Nancy Baym Explained

Nancy Baym (born 1965) is an American scholar and senior principal research manager at Microsoft Research, formerly a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas.^[1] ^[2] She was a member of the founding board and former president of the Association of Internet Researchers, and serves on the board of several academic journals covering new media and communication.^[3] She has published research and provided media commentary on the topics of social communication, new media, and fandom.

Education

1994, Ph.D., speech communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
1988, M.A., speech communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
1986, B.A., journalism and mass communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Career

Baym joined Microsoft Research in 2012, when Microsoft established a new group researching social media, with scholars including danah Boyd, Mary Gray and Kate Crawford in addition to Baym. Describing the new group, The Boston Globe wrote that the scholars were "trained in media studies and social sciences but had essentially become anthropologists of the digital age".^[4]

Academic appointments

2012–present, principal researcher, Microsoft Research.^[5]
2002–2012, professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Kansas.
1999-2002, assistant professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Kansas.
1994-1999, assistant professor, Department of Communication, Wayne State University.
1992-1994, visiting teaching associate in speech communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
1986-1992, teaching assistant in speech communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Publications

Baym has published several monographs, besides numerous articles.

In Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community (2000), Baym argues that soap opera fans form "a dynamic community of people with unique voices, distinctive traditions, and enjoyable relationships."^[6]

Personal Connections in the Digital Age (2010),^[7] is about thinking critically about the roles of digital media in personal relationships, it offers data-grounded information on how to makes sense of these changes in relational life. She defines seven concepts "that can be used to differentiate digital media and which influence how people use them and with what effects." These concepts are interactivity, temporal structure, social cues, storage, replicability, reach and mobility. Ultimately, "the author states at the end that the book was written for those who see communication technologies as new and different, those who take them for granted and those who will be thinking through technologies not yet invented," claimed Stuart James Fitz-Gerald in his review of the book.^[8]

Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection^[9] was published in 2018, and explores how digital technology has changed the relationship between musicians and their fans.^[10] When an excerpt was published in Wired, the book was described as showing "how music lovers used fan culture to build a worldwide web".^[11] The book was reviewed by scholarly journals both in media studies^[12] and musicology.^[13] ^[14] One reviewer noted that while the book could have emphasised more diverse genres, such as hip hop, it was "a valuable resource for those trying to better understand relational labor conducted by artists".^[15] Perhaps in response to this criticism, Baym co-authored an article on hip-hop in 2022 with Jahari M. Evans.^[16]

Awards

Excellence in Teaching Award (College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, Wayne State University, 1997)^[17]
W. T. Kemper Fellowship Teaching Excellence (Kansas University, 2005)^[18]

References

Web site: 2011-11-19. Faculty Communication Studies at the University of Kansas. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111119224903/http://coms.ku.edu/faculty/baym.shtml. 2011-11-19. 2021-04-09. coms.ku.edu.
Web site: 2011-11-04. Nancy Baym - Associate Professor of Communication Studies, University of Kansas. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20111104085712/http://people.ku.edu/~nbaym/. 2011-11-04. 2021-04-09. people.ku.edu.
Web site: August 4, 2017. Resources for Journal Authors, Editors and Reviewers. 2021-04-09. SAGE Publications Inc.
News: Farrell . Michael B. . 2012-07-28 . Social media suddenly a hot scholarly pursuit . The Boston Globe.
Web site: Nancy Baym - Senior Principal Researcher. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210218161136/https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/baym/. 2021-02-18. 2021-04-09. Microsoft.
Web site: Bruns. Axel. 2012-03-01. M/C Reviews: Analysing r.a.t.s.: Nancy K. Baym's 'Tune In, Log On'. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120301230044/http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/words/rats-c.html. 2012-03-01. 2021-04-09. reviews.media-culture.org.au.
Book: Bayn, Nancy. Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Polity Press. 2010. 978-0-7456-4331-1. Cambridge (UK).
Fitz-Gerald. Stuart James. Wiggins. Bob. 2011. Review of Personal Connections in the Digital Age by Nancy Baym. International Journal of Information Management. 31. 2. 189–90. 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.11.002.
Book: Baym, Nancy K. . Playing to the crowd : musicians, audiences, and the intimate work of connection . 2018 . 978-1-4798-1535-7 . New York . 1035390178.
Lingel . Jessa . April 2020 . A Conversation with Nancy Baym, Author of Playing to the Crowd . Social Media + Society . en . 6 . 2 . 205630511989900 . 10.1177/2056305119899008 . 216226351 . 2056-3051. free .
Baym . Nancy . Book Excerpt: How Music Fans Built the Internet . en-US . Wired . 2023-01-22 . 1059-1028.
Dhaenens . Frederik . November 2019. Book Review: Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection by Nancy K. Baym . Television & New Media . en . 20 . 7 . 739–741 . 10.1177/1527476419839109 . 150779076 . 1527-4764.
Anderson . Tim J. . 2020-03-01 . Review: Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection by Nancy Baym . Journal of Popular Music Studies . en . 32 . 1 . 140–142 . 10.1525/jpms.2020.32.1.140. 213571388 .
Young . Toby . June 2019 . Nancy K. Baym, Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection (New York: New York University Press, 2018), ISBN 978-1-479-89616-5 (hb), 978-1-47982-158-7 (pb). - David Grubbs, Now That the Audience is Assembled (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018), ISBN 978-0-822-37138-0 (hb), 978-0-822-37147-2 (pb). . Twentieth-Century Music . en . 16 . 2 . 363–369 . 10.1017/S1478572219000239 . 1478-5722.
Arrieta . Alexandria . 2020 . Book review: Nancy K. Baym, Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection . New York. New York University Press . International Journal of Communication . 14.
Evans . Jabari M. . Baym . Nancy K. . 2022-05-13 . The Audacity of Clout (Chasing): Digital Strategies of Black Youth in Chicago DIY Hip-Hop . International Journal of Communication . en . 16 . 19 . 1932-8036.
Web site: W. T. Kemper Fellowship Teaching Excellence (2005). dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20061208044027/http://www2.ku.edu/~coms/awards/. 2006-12-08. 2021-04-09. ku.edu.
Web site: 2005-08-20. More Kemper Awards handed out at KU. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210409231909/https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/aug/20/more_kemper_awards_handed_out_ku/. 2021-04-09. 2021-04-09. LJWorld.com. en-US.