Communication and technology: what’s new?

When new technologies come to the fore and become pervasively available to their users, the historical evidence suggests that we should expect the unexpected. This is because new technologies are rarely appropriated in a straightforward way. In this paper I provide an analytical framework for an examination of two aspects of innovation: 1) technology and organisation, focussing on personal communication via computer-mediated communication, online media, and personal publishing; and 2) technology and governance, focussing on hactivism and mediated terrorism.