Introduction
No longer new, digital media and communication technologies − and their associated infrastructures, practices, and cultural forms − have become woven into the very social fabric of contemporary human life. The editors of this Handbook of Digital Media and Communication, together with many of the contributors, have witnessed, documented, and attempted to interpret the significant changes arising from this process of normalization throughout the formative years of the digital age. Despite the cautiously optimistic accounts of the potential of the Internet to foster stronger democratic governance (Loader, 1997; Hague & Loader, 1999), enable connective forms of mobilization (Van de Donk et al., ...
