Anthony Cristiano - Millennials and Media Ecology: Culture, Pedagogy, and Politics

Millennials and Media Ecology explores issues pertaining to millennials and digital media ecology and studies the cultural, pedagogical, and political environments such a heterogeneous generation populates. The book questions whether millennials are properly understood as a heterogeneous group, particularly by the institutions and agencies that target them, and whether they are demonstrating the ability to set out a path for themselves and take charge of their own life and future.

A diverse team of expert authors review past and current studies with critical assessment of arguments and propositions and document actual experiences of members of the millennial generation through detailed studies. Engaging with topical subject matter and current research on millennials, the chapters:

This is an essential book for scholars in the fields of Media and Communications and Popular Culture, and will be vital reading for postgraduate students and specialists in related fields.

Anthony Cristiano lectures in culture and media studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Digital Media, Culture, and Communication Studies programs. His research pertains to media practices and ethics. He is the author of The Question of Ethics: From Print Media to Social Media (2017), and the forthcoming AI and Ultimate Reality article (University of Toronto Press).

Ahmet Atay is an Associate Professor of Communication at the College of Wooster. His research revolves around media and cultural studies, and critical intercultural communication. He is the author of Globalizations Impact on Identity Formation: Queer Diasporic Males in Cyberspace (2015) and the co-editor of seven books. His scholarship has appeared in a number of journals and edited books.

Ecologies of Internet Video

Beyond YouTube

John Hondros

Panic, Transnational Cultural Studies, and the Affective Contours of Power

Edited by Micol Seigel

Ethnic Media in the Digital Age

Edited by Sherry S. Yu and Matthew D. Matsaganis

Narratives of Place in Literature and Film

Edited by Steven Allen and Kirsten Mllegaard

Unplugging Popular Culture

Reconsidering Materiality, Analog Technology, and the Digital Native

K. Shannon Howard

Advertising in MENA Goes Digital

Ilhem Allagui

Gambling in Everyday Life

Spaces, Moments and Products of Enjoyment

Fiona Nicoll

Inhuman Materiality in Gothic Media

Aspasia Stephanou

Millennials and Media Ecology

Culture, Pedagogy, and Politics

Edited by Anthony Cristiano and Ahmet Atay

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com

First published 2020

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Anthony Cristiano and Ahmet Atay

The right of Anthony Cristiano and Ahmet Atay to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-20025-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-25923-4 (ebk)

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Ahmet Atay is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, College of Wooster (USA).

Daniele Bertolini is Assistant Professor in Law and Business Department, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University (Canada).

Anthony Cristiano is Lecturer in Digital Media and Journalism at Laurier University (Canada).

Leif Kramp is Journalism Researcher and Research Coordinator at the Centre for Media, Communication, and Information Research, ZeMKI, University of Bremen (Germany).

Iga Mergler is Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Sociology, McMaster University (Canada).

Star A. Muir is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, George Mason University (USA).

Alison Novak is Assistant Professor at the College of Communication and Creative Arts, Rowan University (USA).

Jason Robinson is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, York University (Canada).

Stephan Weichert is Professor in Digital Journalism at the Hamburg Media School (Germany).

Among the most debated issues of contemporary media studies, the question of whether the younger generations are seeing their prospects improved or compromised by new media practices and trends is at the very top of the list. The relationship between millennials and digital media are viewed in a variety of ways, with concern and alarm at a dangerous mix at one end, and with customary indifference at generational trends at the other. Millennials (the cohort following Generation X, and born roughly between 1981 and 2000) are by definition the demographic, or sector, of our contemporary population constituted by the chief protagonists of new media trends. They appear to be the most relentless users of digital tools and Internet technologies, which are increasingly saturating and reshaping the global environment. To speak of Millennials and Media Ecology is to speak of the most promising and, at the same time, most vulnerable human demographic. The unique and most distinctive feature or this volume is the unambiguous and clarifying relationship drawn between millennials and media ecology, in matters of culture, pedagogy, and politics. By reviewing past and current studies with critical assessment of arguments and propositions, and by documenting actual experiences of members of the millennial generation through detailed studies of 1) media legacies, convergence, and representation; 2) schooling institutions and pedagogical approaches; 3) political involvement and campaigns; and 4) generational habits of communication and consumption of news, this volume offers new insights and understandings of the dynamics at play with millennials and new media environments. Moreover, it advances our understanding by pointing to the fallacious assumptions that continue to inform many related studies, and by offering sound alternatives. Particularly, students and scholars dealing with the topics of youth culture, their media practices, understandings, and trends will find its perspective and insights refreshing, both intellectually and in praxis.