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In Making Media Studies, David Gauntlett turns media and communications studies on its head. He proposes a vision of media studies based around doing and making - not about the acquisition of skills, as such, but an experience of building knowledge and understanding through creative hands-on engagement with all kinds of media. Gauntlett suggests that media studies scholars have failed to recognise the significance of everyday creativity - the vital drive of people to make, exchange, and learn together, supported by online networks. He argues that we should think about media in terms of conversations, inspirations, and making things happen. Media studies can be about genuine social change, if we recognise the significance of everyday creativity, work to transform our tools, and learn to use them wisely. Making Media Studies is a lively, readable, and heartfelt manifesto from the author of Making is Connecting.
List of contents
Contents: Media Studies 2.0 - Further Reflections on Media Studies 2.0 - Creativity and Participatory Culture: A Conversation with Henry Jenkins - On Making Media Studies - a Crowdsourced Interview - Academia-Industry Collaboration and Innovation: Three Case Studies, and Eight Principles, for Fostering People's Creativity on Digital Platforms - The Lego System as a Tool for Thinking, Creativity, and Changing the World - Creativity and Digital Innovation - The Internet is Ancient, Small Steps are Important, and Four Other Theses about Making Things in a Digital World.
About the author
David Gauntlett is a Professor in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Design and Co-Director of the Communications and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster, United Kingdom. See davidgauntlett.com for further information, blog, and videos.
Summary
In Making Media Studies, David Gauntlett turns media and communications studies on its head. He proposes a vision of media studies based around doing and making - not about the acquisition of skills, as such, but an experience of building knowledge and understanding through creative hands-on engagement with all kinds of media.
Report
«Sitting down with David Gauntlett's 'Making Media Studies' is like having a conversation with an erudite, yet still optimistic scholar. Gauntlett celebrates 'everyday makers' on digital platforms such as YouTube, giving readers the pragmatic and conceptual tools needed to understand the positive aspects of this ongoing cultural shift. The result is a deeply engaging
antidote to more pessimistic stirrings.» (Matt Ratto, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
«What Gauntlett offers is a bold, imaginative - and occasionally provocative - view of what media studies might become. This is a lively contribution to thinking about media and communications.» (Shaun Moores, Professor, University of Sunderland)
