Media Turn Research Articles

The Crisis of Technology and the Quest for Meaning: A Critical Conception of Media Philosophy

The crisis of modern technology has led to a series of issues such as the pervasive emptiness of meaning and the loss of subjectivity in human society. Under the influence of technological supremacy and instrumental rationality, philosophy, which abstractly refines the fundamental problems faced by humanity such as the meaning of existence, truth, and the dichotomy between rationality and irrationality, also finds itself in a crisis of legitimacy. In this context, the "media turn" in philosophy is an attempt to break free from its shackles. This paper proposes a media philosophy from the essential attributes of human communication and the inseparability of communication and media. By analyzing communication as a fundamental human essence, this paper outlines the basic concept of media philosophy, explores the path of media philosophy, and emphasizes the inherent significance of the collision of life's meanings and communicative exchanges. This paper asserts that in the era of "media as being" ontology, it is especially necessary to understand the essence of human existence and the face of the world constituted by communication from the perspective of media.

The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity After the New Media Turn, written by Travis Warren Cooper

The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity After the New Media Turn, written by Travis Warren Cooper

The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity after the New Media Turn, By Travis Warren Cooper

The Digital Evangelicals: Contesting Authority and Authenticity after the New Media Turn, By Travis Warren Cooper

К вопросу о конструировании концепта "кризис 1990-х" в современном общественно-политическом дискурсе

The article analyzes the sources, process and mechanisms of constructing of the concept "crisis of the 1990s" in modern socio-political discourse. The aim was to study this concept as a tool for shaping public opinion. The crisis issues of the 1990s were widespread in the President's messages, continued in the programs of political parties and modern mass media. In this regard, the study of the concept "crisis of the 1990s" was carried out using the tools of content analysis and qualitative text analysis. As a result of the analysis of the selected types of sources, the hypothesis was confirmed that a stable concept of the "crisis of the 1990s" was formed in the socio-political discourse. It was also found that the volume of content characterizing the 1990s as a crisis period prevails to a greater extent on the federal agenda. The state media turn to the stories of the 1990s in order to demonstrate differences in the approaches of state policy of the 2000s-2020s, and the opposition media note the pattern in the work carried out in shaping public opinion.

Reflection of the earth in modern media reality: philosophical and anthropological foundations of a complicated system

The article is devoted to the problem of re�ection the phenomenon of the Earth in the context of media reality. It is shown that the philosophical discourse, based on the media turn, testies to the formation of a new relationship between the components of the “Earth—man—information technology” system, which leads to signi蛻cant transformational shifts. This situation gives rise to a media totality, producing a dominance of images that create a new configuration of the social and the natural. Simpli蛻cation takes place in relation to the environment, due to the blurring of the boundary between the real and the illusory / virtual. It is indicated that these changes require a polyparadigmatic study. The article outlines the specifics of the formation of a new image of the Earth. This situation provokes the elimination of the systemic vision of the Earth and the transformation of the Earth’s space into an electronic, technological, information landscape that corresponds to the network principle oforganization. These landscapes have a direct impact on the organization of socio-cultural practices of modern society. This question articulated the problem of media reality as a new mode of being — articial being.

Imagined Cities of the World: From Expanded Cinema to Expanded Ethnography

By looking at ethnography as a multi-sited and evolving field in the tradition of George Marcus and Michael Fischer, the article returns to the cinematic concept of ‘expanded cinema’, focusing on current forms of expansion in audiovisual ethnographic representation (i.e., ‘expanded ethnography’). In doing so, it analyses the live cinematic performances of Supereverything* (The Light Surgeons, 2011–2017) and Invisible Cities (59 Productions, 2019) in terms of convergences, correspondences and intermedial staging, all of which dialectically synthesise the expanded field as it emerges from within the world system. The article deconstructs the aesthetical dialectics that produce the collective feeling of enlargement of the ethnographic field from a singular stage to a multiplicity of actors and stages (fields) via staged live interconnections made between intermedia technologies and social/bodily intersubjective relations, as they emerged via exploratory practices on and beyond the limits of the stage. By using sources deriving from cinematic theatre and philosophy, the article argues that the illusion of enlargement of the effigy of the world picture is techno/socially manufactured as part of the marketed media turn to imagination and subjectivity, with political consequences for ethnographic representation and its ‘expanded’ claim to a reality beyond the material history of the cosmopolis.

