New Media: A Critical Introduction is a comprehensive introduction to the culture, technologies and history and theories of new media. Written especially for students, the authors consider the ways in which "new media" really are new, assess the claims that a media and technological revolution is underway and formulate new ways for media studies to respond to new technologies.Individual chapters introduce: Assessing the "newness" of new media; How to define the characteristics of new media; Film, photography and new forms of visual culture and entertainment; Social and political uses of new media and new communications; New media technologies, politics and globalization; Everyday life and new media; Cyborgs, cybernetics and cyberculture; Theories of interactivity; and The history of automata and artificial life. Illustrated with over seventy photographs, images, tables and line drawings, key features of this textbook include: A user's guide; A glossary of key terms and concepts; Boxed case studies and examples; Key terms defined in the margins with extensive cross-referencing; and Extensive bibliographies and web resources to help with further study.