What do we mean by contemporary? 

Your media teachers will use the term 'contemporary examples' often when talking about exam content.  If you're working on a research project or putting together some work for practical production, then contemporary can really be anything that you remember from your experience as a student.  But when writing about theoretical issues, highlighting the importance of technological convergence or showing a shift in audience consumption of traditional media to new media, then contemporary media should really be covering case studies and events of the past 18 months. 

Examiners will allow examples of up to five years old, but this is only because all those expensive textbooks are already out of date by the time they go to print.  But if you consider the speed at which things progress in the media world, then try and avoid the case studies you read in books, instead use them as a model to create your own!

Try using google scholar for a change if you want to find more academic articles.

• On the next tab, Rupert Murdoch gives a talk about the impact of new media in February 2008 - watch the video and fill in the gaps between then and now (over two years).
• The toolbar below searches the entire BBC website, it will direct you away from this window.  When researching media, try a range of sources, not just one, and avoid safe bets like wikipedia all the time.  Others to try:
• IPL - Internet Protocol Library
• Wikipedia gives you the raw ingredients to go about finding your creative research mojo.
  

Tags: Media Regulation, modern media, research methods