“Russian Bear” in the Spanish-Language Media Discourse

The article examines the role of the bear metaphor in the Spanish-language political discourse. The relevance of the study is due, firstly, to the intensification of cooperation between Russia and Latin American countries, the effectiveness of which can be influenced by stereotypes and political symbols. Secondly, the growing popularity of the use of zoomorphic metaphors by the mass media. One of the unofficial symbols of Russia, which is often addressed by both traditional media and social media, is the bear. The Russian Bear metaphor is now widely used in both Russian and foreign periodicals and cartoons. The purpose of this research is to identify the specifics of the representation of the image of Russia as a bear in the Ibero-American political mass-media discourse. The source for the analysis is a Spanish-language media discourse (cases: the 2014 Ukrainian crisis, the Venezuelan crisis, Russias military operation in Syria, Russias interference in the elections in Mexico). The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time in the Russian-language scientific literature, the features of the use of the bear metaphor by Latin American media and social media are examined. The author concludes that the metaphor Russian Bear is used both in the internal political symbolic struggle and in the foreign policy discourse. The specifics of the use of the bear metaphor in Latin America are mainly determined by political orientations: for example, the left traditionally considers Russia as an ally, appealing to such meanings of the bear metaphor as strength, justice, and the ability to become a defender against aggressors. In turn, their opponents use a bear metaphor to label left-wing politicians as traitors to the national interest. In this context, the image of a Bear serves as a symbolic border guard. The bear metaphor can be used to create an image of an ally and defender, as well as an enemy. The Ibero-American media turn to the bear metaphor mainly in the headlines and subheadings of materials devoted to Russian foreign policy, which allows them to draw readers attention to the topic under consideration.

Numerical Simulation of the Whole Thermal Lensing Process with Z-Scan-Based Methods Using Gaussian Beams.

A general study of the diffracted far field due to thermal lens heating using Gaussian beams is presented. The numerical simulation considers the whole system, including both the optical and the thermal parameters. It is shown that the existing simplified relations found in the literature and used up to now only give the order of magnitude of the thermo-optical coefficients. More accurate, simplified formulas are derived to measure the induced thermal phase shift when working with Z-scan-based methods. Temperature estimation in absorbing media turn out to be more reliable whether using time-resolved or steady-state techniques. The extension of the calculation to the image formation in a 4f system is also addressed.

Media and Responsibility for Their Effects: Instrumental vs. Environmental Views

From the perspective of media ecology, this paper explores the question of responsibility for the effects that media have on society. To explain these media effects, two approaches are singled out. (1) The instrumental approach assumes that a medium works as a tool used by a user for a purpose. (2) The environmental approach focuses on the capacity of a medium to become an environmental force that reshapes both the habitat and the inhabitants. The instrumental approach to media, when taken too broadly and without an understanding of its limits, leads to conspiracy theories and inadequate social and political assessments. The more advanced and sophisticated environmental approach allows for an adequate understanding of media evolution and its effects but does not comply with the traditional legal notions of guilt and responsibility for actions, as there is no jurisdictional human or institutional agency when environmental forces are in play. After charting the distinction between the instrumental and environmental views of media, the paper focused on how the instrumental effects of media turn into environmental effects. The purpose of the paper is to develop and offer a media ecological apparatus for possible further juridical discussions regarding the regulation of the networking society.

The media turn in African environmentalism: the Niger Delta and oil’s network forms

African ecologies and the various media forms devoted to them remain marginal in the bourgeoning discourse of ecomedia studies despite the implication of the continent in mineral extraction, wildlife conservation, and the dumping of toxic wastes, just to mention a few examples. Turning to media focusing on Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region, the author argues that African cultural forms are crucial for extending the frontiers of ecomedia studies and for apprehending the perversities of oil culture. His analysis of a mural in Ireland’s Mayo County featuring the environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (2005), the music video for Timaya’s ‘Dem Mama’ (2006), and Victor Ehikhamenor’s art installation, The Wealth of Nations (2015), shows that they deploy the visual in protesting the commodifying logic of oil extraction. This article adopts an infrastructural approach toward media as it underscores how oil consecrates the selected cultural objects as network forms. Focusing on African materials extends the geography and archive of ecomedia studies, but it has methodological implications too. The author orients scholarship in the environmental humanities toward working across media, encouraging the field to adopt ecological relationality as both the matter and the method.

