mediadiscussies

Med iadiscussies is a term used in media studies to describe the ongoing public and scholarly discourse surrounding media content, institutions, and practices. The term, which blends "media" with "discussies" (often seen in Dutch-language scholarship), denotes organized and informal discussions about how media shapes and is shaped by society. In English-language contexts the concept is often referred to as media discourse or media discussions.

Scope includes editorial debates, conversations in editorial comments and social media, academic discussions, and policy debates about media regulation, ethics, ownership, and platform responsibility. Methods include discourse analysis, content analysis, sentiment analysis, ethnography of online communities, and interviews with journalists and audience members.

Main themes include representation and bias, accountability of media institutions, transparency of ownership, censorship and freedom of expression, misinformation and fact-checking, and the effects of algorithmic curation on public talk. Roles and actors include journalists, editors, policymakers, scholars, platform companies, influencers, and diverse audiences. Relation to related concepts includes the public sphere, agenda-setting, framing, media literacy, and media accountability.

Examples include public debates about funding for public broadcasters, reactions to major newsroom events, and discussions about platform moderation during elections. Criticism notes that mediadiscussies can reflect power dynamics and online echo chambers, and that measuring them is challenging due to fragmentation and multilingualism. See also: media studies, discourse analysis, public sphere.