Dr Erika Pearson
BA(Murdoch)PhD (Curtin)
Lecturer

Office - Richardson 6C23
Tel 64 3 479 8680
Email erika.pearson@otago.ac.nz

My research interests cover several aspects of internet culture, including virtual communities, fan culture, trust networks, hacktivism and political activism online, complexity in virtual social networks, and notions of social capital in cyberspace.   I am also interested in intersections of image culture with digital technologies, particularly in terms of digital photography and photo-manipulation, and how these are created, used, and disseminated across the internet.   I would be happy to talk to any student wishing to pursue further studies in these general areas.

I am also the founding convener of the Internet Research Group of Otago (IRGO), and welcome correspondence from internet researchers from all disciplines.

Papers taught 2010

MFCO 230 Special topic: Cybersocieties

MFCO 251 Television Studio Production

MFCO 304 Technology and the Visual Imaginary

Conferences and Publications

Pearson, E.  (Forthcoming, 2007). Fan Manipulations of the Visual.  AoIR International Conference 8.  Vancouver, Canada,

--.  (2007).  Digital Gifts: Participation and gift exchange in Livejournal communities.  First Monday, 12(5), Available online: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_5/pearson/index.html.

--. (2006) Future Uses for the Internet.   AoIR International Conference 7.   Brisbane, Australia

--. (2006).   The More Things Change: Futures Research Issues on the Internet.   (Curtin Divisional Seminar Series) Perth, Australia, 24 April 2006.

--. (2005).   Trust: Is social capital a precondition for democratic activity online?   In. Consalvo & M. Allen (Eds.), Internet Research Annual: 2003, Volume 2 (pp.85-94). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

--. (2003). Trust: Is social capital a precondition for democratic activity online?   AoIR International Conference 4.   Toronto, Canada, 16-19 Oct 2003.

--. (2002).   Telling Stories. AoIR International Conference 3.   Maastricht, The Netherlands, 13-16 Oct 2002.

--. (2002-4) Divisional Internet Research Seminars (ad-hoc presenter).   Curtin University.

--. (2001).   What is hacktivism?   Hacktivist Magazine Online.   http://www.iwar.org.uk/hackers/resources/the-hacktivist/issue-1/vol1.html#07

Reviews

Pearson, E. (Forthcoming, 2007).   “Everything Is Miscellaneous: The power of the new digital disorder”  RCCS, October 2007.