The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory This page intentionally left blank: The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory Edited by Andrew Herman & Thomas Swiss Routledge Taylor & Francis Gtoup New York London Published in 2000 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 711 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 Published in Great Britain in 2000 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square, Milton Park Abingdon, axon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor &: Francis Group, an informa business A member of the Taylor & Francis Group Copyright © 2000 by Routledge Design: Jack Donner All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. Cataloging·in-Publication Data available from the library of Congress. 0-415-92501-0( hb) 0-415-92502-9( pb) CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Introduction ) The World Wide Web as Magic. Metaphor. and Power » THOMAS SWISS AND ANDREW HERMAN 1 1 ) So Much for the Magic of TechnoLogy and the Free Market » The World Wide Web and the Corporate Media System ») ROBERT MCCHESNEY 5 2 ) Webs of Myth and Power » Connectivity and the New Computer Technopolis ») VINCENT MOSCO 37 3 ) Webs of Conspiracy » JODI DEAN 61 4 ) "Red Alertl .. » Rhetorics of the World Wide Web and "Friction Free" Capitalism ») ANDREW HERMAN AND JOHN H. SLOOP 77 5 ) Yo-Ho-Ho and a Server of Warez » Internet Software Piracy and the New Global Information Economy ») DAVID TETZLAFF 99 6 ) Shit Happens » Numerology. Destiny. and Control on the Web ») SEAN CUBITT 127 7 ) Hypertext Links » The Ethic of the Indel( and Its Space-TIme Effects ») ROB SHIELDS 145 8 ) The Economy of Cyberpromotion » Awards on the World Wide Web ») GREG ELMER 161 9 ) The Bias of the Web » STEVEN JONES 171 10 ) Baud Girls and Cargo Cults » A Story about Celebrity, Community, » and Profane Illumination on the Web ») THERESA M. SENFT 183 11 ) Literacy Beyond Books » Reading When All the World's a Web ») NANCY KAPLAN 207 12 ) Cultural Technologies and the "Evolution" of Technological Cultures » ICDY BERLAND 235 13 ) Error 404 » Doubting the Web ») STUART MOULTHROP 259 » Bibliography 277 » Contributors 297 » Index 301 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authorsw ould like to thank Heidi Hensona nd Cynthia Lewis for their supporta ndc omradeshipT. hanksa lso to Sofia Turnbull and Nancy Smith for their careful attentiont o the details of The World Wide Web and ContemporaryC ultural Theory conferencea nd this book; neither would have beenp ossiblew ithout them. Skye Giordano also deserves special thanksfo r his technicals upporta t the conference,h elp in cre- ating the websitesf or the conferencea nd the book, and in getting the screens hotsf or the book. We also wish to acknowledget he many and variedc ontributionso f Dan Alexander,R obertH oehle,M ichael Cheney, Bobby Gitenstein,R onaldT royer, Jacoba ndA lley Swiss,O liver "Pointer" Herman, Bruce Homer, SuzanneS chnackenbergW, illiam Germano, Nick Syretta ndo ur friends at Routledge,a nda ll the contributorst o this book. Finally, we would like to thank the Drake University Centerf or the Humanities,a s well as the Womens'S tudies,C ultural Studies,a nd Honors programsa t Drake, for their generousf inancial and moral sup- port at various stageso f this project. This page intentionally left blank: ) FROI THOMAS SWISS AND ANDREW HERMAN ) ) SUBjEC' Introduction ) The World Wide Web ) as Magic, Metaphor, and Power ) ) ) ) ) The World Wide Web is the most well known, celebrated, ) and promoted manifestation of "cyberspace." However, ) most writing ahout the Web falls into the category of ) explanatory journalism; it remainsl argely unmapped in ) termso f contemporaryc ultural research. This book com- ) mences thai mappingb y bringing togethers cholars from ) the humanitiesa nd social sciences to exploret he Web as ) a complex nexus of economic,p olitical, social, and aes- ) thetic forces. In doings o, the contributors engageth e Web ) as a spacew here magic, metaphor,a nd power converge. ) Although each of the chapters deals with a different ) aspecto f the Web, each of them shares a focal concern ) with the Web as a unique" cultural technology."A s Jody ) Berland (one of the contributors to this volume) argues, ) all mediac ultural technologiese mbodya spatialized logic ) of production, dissemination,a nd consumption that ) "involves a mediation of a modeo f address,t he occasion ) of its receptiona nd its consolidation as technique" (I993: ) 27). In examiningt he World Wide Web asa cultural tech- ) nology, we are concernedw ith how different dimensions ) of the Web as a complex practice come together.T hese ) dimensionsi nclude the material mode of production of ) the Web and its "content";t he circulationo f its contenti n ) the form of hypertext.g raphici mages, or streaming audio ) and video; and its consumpiton by usersi n the placeso f ) everydayl ife such as the home or office. Moreover, the ) Web can be understood as technei n Martin Heidegger's