DEEP END OF THE POOL

Form, Content and Context

Representation & Interpretation

Empowerment & Protection

Narrative, Literacy & Learning

Arts & Social Activism

KEY THEMES IN MEDIA STUDIES

Chicago School

Birmingham School

Toronto School

Frankfurt School Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Herbert MarcuseCRITICAL THEORY – POLITICAL ECONOMY

John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley, Harold LasswellPROPAGANDA – MEDIA EFFECTS

Marshall McLuhan, Harold Innis TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

Richard Hoggart, Stuart HallCULTURAL STUDIES

THE STANDARD HISTORICAL STORY OF MEDIA STUDIES HISTORY

Media & Politics, Film Studies, Media Psychology, Media Education, Game Studies, Internet Studies, Digital Humanities, etc etc etc

Melvin DeFleur Many important social science theories

were developed to explore media influence

Media studies has been viewed as an applied field to prepare practitioners

Qualitative, critical and applied research have grown in importance as a result of the economics of higher education

This work offers little value to the field The decline in social science

approaches to research has damaged the ability to create new knowledge

1998

DeFleur, Melvin. 1998. “Where Have All the Milestones Gone? The Decline of Significant Research on the Processes and Effects of Mass Communication.” Mass Communication and Society 1(2), 85 – 98.

What other factors and historical forces have contributed to the declining importance of social science approaches in the field of media studies?

Do the historic theories of media influence still make sense in the age of the Internet and social media? Are they still relevant? Why or why not?

How has research hyperspecialization helped or hurt the overall coherence and integrity of the field?

Johan Fornas Dialectic framing has long been part of the

field of media studies There is much productive tension with these

crosscurrents: Dual focus on culture and context has

advanced new knowledge Focus on the relationship between digital and

intermedial forms (including the arts & F2F communication) has challenged definitions of media

Focus on media settings or media history have lifted the significance of ethnographic research

Focus on images and words & meanings or material objects of media production and consumption has helped to explore the relationship between them

2008

Johan Fornäs, 2008. “Bridging Gaps: Ten Crosscurrents in Media Studies.” Media, Culture and Society 30(6), 895-905, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0163443708096811.

How has globalization and the rise of European Contintental traditions of scholarship affected the field of media studies in the U.S.?

How has the economics of higher education affected the way researchers and scholars engage in “great debates”?

Tara McPherson

Media studies has roots in the interpretive humanities – film studies

Computer: a platform, a medium, a visualization device

Digital humanities scholars comment on technology, but they should be using digital tools to create and circulate ideas

New forms of scholarly output will contribute to new knowledge

2009

McPherson, Tara. 2009. “Media Studies and the Digital Humanities.” Cinema Journal 48(2), 119 – 123.

How does the tension between process and product support new knowledge in interpretive/creative forms of media studies?

When the scholar is a creator, what are the implications for teaching and learning?

How does peer review work for new forms of expression in the digital humanities?

How have foundations & other stakeholders shaped the field?

Sonia Livingstone 1980 marked a shift in thinking about audiences:

from passive to active Uses and gratifications Cultural studies Spectacle- performance

Audience behavior changed radically in the 1990s but audience researchers did not adapt theories or methods

The rise of network culture made the relationship between media structures and audience behavior more complex

The concept of audience has shifted from a focus on individuals or groups to become a process of participation that has subjective norms, terms & conditions

By recovering the concept of genre, we might better understand the interface between audiences, text and contexts

2012

Livingstone, Sonia (2012) “Exciting Moments in Audience Research – Past, Present and Future.” In Helen Bilandzic, Patriarche, Geoffroy and Traudt , Paul, (Eds.) The Social Use of Media: Cultural and Social Scientific Perspectives on Audience Research (pp. 257-274). ECREA Book Series. Intellect Ltd, Brighton, UK.

What forms of inquiry help us generalize new knowledge consider the vastness of the way people engage with media texts, tools and technologies?

How may metacognition and reflection affect the way that people come to examine and critically analyze their behaviors and identities as authors and audiences?

Mihita Iquani & Anna Feingenbaum The field of media studies is

interdisciplinary and so is the approach to teaching and learning

Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research challenges established power structures in higher education

UK Media Studies faculty have diverse backgrounds, teach course content that integrates subjects and topics from several fields, and teach students with divergent levels of knowledge and expertise

The pressure to discipline Media Studies is the result of higher education’s increasingly competitive business model

2015

What does it mean to have a disciplinary identity? How does it shape the way people create new knowledge?

Why have US institutions become more fiercely disciplinary while UK institutions have become more interdisciplinary?

How do disciplines freeze or free up the creation of new knowledge?

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Finding Your Tribe

Community of Scholars

Community of Scholars

• International Communication Association (ICA)

• National Communication Association (NCA)

• Society for Film and Media Studies (SCMS)

• International Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR)

• National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)

• Digital Media and Learning (DML) • Popular Culture Association (PCA)

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