Introduction to Volume 18: The M in CITAMS@30: Media Sociology

Since the beginning of CITASA’s sponsorship of Emerald Studies in Media and Communications (ESMC), the series has published research by CITAMS members and contributed to the section’s intellectual community. More recently, ESMC has also enjoyed sponsoring the Media Sociology Preconference and organizing closing plenary sessions of that annual event. Given these fruitful relationships, as the thirty-year anniversary of CITAMS approached, it seemed only natural to invite the CITAMS past chairs and community to contribute to a special volume celebrating the event. We invited current section chair Wenhong Chen and past chairs Barry Wellman, Shelia Cotten, and Laura Robinson to join forces with Casey Brienza, founder and current organizing committee chair of the Media Sociology Preconference. Their mission was simple: find the best current scholarship highlighting the present of our dynamic field and seek out analysis on the growth and history of the section with an eye to the future. To our delight, overwhelming response produced not one, but two volumes. Barry Wellman leads the first of the two volumes – Networks, Hacking, and Media – CITAMS@30: Now and Then and Tomorrow – showcasing field analysis from past CITAMS chairs, as well as a feast of interdisciplinary scholarship on networks and relationships. Casey Brienza leads the second of the two volumes – The M in CITAMS@30: Media Sociology – that probes the relationships between inequalities and media, as well as a scintillating array of scholarship on cultural production and consumption. Both volumes highlight some of the best of the vibrant, interdisciplinary scholarship in communication, information technologies, and media sociology.