Media and culture : movement across the decades

Over the last decade there have been well-documented, far-reaching changes to the media environment as digitalization – among other forces and processes – has substantially altered media production, consumption and use. A notable consequence of this shift has been the intensified co-dependency of the media and (especially ‘live’) sport, and the continuing expansion of the ‘media sports cultural complex’. The developing phenomenon of social media now figures prominently across the cultural sphere (including the ‘zone’ of media and sport), but it is necessary to question some ostensibly over-optimistic or premature claims about its lasting significance as a vehicle for human liberation. Thus, in considering a broad research agenda in this domain for the next decade, the centrality of political economy, media history, and anti-technological determinism are emphasized as necessary components of any workable analytical engagement with questions of power, media and cultural politics.