Pushing at the Boundaries of New Media Studies

Discusses four books on new media studies, emphasizing the value of two particular perspectives -- of material culture studies & of feminist technoscience, by (1) Daniel Miller & Don Slater, The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach (2000); (2) Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (1991); (3) Susan Leigh Star, Misplaced Concretism and Corporate Situations: Feminism, Method and Information Technology (1994); & (4) Sarah Kember, Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life (2003). The books are examined in terms of key questions about new media research outside of the dominant American context & methods; the relationship of gender, class, race, & sexuality to new technological development; the need for new metaphors for technological realities; & the importance of fostering critical dialogues with new-technology producers. Each book demonstrates that the expansion of the field's boundaries entails not only investigating alternative field sites, but also recognizing that partiality, multiplicity, & situatedness may be the most effective means of developing a new media studies that engages with & contests, instead of merely rewriting, new discourses. 6 References. K. Coddon