Transmediality and the End of Disembodied Semiotics

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A Bateman
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Major Topic ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Contemporary Media

The phenomena of mixing, blending, and referencing media is a major topic in contemporary media studies. Finding a sufficient semiotic foundation to characterize such phenomena remains challenging. The current article argues that combining a notion of ‘semiotic mode' developed within the field of multimodality with a Peircean foundation contributes to a solution in which communicative practices always receive both an abstract ‘discourse'-oriented level of description and, at the same time, a biophysically embodied level of description as well. The former level supports complex communication, the latter anchors communication into the embodied experience. More broadly, it is suggested that no semiotic system relevant for human activities can be adequately characterized without paying equal attention to these dual facets of semiosis.

scholarly journals A (premature) eulogy of broadcasting: the sense of the ending of television

Matrizes ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Milly Buonanno
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Broadcast Television ◽  
The World ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
The Way

The vanishing centrality of broadcast television has turned into a key issue within contemporary media studies, thus making the end of television a familiar trope in scholarly discourses and opening the way to a redefinition of the present-day phase in terms of post-broadcast era. Besides recognizing that there are plenty of places in the world where the broadcast era is still alive, this article makes the claim that the discoursive formation of the passing of television as we knew it may offer media scholar-ship the opportunity to assume the viewpoint of the end as the privileged perspective from which the broadcast era can be looked at anew, eventually acknowledging the reasons why it is liable to be praised rather than buried.

scholarly journals The Turn to Affect and Emotion in Media Studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margreth Lünenborg ◽  
Tanja Maier
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Affect Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Central Interest ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Media And Communication

This editorial delivers an introduction to the thematic <em>Media and Communication </em>issue on “The Turn to Affect and Emotion in Media Studies”. The social and cultural formation of affect and emotion has been of central interest to social science-based emotion research as well as to affect studies, which are mainly grounded in cultural studies. Media and communication scholars, in turn, have especially focused on how emotion and affect are produced by media, the way they are communicated through media, and the forms of emotion audiences develop during the use of media. Distinguishing theoretical lines of emotion theory in social sciences and diverse traditions of affect theory, we reflect on the need to engage more deeply with affect and emotion as driving forces in contemporary media and society. This thematic issue aims to add to ongoing affect studies research and to existing emotion research within media studies. A special emphasis will be placed on exploring structures of difference and power produced in and by media in relation to affect and emotion.

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.

scholarly journals The Politics of Privacy—A Useful Tautology

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-236
Author(s):  
Johanna E. Möller ◽  
Jakub Nowak ◽  
Sigrid Kannengießer ◽  
Judith E. Möller
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Data Security ◽  
Thematic Issue ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Organizational Information ◽  
Group Information ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Communicative Actions

While communication and media studies tend to define privacy with reference to data security, current processes of datafication and commodification substantially transform ways of how people act in increasingly dense communicative networks. This begs for advancing research on the flow of individual and organizational information considering its relational, contextual and, in consequence, political dimensions. Privacy, understood as the control over the flow of individual or group information in relation to communicative actions of others, frames the articles assembled in this thematic issue. These contributions focus on theoretical challenges of contemporary communication and media privacy research as well as on structural privacy conditions and people’s mundane communicative practices underlining inherent political aspect. They highlight how particular acts of doing privacy are grounded in citizen agency realized in datafied environments. Overall, this collection of articles unfolds the concept of ‘Politics of Privacy’ in diverse ways, contributing to an emerging body of communication and media research.

Media Ethnography and the Disappearance of Communication Theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Nightingale
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Audience Research ◽  
Media Ethnography ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Media Audience

This article revisits the interplay of theories and research focusing on the interplay between anthropology, and communication and media studies, It argues that where initially media ethnographies (selectively) borrowed theories and methods from anthropology, today it is anthropological media ethnography that holds sway. The result is a shift away from media audience research. I suggest this is because the concept of audience is necessarily linked to assumed theories of communication. Yet it is precisely a theory of communication (as opposed to theories of culture) that is missing today. The article advocates that instead of borrowing theories of communication, we need to begin the more difficult task of retheorising it in order to better address contemporary media problems.

Space Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Réka Patrícia Gál ◽  
L M Wilkins ◽  
Yuxing Zhang ◽  
Marie-Pier Boucher ◽  
Tero Karppi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Contemporary Media

This article proposes the notion of space media as a way of defining media that connect humans with outer space. It is suggested that six areas related to contemporary media theory are particularly relevant to understanding space media: epistemology, anthropogenesis, planetary mediums, infrastructure, imaginaries, and remains. The article further suggests that the field of media studies needs to take account of outer space and, as a result, alter its own current practice.Cet article propose la notion de médias de cosmos comme une façon de définir les médias qui relient les humains à l’espace extra-atmosphérique. Il est suggéré que six domaines liés à la théorie contemporaine des médias sont particulièrement pertinents pour comprendre les médias de cosmos: l’épistémologie, l’anthropogenèse, les média planétaires, les infrastructures, les imaginaires et les vestiges. L’article suggère que la domaine des études sur les médias doit tenir compte de cosmos extra-atmosphériques et, par conséquent, modifier sa propre pratique actuelle.Mots clés : Cosmos; Médias de cosmos; Théorie des médias

scholarly journals Critical Phenomenology: Borderline Between Grey, Opaque and Non-Transparent Zones – Permanent Transitional Times

