Rethinking keywords in media and cultural studies during and beyond COVID-19: Editorial

Natale, Simone and Li, Eva Cheuk-Yin and Punathambekar, Aswin and Keightley, Emily (2024) Rethinking keywords in media and cultural studies during and beyond COVID-19: Editorial. Media, Culture and Society. ISSN 0163-4437

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Abstract

A few years after the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, discussions surrounding its impact have become noticeably less frequent within communication and media research. While the pandemic no longer occupies the central place it once held in academic discourse and public debate, it is now more crucial than ever to consider how this unprecedented global event has shaped our societies, as well as its lasting implications for communication and media worldwide. This Crosscurrents themed issue invited scholars to reflect on how the cultural and social implications of this global event solicit a reorganization and reframing of some of the existing conceptual and theoretical tools that have shaped media and cultural studies as a field. Contributors moved from one specific keyword to consider how these notions are imbricated by the crisis, either COVID-19 specifically or in more general terms. This editorial provides an overview to the themed issue and highlights the benefit of considering the impact of the pandemic from a broader and longer perspective, which moves away from the language and rhetoric of emergency.