In this article we argue that the concept of genre has a valuable function within sociological theory, particularly for understanding emerging communicative practices within social and personal media. Genres span the whole range of recognizable forms of communication, play a crucial role in overcoming contingency and facilitate communication. Their function is to enhance composing and understanding of communication by offering interpretative, recognizable and flexible frames of reference. As such, genres generate a sense of stability in modern complex societies. Genres ought to be seen as an intermediary level between the levels of media and text, however influenced by both. They operate as interaction between two interdependent dimensions, conventions and expectations, both of which are afforded by media and specific texts. In this article these relationships are illustrated through two cases of emerging personal media genres: the online diary and the camphone self-portrait.
The article addresses the main theory of the political public sphere generally, and the role of the Internet and Internet-based media in the theory specifically. It first reviews brief ly the initial social research on the Internet in the 1990s concerning political participation. After a presentation of Jürgen Habermas' theory of the contemporary public sphere, it proceeds to discuss the main problems concerning the Internet as a platform or infrastructure for public debate: segmentation and concentration. It argues that a general conclusion is that the public sphere differentiates and become more complex. A key task for future research, it argues, is to investigate the complex connections between Internet publics and mass media publics.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.1316 The Internet and the Public Sphere
The article addresses recent structural changes in the public sphere related to media as platforms for debate and deliberation. New media platforms for communication lead to changes in the communication structure itself. This can easily be seen in the diff erentiation processes of the public sphere that is now taking place: The diff erentiation of topics, styles and actors is an astonishing phenomenon, is constantly a topic of debate in itself, often labelled as both decay and democratisation. I argue that as Internet-based media take actively part in, and accelerate the internal diff erentiation of the public sphere, the role and function of the public sphere is put in a new light. Inner divisions of labour in the public sphere emerge, which forces us to reconsider conventional understandings of the political public sphere vis-à-vis political deliberation. The article addresses this new complexity of public discourse and presents a revised view on its democratic functions. I argue that as a consequence of the Internet, social and political theory need to distinguish between a presentational and a representational dimension, each serving diff erent functions. I also argue that the altered media composition underlying the public sphere suggests a more network-like view on national and international public spheres.
This article describes the development of a prototyped digital genre: situated simulations. A situated simulation is a kind of mobile augmented reality system used to augment specific places with additional information about the environment. In the article we present the basic features of the system and discuss several implementations where past topics-historical buildings, actions and events-have been evaluated by users on location. We also present some of the hardware and software constraints of the application.
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