Information, Medium & Society – The Publishing Studies Research Network

Interdisciplinary perspectives on publishing, media, and knowledge.

The Network’s themes guide conferences and publications, framing publishing as a site of technological change, cultural production, and ethical negotiation. They connect historical perspectives with contemporary transformations in media and communication.

Angus Phillips, The Fifteenth International Conference on Books, Publishing & Libraries, Imperial College London, London, UK (2017)
Angus Phillips, The Fifteenth International Conference on Books, Publishing & Libraries, Imperial College London, London, UK (2017)

Overview

Current work converges around four interlinked arenas: publishing practices and evolving forms of authorship and readership; knowledge systems spanning libraries, archives, repositories, and preservation; media economies encompassing intellectual property, open access, and creative labor; and communication ecologies analyzing platformization, algorithmic mediation, and public discourse. Together, these perspectives surface tensions—between openness and sustainability, automation and editorial judgment, global scale and local voice—while mapping pragmatic pathways for equitable knowledge futures.

Themes & Tensions

Theme 1: Information Foundations

On the formation of social knowledge, navigating the construction of shared knowledge of the cultural and natural worlds, interweaving these with individual and community subjectivities.

Living Tensions:

  • Genealogies of Human Agency – Understanding the Transmission of Human Culture Through History
  • The Social Author – Originator, Creator, Instigator?
  • From Oral to Textual Cultures – Our Informational Foundations
  • Experiential Meaning Making – Still Image, Moving Images, and Sound
  • Digital Dimensions – Artificial Intelligence, Derivative Data, and Meta-Data
  • Whose Knowledge? – Public Good in the Pursuit of Knowledge

Theme 2: Mediums of Disruption

On the changing processes of textual production and distribution from past to present, and the impacts of digitization and the internet on the future of publishing.

Living Tensions:

  • Disruptive Mediums – From a Machine Age, to the Digital Age, and Beyond
  • Defining Collaborative Relations – The Creator and the Publishe
  • Framing Information Landscapes – Production, Dissemination, Access
  • Economic Realities – From the Printed Artifact the Digital Object
  • Open or Closed – Ethical Considerations for Content Creators and Publishers
  • Media Archaeology – Historical Contexts for Mediums of Social Practice

Theme 3: Social History and Impacts

On the interdisciplinary and practice-focused nature of publishing as a domain of research, and measures of social impact.

Living Tensions:

  • A Social History of Publishing – The Socio-Cultural Dimeson of the Social Practice
  • From the Industry to a Publishing House – Macro and Micro Organizational Cultures
  • Publishing as Praxis – Feminist, LGBTQ, Post-Colonial, and Anti-Capitalist Publishing
  • Gatekeeper Effects – Whose Voices are Heard?
  • Market Forces – Determining Content
  • Filter Bubbles – Digital Content Spaces
  • Boundaries of Access –Abilities and Disabilities
  • Core and Periphery – Considering the Globalization of the Legal Traditions of Copyright

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