TY - JOUR AU - Deuze, Mark PY - 2021/06/21 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Challenges and Opportunities for the Future of Media and Mass Communication Theory and Research: Positionality, Integrative Research, and Public Scholarship JF - Central European Journal of Communication JA - cejc VL - 14 IS - 1(28) SE - DO - 10.51480/1899-5101.14.1(28).1 UR - https://journals.ptks.pl/cejc/article/view/222 SP - 5-26 AB - <p> </p><div><span lang="EN-US">In this essay I intend to tell a story of media studies and mass communication research as a field, based on the work of the late Denis McQuail – and that of editing the new edition of his seminal handbook <em>McQuail’s Media and Mass Communication Theory</em> (McQuail &amp; Deuze, 2020). Using McQuail’s historical storytelling method, I specifically look at the challenge for the field in the context of a global pandemic alongside an infodemic, at a time when the whole world faces the consequences of recurrent lockdowns, social distancing measures, and institutional pressures to stay at home. Media studies and (mass) communication research, while having a distinct narrative, as a field has only just begun to articulate its relevance to society – we have only just started to tell our story. Using developments in understanding the self as a research tool, the implementation of integrative research designs, and calls for engaged and public scholarship, the paper outlines challenges and opportunities for what we can do with our field.<br /></span></div> ER -