Title
Media and Technology Studies
Document Type
Contribution to Book
Publication Date
4-2017
Abstract
The phrase media and technology studies applies to a vast area of interdisciplinary research, including multiple areas of the communication discipline that share, to an extent, an interest in mediated channels and their role in communication processes. Studies under the broad media and technology umbrella range from investigations that focus on the central role of media and technology in the current communication landscape to those that place them on its periphery. Broadly speaking, communication scholars seek to explain how meaning is shared between communicators. Although various communication theories and models exist, most include aspects such as a sender, receiver, message, channel, noise, feedback, and a larger social context. Media and technology studies scholars display immense variety in regard to their epistemological, ontological, and methodological views, yet they are united in their focus on the channel aspect of the communication model and its role in overall communication processes. Research regarding media and technology studies typically analyzes how specific media channels affect the way that meaning is transmitted, such as how the channel influences sender encoding, receiver decoding, or perhaps even the social and cultural environment through which a mediated message is transmitted/interpreted. This entry describes some of the areas of research that might be approached using a media and technology studies focus and further considers some of the research area's common methodological approaches.
Editor
Mike Allen
Publisher
SAGE Publications, Inc.
City
Thousand Oaks
ISBN
9781483381435
Repository Citation
Sumner, E. M., & Ramirez, A., Jr. (2017). Media and technology studies. In M. Allen (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods (Vol. 2, pp. 957-960). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Publication Information
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods