David Gauntlett

^^^ David Gauntlett hard at work. ^^^

David Gauntlett was born in 1971 is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specialises in the study of contemporary media audiences, the everyday making and sharing of digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression.

In 2007, Gauntlett published online the article Media Studies 2.0, which created some discussion amongst media studies educators. The article argues that the traditional form of media studies teaching and research fails to recognise the changing media landscape in which the categories of 'audiences' and 'producers' blur together, and in which new research methods and approaches are needed. Andy Ruddock has written that Gauntlett's "ironic polemic" includes "much to value", and acknowledges that the argument "is more strategy than creed", but argues that audiences still exist, and experience mass media specifically as audience, and so it would be premature to dispose of the notion of 'audience' altogether. The inaugural issue of the journal Interactions was dedicated to a discussion of 'Media Studies 2.0', with contributions from a number of experts and a response by Gauntlett.