The computer achieved the status of defining technology after World War II as a powerful calculating device. Then people started to hook them up together, creating vast networks. The change was subtle and non-intuitive, and not many people noticed at first. Some still haven't.
The Advanced Media Technology Lab has set out to examine this new medium. Published research coming from the Lab reflects a program that builds on the study of mass media effects by embracing insights offered in computer science and cognitive psychology.
Research faculty and graduate students use this "information processing approach" to examine concepts such as interactivity, emotion, memory, and attention. For instance, we conceptualize news as a special category of user-based information, rather than in terms of outmoded production criteria.
This eclectic view is further reflected by the importance of this technology to our culture, where the operative credo is: If you aren't having fun, why do you keep on doing it?