The network society : social aspects of new media / Jan A.G.M. van Dijk. (Text)

1 Introduction -- A New Infrastructure for Society -- A Second Communications Revolution? -- Characteristics of the New Media -- Communication Capacities of the New Media -- The Nature and Design of the Book -- 2 Networks: The Nervous System of Society -- What is a Network Society? -- A Short History of the Human Web -- Networks at All Levels -- Causes of the Rise of Networks -- The Seven "Laws" of the Web -- From Mass Society to Network Society -- 3 Technology -- Technical Foundations of the Network Society -- Current Technical Trends -- 4 Economy -- Causes of the Current Communications Revolution -- A Flow Economy -- Enterprise 2.0 -- Markets, Hierarchies and Networks -- Characteristics of a Network Economy -- The Producers: From Infrastructure to Service Providers -- The Consumers: The Pushers and Pulled -- 5 Politics and Power -- The Vulnerability of Networks -- Network Politics -- The Internet: A Tool for Democracy? -- E-Participation -- Power in the Organization -- Privacy and Personal Autonomy -- 6 Law -- The Law Undermined by Networks -- Who Rules the Internet?

Information and Communication Freedom -- Intellectual Property Rights -- The Right to Privacy -- Social Structure -- Space and Time in the Network Society -- The Blurring Spheres of Living -- The Rise of the Social Media -- Unity and Fragmentation: A New Social Cohesion -- Networks and Social (In)Equality -- The Digital Divide -- The Instability of the Network Society -- 8 Culture -- What Is Digital Culture? -- Characteristics of Digital Culture -- The Quantity and Quality of New Media Content -- Digital Youth Culture: Foreshadow of the Future? -- Trends in New Media Use -- 9 Psychology -- Perception and the New Media -- Cognition and the New Media -- Learning with the New Media -- The Social Psychology of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) -- Changes in Human Personality? -- 10 Conclusions and Policy Perspectives -- General Conclusions -- The Network Society in North America, Europe, East Asia and the Third World -- Policy Perspectives for the Network Society.