Fully revised, this Third Edition covers crucial new issues and updates, including:

• the long history of social media and Web 2.0: why it's not as new as we think

• digital youth culture as a foreshadow of future new media use

• the struggle for control of the internet among Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook

• the contribution of media networks to the current financial crisis

• complete update of the literature on the facts, theories, trends and technologies of the internet

• new features for students with boxes of chapter questions, conclusions and boxed explanations of key concepts

This book remains an accessible, comprehensive, must-read introduction to how new media function in contemporary society.