On the Evolution of Media: Understanding Media Change

This book describes the lifecycle of media in the context of the media ecology, presenting a general theoretical framework and a series of methodological procedures to support the construction of an eco-evolutionary approach to media change.

Focusing on a series of processes - emergence, competition, dominance, hybridization, adaptation, extinction - this book goes beyond a chronological approach to propose a reticulated and multi-layered conception of media evolution. If media evolution is a network, what are the relationships between media species like? What happens when a new media emerges into the media ecology? How do new media influence the old ones? Can media become extinct? How do media adapt when the social and economic context changes? How can media evolution be analysed? What kinds of quantitative and qualitative techniques can be applied in media evolution research?

By presenting an innovative research approach and theoretical framework to media studies, this book will be of keen interest to scholars and graduate students of new media, media history and theory, philosophy of technology, mass communication, and organisational studies.