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The analysis of Russian trolling in Asta Zelenskauskaité’s book Creating chaos online (University of Michigan Press, 2022) moves the rich literature on dis- and mis-information forward by making visible assumptions that underlie much of the rest of that literature-that those involved with this information believe it to be true, that it takes just one step to go from false information to social chaos, and that the goal of those producing and distributing that information are doing so in order to get “alternative” facts out there-and demonstrating that these assumptions do not necessarily hold. In this work, the author spawns a new research agenda regarding the multiple dimensions of masking and distinct steps in getting from here (social stability) to there (social chaos). The work treats what happens online as theater, and so also stimulates in this reader the critical question first raised in the 1990s-how should we understand what we see online if the screen is a window, not a stage? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, innovations in information technology have brought about fundamentally new approaches to research. As a result, research methods, practices, and institutions are evolving into forms quite different from those that have dominated modern science. These changes are so significant that they are leading to theoretical innovations as well. Those involved in information technology in higher education need to be aware of the past, present, and future of IT engagement with research. This article reviews the political, economic, and intellectual developments that shaped the U.S. agenda for research and information technology, describes the contemporary research environment and identifies features that have IT implications, and highlights key computational, networking, and data challenges for tomorrow. (Contains 19 notes.)

The harmonization of information systems that systems that characterizes this fourth stage of the information society has made possible new types of threats to cultural rights such as the right to create. Here these new threats as experienced by avant garde and traditional artists are explored, with attention to the restriction of speech rights by differential application across the information production chain, the paradox of the simultaneous loss of belief in the possibility of creativity and the commodification of innovative processes and products, the effects of computerization of innovative activity and new legal approaches to the treatment of non-linear behaviours. Keywords / art / cultural policy / information policy / information society / innovation / intellectual property rights / postmodernism.

Examines Supreme Court decisions on information policy during the 1980s. Finds they support socioeconomic class divisions by: providing relatively few protections for media available to those of low socioeconomic status; directly limiting expenditures for court costs; deferring to labor law; and defining informational rights and responsibilities by profession. (SR)

Books are a vibrant medium for analysis because of their ancient origins, and the social institutions spawned by a primarily print tradition assume critical significance in a society now attempting to cope with the electronics revolution. The book is adopting new forms as the media for storage and mass distribution has become convenient and sophisticated.