28. Academic Publishing in the Digital Age Arguably, over the past several years, media studies has begun to assert an on-line publishing presence through e-journals like Jump Cut, Mediascape, Vectors and Flow and through academic bloggers like Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Chuck Tryon. MediaCommons is the latest initiative seeking to develop a digital scholarly network. This roundtable is concerned with the future of digital publishing for media studies. What will digital scholarship look like? What are the possibilities that digital scholarship can generate? What are its limitations and stumbling points? How will the scholarly text's life within the network affect its production, its reception, and its "afterlife"? How will relationships among authors and readers change? How will digital publishing affect and be affected by issues of intellectual property/fair use? How can digital scholarship best serve both the media studies community and help it meet its public service and pedagogical missions of serving larger constituencies of non-academics, activists, creators, legislators, and consumers? How must media studies adapt to a digital environment in order to best meet the needs and expectations of on-line communities? In opening up the academic process and reaching outside the academy, how will the role of the digital scholar evolve? How can media studies scholars work in digital publishing environments and still maintain/alter acceptable standards and expectations for rigor and peer recognition within the academy? |