Summary

Deciphering Cyberspace: Making the Most of Digital Communication Technology, a collection of new chapters by media experts, social-psychologists, and legal scholars, lucidly explores the modern digital information revolution with one goal: to demystify digital communication technology. By examining its subject matter from the three perspectives of technology, markets, and policy, Deciphering Cyberspace provides an impressively comprehensive view of the technical nature of cyberspace, its social impact, and legal significance for individuals, institutions, and society. Marrying the broad social and psychological impact of technology to the personal, this text goes beyond mere operation of technology and illuminates how systems work.

This text is recommended for courses examining digital media communication in mass media, communication technology, and telecommunications. Deciphering Cyberspace is a must-have volume for anyone interested in keeping connected and learning about the ever-changing world of technology in our increasingly mediated world.

Choice Review

This book effectively demystifies digital communications technology for readers not directly involved in the field. It consists of three broad sections: "Technology," "Markets," and "Policy." In well-written chapters, the "Technology" section offers a brief technical overview of topics ranging from traditional radio and television to cellular telephony and the Internet. The desire for brevity has resulted in a few technical inaccuracies, but these do not detract from the effectiveness of the presentation. The technical material is interspersed with three interviews giving insights into aspects of the field. The second section, "Markets," explores the uses of the telecommunications technology. Four chapters discuss social uses of the Internet, uses by children, digital media, and instructional technologies. This section includes two interviews, one with a Web designer and another with an Internet professional in the area of entertainment news. The final section contains two chapters on policy concerned with laws and regulations. Interesting perspectives are presented on free speech and the right to privacy. Appropriate for students of mass communications or digital media and practicing professionals. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; professionals. M. S. Roden California State University, Los Angeles