unravel within an ongoing life narrative rather than working toward supporting a plausible ending, as seen in other serial forms. This article contributes to an understanding of how pornographic images and serial narratives fit into consumerist culture and how platforms exploit long-standing affective needs of sexual minorities to ensure extended production and consumption of contents.

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A Genealogy of Critical Race and Digital Studies: Past, Present, and Future

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity ◽

10.1177/2332649220922577 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 292-301 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Amber M. Hamilton

Keyword(s):

Digital Divide ◽

Media Studies ◽

Critical Race ◽

Internet Studies ◽

History Of ◽

Important Field ◽

Digital Studies ◽

And Function ◽

Academic Debate ◽

Broad Overview

The interplay between race and technology has captured the attention of scholars in sociology, communication, media studies, and beyond. Previous research has focused on a range of topics including the centrality of race to the structure and function of the Internet, critiques of digital divide studies, and the phenomenon of Black Twitter. Although a robust history of critical race and digital studies exists, there has yet to be a definitive overview that traces the development of this important field. In this review, I fill this gap by delineating a genealogy of critical race and digital studies by mapping the intellectual terrain of the field. To do this, I begin with a broad overview of the history of Internet studies before reviewing key areas in the field of critical race and digital studies, including colorblind studies of the web, digital divide studies, and Black Twitter. I conclude with a focus on the ways that this body of literature can be brought forth to critically understand the implications of emerging areas of academic debate on studies of race and technology.

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TRUSTED COMMONS: WHY “OLD” SOCIAL MEDIA MATTER

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research ◽

10.5210/spir.v2019i0.11008 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

Author(s):

. Maxigas ◽

Guillaume Latzko-Toth

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Digital Media ◽

Capital Accumulation ◽

Computer Mediated Communication ◽

Social Groups ◽

Mediated Communication ◽

Online Chat ◽

Internet Studies ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

History Of

Internet Studies scholarship tends to focus on new and hegemonic digital media, overlooking persistent uses of “older”, non-proprietary protocols and applications by some social groups who are key to configuring the nexus between technology and society. In response, we examine the contemporary political significance of using “old” social media through the empirical case of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) use. We advance a critique of platforms (closed, centralised, hegemonic social media) that we contrast with co-constructed devices that deeply involve users in their technological design and social construction. As a contemporary but long used online chat protocol, IRC serves as an important source for the critique of the currently hegemonic — but increasingly distrusted — infrastructures of computer-mediated communication. Drawing on Boltanski and Chiapello’s theory of critique and recuperation, we contrast the uses and underlying social norms of IRC with those of currently mainstream social media platforms. We claim that certain technical limitations that actors of IRC development did not feel necessary to address have kept it from incorporation into regimes of capital accumulation and social control, but also hindered its mass adoption. Ultimately, IRC continues to serve social groups key to the collaborative production of software, hardware and politics. While the general history of digital innovations illustrates the logic of critique and recuperation, our case study highlights the possibilities and pitfalls of resistance to it.

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