Media Sosial dan Whistleblowing

Artikel ini akan menjelaskan peran media sosial sebagai saluran whistleblowing yang digunakan untuk mendeteksi kecurangan (fraud). Dengan meningkatnya penggunaan media sosial di berbagai aktivitas kehidupan membuat media sosial telah beralih menjadi sarana pertukaran dan penyebaran informasi publik. Artikel ini mengelaborasi penggunaan media sosial sebagai saluran whistleblowing disamping saluran anonym lainnya. Perlu diketahui selama ini sistem whistleblowing dibangun hanya melalui saluran yang terintegrasi seperti website dan aplikasi khusus. Penelitian ini mengelaborasi partisipasi digital para warganet untuk menjadi whistleblower guna melaporkan berbagai indikasi kecurangan (fraud) melalui saluran media sosial. Metode penelitian menggunakan kualitatif ekxplanatoris dengan Teknik pengumpulan data melalui wawancara (in-dept interview). Artikel ini menyatakan bahwa media sosial telah berkonstribusi positif sebagai saluran whistleblowing dalam upaya mendeteksi fraud (kecurangan) di berbagai sektor.

Capturing country images: a methodological approach

ABSTRACT Country images have been notoriously difficult to capture and measure effectively. In this article, we propose a methodological approach that combines designed and found data to capture public attitudes. We demonstrate how a mixed-method design with survey data and digital data – namely tweets and Google Trends – make it possible to better capture what target audiences think about a country. We make the case for such a combination by highlighting three aspects of country images. First, to understand what different types of public think about a country, we need to listen to different voices, and complement standardised public opinion survey data with open questions and digital data. Second, social media platforms are invaluable data resources as well as outlets that people on social media turn to for news and information. Last, digital data is unique and powerful, but difficult to analyse and interpret to create value for developing strategic communication policies. Public opinion survey data can help structure digital data and link both outcomes with each other. We support our methodological arguments through an illustrative study of the South Korean country image. We conclude our article by presenting a roadmap for multi-method analysis.

Construction and Application of Multi-modal Translation Teaching Mode Under Media Turn

For a long time, college English translation teaching has focused on teaching the knowledge of text-language transformation, but in fact, text is not the only modal for language. Under the increasingly rich and complex context of media forms and methods, it is necessary for translation teaching research to explore the construction and transformation of meanings of other modal symbols in the process of translation. The rapid development of modern information technology makes media forms more diversified. Multi-modal teaching theory came into being. It takes multimedia equipment as the carrier in the teaching process to fully mobilize students' cognition and actively participate in the language teaching, and enhance their learning initiative and enthusiasm. Under the background of media turn and on the basis of multi-modal semiotics, this study attempts to construct a multi-modal translation teaching mode and apply it to college English teaching practice. Teaching experiments show that the multi-modal translation teaching mode can not only improve students' translation ability, but also fully mobilize their initiative in learning, help students find self-confidence through course learning, and then improve their interpersonal and cooperative abilities. The new translation teaching mode in multi-modal context is helpful to make up for the shortcomings of the traditional teaching mode of single text transferring. Teachers should reform the traditional teaching concept, make full use of modern educational information technology, take students as the center, pay attention to cultivating students' practical English application ability, cross-cultural academic communication ability and cultural accomplishment, and form a new multi-modal teaching mode combining traditional teaching, multimedia teaching and network teaching.

Medijalni obrt i estetika ekscesa

The evolution of media system had an impact on human forms of communication and the relationship between human beings and reality (Schmidt,2013). In addition, the relationship between the media and human beings has undergone changes. Human beings have become an instrument of the media, rather than its goal, which is opposite to deontological ethics based on the respect of human dignity. After transition from communicativeness to mediality, one can talk about the mediatization of mind, which consists of the development of new tools: computers (Hudzik, 2018) and technocentrism (Krämer, 1989). The medial turn means that the form is more important than the content, which is reflected in the media aesthetics, also called (after the media turn occurred) the aesthetics of excess. (Lipovecki, Seroa 2013). The author explains the medial turn phenomenon and explores the nature of the corresponding media aesthetics. A descriptive method is used. Given that visual culture is widespread, due to the development of technologies and possibilities of manipulating and using different effects, the focus of media contents is more on the image, which goes in favor of the hypothesis that contemporary society is the society of images, not of the text (Mirzoef, 1983). This is also the main hypothesis in the paper, which is confirmed in the conclusion.

