“Dark Media” in Excommunicative Processes: Eugene Tucker’s Concept in the Historical Context of Sectarian Practices

Abstract

The paper discusses the two contemporary media theory concepts: the concept of “excommunication”, which models the situation of impossibility of communication, which nevertheless occurs to some extent in some capacity, and the concept of “dark media”, which mediate communication or connection with something that is inaccessible by definition. Citing the example of sectarian practices of the early twentieth century, the author points out that various mediators can act as the “dark media” when a community has developed a communication system in which the source of the message is absent, and only the recipient of the message is present.