<P> The sociology of communications and information technologies includes "the social aspects of computing, the Internet, new media, computer networks, and other communication and information technologies". </P> <P> The Internet is of interest to sociologists in various ways; most practically as a tool for research and as a discussion platform . The sociology of the Internet in the broad sense regards the analysis of online communities (e.g. newsgroups, social networking sites) and virtual worlds, thus there is often overlap with community sociology . Online communities may be studied statistically through network analysis or interpreted qualitatively through virtual ethnography . Moreover, organizational change is catalysed through new media, thereby influencing social change at - large, perhaps forming the framework for a transformation from an industrial to an informational society . One notable text is Manuel Castells' The Internet Galaxy--the title of which forms an inter-textual reference to Marshall McLuhan's The Gutenberg Galaxy . Closely related to the sociology of the Internet, is digital sociology, which expands the scope of study to address not only the internet but also the impact of the other digital media and devices that have emerged since the first decade of the twenty - first century . </P> <P> As with cultural studies, media study is a distinct discipline that owes to the convergence of sociology and other social sciences and humanities, in particular, literary criticism and critical theory . Though the production process or the critique of aesthetic forms is not in the remit of sociologists, analyses of socializing factors, such as ideological effects and audience reception, stem from sociological theory and method . Thus the' sociology of the media' is not a subdiscipline per se, but the media is a common and often - indispensable topic . </P> <P> The term "economic sociology" was first used by William Stanley Jevons in 1879, later to be coined in the works of Durkheim, Weber and Simmel between 1890 and 1920 . Economic sociology arose as a new approach to the analysis of economic phenomena, emphasizing class relations and modernity as a philosophical concept . The relationship between capitalism and modernity is a salient issue, perhaps best demonstrated in Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) and Simmel's The Philosophy of Money (1900). The contemporary period of economic sociology, also known as new economic sociology, was consolidated by the 1985 work of Mark Granovetter titled "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness". This work elaborated the concept of embeddedness, which states that economic relations between individuals or firms take place within existing social relations (and are thus structured by these relations as well as the greater social structures of which those relations are a part). Social network analysis has been the primary methodology for studying this phenomenon . Granovetter's theory of the strength of weak ties and Ronald Burt's concept of structural holes are two best known theoretical contributions of this field . </P>

Who defined sociology is the scientific study of society