Cutting though the exaggerated and fanciful beliefs about the new possibilities of `net life', Hine produces a distinctive understanding of the significance of the Internet and addresses such questions as: what challenges do the new technologies of communication pose for research methods? Does the Internet force us to rethink traditional categories of `culture' and `society'?

In this compelling and thoughtful book, Hine shows that the Internet is both a site for cultural formations and a cultural artefact which is shaped by people's understandings and expectations. The Internet requires a new form of ethnography. The author considers the shape of this new ethnography and guides readers through its application in multiple settings.

About the Author
Christine Hine is a reader in sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey. Her main research centres on the sociology of science and technology with a particular interest in the role played by new technologies in the knowledge production process. She also has a major interest in the development of ethnography in technical settings, and in "virtual methods" (the use of the Internet for social research). In particular, she has developed mobile and connective approaches to ethnography which combine online and offline social contexts. She is the author of Virtual Ethnography (SAGE Publications, 2000), Systematics as Cyberscience (MIT, 2008), Understanding Qualitative Research: The Internet (Oxford, 2012), and Ethnography for the Internet (Bloomsbury, 2015) and the editor of Virtual Methods (Berg, 2005), New Infrastructures for Knowledge Production (Information Science Publishing, 2006), and Virtual Research Methods (SAGE Publications, 2012).

Reviews
`This book reflects scholarly dedication to enlarging the discussion on the nature and role of the internet, and provides insight into how ethnographic methodologies can be adapted creatively to research into modern electronic forms of communication. A glossary of internet terms adds to the usefulness of this well-referenced treaties' - International Journal of Market Research

`There is so much to praise in this excellent book: its sensitivity to the culture, its alertness to the most demanding scholarly standards, its innovative analysis of the World Wide Web and its elegant, lively presentation. Students and researchers of the emerging culture should not be without it!' - Sean Cubitt, Liverpool John Moores University

Book Information
ISBN 9780761958963
Author Christine M Hine
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint SAGE Publications Inc
Publisher SAGE Publications Inc
Weight(grams) 330g