The document discusses several key changes and developments in media theory and research over the past decade. Specifically: 1) A global community of researchers has emerged through international associations and collaboration. 2) Theory and research are increasingly specialized and published online or in specialized journals. 3) Students are educated with a common understanding of methods. 4) Conflict between researchers has dissipated and been replaced with respect and collaboration. 5) Leadership is now shared globally across associations and journals.

2. THE FUTURE OF
MEDIA
THEORY AND
RESEARCH

3. • Use of Media or Social Media
• How contemporary media theory confronting the
new communication technologies and outline the Internet
related findings they have produced?
• Mass Communication theory’s global future
• Citizen Journalism

4. Citizen Journalism:
Direct involvement of ordinary citizens in news
production and distribution is called Citizen
Journalism.

5. • How researchers and theorists with different interests have tried
to address the new mediated communication environment?
• Due to New Media Terry Adams-Bloom and Johanna Cleary
suggested a rethinking of Social Responsibility theory.
• Knowledge gap researchers are now investigating how Internet
technology may help close the gap between rich and poor.
• Cultivation researchers have made efforts to dismiss the impact
of the Internet’s multitude of storytelling options on their
theory’s core assumptions.
• Thomas Ruggiero believes that the Internet has opened up “a
vast continuum of communication behaviors” for uses-and
gratifications researchers to study.
NEW MEDIA THEORY AND RESEARCH:
CHALLENGES AND FINDINGS:

6. 4 Fears of Internet:
• Internet Addiction
• Depression
• Distraction
• Atomization

7. Internet addiction:
Spending 40 to 80 hours per week online,
with individual sessions as long as 20
hours.
Depression:
Depression that develops when a great
deal of time is spent on social media sites
leading to exhibition of classic symptoms
of depression . e.g. Fear of Missing out etc.

8. Distraction:
Deals with more typical, everyday use, and
it is a constantly raised issue, especially for
young people.
Atomization:
Disconnecting
individuals from one
another and their
communities.

9. What is Computer –Mediated
Communication (CMC)??

11. Health Communication:
Employing various forms of communication
to inform and influence people’s decisions
that enhance health.
E-Visits:
Physicians and patients interacting virtually
instead of face-to-face.
Social networking is another site of health
communication research interest, especially the
use of information shared among social
networking friends to improve health outcomes.
Social Networking:

12. Functional Displacement:
When the functions of an existing medium are replaced by a
newer technology, the older medium finds new functions.
For Example:
TV Change Radio
Journalism’s Disruptive Transition:

13. “the Internet does not alleviate the tensions
between commercialism and journalism; it
magnifies them” (McChesney, 2013).
Advantages:
Due to some Functions Internet offer
“Whatever you can do?”
Example:
Whatever newspapers can do, they can do
online as well as on paper.
When talk about internet:

14. Hamsterization of Journalism:
Expecting reporters to report, write, blog,
tweet, shoot video, sift the web, and
produce more news without time and
training.
Native Advertising:
Branded or sponsored online content
that takes the form of a full-length story
or article is called native advertising.
Native advertising sometimes called
Branded or Sponsored Content. Example;
The Washington, Forbes etc… engage this
native advertising practice.

15. RECONCEPTUALIZING AND REFORMING
JOURNALISM:
• News Reality Frames
• Participatory News
• Explanatory Journalism
• Collective Action Frames
Contemporary news researchers argue that journalism
needs to be reconceptualized and its practices need to
change.

16. News Reality Frames:
W. Lance Bennett (2005b) “involves journalists in constructing
news drama that blurs underlying contextual realities, ranging
from passive reporting of routine pseudo Events (such as the
campaign stop), to more active co-production on the part of
the press (such as the carrier landing), to a growing stream of
journalistically Driven rumor, spin, and speculation-based
stories” (p.174)
Gans (2003) “participatory news that reports how citizens
routinely engage in actions that have importance for their
communities” Example; Participatory news could range from
covering conversations in coffee shops to reports on
involvement in social groups.
Participatory News:

17. Explanatory Journalism:
Gans “seeks first and foremost to answer ‘why’ questions: to
report why events and statements described by conventional
journalism took place.” Explanatory journalism involves offering
frames for major events.
Collective Action Frames:
News frames highlighting positive aspects of social movements
and the need for and desirability of action are called Collective
Action Frames.

18. Parental Mediation Theory: Theory of active parent involvement in
the full array of children’s media experiences is called Parental
Mediation theory.
A NEW MEDIA LITERACY:
The discipline has also begun to reframe media literacy to account
for people’s use of the new communication technologies.
Lynn Clark details parental mediation theory,
“Originally developed as a means of
conceptualizing an active parental role in
regulating and managing children’s
experiences with television”.
• Active Mediation
• Restrictive Mediation
• Co-Viewing
• Social Inclusion
• Social Exclusion

19. Active Mediation:
Talking with children about
television content as a
media literacy strategy is
called active mediation.
Restrictive
Mediation:
Setting rules and limits on
children’s television
consumption as a media
literacy strategy.
Co-Viewing:
Watching television with
children as a media
literacy strategy.
social inclusion:
The ability to exercise control
over the environment or
resources that one might
have in various dimensions
of life.

20. Social Exclusion:
A state where one cannot participate in key societal activities is
called Social called.
Social exclusion is not synonymous with poverty, but refers to a
state where people cannot participate in key societal activities.
Information poverty increasingly is becoming an important
indicator of social exclusion, especially in the digital era.

21. FUTURE OF MEDIA THEORY AND RESEARCH:
QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS
Charles Dickens began his novel about the French Revolution, The
Tale of Two Cities, with the phrase,
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.…”

22. It was the best of times It was the worst of times
• Online databases instantly
bring journal articles and even
books to their desktops.
• Statistical analyses can
be performed on the datasets
obtained from large surveys or
complex experiments.
• They can easily and instantly
collaborate with colleagues
across the nation or around the
world.
World War II era when the
media-effects trend emerged to
dominate the field, and it’s like
the early 1980s when the critical
cultural trend challenged the
effects trend. It’s a time when
many media researchers are
pondering the future and
wondering how the field will
develop. They are investigating
questions that are central to the
discipline.

23. Some important changes that have occurred or
accelerated in the field of media theory and
research over the past decade:
1. A community of researchers has emerged who are bound together in a
global network that facilitates ongoing collaboration. International
professional associations and journals provide support for this
community.
2. Theory and research are shared in a growing number of academic journals
and books some of which are only published online. These journals tend to
be increasingly specialized and focused on narrow lines of research in
specific areas such as journalism practice, health communication, risk
communication, and sports communication.
3. Media Ph.D. students are being educated to understand and use a common
body of quantitative and qualitative theory and research methods at
universities located around the world. This generation of academics will
begin their careers in what they understand to be a global discipline and
with the belief that their work can be useful beyond their own borders.

24. 4. Conflicts between post-positivist and critical cultural researchers
have dissipated—replaced by mutual respect and even
collaboration. However, most academic journals and textbooks
remain specialized along methodological lines.
5. American, European, and Asian researchers share leadership in
key professional associations such as the International
Communication Association and service on editorial boards of
major academic journals such as the Journal of Communication.
6. Personal computers provide easy and low-cost access to powerful
research tools for both qualitative and quantitative research.