Annette Hill is a professor in media and communication, Jönköping University, Sweden. With 25 years’ experience of audience research, in over 100 publications, her work addresses transnational audiences for factual and fictional genres, live events, tourism and theatre, using multiple methods and analytic dialogue with industry and citizen stakeholders. She is the author of, most recently, The Companion to Media Audiences (with Peter Lunt, 2024) and Media Imaginaries (with Joke Hermes and Simon Dawes, 2026).Simon Dawes is a senior lecturer at L’Institut D’Études Culturelles Et Internationales (IECI) – and member of the research team, Centre D’histoire Culturelle Des Sociétés Contemporaines (CHCSC) – at l’Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) in France. He is the author of British Broadcasting and the Public-Private Dichotomy (2017), co-editor of Neoliberalism in Context (2019) and editor-in-chief of the journals Media Theory and French Cultural Studies.Christine Geraghty is an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Glasgow and an honorary research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. She is the author of Now a Major Motion Picture (2008), My Beautiful Laundrette (2004) and British Cinema in the Fifties (2000). She sits on the board of Screen and is Book Reviews editor for Critical Studies in Television. Joke Hermes is a professor in Inclusion and Creative Industries, Inholland University of Applied Sciences and the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She has published widely on popular culture, audience research and feminist analysis of gender and diversity. She holds the Erik de Vries Chair in the History of Dutch Radio and Television and is the co-founding editor of the European Journal of Cultural Studies. She is the author of, most recently, Cultural Citizenship and Popular Culture (2024) and the Pocketbook of Audience Research (with Linda Kopitz, 2024).

As this important and challenging collection of essays make abundantly clear, the concept of friction is a valuable tool for thinking through a wide range of issues in the field of media and communications. Frictions point us to what matters. The book provides insightful scholarship in making sense of the contemporary world.Sue Turnbull, Honorary Professor, Communication and Media, University of Wollongong AustraliaThe idea of using the notion of ‘frictions’ as an exploratory point of reference for thinking critically about media comes off wonderfully well in this collection. The diverse implications of dynamic connection, tension, contradiction and opposition are pursued in a wide range of analytic and theoretical accounts. The book is an exercise both in disturbance and refreshment, allowing new distinctions to be drawn and new resemblances to be brought out.John Corner, Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool, UK

• List of ContributorsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Media FrictionsAnnette Hill, Joke Hermes, Christine Geraghty and Simon DawesPart One: Frictions within media, communications and cultureChapter One: De-Provincialising Media and Communications: Frictions in the New World DisorderDavid MorleyChapter Two: The Friction of the Social: Ambiguities in networked connectionsSusanna PaasonenChapter Three: Silicon Valley and the Politics of FrictionJakko KemperChapter Four: Befriending friction. On how to build data literacy in times of generative AIJoke HermesPart Two: Frictions within social and cultural environmentsChapter Five: Repulsive MediaDylan MulvinChapter Six: The frictions of concepts and actual actions: divide, escapism and roofless people's media use Maren HartmannChapter Seven: Performing access: the friction of finding yourself outside of genderLidia Pedro SoleChapter Eight: Juxtaposed frictions in an urban environment: a visual essayZaki HabibiPart Three: Friction within audience engagement and genres Chapter Nine: Authenticity Frictions: audience engagement with factuality and reality in streaming platformsAnnette HillChapter Ten: The frictions of news engagement as political practice in the pro-Palestinian movementJian Chung LeeChapter Eleven: Friction in Television Drama: the case of Coronation Street (UK, Granada, 1960)Christine GeraghtyChapter Twelve: Once upon a Time: documentary stories about frictional pasts. Ann GrayIndex

Annette Hill is a professor in media and communication, Jönköping University, Sweden. With 25 years’ experience of audience research, in over 100 publications, her work addresses transnational audiences for factual and fictional genres, live events, tourism and theatre, using multiple methods and analytic dialogue with industry and citizen stakeholders. She is the author of, most recently, The Companion to Media Audiences (with Peter Lunt, 2024) and Media Imaginaries (with Joke Hermes and Simon Dawes, 2026).Simon Dawes is a senior lecturer at L’Institut D’Études Culturelles Et Internationales (IECI) – and member of the research team, Centre D’histoire Culturelle Des Sociétés Contemporaines (CHCSC) – at l’Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) in France. He is the author of British Broadcasting and the Public-Private Dichotomy (2017), co-editor of Neoliberalism in Context (2019) and editor-in-chief of the journals Media Theory and French Cultural Studies.Christine Geraghty is an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Glasgow and an honorary research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. She is the author of Now a Major Motion Picture (2008), My Beautiful Laundrette (2004) and British Cinema in the Fifties (2000). She sits on the board of Screen and is Book Reviews editor for Critical Studies in Television. Joke Hermes is a professor in Inclusion and Creative Industries, Inholland University of Applied Sciences and the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She has published widely on popular culture, audience research and feminist analysis of gender and diversity. She holds the Erik de Vries Chair in the History of Dutch Radio and Television and is the co-founding editor of the European Journal of Cultural Studies. She is the author of, most recently, Cultural Citizenship and Popular Culture (2024) and the Pocketbook of Audience Research (with Linda Kopitz, 2024).

