′This is the media and society text that critical scholars have been waiting for′. - Professor Mark Andrejevic, Pomona College This book unpacks the role of the media in social, cultural and political contexts and encourages you to reflect on the power relationships that are formed as a result. Structured around the three cornerstones of media studies; production, content and participation, this is an ideal introduction to your studies in media, culture and society. The book: Evaluates recent developments in media production, industries and platforms brought about the emergence of interactive media technologies. Examines the shifting relationship between media production and consumption instigated by the rise of social and mobile media, recasting consumption as ‘participation’. Explores the construction of texts and meanings via media representations, consumer culture and popular culture, as well as the relationship between politics and public relations. Assesses the debates around the creative and cultural labour involved in meaning-making. Includes a companion website featuring exercise and discussion questions, links to relevant blogs and web material, lists of further reading and free access to key journal articles.

In an era when (especially new) media are celebrated for their participatory potential, questions about the nature and intensity of these participatory processes seem to be superfluous. But raising these questions pushes us into a critical mode towards the changes that have lead to the present-day media landscape. This volume's authors aim to activate this critical mode and reflect on the participatory nature of contemporary media organizations and products. In order to stand even a remote chance to realize this objective, and to critically unravel the societal role of participation, we need to acknowledge that participation is a complex and contested notion, covering a wide variety of meanings and practices that are converging into a hybrid of technologies, genres, and formats. At the same time, prudence is required, as many of the empowering and transformative opportunities cover-up a multitude of restrictions that deal with muting voices, appropriations, techniques of surveillance, inequalities, and exclusions. This volume thus provides its readership with a set of analyses that reconcile the appreciation for the analogue and digital empowerment and emancipation with the critical analysis of their boundaries.Participation and Media Production is the result of the intellectual work of the participants of the 2007 San Francisco Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA).

A thorough analysis of contemporary digital media practices, showing how people increasingly not only consume but also produce and even design media. With many new forms of digital media–including such popular social media as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr—the people formerly known as the audience no longer only consume but also produce and even design media. Jonas Löwgren and Bo Reimer term this phenomenon collaborative media, and in this book they investigate the qualities and characteristics of these forms of media in terms of what they enable people to do. They do so through an interdisciplinary research approach that combines the social sciences and humanities traditions of empirical and theoretical work with practice-based, design-oriented interventions. Löwgren and Reimer offer analysis and a series of illuminating case studies—examples of projects in collaborative media that range from small multidisciplinary research experiments to commercial projects used by millions of people. Löwgren and Reimer discuss the case studies at three levels of analysis: society and the role of collaborative media in societal change; institutions and the relationship of collaborative media with established media structures; and tribes, the nurturing of small communities within a large technical infrastructure. They conclude by advocating an interventionist turn within social analysis and media design.

Many teens today who use the Internet are actively involved in participatory cultures—joining online communities (Facebook, message boards, game clans), producing creative work in new forms (digital sampling, modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction), working in teams to complete tasks and develop new knowledge (as in Wikipedia), and shaping the flow of media (as in blogging or podcasting). A growing body of scholarship suggests potential benefits of these activities, including opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, development of skills useful in the modern workplace, and a more empowered conception of citizenship. Some argue that young people pick up these key skills and competencies on their own by interacting with popular culture; but the problems of unequal access, lack of media transparency, and the breakdown of traditional forms of socialization and professional training suggest a role for policy and pedagogical intervention. This report aims to shift the conversation about the "digital divide" from questions about access to technology to questions about access to opportunities for involvement in participatory culture and how to provide all young people with the chance to develop the cultural competencies and social skills needed. Fostering these skills, the authors argue, requires a systemic approach to media education; schools, afterschool programs, and parents all have distinctive roles to play. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning

A critical introduction to meaning and power in an age of participatory culture, social media and digital platforms. Helps students to understand the central role media play in the social world, and how they can become informed media citizens themselves.

The computer and particularly the Internet have been represented as enabling technologies, turning consumers into users and users into producers. The unfolding online cultural production by users has been framed enthusiastically as participatory culture. But while many studies of user activities and the use of the Internet tend to romanticize emerging media practices, this book steps beyond the usual framework and analyzes user participation in the context of accompanying popular and scholarly discourse, as well as the material aspects of design, and their relation to the practices of design and appropriation.

Routledge English Language Introductions cover core areas of language study and are one-stop resources for students. Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries, and key readings—all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible 'two-dimensional' structure is built around four sections—introduction, development, exploration, and extension— which offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can also be read across these sections, enabling the reader to build gradually on the knowledge gained. This revised second edition of Language and Media: Provides an accessible introduction and comprehensive overview of the major approaches and methodological tools used in the study of language and media. Focuses on a broad range of media and media content from more traditional print and broadcast media formats to more recent digital media formats. Incorporates practical examples using real data, including newspaper articles, press releases, television shows, advertisements (print, broadcast, and digital), blogs, social media content, internet memes, culture jamming, and protest signs. Includes key readings from leading scholars in the field, such as Jan Blommaert, Sonia Livingstone, David Machin, Martin Montgomery, Ruth Page, Ron Scollon, and Theo van Leeuwen. Offers a wide range of activities, questions, and points for further discussion. The book emphasises the increasingly creative ways ordinary people are engaging in media production. It also addresses a number of urgent current concerns around media and media production/reception, including fake news, clickbait, virality, and surveillance. Features of the new edition include: Special attention on ‘new media’ forms such as websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, social media sites, and mobile apps such as Snapchat and Instagram; Additional material on: mobility and materiality in media, memes and virality, discourse processes in media production, collaborative production and user created content, reality TV, fake news, the role of algorithms and bots in media production and circulation, and media and resistance; Discussion of media surveillance, privacy boundaries, and the so-called ‘right to be forgotten’ related to Internet archiving; Brand new readings from key scholars in the field including Piia Varis, Jan Blommaert, Monika Bednarek and Martin Montgomery; Updated examples and references throughout, to reflect more contemporary issues. Written by three experienced teachers and authors, this accessible textbook is an essential resource for all students of English language and linguistics.