"Desert Island" New Media articles: Lievrouw/Livin

[Leah Lievrouw]

Hello fellow CITASA folk,

I thought this forum would be a good place to ask for your help with a project that Sonia Livingstone and I are working on (I'll also post to the CITASA list, so apologies in advance for redundancy!). We have been asked to develop and edit a major compilation of "classic," must-read articles in new media studies – a sort of "desert island" collection that will be published as a (rather hefty) four-volume reference.

Sonia and I have made a preliminary list. However, our experience with the Handbook of New Media has taught us that this field is a very big umbrella, covering everything from media law and regulation, to studies of communities and social networks, to education and the workplace, to digital arts and culture (and more). The challenge is to assemble a collection that fairly and comprehensively covers the field as we specialists understand it.

Therefore we are seeking your help, in the form of up to three nominations for journal or proceedings articles, key book chapters, or other publications of similar length that you would consider essential reads for anyone wanting to know what new media studies (broadly construed) is about.

These might be readings you always assign to students, items you consistently cite in your own work, or pieces that have made a difference in the way you think about and study new media yourself. We are particularly interested in items that have historical value, tend to be overlooked, or concisely capture a writer's most important ideas (my personal favorite, for example, is Sherry Turkle's 1980 essay that appeared in Society/Transaction, "Computer as Rorschach"). You may suggest your own publications, BUT we are more interested to know what or who has influenced you.

Sonia and I will select the final list for the collection, but we will be happy to summarize and share everyone's nominees after we get feedback, which itself should be a very interesting resource. We'd like your suggestions and ideas by October 1 if possible – we're also eager to see if this exercise generates any discussion!

Thanks in advance for your time and interest, please let us know if you have any questions (my email is ) --

best,

Leah Lievrouw
UCLA