Media as Experience: A Transactional Theory of Media Use

• In Event: 65.080 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 65.080-12 - Pedagogy and Virtuality: Theorizing Education in the Digital Moment

Abstract

This paper develops a transactional theory of media use that is capable of conceptualizing changes in attitudes and dispositions due to the rapidly evolving media environment. It synthesizes Dewey’s theory of experience with research from the field of media ecology, which studies media as environments that structure human interaction. A transactional media theory posits users as active agents who modify their own habits through media use, and offers a lens that considers both individual as well as broader social consequences of media changes for democratic citizenship.

Author

• Lance E Mason, Indiana University - Kokomo