This article proposes media ecology -a combination of media studies and performance studies with literary and cultural history -as a research perspective for Shakespeare studies.In contrast to a hermeneutics of renewal -as evinced both in the New Historicism and in what has been called Presentism -, which tries to turn Shakespeare into "our contemporary" (Jan Kott), media ecology combines a sense of historical alterity with an awareness of the continuing transformations of 'Shakespeare' in changing media settings: from manuscripts and printed texts to theatrical performances, music, opera, cinema, and televised media events.Moving beyond the currently dominant strands of Renaissance studies (the historicist and the presentist bias), this article challenges scholarly ideas of historicity (as opposed to timelessness, universality or contemporaneity) on the one hand and concepts of presentism (as opposed to historic specificity or singularity) on the other hand. How, if at all, can we reconcile the urge to make Shakespeare contemporary (and, by extension, keep his work relevant) and the conflicting desire for a historically accurate interpretation?As an example, the article focuses on the masque in The Tempest, which poses obvious difficulties for a hermeneutics of renewal and is often cut from performance or adapted beyond recognition. Later productions and adaptations frequently extend the spectacular qualities of the masque to The Tempest as a whole and ignore the skepticism about theatrical illusion that is voiced by Prospero in the play. In the case of The Tempest, cultural productions, ranging from dramatic performances to the closing ceremony of the London Olympics of 2012, are difficult to conceptualize in the framework of adaptation studies (which relies on the precedence of an original over its derivations). I argue that media ecology can help scholars to map out such connections and differences between performances and cultural phenomena relating to Shakespeare as cannot be fully grasped either in a historicist or presentist perspective.