Online Communication provides an introduction to both the technologies of the Internet Age and their social implications. This innovative and timely textbook brings together current work in communication, political science, philosophy, popular culture, history, economics, and the humanities to present an examination of the theoretical and critical issues in the study of computer-mediated communication.

Authors Andrew F. Wood and Matthew J. Smith introduce computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a subject of academic research, as well as a lens through which to examine contemporary trends in society. Online Communication covers such topics as online identity, mediated relationships, virtual communities, electronic commerce, the digital divide, and spaces of resistance. This text also examines how the Internet has affected contemporary culture and presents the critiques being made to those changes.

This classroom resource will help students conceptualize the human uses of the Internet through an examination of emerging theories, offering explanations for what people are doing with this technology in social and communication contexts. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers interested in the field of computer-mediated communication, as well as those studying issues of technology and culture, will find Online Communication to be an important step forward in studying the role of technology and mediated communication in today's society.