Digitization

Theories of journalism and mass communication are being challenged in the face of news and advertising digitization, device proliferation, human and organizational mobilization, and media market restructuring.

Some research themes in this area:

• How are research traditions, such as framing, gatekeeping, spiral of silence and agenda setting, being challenged – and perhaps even reformulated or reinvented – in light of the technological and economic changes brought about by digital media?

• How is theorizing in fields such as media economics and political communication being challenged in the face of these digital media changes?

• How might key concepts in journalism and mass communication, such as audience, public sphere, or even mass communication itself, be re-articulated in the era of digital media?

• How is normative theorizing about the press, including notions of press freedom, challenged by the emerging dominance of digital media?

• What might be learned about digital disruption through comparative research?