Transportation, Transformation, and Metaphoricity

2019 ◽  
pp. 28-51
Author(s):  
Veronika Pöhnl
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Cultural Media

This chapter discusses similarities of and differences between the epistemological premises of ANT and German media theory concerning concepts of transmission. The applicability of ANT for media investigations and the compatibility of ANT concepts in media studies have been discussed intensively for several years now. The profound similarities as well as the critical differences in the study of the material conditions of human culture have also stimulated current reconsiderations and reformulations in cultural media studies, as German media theory is most commonly called in Germany. The chapter gives a brief overview of recently published approaches to cultural techniques and intersections of media and techno-philosophy that are increasingly being translated into English and therefore also internationally accessible, alongside with the discussion concerning their compatibility with ANT in respect of cultural transmission.

Mind the Gap

2017 ◽  
pp. 249-265
Author(s):  
Veronika Pöhnl
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Cultural Media

This chapter discusses similarities of and differences between the epistemological premises of ANT and “German Media Theory”. The applicability of ANT for media investigations and the compatibility of ANT concepts in Media Studies have been discussed intensively for several years now. The profound similarities as well as the critical differences in the study of the material conditions of human culture have also stimulated current reconsiderations and reformulations in “Cultural Media Studies,” as German Media Theory is most commonly called in Germany. The following article gives a brief overview on most recently published approaches to cultural techniques and intersections of media and techno-philosophy that are increasingly being translated into English and therefore also internationally accessible, alongside with the discussion concerning their compatibility with ANT.

Postcolonial Media Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Llamas-Rodriguez ◽  
Viviane Saglier
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
The Past ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
Material Conditions

The postcolonial intellectual tradition has proved crucial to articulating cultural, film, and media formations from the geographical and theoretical perspective of (formerly) colonized people and countries. The object of media studies has expanded significantly beyond the screen in the past decades, including a renewed attention to non-visual media and an emerging attention to the material conditions of possibility for media representations. In this new mediascape, postcolonial theories and concepts potentially repoliticize media theory by questioning Western assumptions about technological progress and innovation. Postcolonial theories of media force a rethink of the tenets of traditional media theories while, at the same time, media theories demonstrate the centrality of media, in all its forms, to understanding the postcolonial condition.

The End of Media

2017 ◽  
pp. 20-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andréa Belliger ◽  
David John Krieger
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Network Society ◽  
Media Production ◽  
Media Convergence ◽  
Actor Network

In the network society and the age of media convergence, media production can no longer be isolated into channels, formats, technologies, and organizations. Media Studies is facing the challenge to reconceptualize its foundations. It could therefore be claimed that new media are the last media. In the case of digital versus analog, there is no continuity between new media and old media. A new and promising proposal has come from German scholars who attempt the precarious balance between media theory and a general theory of mediation based on Actor-Network Theory. Under the title of Actor-Media Theory (Akteur-Medien-Theorie) these thinkers attempt to reformulate the program of Media Studies beyond assumptions of social or technical determinism. Replacing Actor-Network Theory with Actor-Media Theory raises the question of whether exchanging the concept of “network” for the concept of “media” is methodologically and theoretically advantageous.

Transmitted Wounds

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Pinchevski
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Friedrich Kittler ◽  
The Face ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Human Failure ◽  
Bear Witness

In Transmitted Wounds, Amit Pinchevski explores the ways media technology and logic shape the social life of trauma both clinically and culturally. Bringing media theory to bear on trauma theory, Pinchevski reveals the technical operations that inform the conception and experience of traumatic impact and memory. He offers a bold thesis about the deep association of media and trauma: media bear witness to the human failure to bear witness, making the traumatic technologically transmissible and reproducible. Taking up a number of case studies--the radio broadcasts of the Eichmann trial; the videotaping of Holocaust testimonies; recent psychiatric debates about trauma through media following the 9/11 attacks; current controversy surrounding drone operators' post-trauma; and digital platforms of algorithmic-holographic witnessing and virtual reality exposure therapy for PTSD--Pinchevski demonstrates how the technological mediation of trauma feeds into the traumatic condition itself. The result is a novel understanding of media as constituting the material conditions for trauma to appear as something that cannot be fully approached and yet somehow must be. While drawing on contemporary materialist media theory, especially the work of Friedrich Kittler and his followers, Pinchevski goes beyond the anti-humanistic tendency characterizing the materialist approach, discovering media as bearing out the human vulnerability epitomized in trauma, and finding therein a basis for moral concern in the face of violence and atrocity. Transmitted Wounds unfolds the ethical and political stakes involved in the technological transmission of mental wounds across clinical, literary, and cultural contexts.

