ABSTRACT
Attention is shifting towards a ‘non-media-centric’ approach to Media Studies. Media practice work within the subject facilitates experiential learning about convergence, mobile media and new media dynamics, all of which are part of the eco-system in which misinformation, new forms of propaganda and new forms of data exploitation have emerged. Media institutions or industries are studied with close attention to the impact of and the complexity of assessing whether a global platform like Facebook is a media organisation or part of an industry of any kind. Fan media of various kinds has been a longstanding aspect of media reception. There is no ‘right answer’ and the examples discussed will soon be replaced by new developments, so the critical media student must avoid binary assumptions about old and new, good and bad, empowering and controlling and find their own informed, academic path through these contested ideas.
