reviews.indd


study proposed to investigate. Eriksson-
Backa admits that her study does not fit 
well with theories on the relationship be-
tween information source and knowledge 
level, perhaps causing her to concentrate 
on possible demographic explanations 
instead. 

The strengths of this volume are its 
logical organization of chapters, impres-
sive literature review and bibliography, 
and the inclusion of the complete ques-
tionnaire. Despite weaknesses in the flow 
of the English text and the lack of detailed 
description of methodologies used in the 
empirical study and their relation to its 
philosophical underpinnings, this book 
could serve as an excellent bibliographic 
source for researchers in the field of health 
information and its relation to preferred 
media and health behavior.—Nancy Schae-
fer, University of Florida. 

Digital Media Revisited: Theoretical 
and Conceptual Innovation in Digi-
tal Domains. Eds. Gunnar Liestol, 
Andrew Morrison, and Terje Ras-
mussen. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr., 
2003. 554p. alk. paper, paper $24.95 
(ISBN 0262621924); cloth $45 (ISBN 
0262122561). LC 2002-35064. 

Digital media now permeate our lives, 
from bank teller machines to digital art to 
online classrooms. Much of the fi rst wave 
of academic investigation and thought 
about the impact of these increasingly 
pervasive new technologies was limited 
to specific academic applications. Art crit-
ics who turned their attention to digital 
media creations quite naturally drew 
on the theories and vocabulary of their 
own field. Sociologists studying online 
communities did the same, and so did 
librarians, literary theorists, ethicists, 
and others, each operating within his or 
her own scholarly paradigm. Perhaps the 
most useful and enlightening aspect of 
Digital Media Revisited is the editors’ at-
tempt to bring thinkers from a wide range 
of theoretical traditions together in one 
volume. The nature of this work invites 
the reader to break academic boundaries, 

Book Reviews 381 

to link and weave together the insight 
of multiple thinkers and their academic 
disciplines. This is especially appropriate 
for a work that investigates media that 
often have their greatest impact due to an 
interactive, interwoven, and hypertextual 
nature. 

The work’s nineteen essays are in-
formed by literary theory, semiotics, 
philosophy, aesthetics, ethics, media 
studies, sociology, and education. They 
are arranged in four sections: “Education 
and Interdisciplinarity,” “Design and Aes-
thetics,” “Rhetoric and Interpretation,” 
and “Social Theory and Ethics.” Within 
these general subject areas, authors look 
at a wide-ranging set of issues from Jay 
David Bolter’s investigation into the di-
vide between the media of theory and the 
media of practice in the new media stud-
ies (“What we need is a hybrid, a fusion of 
the critical stance of cultural theory with 
the constructive attitude of the visual de-
signer”) to Mark Poster’s questioning of 
the relationship between real-life encoun-
ters and mediated or virtual interactions 
(“Can we apply to acts that are distanced 
by information machines the same norms, 
value judgments, and moral and ethical 
criteria that we use in evaluating face-
to-face speech acts?”). Found between 
are essays that explore theatricality and 
performance in multi-user dungeons 
(MUDS), subjectivity and agency in the 
use of new technologies by the disabled, 
and the representation of women in gam-
ing culture, among others. 

Particularly noteworthy are the essays, 
“The Paradigm Is More Important Than 
the Purchase” and “Computer Games 
and the Ludic Structure of Interpreta-
tion.” The former is by George P. Landow, 
the influential author of several highly 
cited and important works on hypertext 
theory. Landow notes how developers of 
new media often view their creations as 
simply versions of old media and thus 
do not make use of their full potential 
(e.g., museum Web sites become simply 
online print catalogs, lacking interactive 
and multimedia components that are 



382 College & Research Libraries 

possible online). He then illustrates the 
stretching of such a traditional paradigm 
by drawing on hypertext theory and the 
works of poststructuralist literary theo-
rists while thinking critically about the 
University Scholars Programme, which 
he created and directs for the University 
of Singapore. Landow discusses how this 
multidisciplinary program’s curriculum 
emphasizes a high degree of participant 
(student) interactivity and multivocal-
ity (multiple voices from the “evidence” 
and the thoughts of others about that 
evidence) to develop critical thinking 
skills. The Programme also att empts to 
stress the links between the traditional 
disciplines found within the curriculum. 
Multiple voices, interactivity, linkages: it 
sounds like hypertext. His is an essay that 
successfully bridges the sometimes great 
divide between theory and practice. The 
other especially noteworthy essay is Eva 
Liestol’s investigation into the potential 
cultural, sociological, and aesthetic un-
derstanding that might be made possible 
by the close reading and criticism of com-
puter games, a scholarly interest like that 
shown to more traditional media such 
as art, music, film, and print literature. 
Liestol looks at the game, Duke Nukem 3D 
Atomic Edition (1996), and what evolves 
in her exegesis is a compelling mixture 
of the critical elements employed by the 
more traditional media. 

Although some of the essays are more 
accessible than others, none are writt en for 
the general reader or casual thinker about 
things digital. A fairly thorough knowledge 
of various schools of thought and theoreti-
cal camps in a number of disciplines also 
would aid the reader in a full appreciation 
of the work as a whole. Although a simple 
listing of the subjects covered by this vol-
ume might suggest a jumble of disparate 
ideas only loosely connected by shared 
friendship and conference hobnobbing, 
this is not the case. In most instances, 
the subject of one essay logically follows 
from a discussion begun in a previous 
piece. Ideas shared in one chapter appear 
later in another’s writing, and oft en works 

July 2005 

cited by one author provide a bridge to the 
thoughts of another who cites the same 
work. It is a situation that might have been 
exploited by a digital edition of the text. 
Still, taken together, these essays—even on 
the printed page—show the broad range of 
scholarly attention that has been brought 
to bear on the bits and bytes that now 
inform, educate, entertain, and sometimes 
frustrate us.—Kevin Cherry, East Carolina 
University. 

Wilhelm, Anthony G. Digital Nation: 
Toward an Inclusive Information Society. 
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr., 2004. 161p. 
alk. paper, $27.95 (ISBN 0262232383). 
LC 2004-42848. 

It is commonplace for college and univer-
sity admissions offices across the United 
States and Canada to strongly encourage 
electronic submission of applications to 
various undergraduate, graduate, and 
professional programs. Given the time it 
takes to complete applications screen by 
screen, prospective students with access 
to high-speed Internet connections clearly 
have an advantage in completing and 
transmitting their work and managing 
the web of application procedures, test 
scores, and financial aid forms. This is yet 
one bit in the world depicted in Digital 
Nation, an engaging new treatise on the 
prospects for inclusion in a technology-
based information society. 

As of this writing, author Anthony G. 
Wilhelm is Director of the Technology 
Opportunities Program in the National 
Telecommunications and Information 
Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. De-
partment of Commerce. He has served 
as Benton Foundation Program Director 
for Communications Policy and Practice 
and as Director of Information Technol-
ogy Research for the Tomas Rivera Policy 
Institute at Claremont University. Given 
his background and current position, his 
words are especially pertinent to higher 
education and, in particular, to libraries 
that are concerned with governmental 
and NGO policy analysis regarding both 
perception and resolution of the nation’s