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Abstract: The chief aim of this project is to consider and reflect upon the continuing utility of media studies for a high-speed society. This is a society characterized by a widespread distribution and rapid rate of change of networked media, in which our capacity to truly understand and critique such media is outpaced by their development. More specifically, the goal is to begin developing nascent strategies – aimed at researchers, educators, and students alike – for negotiating and perhaps resisting the pressures, anxieties, and hindrances that are commonly faced with respect to this high-speed society.

Taking as its starting point the notion that in the face of such dramatic social, economic, and technological shifts, media studies needs to renovate the methods it uses to produce theoretical knowledge, the project will initiate a dialogue between scholars, writers, artists, media practitioners, and industry professionals. Through the creation of this network, it will attempt to identify the key concerns with which media studies must grapple in regard to the changes wrought by the accelerating pace of media development, and begin to conceive of novel ways by which media educators and researchers might address such concerns.