History of Media Studies Newsletter May 2026

Welcome to the 58th edition of the History of Media Studies Newsletter. The monthly email, assembled by Dave Park, Jeff Pooley, and Pete Simonson, maintains a loose affiliation with the History of Media Studies journal and the Working Group on the History of Media Studies. Please contact us with any questions, suggestions, or items.

1. Working Group on the History of Media Studies

Join us for the next remote session devoted to discussing working papers with authors. Hosted by the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM). Open to anyone interested in the history of the media studies fields. Instructions to join are here.

The Working Group is off for the summer. We will resume in September with a draft paper from Andrew Williams (University of Pennsylvania).

Instructions for joining the group are here. Questions? Contact us*

2. Conferences, Calls & Announcements

If you have a call or announcement relevant to the history of media studies, please contact us.

1. CFP: The Film-Philosophies of Stanley Cavell and Gilles Deleuze

• In the latter half of the 20th century, philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Stanley Cavell developed parallel ideas on film’s distinct capacity for producing thought. While Deleuze and Cavell’s respective influence continues to grow across the Atlantic and indeed globally, and their texts on cinema are by now considered seminal works in the field of film-philosophy, their ideas have only in exceptional cases been brought to bear on one another productively. This special issue of Philosophies, edited by Jeroen Gerrits (Binghamton University, SUNY) and Sandra Laugier (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne), seeks to explore generative conjunctions and differences between Cavell and Deleuze’s transversal thought in light of this changing media landscape, with a focus on the pertinence of their works on film and media for philosophy.
• Deadline: 1 August 2026
• More details

2. Third International History of Knowledge Conference: “Decentering the History of Knowledge”

• The third History of Knowledge Conference will take place in Utrecht on 25-27 August 2027. The conference follows the successful first international History of Knowledge Conference in Porto in 2023, and the second edition, hosted by the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge in 2025. Utrecht University is home of the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of Sciences and the Humanities, and the field’s flagship Journal for the History of Knowledge. In recent years, history of knowledge has developed into a vibrant field of interdisciplinary research and scholarship around the globe. The History of Knowledge Conference will gather scholars with a diversity of backgrounds to further develop the field and its impact on other disciplines and society. Fostering inclusivity, we welcome all scholars working on the history of knowledge in the broadest sense. The central theme of the conference will be: “Decentering the History of Knowledge.”
• Conference dates: 25–27 August 2027
• Deadline: A call for papers will be published in the Fall of 2026.
• More details

3. 45th ESHHS Conference

• The European Society for the History of the Human Sciences (ESHHS) will hold its 45th conference in the Sigmund Freud Private University, Vienna, and will be held in person only.
• Conference dates: 30 June–3 July 2026
• More details

4. 58th Annual Meeting of Cheiron

• The 58th Annual Meeting of Cheiron – The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences – will be held virtually from Thursday, June 25th through Saturday, June 27th, 2026. The theme of the meeting will be “Cheiron without Borders.” Mike Pettit is the program chair for the 2026 meeting. Due to the many increased challenges facing us (such as concerns about safe border crossings and diminished travel support from universities), we have decided an online meeting is the most feasible and accessible option for 2026. This is not a permanent change to the annual meeting. As part of our virtual gathering, we plan on hosting a dedicated session where the membership can exchange ideas about how best to sustain in person meetings long term.
• Conference dates: 25 June–27 June 2026
• More details

3. The Journal

History of Media Studies encourages submissions (en español) on the history of research, education, and reflective knowledge about media and communication—as expressed through academic institutions; through commercial, governmental, and non-governmental organizations; and through “alter-traditions” of thought and practice often excluded from the academic mainstream.

• The journal is soliciting proposals for a special section on the histories of publishing in the media, communication, and film studies fields. The focus of the special section is on the role of publishers—both commercial and nonprofit—in these fields’ development. Proposals of around 1000 words, including references, should be sent by September 15, 2026. See the CFP for more details.

4. New Publications

Works listed here are newly published, or new to the bibliography.

The History of Communication Research Bibliography is a project of the Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives (ASCLA) at the University of Pennsylvania.

