Changing Media and Communication Education: Obsolescence of Content and Methodology?

This paper examines the transformation of the research agenda for communications in response to the contemporary shifts in communication practices. It argues that this transformed agenda must inform a new communications pedagogy. Because these changes are co-existant with older, centralized media systems, the analytical approaches to new media and communication technologies have split the research and education agenda. The paper will identify the general themes which characterize the paradigm shifts and research re-orientations, and tracks the debate as to the gains and losses in moving away from mass communication/mass culture models in communication research and education.