Overview

The Internet is changing the way we communicate. As a 'cross' between letter-writing and conversation, email has altered traditional letter-writing conventions. Websites and chat rooms have made visual aspects of written communication of greater importance, arguably, than ever before. New communication codes continue to evolve with unprecedented speed. This book explores playfulness and artfulness in digital writing and communication and anwers penetrating questions about this new medium. Under what conditions do old letter-writing norms continue to be important, even in email? Digital greetings are changing the way we celebrate special occasions and public holidays, but will they take the place of paper postcards and greeting cards? The author also looks at how new art forms, such as virtual theatre, ASCII art, and digital folk art on IRC, are flourishing, and how many people collect and display digital fonts on handsome Websites, or even design their own. Intended as a 'time capsule' documenting developments online in the mid- to late 1990s, when the Internet became a mass medium, this book treats the computer as an expressive instrument fostering new forms of creativity and popular culture. See also - http://atar.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/cyberpl@y

Full Product Details

9781859734247

Table of Contents

Reviews

'This is a highly original book with wide appeal on a hot topic A splendid book. It will speak to both a scholarly and a general audience and will cut across fields - communication, visual culture, electronic communication, multi-media design, and cultural studies. It is original in its scope and conception. It is astonishingly rich in terms of visual material, ethnographic accounting, historical references, and analytic concerns. The writing is clear and lively.' Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University 'This work provides cogent evidence that the scholarly study of cyberlife has now come of age. Writing with humor and elan, Danet demonstrates that e-life has changed the way we write, the way we think and how we live.' Gary Alan Fine, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University 'Cyberpl@y does a masterful job of illustrating the deeply meaningful nature of text-based communication online. Through insightful analysis of a variety of forms

Author Information

Brenda Danet is Professor Emerita of Sociology and Communication and Danny Arnold Chair Emerita in Communication, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Tab Content 6

Countries Available