1. Averbeck-Lietz, Stefanie, and Simon Sax. "Media use in a historical context." In Handbook of Media Use, eds. Holger Schramm, Volker Gehrau, Helena Bilandzic, and Carsten Wünsch (2026): 591--616. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748962519-591.

   ABSTRACT: The chapter deals with practices of historical media use - specifically: media-based viewing, reading and listening - in the respective historical and media-technological context. Constellations of media usage are described and categorised over the course of three centuries. The micro level (individual reception and use, acting with media, usage needs and their group and community relationships), the meso level (media organisations and the formation of audiences) and the macro level (societal, social, political, media-systemic and economic conditions and con- sequences) of such constellations are taken into account. Media use in the German dictatorships form one focus of the chapter. It is accompanied by considerations on how the history of media usage, which is characterised by severe source deficits, can be written. This article focuses on Germany and contextualises German developments within an international framework.

2. Boukes, Mark, Miriam J. Metzger, Mike Schmierbach, et al. "The necessary evolution of mass communication research in a fragmenting media landscape." Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 103, no. 1 (2026): 9--34. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990251407083.

   ABSTRACT: With the ongoing evolution of media channels, debates over the concept of mass communication have been reignited. When we live in a society of filter bubbles and AI-generated content, the very notion of a large uniform audience has been undermined. Indeed, the process of mass communication looks different today than in the early days of the field, which naturally affects how to define and measure media effects. In this forum, leading communication scholars provide arguments as to whether we should keep using the term “mass communication,” adapt its definition, or develop entirely new concepts that better reflect our fragmenting media environment.

3. Cassidy, Margaret. "An act of optimism: Celebrating twenty five years." Explorations in Media Ecology 25, no. 1 (2026): 3--8. https://doi.org/10.1386/eme_00281_2.

   ABSTRACT: This editorial celebrates the first issue of the twenty-fifth volume of Explorations in Media Ecology, recalling notable articles in the early issues of the journal.

4. Chung, Hiu-Fung. "Travelling with(in) critical AI studies: An east Asian standpoint." Media, Culture & Society 48, no. 3 (2026): 595--607. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437251385483.

   ABSTRACT: How does critical AI studies itself travel, and what happens when it arrives elsewhere? This commentary reflects on the global circulation of critique from the standpoint of East Asia, where layered histories of modernization, technological aspiration, and cultural traditions generate alternative ways of knowing, imagining, and critiquing AI beyond South–North frameworks. Writing from my position as a graduate student from East Asia, now trained in a North American institution, I introduce three analytical vectors—tangle, transplant, and transmute—all of which emerge dialogically through my research on AI innovation in East Asia and through engagement with Asian media scholarship addressing similar concerns. Through vignettes from this research journey, I suggest that these themes illuminate how dominant critical vocabularies encounter local imaginaries, on-the-ground frictions, socio-cultural histories, and divergent ethical orientations. Rather than proposing a unified Asian critical theory of AI, I offer “traveling AI” as a reflexive praxis that centers relational co-constitution, situated reworking, and philosophical reorientation, while remaining attuned to epistemic tensions and power differentials. In dialogue with broader de-westernizing projects, this paper suggests that East Asia can contribute to reimagining critique not as theory from the center or the periphery, but as an ongoing praxis of troubling with in-betweenness.

5. Forman, Murray. "The Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship at Harvard University: A decade of building knowledge, 2014–24." Global Hip Hop Studies 6, no. 2 (2025): 217--225. https://doi.org/10.1386/ghhs_00115_7.

   ABSTRACT: The Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship at Harvard University was announced in 2013 and the inaugural fellows arrived at the Hiphop Archive and Research Institute (HARI) the next year.1 Since then, 27 Nas fellows have passed though the programme, conducting research across a broad array of topics. This article features interviews with several of the former Nas fellows as they reflect on the importance of the fellowship for hip hop studies and on their general experiences at Harvard. Dr Henry Louis Gates Jr, the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, where HARI is housed, also offers his perspectives on the fellowship and its impact through its first decade.

6. Forman, Murray. "Reflections on the ten-year anniversary of the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship: Murray Forman in conversation with Henry Louis Gates, Jr." Global Hip Hop Studies 6, no. 2 (2025): 209--215. https://doi.org/10.1386/ghhs_00117_7.