2017 ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Miško Šuvaković
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
Local Practices ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Critical Phenomenology ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Transitional Times

In what follows, I will point to theorisations of diagramatic modular models of the human, social and cultural practices that relate to antagonistic and certainly turbulent processing of production and reproduction, political economy, real life, and forms of life in the field of contemporary non-transparent or gray sociality. My main thesis is that the transition has not been completed and that we are now in the midst of transition changes throughout the world – that contemporary media and art fictionalizes or defictionalizes our human condition. My intent in this article is to point to the modular complexity of contemporary phenomena in relation to the criteria of the politics of time (dialectic historicisation) and politics of space (geographic difference). In relation to every contemporaneity that has occurred or is occurring at different times and in different places, contemporary art and culture required different conceptualisations of ‘modernisation’ and different conceptualisations of a critical response to the transition of global/local practices from the margins of society to its hegemonic centre, both internationally and locally. In an epistemological/methodological sense I intend to develop critical phenomenology. Critical phenomenology is a project of the politicization/radicalization of conservative phenomenological thinking. Article received: June 5, 2017; Article accepted: June 12, 2017; Published online: October 15, 2017; Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Šuvaković, Miško. "Critical Phenomenology: Borderline Between Grey, Opaque and Non-Transparent Zones – Permanent Transitional Times." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 14 (2017): 13-31. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i14.203

scholarly journals Media Studies’ Approach In “The Crowd” Problems

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phan Van Kien ◽  
Vu Hoang Long
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Affect Studies ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Media ◽  
Contemporary Media

In this article, we aim to analyze particular conditions of the media landscape in recent days Vietnam – which is characterized by the domination of mass media and social media in constituting public opinions – that significantly affect collective actions from the online citizens. By using the concept “collective actions”, we design to reconceptualize the concept of “the crowd” which is used commonly to assert the detrimental effects of online citizens’ actions toward heated public debates nowadays. Through the framework of media and journalism studies, we suppose that the contemporary media landscape is not the same as the social situation in approximately 150 years ago when Western scholars first used this concept. Moreover, we intend to provide the framework of Affect Studies in approaching online citizens’ practices that considerably influences the field of media studies in particular and Social Sciences and Humanities in general.

scholarly journals Small Talk and the Cinema: Conversation, Philosophy and the Case of Sullivan's Travels

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-94
Author(s):  
Cooper Long
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Film Analysis ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Communicative Practices ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
Relative Value ◽  
Visual Expression ◽  
Philosophical Project ◽  
Do So

This article seeks to bring small talk about cinema – the type of conversation that can begin with the question “Have you seen any good movies lately?” – into the analytical ambit of cinema and media studies. In order to do so, I argue that such conversation is relevant to the philosophical project of Stanley Cavell. Throughout his attempts to wed film analysis and philosophical reflection, including his seminal studies of Hollywood genres, Cavell has remained committed to the idea that philosophy is not a search for objective absolutes or momentous conclusions. This is a characteristic inconclusiveness that small talk shares. While small talk is often derided as unimportant on account of this very inconclusiveness, the work of Cavell provides a propitious framework for appreciating small talk's underacknowledged philosophical stakes and for reconsidering assumptions about the relative value of communicative practices. In order to better illustrate this relation between small talk and philosophy, this article cites the cinematic example of Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941), a film that not only dramatizes small talk but also, in its final moments, gives striking visual expression to small talk's constitutive non-achievement.

Mallarmé’s Digital Demon

Paragraph ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-158
Author(s):  
Nikolaj Lübecker
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Subject Formation ◽  
Prose Poems ◽  
Contemporary View ◽  
Technological Object ◽  
Contemporary Media

How do Mallarmé’s writings speak to the present? To answer this question, this article establishes a dialogue between one of Mallarmé’s early prose poems, ‘Le Démon de l'analogie’, and texts by the contemporary media theorists Mark Hansen, Steven Shaviro and Eugene Thacker. The article argues that Mallarmé’s poem explores how it feels to be a body modulated by code. The poem puts twentieth-century phenomenology with its focus on human perception under pressure, and instead presents a very contemporary view of individuation (subject-formation) as a process that is both thoroughly bound up with the environment, and difficult to comprehend and unify. In a final section, the article considers ‘Le Démon de l'analogie’ in relation to the poet's dream about le Livre, and suggests that Mallarmé’s work as a whole brings together the utopian and the dystopian tendencies that have marked media studies from their inception, and that continue to characterize our relations to the technological object.

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