Iain A. Taylor – författare

Provides new perspectives on the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats, materiality and meaning. Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies, our consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form – the physical qualities of objects and the meanings which extend from them; format – objects considered in relation to the protocols which govern their use and the meanings and practices which stem from them; and ephemeral meaning – the ways in which media artefacts are captured, transformed and redefined through changing social, cultural and technological values.Each section includes empirical chapters which provide expansive discussions of perspectives on media and materiality. It considers a range of media artefacts such as 8 mm film, board games maps, videogames, cassette tapes, transistor radios and Twitter, amongst others. These are punctuated with a number of short takes – less formal, often personal takes exploring the meanings of media in context.We seek to consider the materialities which emerge across the broad and variegated range of the term’s use and to create spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of study of media, culture and society.

This edited collection offers evocative ways into a range of fascinating worlds of popular music, from the Ecuadorian indie scene to Chinese rock. In exploring the experiences of musicians, fans, industry professionals and academics, the rich complexity of popular music is brought to life through ethnography as an immersive approach to undertaking and communicating research.Experimenting with ethnography through the joys and tribulations of musical production, fandom and scholarship, these collated studies critically consider what it means to be a popular music ethnographer and to take an ethnographic approach to studying popular music. Alongside these chapters, musicians, venue owners, music writers, live music photographers, and fans add their voices and experience in the form of shorter vignettes, ordering the content into three overlapping themes: practices; places; and identities.

Provides new perspectives on the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats, materiality and meaning. Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies, our consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form – the physical qualities of objects and the meanings which extend from them; format – objects considered in relation to the protocols which govern their use and the meanings and practices which stem from them; and ephemeral meaning – the ways in which media artefacts are captured, transformed and redefined through changing social, cultural and technological values.Each section includes empirical chapters which provide expansive discussions of perspectives on media and materiality. It considers a range of media artefacts such as 8 mm film, board games maps, videogames, cassette tapes, transistor radios and Twitter, amongst others. These are punctuated with a number of short takes – less formal, often personal takes exploring the meanings of media in context.We seek to consider the materialities which emerge across the broad and variegated range of the term’s use and to create spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of study of media, culture and society.