   ABSTRACT: Dr Henry Louis Gates, Jr, the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, where the Marcyliena H. Morgan Hiphop Archive and Research Institute is housed, offers his perspectives on the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship and its impact through its first decade.

7. Gangadharbatla, Harsha, and Deepti Khedekar. "Where are all the critical voices in advertising research?." Advertising & Society Quarterly 26, no. 4 (2025). https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/21/article/982326.

   ABSTRACT: In the last five decades, the field of advertising scholarship has witnessed tremendous growth in research productivity, both in terms of quality and quantity. Much of this is driven by our field’s enthusiastic embrace of quantitative methods and an unwavering focus on administrative research. However, this focus has left little room for other types of inquiries, making our field less inclusive. In this article, we make a case for the addition of critical voices to our field as a way of making it more inclusive. In doing so, our field will expand its scope and focus from a practitioner and industry perspective to include research with implications for other stakeholders, such as consumers, policy makers, activists, and society at large. We also identify some key areas in advertising research that are ripe for a critical examination and conclude with some pedagogical, theoretical, and practical implications.

8. Huang, Jifeng, Bo Wang, and Ruilu Huang. "The repressed, the forgotten, and the historical continuity: On the two gaps in the academic history of the Chinese school of animation." Animation 21, no. 1 (2026): 28--43. https://doi.org/10.1177/17468477261425422.

   ABSTRACT: Two gaps exist in the academic history of the Chinese School of Animation: the Cultural Revolution period (1966–1976) and the 1990s. These two gaps are characterized by relevant studies stagnating in these periods and later researchers doing little to explore them. The gap of the Cultural Revolution period was mainly formed by the national mandatory force. By contrast, the 1990s gap was primarily caused by Chinese intellectuals’ voluntary forgetting in the particular social context. The two gaps are the outcome of historical construction, and meanwhile, they generate memories about themselves. Later Chinese researchers tend to construct the historical continuity across the gaps, which enhances the future orientation of the memory of the Chinese School of Animation’s past. The major strategies of constructing the historical continuity include the homogenized narrative based on aesthetic identity and the re-interpretation based on the nationality.

9. Lancaster, Alyse R., and Cynthia Morton Padovano. "In memory of Dr. Herbert Jack Rotfeld." Journal of Advertising 55, no. 2 (2026): 133--135. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2026.2629782.

   ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] On November 20, 2025, the American Academy of Advertising (AAA) lost an influential scholar, dedicated teacher, a long-serving AAA member since 1975, a loyal friend, and a bright light with the passing of Herbert “Herb” Jack Rotfeld, distinguished emeritus professor of marketing at Auburn University. Herb’s body of work archived across his career raised the bar on scholarship in advertising, consumer behavior, and marketing for generations of scholars to follow. His early work examined topics such as fear/threat appeals in advertising. Later in his career, he took up explorations in public policy issues, such as advertising regulation, truth in advertising, deceptive practices, and the ethical responsibilities of marketers.

10. Meirick, Patrick C., Rick Busselle, Helena Bilandzic, et al. "Cumulative exposure: Scholarly responses to 50 years of cultivation research." Mass Communication and Society 29, no. 3 (2026): 365--382. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2026.2644823.

    ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] This issue features the latest Scholarly Milestones essay, “Cultivation at 50” by Michael Morgan, Richard Perloff, Andy Ruddock, and James Shanahan, a meditation on the theory’s history, evolution, controversies, and future. As with previous Milestones, we invited several prominent scholars whose work has contributed to this history to contribute a set of responses. As one of the incoming editors of Mass Communication and Society and the associate editor who handled this Milestones essay and the responses to it, I have the honor of writing the introduction to those responses. I am not a cultivation scholar, but I have roughly three decades of cumulative exposure to the cultivation literature. Accordingly, I have had the opportunity to teach about cultivation, to review cultivation research, and to reflect on what light the theory might shed on my own work and on issues in the larger discipline.

11. Morgan, Michael, Richard M. Perloff, Andy Ruddock, and James Shanahan. "Cultivation at 50." Mass Communication and Society 29, no. 3 (2026): 343--364. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2026.2645066.

