Media studies is an area of scholarly inquiry approached from both humanities and social science perspectives that considers the nature and effects of mass media upon individuals and society, as well as analysing actual media content and representations. A cross-disciplinary field, media studies uses techniques and theorists from sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, art theory, information theory, and economics.

Development

Media studies pioneers include Marshall McLuhan, Stuart Hall, Ien Ang and Jean Baudrillard. Walter Benjamin's 1936 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" marks one of the first major interrogations of the play between technical media and culture.

In the UK, media studies emerged in the 1960s from the academic study of English, and from literary criticism more broadly. It tended to grow through colleges and polytechnics, rather than through established universities. Nevertheless, the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), founded by Richard Hoggart at the University of Birmingham in 1964, was a notable exception.

Media studies can partially be understood as a response to the McCarthyist paranoia of the influences of the mass media. In the UK, Mary Whitehouse's right-wing National Viewers' and Listeners' Association was concerned at the growing 'permissiveness' of broadcasting, and in the US a number of pressure groups have campaigned against the supposed corrupting influence of popular media - in particular on children.

The critical paradigm was formed in the early 1970s, raising questions about media and power. The CCCS was pivotal in developing the field, producing a number of key researchers. Under the directorship of Stuart Hall, who wrote the seminal Encoding/Decoding model, the centre produced key empirical research about the relationship between texts and audiences. Amongst these was The Nationwide Project by David Morley and Charlotte Brunsdon.

For several decades, discussion of popular media was frequently dominated by the debate about 'media effects', in particular the link between screen violence and real-life aggression. David Gauntlett's article "Ten Things Wrong With the Media Effects Model" (1998), outlines significant problems with the way previous research had been conducted; in subsequent work, Gauntlett instead proposes new creative research methods in which participants are invited to make media artefacts themselves, a reflective process which is said to produce more nuanced insights.

Strands

In addition to the interdisciplinary nature of the academic field, popular understandings of media studies encompass:

• media production
• mass communication
• journalism

Although most production and journalism courses incorporate media studies for contextual purposes (see Fourth estate), the terms are not interchangeable.

Separate strands are being identified within media studies, such as Audience Studies, Television Studies and Radio Studies. Film studies is a separate discipline, with a different history and focus.

Critical media theory looks at how the corporate ownership of media production and distribution affects society, and provides a common ground to social conservatives (concerned by the effects of media on the traditional family) and liberals and socialists (concerned by the corporatization of social discourse). The study of the effects and techniques of advertising forms a cornerstone of media studies.

Contemporary media studies includes the analysis of new media, of course, with emphasis on the internet, video games, mobile devices, interactive television, and other forms of mass media which developed from the 1990s. Tom McPhail's theory of electronic colonialism has gained some international recognition.

Derogatory attitudes

In the UK, Media Studies is regularly the victim of jokes and cynical attitudes, often being labelled as a Mickey Mouse subject. It is possible that media studies is singled out in the media because most established journalists and broadcasters are either not degree educated or achieved degrees in classical subjects, such as English literature. Perhaps ironically, Media Studies is the victim of the ideology and power relations it attempts to expose. Its relation to polytechnics, and subsequently the post-1992 New Universities, are also a target for ridicule. The now annual moral panic in the UK every August when GCSE and A-level results are released normally focuses upon Media Studies as an example of the alleged dumbing down of education (Barker, 2001).

However, media studies academics such as Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster, have argued that the interdisciplinary nature of Media Studies means that graduates are knowledgeable in a wide variety of areas.

See also

• Mass media
• Mass communication
• Multimedia literacy
• Journalism
  • Yellow Journalism
• Transparency (humanities)

References

• Barker, Martin (with Julian Petley) (2001) "On the problems of being a 'trendy travesty'" In: M. Barker and J. Petley (eds) Ill effects: the media/violence debate. (2nd ed.) London: Routledge. pp. 202-224. ISBN 0415225132
• Crisell, Andrew (2002) An Introductory History of British Broadcasting. (2nd ed.) London: Routledge. ISBN 0415247926
• Moores, Shaun (1993) Interpreting Audiences: The Ethnography of Media Consumption. London: Sage. ISBN 0803984472

External links

• Theory.org.uk: media studies website by David Gauntlett
• TIMEfound: The Interactive Media Education Foundation
• MANA - the Media Alliance for New Activism
• LanguageMonitor: Media Metrics and Analysis
• : informed article by John Ellis about the "predictable" annual debate over the subject
• MediaStudies.com: Excellent page with links to a variety of news and other media sites.
• mediaedu.co.uk: New Media and Communication Studies website by Richard Gent for KS4 and KS5 students which also acts as a portal.
• An introduction to Media Studies

Media studies | Interdisciplinary fields

Medienwissenschaft | Medievitenskap | Mediastudies