The Ambivalent Internet
Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online
1. Auflage April 2017
240 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Kurzbeschreibung
This book explores the weird and mean and in-between that characterize everyday expression online, from absurdist photoshops to antagonistic Twitter hashtags to deceptive identity play.
Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner focus especially on the ambivalence of this expression: the fact that it is too unwieldy, too variable across cases, to be essentialized as old or new, vernacular or institutional, generative or destructive. Online expression is, instead, all of the above. This ambivalence, the authors argue, hinges on available digital tools. That said, there is nothing unexpected or surprising about even the strangest online behavior. Ours is a brave new world, and there is nothing new under the sun - a point necessary to understanding not just that online spaces are rife with oddity, mischief, and antagonism, but why these behaviors matter.
The Ambivalent Internet is essential reading for students and scholars of digital media and related fields across the humanities, as well as anyone interested in mediated culture and expression.
This book explores the weird and mean and in-between that characterize everyday expression online, from absurdist photoshops to antagonistic Twitter hashtags to deceptive identity play.
Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner focus especially on the ambivalence of this expression: the fact that it is too unwieldy, too variable across cases, to be essentialized as old or new, vernacular or institutional, generative or destructive. Online expression is, instead, all of the above. This ambivalence, the authors argue, hinges on available digital tools. That said, there is nothing unexpected or surprising about even the strangest online behavior. Ours is a brave new world, and there is nothing new under the sun - a point necessary to understanding not just that online spaces are rife with oddity, mischief, and antagonism, but why these behaviors matter.
The Ambivalent Internet is essential reading for students and scholars of digital media and related fields across the humanities, as well as anyone interested in mediated culture and expression.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Folkloric Expression
2. Identity Play
3. Constitutive Humor
4. Collective Storytelling
5. Public Debate
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
Jean Burgess, Queensland University of Technology
"From pranks and tasteless jokes to political propaganda, it's never been more important to face how online media give rise to and amplify the longstanding communal practices that lie between play and hate, fun and cruelty. Like its subject, this book is both entertaining and disturbing. It's an honest, uneasy, and essential reckoning. You'll laugh, feel bad you did, and understand."
Nancy Baym, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research
Whitney Phillips is Assistant Professor of Literary Studies and Writing at Penfield College, Mercer University.