l Museums in the New Mediascape

Museums in the new mediascape

jenny kidd. 2014. Ashgate Publishing Limited. 978-1-4094-4299-8, £60, 176 pp, Hardback

Oonagh Murphy

By adopting a breath of interdisciplinary critiques kidd manages to successfully convey the complexities of the new “mediascape” that museums now find themselves operating within. Whilst grounded in the fields of cultural studies and museum studies, kidd identifies nine distinct academic areas that have influenced her critique. These range from performance studies to gaming literature, art history to digital media. A valuable framework for the original empirical research contained throughout this book, is the focus on how new media, digital technologies, and the increasing role of the museum as media producer has had not only on museum work, but also museum experience. kidd manages to successfully highlight the impact of this new cultural landscape on both the media producers (museum professionals) and media consumers (museum visitors).

Breadth of practice and breadth of interdisciplinary relevance is a reoccurring theme throughout this book. unlike areas of defined museum practice from curatorial practice to education, the role of “media” in museums is increasingly ubiquitous. Through a benchmarking audit of media content across 20 museums in the uk, kidd identifies a diversity in practice from memes to social media and proposes a model of “The Transmedia Museum”. Through empirical research kidd outlines how museum experiences have moved away from satisfying, contained experiences, to challenging and ubiquitous experiences that exist beyond the walls of a museum. This book intelligently critiques the pros and cons offered to museum professionals through the creation of media content in museums. Whilst such content provides opportunities to engage visitors in deeper more meaningful experiences, it also lays the potential for “chaotic storytelling” where fact and fiction become confused and the authorial voice of museums is lost. However, through available literature and analysis of social media content, kidd suggests that from 2008 to 2014 we can see a move towards a more playful, responsive and authentic voice from museums online. This is a valuable analysis as it demonstrates that amidst the chaos of technologies, platforms and media content, museum professionals are beginning to find a more nuanced and appropriate voice for the mediascape in which they now exist.

Moving beyond the role of museum professionals, this book adds a valuable contextual and academically rigorous critique of visitor producers. By analysing the role of remix culture from a media studies perspective kidd provides tangible examples, and arguments which will help museum professionals develop a long view and strategic

response to visitor appropriation. This text is a valuable reader for senior managers who want to develop a strategic rather than reactive response to media production. Likewise for those responsible for media production in museums it provides a range of critiques and signposting to potential interdisciplinary collaborations.

In conclusion, kidd notes that often the official museum stance on remix culture does not run in parallel to legal frameworks, a challenge that will only increase with the increased availability of media content produced by museum staff and by museum visitors in the course of their museum experience.

Dr Oonagh Murphy is an artist working in the field of performance and theatre-making.