Links: three online journals, an article on vegetarianism
Like most academics and over-consumers of the written word, I have had difficulty loosening my attachment to the idea that words printed on paper are somehow more worthy than words that exist solely online. When it comes to journal articles, and even magazine and newspaper articles, I find it easier to trust online sources when I know that they are printed somewhere. Even if I'll never see the 'real', printed, crinkle-in-your-hands, copy, I find it reassuring to know that it exists and the copy I'm reading from my computer screen is linked to that copy.
Happily, I am slowly learning to give up the safety blanket of the printed word. In part, this is because I keep stumbling across articles that come from peer-reviewed journals that only exist online, and I've found many of them to be very useful. Here are three of my current favourites:
First Monday: started in 1996, this journal is devoted to the Internet. Recent issues have included articles on storytelling in new media, the relationship between use of facebook and academic performance, and navigating the blogosphere with genre-based typologies.
Surveillance & Society: I've just been editing my third chapter, which discusses attempts by elites to (re)gain control of information technologies and online spaces, and this journal has been a valuable source. The last issue was particularly useful, as it looked at 'Surveillance and Resistance'.
Interface: a journal for and about social movements.The first issue, out in January, was a promising start, with interesting articles from around the world. I like journals that bring together academics and practitioners (and so many of us from the fuzzy divide inbetween), and I'm looking forward to the next issue.
And, finally, on a barely-related note: I rather enjoyed Helen DeWitt's post on practical ethics and the triangulation of desire. It discusses, among other things, vegetarianism, and the vexing question of why people don't do what's right even in the face of convincing arguments.
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Photo courtesy of Okinawa Soba.