International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Communication created and shared through the →  Internet has proliferated since the mid-1990s, with more people adapting to the web's creative spaces through easy-to-use technology (→  Exposure to the Internet ). Indeed, much popular communication today is likely also to be classified as computer-mediated communication. The Internet not only provides access to web spaces where people view or listen to digital video, photographs, music, and stories, but also allows people to produce and disseminate their creative materials to mass audiences (→  Photography ; Popular Music ). In this respect, the Internet serves as a literal “circuit of culture,” a theory explaining human identity, production, consumption, regulation, and representation of the cultural objects of everyday life (→  Information Society ). In the mid-1990s when Internet access became more widely available, a cultural divide existed between those who understood Internet protocols and creative conventions, and those who were learning. As these so-called “newbies” flooded existing virtual communities, clashes occurred, prompting calls for patience and “netiquette” as more people participated in new online environments. The culture made possible by interactive technologies – sometimes called cyberculture or technoculture – at first appeared rigid and rule-bound, but new computer protocols soon leveled distinctions between ... log in or subscribe to read full text