The rapid convergence of media and digital technology has remained one of the world’s most vivid business stories even through the "dot-bomb" recession of the past few years. In Word Of Mouse: The New Age of Networked Media, author Jim Banister provides an essential guide to how the convergence of "digital" and "networked" can and should unfold over the next few years, and analyzes how media will be transformed by the increasing primacy of networked media. As more and more devices become networked—not only personal computers via the internet, but also game consoles, mobile phones, TV/media viewers, household appliances—the "network" becomes pervasive. But what of the programming created to flow through this network? Banister demonstrates how our conceptions of programming are evolving (and, he convincingly argues, must continue to evolve) so that networked media can enable dimensions of creativity, community, and commerce heretofore unimagined. Along the way, he provides cogent analyses of how and why certain successful, high-profile "internet" companies (e.g., Google, eBay,) have become models; outlines what different kinds of businesses need to do in order to harness the still largely untapped potential of networked media; and shows why the entertainment industry’s efforts to resist the changes in consumer behavior that are being enabled by networked media are misguided at best, and doomed at worst. Banister’s comprehensive and practically oriented treatment of media is a much-needed update to Marshall McLuhan’s breakthrough work of forty years ago.