Cyberspace Studies

Cyberspace Studies

Cyberspace Policy Studies Winter 2017 , Volume 1, Issue 1

مقالات

۱.

Dual Spacization of Cultures: Problematization of Cyberspace and Cultural Matters

نویسنده:

کلید واژه ها: culture dual spacization virtual capacity internet challenges cyberspace

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی جامعه شناسی جامعه شناسی فرهنگ مطالعات فرهنگی
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات ارتباطات و فرهنگ
  3. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات مطالعات فضای مجازی، جهانی شدن و تکنولوژی های نوین ارتباطاتی مطالعات فضای مجازی
تعداد بازدید : 863 تعداد دانلود : 779
This paper examines the problematization of cultural issues related to the dual spacization of life. The emergence of the second space of life over the first place of life combining local and translocal, national and transnational capacities and challenges. We discuss the capacities and opportunities occurring through the instant communication industry which made the spontaneous connection between absence and presence possible which overcome the domination of place and distance. We will also elaborate on the challenges and threats facing cultures because of access to other cultures, subcultures and individuals around the world without having enough time for nurturing the relationship between inner cultures and outer cultures as well as facing many abnormalities, distancing from genuine culture and natural communications.
۲.

O Brave New World: The Dark Side of Cyberspace

نویسنده:

کلید واژه ها: Facebook social media hikikomori smartphones

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات مطالعات فضای مجازی، جهانی شدن و تکنولوژی های نوین ارتباطاتی مطالعات فضای مجازی
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات گروه های ویژه سبک زندگی و رسانه
  3. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات آموزش و ارتباطات اقناعی تهاجم فرهنگی یا جنگ نرم
تعداد بازدید : 741 تعداد دانلود : 816
This article focuses on some of the negative aspects of cyberspace and cyberculture. First, it offers an examination of the impact of our use of social media, and Facebook in particular, on our psyches, pointing out that users of social media can be thought of as audiences. These audiences and information about them can be sold to marketers and advertisers. Next, it offers a case study of a widespread social problem in Japan, more than a million media-obsessed Japanese young men (and some young women), the hikikomori, who shut themselves off from society for months or years at a time. This is followed by a discussion of the impact of mobiles, primarily smartphones, on American adolescents, some of whom text one hundred messages a day to their friends. The effects of the enormous amount of face-time young people spend with screens—around ten hours per day--are also considered. Finally, there is an examination of the impact that Amazon.com, the leading e-commerce Internet site, has had on American shopping practices and American culture and society. The article concludes with a discussion of the work of Hubert Dreyfus about some negative effects of the Internet and, by implication, cyberspace and cyberculture, which, he argues, drain life of meaning.
۳.

Online Community and Democracy

نویسنده:

کلید واژه ها: Democracy online community the information model the consumption model the community model

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات ارتباطات سیاسی، بین الملل و توسعه ارتباطات سیاسی
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات جامعه اطلاعاتی
تعداد بازدید : 484 تعداد دانلود : 34
The debate over the contribution of the Internet to democracy is far from settled. Some point to the empowering effects of online discussion and fund raising on recent electoral campaigns in the US to argue that the Internet will restore the public sphere. Others claim that the Internet is just a virtual mall, a final extension of global capitalism into every corner of our lives. This paper argues for the democratic thesis with some qualifications. The most important contribution of the Internet to democracy is not necessarily its effects on the electoral process but rather its ability to assemble a public around technical networks that enroll individuals scattered over wide geographical areas. Medical patients, video game players, musical performers, and many other publics have emerged on the Internet with surprising consequences.
۴.

The Impacts of Global Inequality in Social Networks: Examined in Three Major Theories

کلید واژه ها: global inequality communication power oral networks long-distance networks digital networks

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات مطالعات فضای مجازی، جهانی شدن و تکنولوژی های نوین ارتباطاتی مطالعات فضای مجازی
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی جامعه شناسی جامعه شناسی مسایل اجتماعی و انحرافات قشربندی و نابرابری اجتماعی
تعداد بازدید : 638 تعداد دانلود : 343
The rapid growth of modern long-distance communication technologies both in term of quality and quantity and the consequent emergence of cyberspace in parallel with the real world, has led to new forms of inequality which can be interpreted in three different ways. Using the three-generation theory of social networks (Oral networks; Longdistance networks; and, Digital networks), one can make domestic comparisons, and find countries in which the majority of the population are within the third category or the digital network. On the other side of the extreme, are nations who are still under the limited conditions of the first and second categories of oral and long-distance networking. This paper presents a chart using a combination of different statistical indicators to illustrate the inequality in question. The focus of this paper has been on the two countries of Iran and the United States as its case study. The conclusion at the end suggests that tackling and reducing the inequality in question has to do with ‘national will and national facilities’ as well as ‘individual will and individual facilities’.
۵.

