Media Practice Theory
Key Ideas and Approaches
Christian Pentzold author Wolfgang Reißmann author Peter Gentzel author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:29th Apr '26
£39.99
This title is due to be published on 29th April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£145.00(9781041007982)
This book provides a clear and accessible introduction to media practice theory and everyday media use. It brings much-needed clarity by explaining what media practice theories mean, how they have evolved, been applied, and why they matter.
The book maps the intellectual foundations of practice theory, drawing on thinkers like Wittgenstein, Giddens, and Bourdieu and showing how these diverse perspectives converge around understanding social life through enacted practices. Applied to media, this highlights what people do with communication technologies, how routines shape communication, and how digital platforms structure everyday life. With examples from journalism, organizational communication, social media cultures, and AI-driven processes, it connects theory to case studies while outlining practical research methods including ethnography, observation, situation analysis, and digital mapping. The book addresses fundamental tensions in practice scholarship regarding agency of people, things, and technologies, and material versus symbolic dimensions of media.
Media Practice Theory is an essential resource for students, educators, and researchers working in the broad fields of communication and media studies, journalism, and media production as well as those who engage with (digital) media and communication in areas such as sociology, political science, cultural studies, science and technology studies, and management studies.
"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
ISBN: 9781041007968
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
184 pages