The domain of Media Studies is very broad and dynamic. It encompasses diverse theoretical approaches and research traditions. It examines media – film, television, radio, newspapers, magazines and all types of online media and resulting new communicative forms such as blogs, podcasts, tweets and social media platforms, as well as fashion, design and photography – from different theoretical perspectives and with the help of a variety of methodologies. Within this, diverse traditions and genres can be distinguished such as the broad field of fiction, documentaries, journalism, informational, educational and entertaining forms, but also the broad field of communication through social media and mobile devices in which Big Data and AI play an increasingly important role. Media researchers not only look at the form and content of media, but also study the production and consumption of media and media expressions, and their social genesis and functioning.
Media Studies is closely allied to other areas of the humanities and social sciences, including visual culture, popular culture, history and political culture. It is by nature a highly interdisciplinary subject area. It combines various disciplinary approaches, drawn, for example, from literary theory, history, cultural history, anthropology, psychology, philosophy and social sciences. It also engages actively with other interdisciplinary domains, for example cultural studies, Communication Science, Digital Humanities, Critical Data Studies en Sustainability Studies. The research culture in Media Studies displays strong similarities with these other domains. Research in the domain is organized by the RMeS research school.
Target groups
- Media Studies is international in orientation; both its publications and its close international alliances make that clear. Because the global reputation of Dutch media research, institutes and researchers are in demand as partners in international research projects and as speakers at international conferences.
- Based on their prominent status in national and international research, media researchers also engage with the general public. They respond to interest in their research output by publishing books aimed at the general public, articles in journals, essays in edited volumes and blogs, and by participating in public debates. They also cooperate with public and societal partners, such as national and international heritage institutions, increasingly within the context of digitalisation and digital heritage matters. This is also an important aspect of media historical research in the Netherlands.
Products and communication
- Academic publications often take the form of articles in peer-reviewed international journals and peer-reviewed edited volumes. Other publications are books, edited volumes, and articles in national journals. The academic monograph is still a customary form. Supplementing these are hybrid publications that target both academic readers and broad groups of interested general readers.
- English is the most common language in all forms of publication, the paramount aim being to reach an international academic readership. Publications in other European languages are also customary, mostly in Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Publication in other foreign languages is important in certain specialist areas that focus on a relevant national media culture.
- Review processes are important in the context of national and international publications, often in the form of peer reviews or blind peer reviews, but also editorial reviews. That is true of articles in journals, essays in edited volumes and books.
- International conferences, in many cases organised around a specific theme, are an important channel of domain-internal communication and often result in publications that highlight new subjects or theories within the subject area (or within a relevant segment) or that provide an overview of a specific status quaestionis.
Processes and strategies
- Communication with professionals, but above all with broad groups of interested members of the public, is important. Researchers communicate by producing hybrid publications (including books), participating in public debates, disseminating knowledge on social media, writing articles in popular periodicals (e.g. weeklies) and literary media, and blogging.
- A still common form of publication is "single-authored publication". This is particularly true for books (monographs), which require a larger production time. Within the field, however, a rapid transition is visible towards journal articles, often also with multiple co-authors. These are equally valued by peers as single-authored publications.
Domain-specific aspects of quality and relevance
Alongside academic publications in peer-reviewed (ranked) journals, monographs published by international academic publishers, and essays in edited volumes, media researchers publish hybrid books, participate in public debates, write blogs, publish articles in popular weeklies and media, and create video essays, podcasts, and virtual exhibitions.
Relevance of quantitative indicators for use and marks of recognition
For now, bibliometric indicators such as citation analyses are not useful, even if based on Google Scholar. That is because many of the publication channels and publications in most languages other than English are not systematically indexed, if at all, and because reference practices are too diverse.