The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, 7 Volume Set

Convergence, Globalization, Technological Development, and Interdisciplinarity in a Fast-Evolving World

The Formidable Question of Method

Fabienne Darling-Wolf

ABSTRACT

This introduction makes the case for the continuing need to pay close attention to methodological issues in media studies. Locating the field within a fast-evolving global context, it outlines some of the questions of methodology media scholars must contend with, particularly as they relate to processes of convergence, globalization, and technological development. It argues that just as media are converging, media studies scholars must transcend methodological boundaries in order to continue to develop the kind of fluid interdisciplinary approaches that are best suited to explore the multimodal and heterogeneous nature of contemporary media. It concludes that, collectively, the essays included in this volume illustrate the innovative and dynamic nature of research methods in media studies and demonstrate their authors' commitment to critical and carefully contextualized work attuned to changing dynamics as well as to the researcher's own position and bearing on the process of inquiry.

The fast pace of technological development in the past few decades has rendered the task of media studies scholars particularly complex. The spread of print and electronic media, cable and satellite technology, and most recently the development of the Internet, “social media,”¹ and other forms of digital communication which facilitate ...