Mapping Media Developments and Issues: Topics, Clusters, and Content of JMCQ Articles on Communication Technology/Media Channels, 1935–2017

Abstract

This study analyzed JMCQ articles in the specific topic area of mass communication technology and media channels, overall and across four 20-year periods. Primary topics changed from emphasizing media industry and policy issues, international issues of information freedom, audience research, and WWII media issues in early periods to more specific regulatory issues, ratings and audience analyses, macro and social issues, and media technology development issues in more recent periods. JMCQ serves as a treasure trove of the history of broadcast media technology and competition, policy debates, and audience interests, with a recent emphasis on more rigorous empirical analyses.