Introduction: Why Digital Network Hybridity Is the New Normal (Hey! Check This Stuff Out)

Setting the stage for the articles that follow, this introduction briefly makes the argument that individual expression can be empowered by network communication but not without accepting the influence of institutions because institutions have created specific media technologies that define the grounds upon which vernacular expression can emerge there. Using the online manifestations of a 1978 commercial music recording as an example, I argue that network hybridity is a good thing when it functions to return the authority for our shared cultural heritage from corporations to the aggregate of non-professionals.