This timely volume offers a mapping of the Internet as it has developed and been used internationally. It is the first book to provide a range of perspectives on the international Internet and to explore the implications of such new knowledge.

This timely book offers a mapping of the Internet as it has developed and is used internationally, providing a lively and challenging examination of the Internet and Internet studies. There is much interest among scholars and researchers in understanding the place of the Internet in cultural, social, national, and regional settings. This is the first book-length account that not only provides a range of perspectives on the international Internet, but also explores the implications of such new knowledge and accounts for concepts, methods, and themes in Internet studies. Of special interest will be the book’s fresh and up-to-date coverage of the Internet in perhaps the most dynamic region at present: Asia-Pacific.

"This compelling book focuses on the global formation of the Internet system. It contests the common belief that the Internet's adoption was inevitable and instead examines the social and economic processes that allowed it to prevail over competing standards and methods for achieving a global information infrastructure." "Researchers and academics involved with science and technology policy, industrial and corporate change, and the information society will welcome this insightful, original and highly pertinent book. It will also be of value for anyone with an interest in how the backbone of the digital economy was formed."--BOOK JACKET.

The explosion of transnational information flows, made possible by new technologies and institutional changes (economic, political and legal) has profoundly affected the study of global media. At the same time, the globalization of media combined with the globalization of higher education means that the research and teaching of the subject faces immediate and profound challenges, not only as the subject of enquiry but also as the means by which researchers and students undertake their studies. Edited by a leading scholar of global communication, this collection of essays by internationally-acclaimed scholars from around the world aims to stimulate a debate about the imperatives for internationalizing media studies by broadening its remit, including innovative research methodologies, taking account of regional and national specificities and pedagogic necessities warranted by the changing profile of students and researchers and the unprecedented growth of media in the non-Western world. Transnational in its perspectives, Internationalizing Media Studies is a much-needed guide to the internationalization of media and its study in a global context.

This collection of essays by leading scholars from around the world aims to stimulate a debate about the imperatives for internationalizing media studies, and provides much-needed material on the dynamics of the media studies field in a global context. Lively and current case studies are included within the essays to exemplify the main arguments.

Internet research spans many disciplines. From the computer or information s- ences, through engineering, and to social sciences, humanities and the arts, almost all of our disciplines have made contributions to internet research, whether in the effort to understand the effect of the internet on their area of study, or to investigate the social and political changes related to the internet, or to design and develop so- ware and hardware for the network. The possibility and extent of contributions of internet research vary across disciplines, as do the purposes, methods, and outcomes. Even the epistemological underpinnings differ widely. The internet, then, does not have a discipline of study for itself: It is a ?eld for research (Baym, 2005), an open environment that simultaneously supports many approaches and techniques not otherwise commensurable with each other. There are, of course, some inhibitions that limit explorations in this ?eld: research ethics, disciplinary conventions, local and national norms, customs, laws, borders, and so on. Yet these limits on the int- net as a ?eld for research have not prevented the rapid expansion and exploration of the internet. After nearly two decades of research and scholarship, the limits are a positive contribution, providing bases for discussion and interrogation of the contexts of our research, making internet research better for all. These ‘limits,’ challenges that constrain the theoretically limitless space for internet research, create boundaries that give de?nition to the ?eld and provide us with a particular topography that enables research and investigation.

This book provides a solid, encompassing definition of Internet memes, exploring both the common features of memes around the globe and their particular regional traits. It identifies and explains the roles that these viral texts play in Internet communication: cultural, social and political implications; significance for self-representation and identity formation; promotion of alternative opinion or trending interpretation; and subversive and resistant power in relation to professional media, propaganda, and traditional and digital political campaigning. It also offers unique comparative case studies of Internet memes in Russia and the United States.