Making Media Studies

  • Books

Making Media Studies: The Creativity Turn in Media and Communications Studies is published by Peter Lang, New York, 2015.

In Making Media Studies, David Gauntlett turns media and communications studies on its head. He proposes a vision of media studies based around doing and making – not about the acquisition of skills, as such, but an experience of building knowledge and understanding through creative hands-on engagement with all kinds of media.

Gauntlett suggests that media studies scholars have failed to recognise the significance of everyday creativity – the vital drive of people to make, exchange, and learn together, supported by online networks. He argues that we should think about media in terms of conversations, inspirations, and making things happen.

Media studies can be about genuine social change, if we recognise the significance of everyday creativity, work to transform our tools, and learn to use them wisely.

Making Media Studies is a lively, readable and heartfelt manifesto from the author of the acclaimed Making is Connecting.

→ You can read an extract from the introduction here or another extract here.
→ Videos about the book: a two-minute intro to the book, or a 30-minute discussion about it, or a 7-minute cut-down version of that 30-minute one.