Media Practice Theory

Christian Pentzold is Professor and Chair of Media and Communications in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University.Peter Gentzel is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media Communication Research in the Department of Media Studies and Art History and an associate member of the Department of Digital Humanities and Social Studies at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg.Wolfgang Reißmann is currently a trainee in the Open Science Department at Leipzig University Library. Previously, he was employed as a communication and media scholar at the universities of Leipzig, Erfurt, Siegen and Freie Universität Berlin.

"This book is doing everything and at the same time. It takes stock of media practice theory and research while pushing them to the next level. A must read for everyone with an interest in what people do with the media and what they say they do with media."- Anne Kaun, Södertörn University, Stockholm and Author of Crisis and Critique: A Brief History of Media Participation in Times of Crisis"Media Practice Theory is a powerful, accessible, and up-to-date introduction to practice theory and its multiple uses for the study of media and communication. Its authors have packed into a compact book a rich array of debates, concepts and empirical examples from around the world. The topics range from journalism, Wikipedia and eSports to terrorism, TikTok and AI. There is also a wealth of advice on how to put these ‘useful abstractions’ into research practice. This remarkable book is essential reading for media and communication students and scholars, and indeed for anyone interested in our countless entanglements with digital technologies."- John Postill, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and Author of The Anthropology of Digital Practices “What does this book do? And what can readers do with it? – we might ask as practical people and in the spirit of the practice approach. In my view, the book does the long overdue work of taking systematic stock of the ways in which the theorization of practice could augment Media Studies conceptually and methodologically. What researchers in the field would be well advised to do is to read it before they drop the word “practice” in their papers and talks."- Maria Bakardjieva, University of Calgary, Canada and Author of Internet Society: The Internet in Everyday Life

• 1. Introduction: What Do People Do with Media? 2. What Do People and the Media Do? 3. Principles of Media Practice Theory 4. Media From a Practice Theory Perspective 5. Studying (Media) Practices: Orientations for Empirical Research 6. Agency, AI and Datafication: Practical Theories – Now More Than Ever!