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(New) Media and the Circulation of Knowledge: A Historical Framework for The Conversation Canada
- Information & Culture
- University of Texas Press
- Volume 58, Number 3, 2023
- pp. 221-246
- Article
- Additional Information
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ABSTRACT:
New media and new applications of existing media are typically seen as ways of distributing knowledge more effectively, often with hopes that this process will strengthen democracy. Adopting a history-of-knowledge approach, the authors analyze methods of knowledge circulation attending early print, nineteenth-century mechanics’ institutes and public libraries, early radio broadcasting, and explanatory journalism, providing a comparative historical framework for a recent new-media platform for distributing knowledge, The Conversation network. Appealing to a socially broad audience has consistently been a challenge. Efforts to distribute knowledge also reflected differences in prevailing media ecosystems, national systems of political economy, and contemporary social/political concerns.