    ABSTRACT: Cultivation is a prominent and prolific theory in communication research, one that articulated new theoretical parameters and became the focus of intense national policy debates during the field’s formative era. As cultivation reaches its 50th anniversary, it is fitting to review the storied biographical provenance of the theory, the yin and yang of its intellectual internecine conflicts, the evolution of the theory’s development with the addition of core mainstreaming and resonance concepts, extensions through empirical illumination of psychological processes, and replication in different contexts, but, most saliently for today, the gnawing question of whether and how cultivation can be adapted to a time that is vastly different from the television-dominated era that spawned the theory. In this milestone paper, we take stock of cultivation’s assumptions, controversies, and conclusions, but do so through the lens of a historical, sociology-of-knowledge approach and empirical, meta-analytic informed review of research, in the end pondering whether this classic theory, with television as its conceptual cynosure, can be usefully applied to the multitudinous 21st century media milieux whose fragmented audiences and personalized content differ so greatly from the TV era, yet intriguingly share cultivation’s fundamental emphasis on the power of industrialized storytelling.

12. Schrodt, Paul. "Family communication patterns theory: Past developments, present applications, and future directions." Journal of Family Communication 26, no. 2 (2026): 109--123. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2026.2622043.

    ABSTRACT: What began as a series of investigations into the role that family communication structures play in political socialization has evolved over the last 60 years into family communication patterns theory (FCPT). The theory assumes that individuals develop family relationship schemas containing certain beliefs about communication that facilitate coorientation processes among family members as they construct their social reality. In this essay, I review key contributions to the development of FCPT, as well as current applications of the theory. The theory has yielded practical insights into how FCPs foster family member health and resilience, and guide family members’ interactions with individuals outside of the family. I conclude by offering three future directions for FCPT: (a) testing developmental changes to FCPs as children age into adulthood and form families of their own, (b) examining variations in FCPs among different cultures, and (c) exploring different sources of variability in perceptions of FCPs.

13. Selaković, Marko, and Nikolina Ljepava. "The third way: Evolution of public relations in Yugoslavia (1945–1991)." Corporate Communications: An International Journal 31, no. 3 (2026): 383--403. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-11-2025-0357.

    ABSTRACT: The study aims to examine historical evolution of public relations in Yugoslavia. The purpose of the study is to understand if Yugoslavia, with a specific socialist model different from other communist countries, had a specific model and understanding of public relations that was differentiated from other countries that were part of both the Western and communist blocs.14 interviews with marketing and public relations persons active in times of former Yugoslavia. Document analysis of available sources.Yugoslavia developed its own model of public relations that evolved from propaganda toward self-managed marketing-centric system in 1960s, with the rise of public relations, diversification and gaining global exposure in 1970s, with the full development of its own model and competition between the private and public sector in 1980s. Based on the review of the available literature and interviews conducted, it can be concluded that the Yugoslavian model of public relations was a hybrid model, which was grounded on the communication theories developed in the USA simultaneously and contextualized within the dominant Yugoslav political ideology of administrative Marxism.The research is the first study that analyzes the development of public relations in the entire territory of former SFR Yugoslavia. It offers new perspective of public relations evolution and provides historical evidence about the development of a specific model.

14. Stuchlíková, Dita. "Formal education of animation workers in Czechoslovakia: The case of the Cabinet of Animation at FAMU (1987–1991)." Animation 21, no. 1 (2026): 44--61. https://doi.org/10.1177/17468477251413151.

    ABSTRACT: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, animation education in Czechoslovakia played a key role in the upskilling of workers within the state film studios. This article focuses on the under-researched work of the Cabinet of Animation at the Faculty of Film and Television (FAMU), The Academy of Performing Art (AMU), in Prague, which, through close cooperation with the state film studios and the involvement of leading figures in Czechoslovak animation, combined academic education with practice. The specific organization of the studio blurred the boundaries between the school system and the film market, with staff from the state studios often participating in the teaching process. This article shows that animation education was not just a pedagogical activity; rather, it was an integral part of the state film system, which had a major influence on the development of Czechoslovak animation.

