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Rating: 
Summary: 'Real' web studies. Hooray!
Review: David Gauntlett has compiled an excellent and wide ranging book of/about World Wide Web studies.His introduction is energetic, ambitious and cheeky. His enthusiasm is refreshing and contagious, and his points about the lack of web-specific publications, and about the dearth of interesting media studies, are accurate.I'm not sure that he's right about web studies as the antidote, but this book might just shame you (me) into building a website, particulary if you are writing about/ teaching/ studying the web. The book is divided into Four Parts. 'Web Studies'; 'Web Life, Arts and Culture'; 'Web Business', 'Global Web Communities, Politics and Protest'.There are several chapters in each, which were selected from 140 proposals. The structure works well, with issues from web design to commercial futures to web crime to web democracy all getting careful analysis. It is a splendid resource for teaching undergraduate courses; and deserves to be much quoted in postgraduate work and research. Not only does the book concentrate on the Web rather than the vaguer or larger categories of the virtual, the cyber or the Internet, the different chapters raise theoretical issues by presenting specific case studies.The web and Indian Diaspora; BBC goes Online, artists on the web. I especially liked 'The Teacher Review Debate' which stimulates thinking about power relations on and off the web. No ungrounded abstract generalities here, no cyberhype, no virtual thinking. What a relief! At last! Hooray! Gripping reading. At the end of each chapter is a list of useful websites, so be prepared for an hour or seven of web surfing along with your favourite chapters. The writing styles vary with the authors, and all are polished and approachable. If you are a media studies or cultural studies academic, if you are a media studies or cultural studies student, or if you use the web; you'll find plenty to interest you in this book. Passion, fun, fascinating theory and cocking a snook all in the one tome. I liked it a lot, really (and/not virtually).
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, varied, up-to-date and very readable
Review: This is an excellent book about the Web and Web culture. It's much more readable than other books in this area and it covers an impressive range of topics. Would be very useful on courses in this area, I would expect, but I read it as a 'lay' reader and found it both educational and enjoyable!
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