ABSTRACT

When criticizing the notion that participatory media is something new, another idea is sometimes implicitly adopted: that sharp distinctions between media producers and media consumers actually are appropriate, as far as the history of traditional mass media is concerned. Focusing on less-studied forms such as exhibitions, museums, and phonographs risks accepting traditional historiography on traditional mass media. The common role model for any discussion of “the media” is not just traditional mass media; it is rather traditional, that is, historically constructed conceptions of traditional mass media.