{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,5]],"date-time":"2026-05-05T00:09:36Z","timestamp":1777939776553,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2005,6,1]],"date-time":"2005-06-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1117584000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This article addresses the question of new media studies\u2019 meta-theoretical premises. It is argued that the field\u2019s exceptional openness towards theory and method is a valuable asset, which needs to be cultivated by means of a more explicit meta-theoretical debate. Drawing on critical theory, three meta-theoretical criteria concerning power, reason and closure are suggested and applied in a review of common theoretical perspectives at use in the field. A discussion of political economy and postmodern perspectives prepares the ground for an analysis of approaches inspired by Habermas and Foucault. The article concludes by advocating the theoretical concept of the dispositif or social apparatus, developed by Foucault and Deleuze. It is argued that the concept provides an effective tool to map the intricate relations of power and knowledge around the internet, as well as a possibility to analyse how processes of subjectification are fostered or circumscribed in specific settings.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444805052283","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2005,5,18]],"date-time":"2005-05-18T11:10:31Z","timestamp":1116414631000},"page":"403-422","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Power, reason, closure: critical perspectives on new media theory"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Theo","family":"R\u00f6hle","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Hamburg University,"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2005,6,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"atypb1","volume-title":"Dialectic of Enlightenment","author":"Adorno, Theodor","year":"1979"},{"key":"atypb2","volume-title":"Modernity and the Holocaust","author":"Bauman, Zygmunt","year":"1989"},{"key":"atypb3","volume-title":"Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics","author":"Benhabib, Seyla","year":"1992"},{"key":"atypb4","volume-title":"All that Is Solid Melts into Air. 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