Workshop Report “For and Against Method”
In November 2022, Clemens Apprich and Kristina-Pia Hofer organized a two-day event, the Inaugural Forum of the Austrian Media Studies Research School, a kick-off event to initiate regular exchange between young and experienced media scholars in Austria, entitled “For and Against Method” at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Die Angewandte – Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien). Questions of methods and methodology continue to spark lively debate in Media Studies (see, for example, the Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft and the Open Media Studies blog). Central to this debate is the question of whether there should be a firm set of methods in Media Studies that ensures validity and rigor. The increased demands for third-party funding on the one hand and new objects for Media Studies in the realm of digitization on the other hand gave rise to current discussions about the requirements and common grounds of either more interpretative or more scientific research traditions in the field.