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Media Studies 2.0
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 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 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.
214 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 2013
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About the author
William Merrin
9 booksWilliam Merrin is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at Swansea University. He is the author of Baudrillard and the Media (2005). His research and teaching interests centre on media theory, new media, cyberculture, media history, and popular music.
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July 21, 2016
“It has the potential to be one of the most important subject areas going into the 21st century, at the forefront of debaters around digital technologies and their remaking of the world. But equally it has the possibility of being left behind, its focus on reception and content and broadcast forms and concepts condemning it to an increasing irrelevance for everyone but itself. Media Studies has no necessary right to lead debates on media: it has to fight to prove it understands it better and has the most effective critical tools to train and guide its students and the public in the future. What we need is a discipline able to teach the practical and theoretical skills for digital survival and success” – page 188.
In Media Studies 2.0, academic William Merrin makes the case for a radically updated approach to the teaching of media in order to produce students who are fully proactive and autonomous in today’s multifaceted information-centric world.
Personally, I highly endorse his views of shaking up what has become a very complacent academic discipline focused purely on the broadcast mentality and era – something which has become increasingly redundant today. This was my primary incentive for investing in a copy of Merrin’s book, after reading the similar radical approach presented in David Gauntlett’s Media Studies 2.0, and Other Battles around the Future of Media Research as well as voicing my own concerns about the complacency of media-centric academic disciplines as part of my BA (Hons) and now also throughout my extended self-constructed Masters portfolio, the Media Studies 2.0 cause is one I feel very strongly about supporting and strengthening it in any way that I can!
Merrin does a masterful job at presenting an overview of the traditional broadcast era Media Studies - presenting its methodologies, social research, political progenitors and technological ignorance – I would argue that in this book he actually does a better job of explaining what Media Studies is and how it developed as discipline than any Media Studies course I have come across. Building on this detailed overview of traditional Media Studies practice, he then moves onto its shortcomings by demonstrating its disconnections with the current status quo of technological usage and inherent user understanding of contemporary day-to-day technological integration and expression.
The concept of a ‘user’ is central to Merrin’s argument for Media Studies 2.0, we were never passive receivers of media content, our engagement with media content always required some form of active participation and debate. However, Merrin argues that this increased interaction between content and consumer is now very evident in the form of today’s technological user… and broadcast era Media Studies is at great disadvantage by not fully engaging with the user or indeed performing a thorough analysis of them.
Ultimately, Media Studies 2.0 is all about producing proactive and knowledgeable media content producers who are full equipped to grapple with the fast evolving nature of the twenty-first century. A key component of building an updated discipline to bring this about is also to produce proactive individuals who can defend themselves and protect their data in what is becoming an increasingly vague legal realm of digital surveillance and corporate exploitation.
A complaint about the book is it is at points very repetitive, but, in this respect, I sympathise; I know from my own lamentations about the shortcomings of traditional Media Studies, when it comes to presenting radical proposals such as a Media Studies 2.0 the only way to really get your point across and to have any resonance with individuals who have very fixed mindsets is to repeatedly keep cramming your point down their throats!
The only major criticism I have against the book is its lack of a clearly laid out structure of what a theoretical Media Studies 2.0 degree program would look like. This is something Merrin acknowledges in the book, commenting that he does not want to be too specific in regards to cementing a definite way of teaching Media Studies 2.0, but for proposals sake, I think the book would have greatly benefited from having a section which presented a theoretical Media Studies 2.0 course structure, while still maintaining that this was only one potential way of bringing about Media Studies 2.0.
Ultimately, Merrin is clearly a very passionate advocate for the Media Studies 2.0 cause and in this concise book he clearly lays down his reasoning for why such an academic endeavour is absolutely necessary in the twenty-first century. I would not only argue that is it necessary, I would argue that it is long overdue and needs to hurry up! I would recommend this book not only to academics, but also to the general public at large, because it does present a very accessible overview to the Media Studies discipline, the preferred Media Studies discipline. However, I believe that students and, in particular, prospective students would benefit most from this short book, because Media Studies 2.0 could save them a lot of time and even more money besides.
In Media Studies 2.0, academic William Merrin makes the case for a radically updated approach to the teaching of media in order to produce students who are fully proactive and autonomous in today’s multifaceted information-centric world.
Personally, I highly endorse his views of shaking up what has become a very complacent academic discipline focused purely on the broadcast mentality and era – something which has become increasingly redundant today. This was my primary incentive for investing in a copy of Merrin’s book, after reading the similar radical approach presented in David Gauntlett’s Media Studies 2.0, and Other Battles around the Future of Media Research as well as voicing my own concerns about the complacency of media-centric academic disciplines as part of my BA (Hons) and now also throughout my extended self-constructed Masters portfolio, the Media Studies 2.0 cause is one I feel very strongly about supporting and strengthening it in any way that I can!
Merrin does a masterful job at presenting an overview of the traditional broadcast era Media Studies - presenting its methodologies, social research, political progenitors and technological ignorance – I would argue that in this book he actually does a better job of explaining what Media Studies is and how it developed as discipline than any Media Studies course I have come across. Building on this detailed overview of traditional Media Studies practice, he then moves onto its shortcomings by demonstrating its disconnections with the current status quo of technological usage and inherent user understanding of contemporary day-to-day technological integration and expression.
The concept of a ‘user’ is central to Merrin’s argument for Media Studies 2.0, we were never passive receivers of media content, our engagement with media content always required some form of active participation and debate. However, Merrin argues that this increased interaction between content and consumer is now very evident in the form of today’s technological user… and broadcast era Media Studies is at great disadvantage by not fully engaging with the user or indeed performing a thorough analysis of them.
Ultimately, Media Studies 2.0 is all about producing proactive and knowledgeable media content producers who are full equipped to grapple with the fast evolving nature of the twenty-first century. A key component of building an updated discipline to bring this about is also to produce proactive individuals who can defend themselves and protect their data in what is becoming an increasingly vague legal realm of digital surveillance and corporate exploitation.
A complaint about the book is it is at points very repetitive, but, in this respect, I sympathise; I know from my own lamentations about the shortcomings of traditional Media Studies, when it comes to presenting radical proposals such as a Media Studies 2.0 the only way to really get your point across and to have any resonance with individuals who have very fixed mindsets is to repeatedly keep cramming your point down their throats!
The only major criticism I have against the book is its lack of a clearly laid out structure of what a theoretical Media Studies 2.0 degree program would look like. This is something Merrin acknowledges in the book, commenting that he does not want to be too specific in regards to cementing a definite way of teaching Media Studies 2.0, but for proposals sake, I think the book would have greatly benefited from having a section which presented a theoretical Media Studies 2.0 course structure, while still maintaining that this was only one potential way of bringing about Media Studies 2.0.
Ultimately, Merrin is clearly a very passionate advocate for the Media Studies 2.0 cause and in this concise book he clearly lays down his reasoning for why such an academic endeavour is absolutely necessary in the twenty-first century. I would not only argue that is it necessary, I would argue that it is long overdue and needs to hurry up! I would recommend this book not only to academics, but also to the general public at large, because it does present a very accessible overview to the Media Studies discipline, the preferred Media Studies discipline. However, I believe that students and, in particular, prospective students would benefit most from this short book, because Media Studies 2.0 could save them a lot of time and even more money besides.
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