Title & Author:

Signal traffic : critical studies of media infrastructures / edited by Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski.

Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2015]

Description:

viii, 292 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Series:

The geopolitics of information

Notes:
Includes index.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Part I. Compression, Storage, Distribution -- Compression : A Loose History / Jonathan Sterne -- Fixed Flow : Undersea Cables as Media Infrastructure / Nicole Starosielski -- "Where the Internet Lives" : Data Centers as Cloud Infrastructure / Jennifer Holt and Patrick Vonderau -- Deep Time of Media Infrastructure / Shannon Mattern -- Part II. Resources, Environments, Geopolitics -- Water, Energy, Access : Materializing the Internet in Rural Zambia / Lisa Parks -- The Art of Waste : Contemporary Culture and Unsustainable Energy Use / Toby Miller -- Cellular Borders : Dis/Connecting Phone Calls in Israel-Palestine / Helga Tawil-Souri -- Part III. Content, Protocols, Platforms -- Protocols, Packets, and Proximity : The Materiality of Internet Routing / Paul Dourish -- Service Providers as Digital Media Infrastructure : Turkey's Cybercafé Operators / Sarah Harris -- The Internet as the Anti-Television : Distribution Infrastructure as Culture and Power / Christian Sandvig -- Consumer Electronics and the Building of an Entertainment Infrastructure / Charles R. Acland.

Summary:

"The contributors to Signal Traffic investigate how the material artifacts of media infrastructure--transoceanic cables, mobile telephone towers, Internet data centers, and the like--intersect with everyday life. Essayists confront the multiple and hybrid forms networks take, the different ways networks are imagined and engaged with by publics around the world, their local effects, and what human beings experience when a network fails. Some contributors explore the physical objects and industrial relations that make up an infrastructure. Others venture into the marginalized communities orphaned from the knowledge economies, technological literacies, and epistemological questions linked to infrastructural formation and use. The wide-ranging insights delineate the oft-ignored contrasts between industrialized and developing regions, rich and poor areas, and urban and rural settings, bringing technological differences into focus. Contributors include Charles R. Acland, Paul Dourish, Sarah Harris, Jennifer Holt and Patrick Vonderau, Shannon Mattern, Toby Miller, Lisa Parks, Christian Sandvig, Nicole Starosielski, Jonathan Sterne, and Helga Tawil-Souri"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780252039362 (hardback ; acid-free paper)
025203936X (hardback ; acid-free paper)
9780252080876 (paper ; acid-free paper)
0252080874 (paper ; acid-free paper)
(e-book)
9780252080876
9780252097416 (ebook)

Subject:

Telecommunication systems Social aspects.
Digital media Social aspects.
Mass media Social aspects.
Information superhighway.
Computer networks Social aspects.
Information networks Social aspects.
Telecommunication Traffic.
Signal processing.
Systèmes de télécommunications Aspect social.
Médias numériques Aspect social.
Médias Aspect social.
Autoroutes électroniques.
Réseaux d'ordinateurs Aspect social.
Réseaux d'information Aspect social.
Télécommunications Trafic.
Traitement du signal.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES Communication Studies.
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING Telecommunications.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Industries Computer Industry.

Added entries:

Parks, Lisa.
Starosielski, Nicole, 1984-
Parks, Lisa. editor
Starosielski, Nicole, 1984- editor
Geopolitics of information.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 292782
Call No.: BIB 237266
Status: Available