Blog
by Neil Thurman
Available for pre-order: Media Change
Media change is constant, but it is rarely straightforward. While some shifts in the media landscape are rapid and transformative, others unfold slowly, unevenly, or even stall and reverse. In Media Change: Contemporary Cases, Consequences, and Conceptualizations I examine this complexity through a series of contemporary, self-contained case studies. Each of the nine core chapters explores a specific example of media transformation, such as AI-driven content production, evolving regulatory landscapes, and media business models.
Situating media change within broader historical and conceptual frameworks, I reveal how today’s most pressing issues in media are part of longer trajectories of change, shaped by forces such as technological innovation, economic pressures, and cultural resistance. By combining rich empirical evidence with a long historical view, my book illuminates the social, industrial, and technological drivers of transformation and their impact on media practices, products, and audiences. Its nine case studies not only offer depth on contemporary issues, but also prompt reflection on broader patterns of continuity and disruption in media systems.
Drawing on an original ‘six Rs’ framework – revolution, remediation, resistance, rapidity, regulation, and reversals – Media Change offers an accessible and fresh insight into contemporary communication, balancing global perspectives, challenging common assumptions about the media environment, and demonstrating how change can be incomplete, uneven, and historically contingent.
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Table of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Media, Change, and Common Themes
Chapter 2: Modelling the Life Cycle of Media Evolution
Chapter 3: Media Change Through Media Convergence: The Case of Live Blogs
Chapter 4: Television: Changes in How and Why We Watch
Chapter 5: The Changing Regulation of Online Content: The Case of Internet Pornography
Chapter 6: Changes in Charging for Online News
Chapter 7: Changes in Media Audience Measurement
Chapter 8: The Changing Conveyance of Content: When Media Brands Go Online-only
Chapter 9: Changing Media Content Creation Through Automation and AI
Chapter 10: Changes in Newsgathering
Chapter 11: Changes in Media Distribution: Personalization and News
Chapter 12: The Six Rs Framework: Media Change as Eventual and Exceptional Evolution
Praise for Media Change
“A true tour de force at this critical moment for media production, policy, and use around the world.”
—Axel Bruns, Australian Laureate Fellow and Professor, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
“Moving far beyond the noise, this book’s analyses of many of the most important processes affecting media change – from content automation and regulation to platformization – are informed by rich empirical evidence and a long historical perspective. Readers will come away with assumptions challenged and a theoretical toolkit to interrogate the inevitable media change to come.”
— Claire Enders CBE, UK
“Simultaneously accessible and deep, detailed and sweeping.”
—Matt Carlson, Professor, Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, USA
“Neil Thurman offers an original take on where we are with our media and where we are heading. I always learn something new when I read his work. You will too.”
—Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Professor, Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
“Impressive in scope and ambition, this book provides an informed, accessible assessment of media change and why its investigation matters.”
—Stuart Allan, Professor of Journalism and Communication, Cardiff University, UK
“An important read for scholars and practitioners alike.”
—Pablo J. Boczkowski, Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University, USA
“This strikingly original, engaging and accessible book is essential one seeking to make sense of changes in our media landscape.”
—Karin Wahl Jorgensen, Professor and University Dean of Research Environment and Culture, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University, UK
“The book brilliantly captures media change’s complex historical dependencies, sometimes slow unfolding, regular reversals, and how it can – and at times should – be resisted.”
—Thorsten Quandt, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, University of Münster, Germany
“Accessibly written; with just the right amount of theory; and lots of compelling and informative case studies across a wide range of media contexts.”
—Philip M. Napoli, James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy; Director, DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, Duke University, USA
“Written with precision and depth, Media Change will be an indispensable resource for scholars, postgraduate students, and researchers seeking to understand the forces driving the evolution of media institutions and practices.”
—Howard Tumber, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Journalism, City St George’s, University of London, UK
