Critical Internet Studies: concepts, debates and challenges

Abstract

This article offers a review of the literature in Internet Studies from its beginning to the present, paying particular attention to central concepts and debates, in addition to issues about user interactivity. One principal objective is to elaborate an exposition of Critical Internet Studies, given its established interest and its surprising general absence in the scholarly literature in Spanish. In addition, the article aims to highlight the importance of incorporating a feminist lens as part of both theoretical and empirical work on the Internet. First it examines an initial stage characterised by a contrast between dystopian predictions and optimistic celebrations about the transformative potential of the Internet. The article continues by outlining the main questions and conclusions that emerged in the second stage of Internet Studies, with its more serious commitment to empirical evidence and documenting actual use. The next section focuses upon the terms ‘media convergence’ and ‘participatory culture’. Finally, I introduce a number of concepts that are key for a field of study with an alternative approach to interactivity in online contexts and the Internet more generally, especially significant being that of ‘digital labour’. I also briefly report on a case study as an illustration of such an approach, as well as the need for a greater integration of gender analysis within Critical Internet Studies.