Preview

Urban Folklore and Anthropology

Advanced search

Metaphors reflecting and shaping the reality of the internet: tool, place, way of being

https://doi.org/10.22394/2658-3895-2023-6-1-57-79

Abstract

This classic work by American researcher Annette Markham is committed to the analysis of metaphors used to conceptualize the internet in various discourses, ranging from user-oriented to media and technological ones. It explores the internet as a tool, a place, and a mode of existence. Despite the fact that the article was first published two decades ago, Markham’s idea that methaphorics not only helps describe and make sense of technology but also shapes our interaction with it remains relevant as we continue to describe the internet as a space of action, a channel of communication, a data repository, and a place of memory. This variability in the metaphorical framing of the internet and the associated political decisions and actions are especially important in constructing the internet as a research field and digital ethnography.

About the Author

Annette N. Markham
University of Illinois
United States

Annette N. Markham,

Chicago.



References

1. Benedikt, M. (1991). Cyberspace: First steps. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

2. Bromberg, H. (1996). Are MUDs communities? Identity, belonging, and consciousness in virtual worlds. In R. Shields (Ed.). Cultures of Internet: Virtual spaces, real histories, living bodies, 143–152. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

3. Black, M. (1979/1993). More about metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.). Metaphor and Thought, 19–41. Cambridge University Press.

4. Ortony, A. (Ed.). (1993). Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge University Press.

5. Gergen, K. (1991). The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. New York: Basic Books.

6. Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity.

7. Gleick, J. (1999). Faster: The acceleration of practically everything. New York: Pantheon Books.

8. Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper and Row.

9. Gore, Jr., A. (1991). Information superhighways: The next information revolution. The Futurist, 25(1), 21–23.

10. Gozzi, Jr., R. (1994). The Information Superhighway as Metaphor. Et cetera, 51(3), 321–327. Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge.

11. Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. London: Sage Publications.

12. Jones, S. G. (1995). Understanding community in the information age. In S. G. Jones (Ed.). Cybersociety: Computer-mediated communication and community, 10–35. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

13. Kendall, L. (2002). Hanging out in the virtual pub. Berkeley: University of California Press.

14. Lakoff, G., Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Landsberg, A. (1995). Prosthetic Memory: Total Recall and Blade Runner. In M. Featherstone, R. Burrows (Eds.). Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk, 175–190. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

15. Markham, A. (1998). Life Online: Researching real experience in virtual space. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press.

16. McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: New American Library.

17. McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg galaxy: The making of typographic man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

18. Novak, M. (1991). Liquid architectures in Cyberspace. In M. Benedikt (Ed.). Cyberspace: First steps, 225–254. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Retrieved from http://www.centrifuge.org/marcos/

19. Oldenburg, R. (1989). The great good life. New York: Paragon House.

20. Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage Books.

21. Reddy, M. J. (1979/1993). The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In A. Ortony (Ed.). Metaphor and Thought, 138–164. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

22. Reid, E. (1995). Virtual worlds: Culture and imagination. In S. G. Jones (Ed.). Cybersociety: Computer-mediated communication and community, 164–183. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

23. Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.

24. Schön, D. E. (1979/1993). Generative Metaphor: A perspective on problemsetting in social policy. In A. Ortony (Ed.). Metaphor and Thought, 137–163. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

25. Shannon, C. E., Weaver, W. (1949). The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press. (Прим. пер.)

26. Smith, R., Eisenberg, E. (1987). Conflict at Disneyland: A root metaphor analysis. Communication Monographs, 54, 367–380.

27. Smith, R., Turner, P. (1995). A Social Constructionist Reconfiguration of Metaphor Analysis: An Application of ‘SCMA’ to Organizational Socialization Theorizing. Communication Monographs, 62(2), 152–181.

28. Soja, E. (1989). Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory. London: Verso.

29. Weick, K. E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley. Woolley, B. (1992). Virtual worlds. Oxford: Blackwell.


Review

For citations:


Markham A.N. Metaphors reflecting and shaping the reality of the internet: tool, place, way of being. Urban Folklore and Anthropology. 2023;5(1):57-79. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22394/2658-3895-2023-6-1-57-79

Views: 120


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2658-3895 (Print)