Media Innovation Overview

Principles

Definition

Media innovation is a research field and academic concept studying the processes, characteristics, and consequences of novelty in media forms, content, technologies, business models, and user practices, analyzing their emergence, diffusion, and societal impact within media systems.

Ontological type

Innovation Processes

Theoretical Frameworks

Societal Impact

Key developments

Key Figures

Remediation and Convergence era

John Thompson [1], associated with the University of Cambridge [3] and Australian National University [4], emerges as a central figure in media studies during the Remediation and Convergence era. The 1996 work The media and modernity: a social theory of the media [7] offered a framework that treats media as a social force shaping modern life, contributing to understanding mediation, globalization, and the circulation of information central to convergence. Allan Bell [2], tied to the University of Auckland [5] and University of Wales [6], emerges as a foundational figure in news discourse analysis during this period. His 1994 paper The Language of News Media [8] analyzes linguistic choices in news to reveal ideology, audience engagement, and power dynamics, providing critical insight for cross-media storytelling and market-oriented newsroom practices in the Remediation and Convergence era.

Platform-Mediated Participation era

Alice Marwick [1] emerges as a leading voice in the Platform-Mediated Participation era, anchored by affiliations with New York University [3] and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [4] during this period. Her key contributions in this era center on analyzing social media's audience dynamics and attention economies, evidenced by I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience [7] and Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy [8], which illuminate context collapse, imagined audiences, and the ascent of personal branding as a political and professional instrument. danah boyd [2] aligns with Harvard University [5] and the University of California, Berkeley [6] as key institutions shaping scholarship in this era. Her 2010 paper I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience [7] reveals how context collapse and imagined audiences illustrate how users perform identity within networked publics and why these dynamics mattered for participatory journalism and platform-mediated participation.

Platformization of Media Labor era

David B. Nieborg [1] is a scholar associated with the University of Toronto [3] and the University of Amsterdam [4] during the Platformization of Media Labor era. His key contributions in this era center on theorizing the platformization of cultural production, as articulated in The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity [6]. Thomas Poell [2] is a scholar affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania [5] and the University of Toronto [3] active within the same Platformization era. Poell's contributions include co-developing the framework articulated in The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity [6], which helps explain how platform infrastructures influence labor value and editorial norms in this era.