Genomic Imprinting and the Cognitive Architecture Mediating Human Culture

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Michael Brown
Keyword(s):  
Genomic Imprinting ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Transmitted Information ◽  
Human Culture

AbstractGenomic imprinting may be implicated in the origin and maintenance of the cognitive architecture required for cultural transmission. Relatedness asymmetries are expected to lead to increases in the receptibility of matrilineally transmitted information. This may help explain why maternal genes contribute preferentially to the neocortex. That is, maternal genes could influence biases in the transmission and/or acquisition of information. This perspective is complementary to gene-culture coevolutionary approaches.

scholarly journals Education, Media and the End of the Book: Some Remarks from Media Theory

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (Educational Media Ecologies) ◽  
pp. 183-196
Author(s):  
Rainer Leschke ◽  
Norm Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
The Core ◽  
Material Characteristics ◽  
Music Film ◽  
Film Text

This paper sketches out an understanding of contemporary educational forms and practices from a vantage point afforded by recent German media studies. In so doing, it introduces a number of concepts from continental media theory. With the book – both as an artifact and an epistemic metaphor – in evident decline, what is taking its place is not any one new medium, but rather a radically new kind of media systematicity. By relentlessly reducing all content (e. g., music, film, text) to ones and zeros, digitization effectively erases the material characteristics of separate media forms, leaving behind only their conventionalized aesthetic qualities and forms. The paper builds on these arguments by concluding that the symbolic competencies which once constituted the core of all education (reading, writing, ‘rithmatic) are increasingly at odds with performative and stylistic abilities integral to this new mediatic order.

scholarly journals “Binge-Watching”: The New Way of Watching TV Series

2018 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Srđan Krstić
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Central Hypothesis ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
Watching Tv ◽  
Tv Show

In this paper I deal with the concept of the binge-watching of television series episodes. The word binge means a period of excessive indulgence in an activity. Particularly, in terms of media theory, it becomes synonymous with obsessive, marathon watching of TV shows and movies through streaming television. The central hypothesis is that binge-watching goes beyond what has for previous decades been considered a generally accepted way of watching TV content. In order to better understand this notion, it is also necessary to explain the importance of non-linear television and its distinction in relation to ‘traditional’ or linear television. I will pay special attention to social networks as an indispensable factor that completes the binge-watching experience. Social networks are also involved in the peripheral specifics of binge-watching that lead to the emergence of new occupations, which are in direct correlation with the desire of viewers to be informed about their favorite TV content. I also performed a case study of the TV show Pretty Little Liars (PLL). This show had strong effect on connecting creators with viewers through social networks. As a relatively new phenomenon, binge-watching has the potential to soon become an interesting subject of research. Article received: March 27, 2018; Article accepted: May 10, 2018; Published online: October 15, 2018; Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Krstić, Srđan. "'Binge-Watching': The New Way of Watching TV Series." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 17 (2018): 15−23. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i17.266 

scholarly journals Deconstruction and the Archival Revolution: on the Relevance and Reception of Archive Fever in New Media Studies

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Zvonimir Glavaš
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
New Media Studies ◽  
The One

The paper focuses on the reception of Derrida’s Archive Fever among (new) media theorists and its relevance for the ongoing discussions in that academic field. Although this Derrida’s text is often described as the one in which he provides a statement on the pervasive revolutionary impact of new media, its reception among media theorists remains scarce. Several media scholars that tackle the text, however, have an ambivalent stance on it: they appreciate some of Derrida’s theses, but regard them largely obsolete. The first part of the paper analyzes these critiques and argues that many of the objections on Derrida’s behalf are caused by the misinterpretation of important features of the deconstructive thought. In its second part, the paper firstly deals with certain weaker points of Derrida’s reflection and then proceeds to examine his insights pertinent to the problems of contemporary media theory that were neglected in earlier reception. Finally, paper reaffirms the claim about the need for a more profound exchange between the deconstruction and media studies, albeit one that would avoid the examined shortcomings.

Is There a Common Epistemological Ground of Actor-Network Theory and Media Aesthetics?

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-65
Author(s):  
Veronika Pöhnl
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Based on the increased interest in ANT in Media Studies, this paper discusses similarities and differences in the epistemological premises of ANT and German Media Studies, and in particular, Media Aesthetics. Proceeding from well received ANT investigations on the transformational processes of scientific research and the discussion of their importance and suitability for media aesthetic approaches, basic operations and metaphors of the ANT are identified and questioned. By juxtaposing the epistemological premises of ANT and those of techno-philosophically informed approaches of media theory, profound resemblances as well as fundamental differences are outlined.

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