Nick Couldry, Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice

Where many scholarly syntheses of significant media theory remain bound to a media-centric approach, Nick Couldry’s Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice advocates a socially oriented media theory grounded in the analysis of everyday action and habits of use. Couldry aims to address the question of “what people are doing in relation to media in the contexts in which they act” (p. 35). He contrasts his approach—media practice theory— with other important lenses for media research: media as text, political economy, the technical properties of media, and social use. In detailing a potential new paradigm for media research, Couldry extracts insights from each strand of thinking and retains an emphatic focus on the subtle ways media impacts our lives through the development of practices, complexes of practices, and evolving intersections of cultural production and consumption. Thus, Couldry sidesteps broad hype about the digital revolution by asking concrete practice-oriented questions and using empirical evidence to negotiate the shifts and continuities between mass media forms like television and newer digital forms like mobile phones and social networking sites.