ABSTRACT
Museums have always communicated with the world around them through various means, such as signage, leaflets, photos and materials for learning. Museums are in many ways unique spaces because they can bring the whole media ensemble into a particular place and space that exists within a set of complex mediated communication environments. At the same time, our focus on museums’ technologically mediated communication environments also invites grander claims than are often found in museum studies. Museums are not media, but without media there would be little left of museums as people have come to know them. The emergence of mediatisation theory in media studies coincides closely with the period during which museums have faced the challenges of digital transformation. In media studies, mediatisation theory seeks to reconceptualise the notion of media influence in a way that moves beyond measuring and interpreting their effects.
