Portal on the New Society

Documents/Journals

This site provides a number of documents, articles and reports about topics that are of interest for our New Society Portal.

19.04.2005 · Research Group on the Global Future

Home of new media studies. Provides papers and research on the Internet and cyber culture, links to sites on cyber culture, Internet statistics and art.

Host of a collection of texts from the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, revealing what he thinks about the Internet. Some texts by others that apply communication theory to the Internet are also provided.

An international journal of theory, technology and culture. Articles, interviews and key book reviews on contemporary discourse are published weekly.

The online edition of MIT’s "Magazine on innovation". It deals with the possibilities through new technology in the fields of digitalization, biotech and sustainability, and the impacts that future developments might have on our daily lives.

An article on the development of the information society in cultural terms.

Concise text by Scott Lash. His experience with new technology led him to change his concept of society. He still is a cultural theorist, but sees "Information" as the better label to describe our current world than "Post modernity" or "Reflexive Modernity". For him the concept of discourse gets replaced by the "message": discursive ideas, developed within three or four years and finally leading to an academic book, will still be there. Short-term valid messages, however, will replace their importance.

Working papers from the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, among them various on information society.

A text of Dan Schiller on the convergence of TV and the Internet.

"Computerization and controversy. Value conflicts and social choices". Book by Robert Kling, Professor of Information Systems and Information Science and editor in chief of "The Information Society".

Another interesting magazine is Cios.

"The Virtual Community”: online version of Howard Rheingold’s book on virtual communities.

Articles written and collected by John Suler on the psychological dimensions of net communities, roles and relationships in cyberspace. The site explores the psychological dimensions of environments that are created by computer and online networks.

Text about how friendships are developed in MUDs.

Article from Henry Jenkins about gender differences in video gaming.

"The Digital Citizen”, survey about the difference of net users and nonusers in the US.

German online report about stress and Internet addiction.

"Internetsucht: Eine Neumodische Krankheit?”. Study about chat rooms and internet addiction.

Article from Scott Rosenberg about Internet and loneliness.

Carnegie Mellon study indicating that heavy Internet usage has a negative influence on emotional wellbeing.