Abstract

This essay tests the claims made by some versions of convergence culture to be the next step forward for Cultural Studies. It does this by examining the teaching programmes that have been generated by various formations of convergence culture: programmes in new media studies, creative industries and digital media studies. The results of this examination are cause for concern: most of these programmes appear to have surrendered the space won for Cultural Studies in the university curriculum in favour of an instrumentalist focus on the training, rather than the education, of personnel to work in the emerging media industries. The essay argues therefore that while such developments may represent themselves as emerging from within Cultural Studies, in practice they have turned out to have very little to do with Cultural Studies at all.

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