Culture, Lifestyle and the Information Revolution in the Middle East and Muslim World

نویسنده:

کلید واژه ها: culture Middle East lifestyle information revolution

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات گروه های ویژه ارتباطات و جامعه
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات گروه های ویژه سبک زندگی و رسانه
تعداد بازدید : 906 تعداد دانلود : 631
For over two decades, the ‘information revolution’ in the Middle East has been framed overwhelmingly in terms of media, more of it, and in comparisons to mass media – from the advent of any-to-any communication to ad hoc conceptualizations such as ‘crowd-sourcing’ or ‘citizen journalism’ – that register the multiplication of voices, channels and eroding boundaries in spheres of communication. The record has expanded more than conceptualizations of its sociologies in media and communications studies. It’s time for other questions that elicit additional and more basic features of Internet practices from choices that shape individual repertoires and participation to continuities between users and producers to how actual practices scale up, which actually link micro and macro processes. To elicit these broader sociologies, and move beyond the limited social physics of ‘impact’ of the Internet on culture and lifestyles, I draw on the related sociologies of reference group and network theory, on Science-Technology-Society studies and sociolinguistics to bring disruption of existing institutions, on the one hand, and cooptation by them, on the other, into more unified theory of the play of information revolution in culture and lifestyles on the Internet.
۶.

A Reflection on Shaping the Virtual Space Based on Religious Values

کلید واژه ها: alternative thinking value framework concretization virtual space sand desert metaphor

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات مطالعات فضای مجازی، جهانی شدن و تکنولوژی های نوین ارتباطاتی مطالعات فضای مجازی
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات دین و ارتباطات
تعداد بازدید : 904
This paper initially examines theories proposed by Feenberg about technical systems and alternative modernity, analyzes his thoughts, and concludes that a framework of values needs to be provided in shaping technical systems. In a society like Iran, where policy makers are looking for the realization of Islamic values, this framework of values is derived from Islam. To explain the relationship between religion and technology, the concept of concretization has been used up, according to which, all aspects of civilization, including technical systems must be concretized based on Islamic values. Virtual space as a part of the technical systems must be concretized with a holistic approach, based on Islamic values, and for this purpose, there is no choice but a collective social life based on religious values. The concluding section of the paper also tries to deal with another significant issue which predicts the future of concretization at the level of civilizations which will be offered using the metaphor of the ‘sand desert’.
۷.

A Reflection on Shaping the Virtual Space Based on Religious Values

کلید واژه ها: alternative thinking value framework concretization virtual space sand desert metaphor

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات مطالعات فضای مجازی، جهانی شدن و تکنولوژی های نوین ارتباطاتی مطالعات فضای مجازی
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات دین و ارتباطات
تعداد بازدید : 873 تعداد دانلود : 386
This paper initially examines theories proposed by Feenberg about technical systems and alternative modernity, analyzes his thoughts, and concludes that a framework of values needs to be provided in shaping technical systems. In a society like Iran, where policy makers are looking for the realization of Islamic values, this framework of values is derived from Islam. To explain the relationship between religion and technology, the concept of concretization has been used up, according to which, all aspects of civilization, including technical systems must be concretized based on Islamic values. Virtual space as a part of the technical systems must be concretized with a holistic approach, based on Islamic values, and for this purpose, there is no choice but a collective social life based on religious values. The concluding section of the paper also tries to deal with another significant issue which predicts the future of concretization at the level of civilizations which will be offered using the metaphor of the ‘sand desert’.
۸.

Social Media and Politics: Examining Indonesians’ Political Knowledge on Facebook

نویسنده:

کلید واژه ها: Corruption Facebook social media political discussion political knowledge Indonesia

حوزه های تخصصی:
  1. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات ارتباطات سیاسی، بین الملل و توسعه
  2. حوزه‌های تخصصی علوم اجتماعی ارتباطات مطالعات فضای مجازی، جهانی شدن و تکنولوژی های نوین ارتباطاتی مطالعات فضای مجازی
تعداد بازدید : 965 تعداد دانلود : 50
The Internet and social media have played a significant role in contemporary political sphere of Indonesia. In particular, they have been widely used for political activism and discussion; but whether the discussions are constructive is another issue. Constructive political discussion requires several preconditions; one of the most important requirements is rational reasoning. Citizens must be equipped with some degree of political knowledge and competency to provide reasonable arguments and justifications in discussions. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the level of political knowledge of Indonesian Facebookers regarding corruption which is currently a serious issue in Indonesia. An online survey was conducted among the most active users of an anti-corruption Facebook group of Indonesians. The results of the study generally suggested that the participants were well informed about the current affairs of their society and showed a high level of political knowledge in terms of the Corruption Eradication Commission and also the incumbent politicians; however, the results indicated a low level of knowledge regarding laws and regulations surrounding corruption as well as the issues related to the former politicians.