ABSTRACT

Media Studies 2.0 offers an exploration of the digital revolution and its consequences for media and communication studies, arguing that the new era requires an upgraded discipline: a media studies 2.0.

The book traces the history of mass-media and computing, exploring their merger at the end of the twenty-century and the material, ecological, cultural and personal elements of this digital transformation. It considers the history of media and communication studies, arguing that the academic discipline was a product of the analogue, broadcast-era, emerging in the early twentieth century as a response to the success of newspapers, radio and cinema and reflecting that era back in its organisation, themes and concepts.

Digitalisation, however, takes us beyond this analogue era (media studies 1.0) into a new, post-broadcast era. Merrin argues that the digital-era demands an upgraded academic discipline: one reflecting the real media life of its students and teaching the key skills needed by the twenty-first century user. Media 2.0 demand a media studies 2.0

This original and critical overview of contemporary developments within media studies is ideal for general students of media and communication, as well as those specifically studying new and digital media.

chapter |7 pages

Introduction

Media studies gone wrong

chapter 1|18 pages

Two trajectories

The rise of mass media and computing

chapter 2|17 pages

The material revolution

Becoming digital

chapter 3|18 pages

The ecological revolution

Convergence and hybridity

chapter 4|16 pages

The cultural revolution

The post-broadcast era

chapter 5|16 pages

The me-dia revolution

The second reformation

chapter 6|18 pages

Mass media studies

The rise of duck science

chapter 7|17 pages

The emperor's old clothes

Why media studies didn't work

chapter 8|18 pages

Upgrading the discipline

Media Studies 2.0

chapter 9|19 pages

The 21st-century discipline

User studies and the productive turn

chapter 10|18 pages

Open sourcing knowledge

Towards a university 2.0

chapter 11|6 pages

Conclusion

‘Shit just got real’