As this important and challenging collection of essays make abundantly clear, the concept of friction is a valuable tool for thinking through a wide range of issues in the field of media and communications. Frictions point us to what matters. The book provides insightful scholarship in making sense of the contemporary world.Sue Turnbull, Honorary Professor, Communication and Media, University of Wollongong AustraliaThe idea of using the notion of ‘frictions’ as an exploratory point of reference for thinking critically about media comes off wonderfully well in this collection. The diverse implications of dynamic connection, tension, contradiction and opposition are pursued in a wide range of analytic and theoretical accounts. The book is an exercise both in disturbance and refreshment, allowing new distinctions to be drawn and new resemblances to be brought out.John Corner, Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool, UK

• List of ContributorsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Media FrictionsAnnette Hill, Joke Hermes, Christine Geraghty and Simon DawesPart One: Frictions within media, communications and cultureChapter One: De-Provincialising Media and Communications: Frictions in the New World DisorderDavid MorleyChapter Two: The Friction of the Social: Ambiguities in networked connectionsSusanna PaasonenChapter Three: Silicon Valley and the Politics of FrictionJakko KemperChapter Four: Befriending friction. On how to build data literacy in times of generative AIJoke HermesPart Two: Frictions within social and cultural environmentsChapter Five: Repulsive MediaDylan MulvinChapter Six: The frictions of concepts and actual actions: divide, escapism and roofless people's media use Maren HartmannChapter Seven: Performing access: the friction of finding yourself outside of genderLidia Pedro SoleChapter Eight: Juxtaposed frictions in an urban environment: a visual essayZaki HabibiPart Three: Friction within audience engagement and genres Chapter Nine: Authenticity Frictions: audience engagement with factuality and reality in streaming platformsAnnette HillChapter Ten: The frictions of news engagement as political practice in the pro-Palestinian movementJian Chung LeeChapter Eleven: Friction in Television Drama: the case of Coronation Street (UK, Granada, 1960)Christine GeraghtyChapter Twelve: Once upon a Time: documentary stories about frictional pasts. Ann GrayIndex

Annette Hill is a professor in media and communication, Jönköping University, Sweden. With 25 years’ experience of audience research, in over 100 publications, her work addresses transnational audiences for factual and fictional genres, live events, tourism and theatre, using multiple methods and analytic dialogue with industry and citizen stakeholders. She is the author of, most recently, The Companion to Media Audiences (with Peter Lunt, 2024) and Media Imaginaries (with Joke Hermes and Simon Dawes, 2026).Simon Dawes is a senior lecturer at L’Institut D’Études Culturelles Et Internationales (IECI) – and member of the research team, Centre D’histoire Culturelle Des Sociétés Contemporaines (CHCSC) – at l’Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) in France. He is the author of British Broadcasting and the Public-Private Dichotomy (2017), co-editor of Neoliberalism in Context (2019) and editor-in-chief of the journals Media Theory and French Cultural Studies.Christine Geraghty is an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Glasgow and an honorary research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. She is the author of Now a Major Motion Picture (2008), My Beautiful Laundrette (2004) and British Cinema in the Fifties (2000). She sits on the board of Screen and is Book Reviews editor for Critical Studies in Television. Joke Hermes is a professor in Inclusion and Creative Industries, Inholland University of Applied Sciences and the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She has published widely on popular culture, audience research and feminist analysis of gender and diversity. She holds the Erik de Vries Chair in the History of Dutch Radio and Television and is the co-founding editor of the European Journal of Cultural Studies. She is the author of, most recently, Cultural Citizenship and Popular Culture (2024) and the Pocketbook of Audience Research (with Linda Kopitz, 2024).

As this important and challenging collection of essays make abundantly clear, the concept of friction is a valuable tool for thinking through a wide range of issues in the field of media and communications. Frictions point us to what matters. The book provides insightful scholarship in making sense of the contemporary world.Sue Turnbull, Honorary Professor, Communication and Media, University of Wollongong AustraliaThe idea of using the notion of ‘frictions’ as an exploratory point of reference for thinking critically about media comes off wonderfully well in this collection. The diverse implications of dynamic connection, tension, contradiction and opposition are pursued in a wide range of analytic and theoretical accounts. The book is an exercise both in disturbance and refreshment, allowing new distinctions to be drawn and new resemblances to be brought out.John Corner, Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool, UK

• List of ContributorsList of IllustrationsIntroduction: Media FrictionsAnnette Hill, Joke Hermes, Christine Geraghty and Simon DawesPart One: Frictions within media, communications and cultureChapter One: De-Provincialising Media and Communications: Frictions in the New World DisorderDavid MorleyChapter Two: The Friction of the Social: Ambiguities in networked connectionsSusanna PaasonenChapter Three: Silicon Valley and the Politics of FrictionJakko KemperChapter Four: Befriending friction. On how to build data literacy in times of generative AIJoke HermesPart Two: Frictions within social and cultural environmentsChapter Five: Repulsive MediaDylan MulvinChapter Six: The frictions of concepts and actual actions: divide, escapism and roofless people's media use Maren HartmannChapter Seven: Performing access: the friction of finding yourself outside of genderLidia Pedro SoleChapter Eight: Juxtaposed frictions in an urban environment: a visual essayZaki HabibiPart Three: Friction within audience engagement and genres Chapter Nine: Authenticity Frictions: audience engagement with factuality and reality in streaming platformsAnnette HillChapter Ten: The frictions of news engagement as political practice in the pro-Palestinian movementJian Chung LeeChapter Eleven: Friction in Television Drama: the case of Coronation Street (UK, Granada, 1960)Christine GeraghtyChapter Twelve: Once upon a Time: documentary stories about frictional pasts. Ann GrayIndex