Symbolic instruments and the Internet mediation of knowledge and expertise

Abstract

In this article, I demonstrate how Bourdieu's notion of symbolic instruments, that is structured and structuring structures (Bourdieu 1991), can be applied to the Internet to demonstrate the mediation and construction of knowledge and validation of expertise. This qualitative, pilot study explored the online language and interrelationship between expertise, authority and constructions of knowledge. The structuring structures of five technology-focused websites are mapped in order to convey how the structured structures of online discourse mediate knowledge and expertise. The portrayal and authorization of ‘experts’ within these online forums help to shape the way that knowledge is constructed, contested and shared in the twenty-first century. This article extends Bourdieu's theory of practice in two ways: (1) arguing that the Internet is a field comprised of many sub-fields and (2) identifying some of the symbolic instruments that structure and are structuring knowledge and expertise via social media available on the Internet.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicola F. Johnson

Nicola F. Johnson, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer in the School of Education, Gippsland, Victoria, in the Faculty of Education and Arts of the newly established Federation University, Australia. Her research interests include Internet over-use, technological expertise and the use of digital technologies within formal and informal spaces of learning. She is the author of two books: The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction: The Misrecognition of Leisure and Learning (Ashgate, 2009) and Publishing from your Ph.D.: Negotiating a Crowded Jungle (Gower, 2011).