The Mediated Community: A Historical View

Abstract

Questions around how the new class of online networking platforms can generate new types of human interactions and how the new media can help achieve humans’ goals have been key subjects of study in many research fields, including computer science, sociology, and planning. To further the inquiry into these questions, we may need to re-visit some of the key concepts about the relationship between the information and communications technologies and the society. This literature review essay intends to serve this purpose by enlisting and summarizing a series of different schools of thought in the creation of community in the digital era.