A Digital Revolution? A Reassessment of New Media and Cultural Production in the Digital Age

A review essay on books by (1) Pablo J. Boczkowski, Digitizing the News: Innovation in Online Newspapers, (Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 2004); (2) Simon Head, The New Ruthless Economy: Work & Power in the Digital Age, (Oxford, Oxford U Press, 2003); & (3) Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology & the Law to Lock Down Culture & Control Creativity, (NY, Penguin, 2004). These books challenge popular assumptions about cultural production in the digital age. Boczkowski draws upon ethnographic & archival data to examine the growth of online newspapers & the workplace processes that structure the production of digital journalism. He highlights three case studies: the The New York Times Web Technology Desk; Virtual Voyager; & Community Connection. Head focuses on the organization of digital workspaces like Nissan plants & American Airlines reservation centers to empirically evaluate the consequences of producer-based technologies. Lessig argues that intellectual property & copyright law restrict cultural production by removing creative works from the public domain. Together, these books are a valuable contribution to reassessments of cultural production in the digital age. 17 References. J. Lindroth