Seth Giddings

Iain Grant

Martin Lister

Kieran Kelly

Jon Dovey

New Media provides a comprehensive overview of the culture, history and technologies of new media, covering everything from CR-ROMs to modems, websites and Virtual Reality headsets.

A Critical Introduction

New Media

Presents key texts which encapsulate and/or challenge and extend, the issues, debates and theoretical positions that do the most work in mapping and critically addressing the cultural implications of new media.

The New Media and Technocultures Reader

New Media: A Critical Introduction is a comprehensive introduction to the culture, history, technologies and theories of new media. Written especially for students, the book considers the ways in which 'new media' really are new, assesses the claims that a media and technological revolution has taken place and formulates new ways for media studies to respond to new technologies. The authors introduce a wide variety of topics including: how to define the characteristics of new media; social and political uses of new media and new communications; new media technologies, politics and globalization; everyday life and new media; theories of interactivity, simulation, the new media economy; cybernetics, cyberculture, the history of automata and artificial life. Substantially updated from the first edition to cover recent theoretical developments, approaches and significant technological developments, this is the best and by far the most comprehensive textbook available on this exciting and expanding subject. At www.newmediaintro.com you will find: additional international case studies with online references specially created You Tube videos on machines and digital photography a new ‘Virtual Camera’ case study, with links to short film examples useful links to related websites, resources and research sites further online reading links to specific arguments or discussion topics in the book links to key scholars in the field of new media.

Game studies is a rapidly developing field across the world, with a growing number of dedicated courses addressing video games and digital play as significant phenomena in contemporary everyday life and media cultures. Seth Giddings looks to fill a gap by focusing on the relationship between the actual and virtual worlds of play in everyday life. He addresses both the continuities and differences between digital play and longer-established modes of play. The 'gameworlds' title indicates both the virtual world designed into the videogame and the wider environments in which play is manifested: social relationships between players; hardware and software; between the virtual worlds of the game and the media universes they extend (e.g. Pokémon, Harry Potter, Lego, Star Wars); and the gameworlds generated by children's imaginations and creativity (through talk and role-play, drawings and outdoor play). The gameworld raises questions about who, and what, is in play. Drawing on recent theoretical work in science and technology studies, games studies and new media studies, a key theme is the material and embodied character of these gameworlds and their components (players' bodies, computer hardware, toys, virtual physics, and the physical environment). Building on detailed small-scale ethnographic case studies, Gameworlds is the first book to explore the nature of play in the virtual worlds of video games and how this play relates to, and crosses over into, everyday play in the actual world.

Virtual Media and Children's Everyday Play

Gameworlds

Providing a comprehensive introduction to the culture, technologies, history and theories of new media, this book considers the ways in which they really are new, assesses whether a media and technological revolution is under way and formulates ways for media studies to respond to new technologies.

With this text, a team of authors from the University of West England provide a comprehensive overview of the culture, technologies and history of new media and assess claims that a media and technology revolution is underway.

Seth Giddings

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