15. Sutton, Lucinda Bella-May, and Tanya Le Roux. "Developments and trends in internal communication research in Africa: A historical view from 1990 to 2024." Corporate Communications: An International Journal 31, no. 3 (2026): 365--382. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-07-2025-0200.

    ABSTRACT: Internal communication plays a significant role in an organisation's success and the discipline is experiencing significant global growth. Africa, however, lags in its contribution and remains underrepresented. Facing particular difficult economic, political and diversity issues, Africa could make a substantial contribution. This study addresses the gap by assessing the published academic growth of internal communication research conducted in Africa, to highlight historical trends.The study was conducted through a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles on internal communication, published between 1990 and 2024, to evidence the growth in the field. The Web of Science and Scopus databases were used to capture articles containing specific keywords. A screening process then followed. The authorship and institutional information, publication journals, African country of research, theoretical frameworks, methodological trends and future research suggestions found in 79 articles were analysed.There is clear evidence that internal communication is developing as a discipline in Africa. A strategic approach, diversity and limited African contributions to international discussion, have been ongoing themes. The research published is mainly found in African journals and is limited to only ten African countries. The lack of African insights restricts an inclusive and comprehensive understanding of the field.This review, which addresses a notable gap in the literature, offers valuable insights into the development of internal communication in Africa over the past 35 years. This article calls for researchers to develop African-centred approaches to internal communication and participate in global discussions.

16. Thomas, Lindsey J., and Kristina M. Scharp. "A meaningful theory: 25 years of relational dialectics theory in the Journal of Family Communication<." Journal of Family Communication 26, no. 2 (2026): 124--135. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2026.2638563.

    ABSTRACT: In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Journal of Family Communication (JFC), the present essay celebrates two and a half decades of relational dialectics theory (RDT) in JFC, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between theory and journal. The authors, both of whom have a breadth of experience in conducting RDT research, first provide a history of RDT and an overview of key terms and assumptions. The essay then traces the history of RDT through the first 25 volumes of JFC. A review of the RDT-based original research articles in JFC turns an eye toward the family communication contexts that have – and have not – been studied. The authors conclude by turning to possible future RDT endeavors and providing suggestions for those who are, or are interested in, conducting research based on RDT.

17. Topic-Rutherford, Martina. "Decentering the canon: Toward a plural global history of public relations." Corporate Communications: An International Journal 31, no. 3 (2026): 341--344. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-05-2026-376.

    ABSTRACT: This call to decenter the canon builds on longstanding debates within PR historiography. Scholars have long argued that the dominant Anglo-American narrative risks flattening the complexity of the field's global development (L'Etang, 2008; McKie and Munshi, 2007). In my previous editorial on the history and professionalization of PR, I argued that historical inquiry is central to understanding how professional legitimacy is constructed and institutionalized (Topić, 2024). Yet professionalization itself has often been narrated through Western institutional logics, accreditation systems and corporate expansion. To revisit history now is, therefore, not simply to expand the archive but to interrogate the power structures embedded in canon formation and to question whose trajectories have been normalized as the profession's “natural” evolution. From a Bourdieusian perspective, canon formation functions as an accumulation of symbolic capital, where certain actors, national traditions and institutional pathways acquire legitimacy through repetition and citation, while others remain structurally peripheral (Bourdieu, 1994).

18. Zhao, Jamie J. "Transcultural fan studies with a ‘Queer Asia’ focus in the 2020s." International Journal of Cultural Studies 29, no. 2 (2026): 364--377. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779251355988.

    ABSTRACT: This article considers how the landscape of transcultural fandom studies has developed, focusing on its evolution through the lens of queer (Asian) studies over the past two decades. It particularly emphasizes key research locales in the field, such as East Asia and the United States, in both physical and imaginative senses. My scholarly reflection seeks to elucidate significant shifts and emerging strands within the field's theoretical and analytical paradigms concerning the dynamics of Queer Asia. Fundamental to this discussion is how transcultural fandom studies can continue to be attuned to the sociocultural transformations and theoretical advancements occurring globally. Highlighting relevant changes in academic and social worlds and their broader sociocultural ramifications on future research, I advocate for a paradigm shift in which Asia is recognized as the origin—both imaginatively and figuratively—for gender and sexual discourses in comparative analyses of transcultural fandom in the 2020s.