Overview

Whether people want to play games and download music, engage in social networking and professional collaboration, or view pornography and incite terror, the Internet provides myriad opportunities for people who share common interests to find each other. The contributors to this book argue that these self-selected online groups are best understood as tribes, with many of the same ramifications, both positive and negative, that tribalism has in the non-cyber world. In Electronic Tribes, the authors of sixteen competitively selected essays provide an up-to-the-minute look at the social uses and occasional abuses of online communication in the new media era. They explore many current Internet subcultures, including MySpace.com, craftster.org, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, music downloading, white supremacist and other counterculture groups, and Nigerian e-mail scams. Their research raises compelling questions and some remarkable answers about the real-life social consequences of participating in electronic tribes.Collectively, the contributors to this book capture a profound shift in the way people connect, as communities formed by geographical proximity are giving way to communities--both online and offline--formed around ideas.

Full Product Details

Author:   Tyrone L. Adams ,  Stephen A. Smith
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 4.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.513kg
ISBN:  

9780292717749

ISBN 10:   0292717741
Pages:   331
Publication Date:   01 June 2008
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"Foreword, Ronald E. Rice Acknowledgments Introduction: Where Is the Shaman? Jim Parker Part I: Conceptualizing Electronic Tribes Chapter 1. ""A Tribe by Any Other Name . . . ,"" Tyrone L. Adams and Stephen A. Smith Chapter 2. Mimetic Kinship: Theorizing Online ""Tribalism,"" Veronica M. Davidov and Barbara Andersen Chapter 3. Electronic Tribes (E-Tribes): Some Theoretical Perspectives and Implications, Bolanle Olaniran Chapter 4. Revisiting the Impact of Tribalism on Civil Society: An Investigation of the Potential Benefits of Membership in an E-Tribe on Public Discourse, Christina Standerfer Part II: Social Consequences of Electronic Tribalism Chapter 5. Theorizing the E-Tribe on MySpace.com, David R. Dewberry Chapter 6. Don't Date, Craftsterbate: Dialogue and Resistance on craftster.org, Terri L. Russ Chapter 7. Guild Life in the World of Warcraft: Online Gaming Tribalism, Thomas Brignall III Chapter 8. At the Electronic Evergreen: A Computer-Mediated Ethnography of Tribalism in a Newsgroup from Montserrat and Afar, Jonathan Skinner Part III: Emerging Electronic Tribal Cultures Chapter 9. ""Like a neighborhood of sisters"": Can Culture Be Formed Electronically? Deborah Clark Vance Chapter 10. Gerald M. Phillips as Electronic Tribal Chief: Socioforming Cyberspace, Ann Rosenthal Chapter 11. Digital Dreamtime, Sonic Talismans: Music Downloading and the Tribal Landscape, Michael C. Zalot Chapter 12. Magic, Myth, and Mayhem: Tribalization in the Digital Age, Leonie Naughton Part IV: Cybercrime and Counterculture among Electronic Tribes Chapter 13. Mundanes at the Gate . . . and Perverts Within: Managing Internal and External Threats to Community Online, Steve Abrams and Smaragd Grün Chapter 14. Brotherhood of Blood: Aryan Tribalism and Skinhead Cybercrews, Jody M. Roy Chapter 15. Radical Tribes at Warre: Primitivists on the Net, Mathieu O'Neil Chapter 16. A ""Tribe"" Migrates Crime to Cyberspace: Nigerian Igbos in 419 E-Mail Scams, Farooq A. Kperogi and Sandra Duhé About the Contributors Index"

Reviews

The major contribution of this book is that the idea of 'tribe' is fully and robustly explicated in ways that challenge existing wisdom, particularly the idea that Internet users are best understood as communities... The richness of diverse research resources is evident in every chapter. I particularly commend the editors on the international perspective and the inclusion of such a surprising array of subcultures. H. L. Goodall Jr., Director, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University

""The major contribution of this book is that the idea of 'tribe' is fully and robustly explicated in ways that challenge existing wisdom, particularly the idea that Internet users are best understood as communities... The richness of diverse research resources is evident in every chapter. I particularly commend the editors on the international perspective and the inclusion of such a surprising array of subcultures."" H. L. Goodall Jr., Director, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University

Author Information

Tyrone L. Adams is the Richard D'Aquin Professor of Journalism and Communications at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Stephen A. Smith is Professor of Communication at the University of Arkansas.

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