Terry Flew

In New Media: An Introduction, Flew explored the theories of new media, its development and the role of new media in networked society.[8] The book examines how new media is socially, economically and politically impacting creative industries. In the first chapter, Flew tries to define “new media” as a media that combines three Cs: computing information technology, communication network, and content. One of Flew's biggest contribution in this book is in the second chapter, in which Flew explains 20 key concepts of new media, which includes collective intelligence, convergence, creative industries, cyberspace, digital capitalism, digital copyrights/creative commons, digital divide, globalization, hype, information overload, interactivity, knowledge economy, networks, participation, remediation, security and surveillance, speed, ubiquity, user-generated content/user-led innovation, and virtuality. Flew argues that new media is unable to be categorized as dualistic, as it is an inherent part of constructing the good and the bad for the society. Flew also argues that the significance and usage of new media has not only influenced what people think but also influenced the process of such thinking. In this book, Flew also explores some of the key elements of new media and its usages in globalization, such as the culture of participatory media, the technology of games, online news and the future of digital journalism. Furthermore, Flew also explored how new media is impacting creative industries and internet governance. First published in 2002, the book is currently in its fourth edition, last published in 2014. The latest edition includes additional chapters on Transforming Higher Education, and Online Activism and Networked Politics. It also includes a substantial revision on the chapter of Online News and the Future of Journalism. The Canadian Edition of the book is published in 2011, co-written by Flew and Richard Smith, and now is in its second edition, last published in 2014.

In his book, Flew proposes that the new digital gaming trend works against the mainstream media's portrayal of players as isolated, socially-awkward adolescent boys, hidden away in darkened bedrooms. He draws on recent statistics showing that between 40-50% of those gamers are women, and that the average age of players is mid- to late-20s, rather than young teens.[9] Flew also credits the advent of video games with popularizing innovative media technologies, allowing consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content.[9] Consumers can use this media source as an alternative tool to gain access to information within their areas of interest, and to generate their own content and ideas.

Flew says that people are drifting away from the traditional mode of consumerism. He uses the term "pro-sumer" to describe the group of users who both consume and produce new media.[9] These "pro-sumers" involve themselves in gaming communities in which online and offline spaces become merged and indistinguishable. Flew suggests that part of the appeal of MMORPGs lies in the idea of escapism, and the ability to assume the role of someone or something that is not possible in that individual's real life. To the player, his or her online identity may be more acceptable and desirable than their real-world identity. Flew refers to this form of hopping from one persona to another as "identity tourism". Players see their in-game personae as "theirs", whereas game publishers claim ownership of all in-game characters and property, leading to tensions between the two groups. In response to the perennial question of whether violent themes and action in video games correlate with real-life acts of violence, Flew argues that the research in this area is based mostly on a flawed cause-effect model of behaviour, and is often initiated in response to a moral panic.[9]