Becoming the Product: The Critical Internet Researcher as a Virtual Intellectual tracks how serious internet scholarship has been reshaped by the attention economy, tracing the shift from early net criticism to the subscription-driven, brand-conscious practices of today's digital theorists.
About This Book
What does it mean to think critically about the internet while being consumed by it? Morgane Billuart's essay moves between four distinct figures — net critic Geert Lovink, internet theorist Joshua Citarella, and researchers Alex Quicho and Sophie Public — to map the divergent strategies through which critical internet research is produced, distributed, and monetised today. At stake is the viability of independent intellectual work in an era governed by engagement metrics and platform logic. As subscription economies and aesthetic branding increasingly determine who gets heard, Billuart asks whether rigorous scholarship and commodification can coexist — or whether the critic inevitably becomes the product they set out to analyse.
Key Features
- 164 pages of essay-length critical writing on internet research, attention economies, and digital intellectual practice
- Case studies drawing on the work of Geert Lovink, Joshua Citarella, Alex Quicho, and Sophie Public
- Published by Set Margins, 2024
What You'll Discover
- How early net criticism, as exemplified by Geert Lovink, differs fundamentally in method and reach from the influencer-adjacent approaches of contemporary internet theorists
- The structural tension between intellectual critique and the commodification pressures built into subscription platforms and engagement-driven metrics
- How aesthetic branding has become inseparable from scholarly identity in digital spaces, and what that means for the independence of critical thought
- Whether sustainable careers in critical internet research are possible without capitulating to the very attention economy under scrutiny
About the Author
Morgane Billuart is the author of this essay-length work examining the evolving conditions of critical internet research. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 164
- Dimensions: 124 x 193 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789083532516
- Publisher: Set Margins
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Media theorists, digital culture researchers, and design practitioners thinking seriously about how knowledge circulates — and is compromised — within platform economies.