Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Communication created and shared through the → Internet has proliferated since 1990, with nearly 2 billion people worldwide adapting to the web's creative spaces through easy-to-use technology on computers and mobile phones(→ Exposure to the Internet ). The Internet not only provides access to web spaces where people view or listen to professional and amateur 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 ). As Internet access became more widely available, a cultural divide existed between those who understood Internet protocols and creative conventions, and those who were learning. 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 long-time and newer users. At the same time, the global nature of Internet communication provided more opportunities for exchange of ideas and artifacts within a decentralized communication system (→ International Communication ). Since the Internet ... log in or subscribe to read full text