Over the last four decades, new modes of communication have redefined people’s engagement with media: media audiences are now also makers, influencers, followers, gamers, trolls, and data subjects. This turbulent social and technological context has created new opportunities for expression and activism around the world. In this fully revised second edition, Leah Lievrouw considers the shift toward algorithmic media for political and cultural activism online – where data capture and big data analytics are not just tools for managing and moving people or information, but are themselves sites of creativity, connection, and contention. The book examines a range of events and developments: anti-facial recognition projects; open-source intelligence in citizen journalism; and new apps based on encryption and DIY local networks that support movements such as Occupy and Black Lives Matter. Alternative and Activist New Media charts the theoretical roots of contemporary internet-driven movements and provides a framework for understanding the changing face of protest in the age of algorithmic media. ​This timely new edition will be a useful addition to any course on digital activism and new media and society.​

Communication scholarship has not enjoyed the same kind of theoretical cohesion or ontological security as some disciplines. The field's intellectual "roving eye" and resistance to establishing a single core body of knowledge has inspired serial rounds of soul-searching and existential doubt among communication scholars, on one hand, and celebration and intellectual adventurism, on the other. The theme of the 2013 ICA annual conference thus raised an interesting question: For a field that is perpetually in flux and "decentered", what exactly is, or should be, challenged? How, and by whom? The chapters in this collection, chosen from among the top papers presented in London, suggest that the challenges themselves are constantly being reinvented, broken down and reorganized. The communication discipline undergoes continuous change rather than following an orderly, stepwise path toward the neat, complete accumulation of knowledge. The chapters challenge familiar approaches, notions or assumptions in communication research and scholarship and reflect on the field's multifaceted and increasingly open character in an era of shifting social relations, formations and technologies.

Communication scholarship has not enjoyed the same kind of theoretical cohesion or ontological security as some disciplines. The field's intellectual "roving eye" and resistance to establishing a single core body of knowledge has inspired serial rounds of soul-searching and existential doubt among communication scholars, on one hand, and celebration and intellectual adventurism, on the other. The theme of the 2013 ICA annual conference thus raised an interesting question: For a field that is perpetually in flux and "decentered", what exactly is, or should be, challenged? How, and by whom? The chapters in this collection, chosen from among the top papers presented in London, suggest that the challenges themselves are constantly being reinvented, broken down and reorganized. The communication discipline undergoes continuous change rather than following an orderly, stepwise path toward the neat, complete accumulation of knowledge. The chapters challenge familiar approaches, notions or assumptions in communication research and scholarship and reflect on the field's multifaceted and increasingly open character in an era of shifting social relations, formations and technologies.

Praise for the First Edition: "A landmark volume that provides a foundation stone for a new subject - the study of new media. It is stunningly well-edited, offering a very high standard of original contributions in a skilfully orchestrated and organised textbook." - James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London "The first major review of interactive technologies and their cultural and social context. This is more than a welcome addition to one's library; it is the authoritative overview of international research perspectives on interactive media technologies by leading scholars around the world." - Ellen Wartella, University of Texas, Austin "A landmark for the study of information and communication technologies within the field of communication. Its international team of editors and authors has brought together insights gained from over two decades of scholarly research. This indispensable reference demonstrates an increased maturity and stature for "new media" research within the field." - William H Dutton, University of Southern California "A truly comprehensive and authoritative volume. This Handbook will be an absolutely essential text for anyone concerned with social aspects of the new media." - Kevin Robins, Goldsmiths, University of London Thoroughly revised and updated, this Student Edition of the successful Handbook of New Media has been abridged to showcase the best of the hardback edition. It stakes out the boundaries of new media research and scholarship and provides a definitive statement of the current state of the field. Features new to the student edition include: Improved organization of material to make it more accessible for students and easier to incorporate into course design An introduction by the editors, which clearly lays out the main themes in new media studies as well as providing instructors with a guide to how to get the most out of the handbook in the classroom All chapters are updated to combine classic studies and background material with latest developments in the field. The first edition of the Handbook immediately established itself as the central reference work in the field. This new revised edition offers students the most comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the area.

Scholars from communication and media studies join those from science and technology studies to examine media technologies as complex, sociomaterial phenomena. In recent years, scholarship around media technologies has finally shed the assumption that these technologies are separate from and powerfully determining of social life, looking at them instead as produced by and embedded in distinct social, cultural, and political practices. Communication and media scholars have increasingly taken theoretical perspectives originating in science and technology studies (STS), while some STS scholars interested in information technologies have linked their research to media studies inquiries into the symbolic dimensions of these tools. In this volume, scholars from both fields come together to advance this view of media technologies as complex sociomaterial phenomena. The contributors first address the relationship between materiality and mediation, considering such topics as the lived realities of network infrastructure. The contributors then highlight media technologies as always in motion, held together through the minute, unobserved work of many, including efforts to keep these technologies alive. Contributors Pablo J. Boczkowski, Geoffrey C. Bowker, Finn Brunton, Gabriella Coleman, Gregory J. Downey, Kirsten A. Foot, Tarleton Gillespie, Steven J. Jackson, Christopher M. Kelty, Leah A. Lievrouw, Sonia Livingstone, Ignacio Siles, Jonathan Sterne, Lucy Suchman, Fred Turner

Over the last four decades, new modes of communication have redefined people’s engagement with media: media audiences are now also makers, influencers, followers, gamers, trolls, and data subjects. This turbulent social and technological context has created new opportunities for expression and activism around the world. In this fully revised second edition, Leah Lievrouw considers the shift toward algorithmic media for political and cultural activism online – where data capture and big data analytics are not just tools for managing and moving people or information, but are themselves sites of creativity, connection, and contention. The book examines a range of events and developments: anti-facial recognition projects; open-source intelligence in citizen journalism; and new apps based on encryption and DIY local networks that support movements such as Occupy and Black Lives Matter. Alternative and Activist New Media charts the theoretical roots of contemporary internet-driven movements and provides a framework for understanding the changing face of protest in the age of algorithmic media. ​This timely new edition will be a useful addition to any course on digital activism and new media and society.​