Intellect

Authors:  David Gauntlett 
DOI: 10.1386/iscc.1.1.147/1

Keywords
media studies 2.0, new media, audiences, users, internet, web 2.0

Abstract
This article responds to the articles about ‘Media Studies 2.0’ featured in this special issue of Interactions. Key features of ‘Media Studies 2.0’ are restated: (1) Considerable changes in the media ecosystem, where internet-based technologies now blur the range of places where users can encounter, interact with and contribute to media content; (2) The collapse of separate categories of ‘producer’ and ‘audience’, as growing numbers of people become creators and curators of digital media; (3) A turn away from ‘professional’ media productions, towards the everyday participatory and creative possibilities of today's media. The article notes William Merrin's sophisticated contributions to this debate, and goes on to consider some of the criticisms made about ‘Media Studies 2.0’. It notes that commentary in this field tends towards either celebration or condemnation of new technologies, and suggests that a more measured discussion of the role of media in people's lives might prove more illuminating.