Communication theory and research in the age of new media : a conversation from the CM Café

The Communication Monographs Café has become a neighborhood fixture"”a spot for conversation about ideas that are circulating in the discipline and that have the potential for shaping scholarship in the future. The first opening of the Café (published in Volume 78, Issue 2) featured a conversation about social justice and public scholarship. Six months later (Volume 78, Issue 4) another group of scholars gathered at the Café to discuss the issues of materiality and knowledge, particularly in organizational communication and communication technology. In the last month of 2011, the doors of the CM Café were once again flung open. This time, the scholars who strolled in came to discuss the ways in which our scholarship can consider the rapidly changing media landscape of the twenty-first century. An eclectic mix of media scholars came to the Café: Nancy Baym (University of Kansas), Scott Campbell (University of Michigan), Heather Horst (RMIT University), Sri Kalyanaraman (University of North Carolina), Mary Beth Oliver (Pennsylvania State University), Eric Rothenbuhler (Ohio University), and René Weber (University of California-Santa Barbara). As before, the CM Café was facilitated through a private group on Facebook, and though many of the scholars attending were already active Facebook users, several signed up especially to engage in this discussion about new media. The setting of the Café allowed participants to drop in and out of the conversation, post their own questions as desired, and take each other down new paths as ideas diverged and converged. In spite of busy end-of-semester schedules, travel, and a car accident, the exchange was stimulating and enlightening. In contrast to previous openings of the Café, the discussion that developed regarding communication theory and research in the age of new media was a relatively linear one"”there were twists and turns, of course, but much of the interaction proceeded on one thread on the Facebook page. This recounting of the conversation, then, will begin with that thread headed with my opening question: "So, to begin, what do we mean when we talk about "new media""”social networks? mobile telephony? global media? Further, what can we say is really new (theoretically as well as technically) in the study of new media?"