Dear colleagues

I am pleased to announce my new book – Media Change: Contemporary Cases, Consequences, and Conceptualizations (Wiley). Some generous endorsements, a summary, and chapter contents follow below.

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Media+Change%3A+Contemporary+Cases%2C+Consequences%2C+and+Conceptualizations-p-9781394293568

*DESCRIPTION*

Media change is constant, but it is rarely straightforward. While some shifts in the media landscape are rapid and transformative, others unfold slowly, unevenly, or even stall and reverse. Media Change: Contemporary Cases, Consequences, and Conceptualizations examines this complexity through a series of contemporary, self-contained case studies. Each of the nine core chapters explores a specific example of media transformation, such as AI-driven content production, evolving online regulatory landscapes, and digital media business models.

Situating media change within broader historical and conceptual frameworks, Neil Thurman reveals how today’s most pressing issues in media are part of longer trajectories of change, shaped by forces such as technological innovation, economic pressures, and cultural resistance. By combining rich empirical evidence with a long historical view, this book illuminates the social, industrial, and technological drivers of transformation and their impact on media practices, products, and audiences. Its nine case studies not only offer depth on contemporary issues, but also prompt reflection on broader patterns of continuity and disruption in media systems.

Drawing on an original ‘six Rs’ framework – revolution, remediation, resistance, rapidity, regulation, and reversals – Media Change offers an accessible and fresh insight into contemporary communication, balancing global perspectives, challenging common assumptions about the media environment, and demonstrating how change can be incomplete, uneven, and historically contingent.

Written in a clear and accessible style, Media Change: Contemporary Cases, Consequences, and Conceptualizations is an essential resource for those seeking to understand how media systems are transforming.

*CONTENTS*

Chapter 1: Introduction: Media, Change, and Common Themes
Chapter 2: Modelling the Life Cycle of Media Evolution
Chapter 3: Media Change Through Media Convergence: The Case of Live Blogs
Chapter 4: Television: Changes in How and Why We Watch
Chapter 5: The Changing Regulation of Online Content: The Case of Internet Pornography
Chapter 6: Changes in Charging for Online News
Chapter 7: Changes in Media Audience Measurement
Chapter 8: The Changing Conveyance of Content: When Media Brands Go Online-only
Chapter 9: Changing Media Content Creation Through Automation and AI
Chapter 10: Changes in Newsgathering
Chapter 11: Changes in Media Distribution: Personalization and News
Chapter 12: The Six Rs Framework: Media Change as Eventual and Exceptional Evolution

*ENDORSEMENTS*

“A true tour de force at this critical moment for media production, policy, and use around the world.”
—Axel Bruns, Australian Laureate Fellow and Professor, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

“The book brilliantly captures media change’s complex historical dependencies, sometimes slow unfolding, regular reversals, and how it can – and at times should – be resisted.”
—Thorsten Quandt, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, University of Münster, Germany

“Moving far beyond the noise, this book’s analyses of many of the most important processes affecting media change – from content automation and regulation to platformization – are informed by rich empirical evidence and a long historical perspective. Readers will come away with assumptions challenged and a theoretical toolkit to interrogate the inevitable media change to come.”
— Claire Enders CBE, UK

“Simultaneously accessible and deep, detailed and sweeping.”
—Matt Carlson, Professor, Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, USA

“This strikingly original, engaging and accessible book is essential reading for anyone seeking to make sense of changes in our media landscape.”
—Karin Wahl Jorgensen, Professor and University Dean of Research Environment and Culture, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University, UK

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Media+Change%3A+Contemporary+Cases%2C+Consequences%2C+and+Conceptualizations-p-9781394293568

(Apologies for cross posting)
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Neil Thurman
Senior Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Journalism, City St George's University of London

Professor, Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich