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newms-theory-building

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Use when building the conceptual argument of a New Media & Society (NM&S) manuscript — turning a platform finding into a portable concept or mechanism drawing on media, communication, and social theory. Builds the argument; it does not collect data or run analyses.

New-Media-and-Society-Skills/skills/newms-theory-building/SKILL.md

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# Theory Building (newms-theory-building)

NM&S publishes empirical, critical, and computational work, but it consistently rewards papers that
deliver a **concept or mechanism that travels** beyond the studied platform. "Theory" here is broad:
it can be a new construct, a re-specification of a travelling concept, a critical/normative argument, or
a mechanism that explains *how* a digital-media phenomenon works socially. It is rarely a formal model.

## When to trigger

- Your draft has a finding but no portable idea ("X is associated with Y" and stop)
- A reviewer called the work "atheoretical," "descriptive," or "a-just-so story"
- You need to state what concept a reader in another field could carry elsewhere

## What counts as theory at NM&S
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