cyberculture as discourse
After elaborating on methodological concerns and before delving into detailed analysis of the representational politics in selected cyberpop examples, it is important to situate the objects of this book in their cultural context. Chapter 2 is an overview of several key concepts in the network of discourses and practices that constitute cyberculture and, by extension, its popular media productions. Describing cyberculture as a discursive formation (inspired by theories of Michel Foucault (Archeology) helpfully clarifies how the key concepts that emerge repeatedly in cyberpop operate as a network or conceptual architecture linking technologies to individual subjects, identities, and digital lifestyles. In order to provide a framework for the analysis that follows then, we explicate in detail three of the rules of formation that operate in cyberculture: namely, intangibility, connectivity, and speed. Examining magazine advertisements for digital products and services, and e-commerce management literature advising audiences on how to succeed in “the connected economy,” reveals the same collection of key concepts (or rules) used to promote digital capitalist culture, and the development of compatible identities and lifestyles. (Matrix 2006: 5-6)
the author’s name seriously is MATRIX ?!!!
Well, it indeed seems so—nevertheless I too suspect a pseudonym here :)