internet@academia.com: Internet Studies,Popular Communication,and Academic Work

This article examines the development of Internet studies in the context of media studies and popular communication research. It describes and discusses parallel trends in popular communication and Internet studies, the formation of disciplinary structures and canons, and the costs and benefits of interdisciplinarity. It argues that the institutionalization of Internet studies can provide a means by which Internet researchers in an academic setting can engage in public debate about the social and cultural consequences of Internet technologies and in debate with institutional colleagues about resource, as well as intellectual, issues.