Nowa filozofia mediów w Niemczech

This article is about the philosophy of media developed in Germany as early as at the end of the 20th century. It was appeared as the Medienphilosophie – media philosophy – due to a coincidence of two different events that happened in social theory and practice – it’s when the end of certain period in German philosophy coincided then with the beginning of cyber civilization. The understanding of the latter situation demands the creation of a new language – a new analytical and critical apparatus capable of grasping reality becoming more and more medialized. The problem is not so much a question of particular media, but mediality itself. The reconstruction of the philosophy in question does not consist of the presentation of the views expressed by all its authors. It is less about substantive findings of this philosophy and more about its meta-theoretical aspects – the ontological and epistemological assumptions, conceptual apparatus, modes of justification. This text consists of five parts. The first two ones present origins and contexts of the development of the Medienphilosophie. The following two parts are concerned with the identity of media philosophy – its metatheoretical characteristics contained in the writings of two prominent figures – Frank Hartmann and Sybille Krämer. The last part is devoted to the specificity of the scientific and philosophical discipline after the so-called media turn.

EHealth Adoption and its Impact on Life Expectancy : A Comparative Study of Selected BRICS Countries plus TWO

The relationship between eHealth adoption and life expectancy is complex. Research outcomes show different and contradictory results on this relationship. How and why eHealth adoption affect life expectancy is still to a large extent not clear. A causal link between the two is yet to be proven. Without such knowledge, effects of increase or decrease in eHealth adoption on life expectancy may be overestimated or underestimated. This study analyzes the relationship between life expectancy at birth and eHealth adoption in healthcare amongst five selected countries; 3 BRICS countries (China, Russia and South Africa), USA and Ghana, taking into account eHealth foundations, electronic health records, use of health eLearning in health sciences, social media and big data.</p> <p>This cross-sectional study analyzed WHO Global Survey on eHealth data of five selected countries collected between April and August 2015 by calculating and describing the bivariate correlation between the dependent variable and independent variables. A forward linear regression analysis is also applied to determine the predictive capability of the model.</p> <p>A significant negative correlation was observed between total health expenditure and eLearning overview, ICT development index rank and internet users and between life expectancy at birth and social media with coefficients of<em> rs = -0.95, p = .014, rs = -1.00, p < .001 and rs = -0.96, p < .001</em> respectively. Apart from social media indicator of eHealth’s eLearning overview that was significantly correlated with life expectancy at birth, no other correlation was observed between life expectancy at birth and any of the indicators of eHealth. The regression analysis of the predictors show a near perfect result of 100% predictive ability of the model. The study observed that countries that incorporated social media into their eHealth action, through the promotion of health messages on social media as a part of health promotion campaigns, managing patient appointments, sought feedback on services, made general health announcements on social media turn to have citizens that have a significant longer life expectancy. In order to realize high life expectancy of citizens, policy measures have to be directed towards investment in social media incorporation into eHealth strategies.

Atmospheric Presence: Reflections on "Mediation" in the Anthropology of Religion and Technology

The recent media turn in the anthropology of religion has reinvigorated research about religion and technology by identifying these domains ontologically through the notion of mediation (religion-as-media). In this article, I unpack mediation and propose an alternative set of concepts to tackle this issue. They are theoretical tools that allow me to recognize the atmospheric quality of Christian charismatic faith and presence in Ghana. Charismatic atmospheres persistently dissolve the boundaries of discernible—organic and mechanical—mediators into the ecological medium while unleashing from it special affordances. I examine ethnographically what technology affords to three distinctive prayer methods and the atmospheres they engender: corporate revivals, meditation, and impartation. I conclude by arguing that religious atmospheres provide a specific solution to the question of immediacy or, as I prefer, transcendence, in material religion.

Media Theory in Japan ed. by Marc Steinberg and Alexander Zahlten

Reviewed by: Media Theory in Japan ed. by Marc Steinberg and Alexander Zahlten Hoyt Long (bio) Media Theory in Japan. Edited by Marc Steinberg and Alexander Zahlten. Duke University Press, Durham NC, 2017. xvi, 423 pages. $114.95, cloth; $30.95, paper; $28.95, E-book. When future cultural historians look back at this moment in humanistic inquiry, they will almost certainly point out its decisive "media turn." The genealogies of this turn will be traced to still earlier moments, whether the rise of postwar communication studies and catalyzing figures such as Marshall McLuhan; the deeply materialist strain of Freidrich Kittler's media archaeology; or the collapse of all media into "new media" through the common denominator of the digital screen, à la Lev Manovich. Wherever its origins are located, our current media turn will stand out as the moment when various past strains of media studies achieved critical mass in the North American academy, combining to form a common language legible across diverse fields and areas of study. As W. J. T. Mitchell and Mark Hansen declared in 2010, "We are, it seems, all practitioners of media studies, whether we recognize it or not."1 Media Theory in Japan, a set of essays originating in a film theory conference in 2012, reminds us that this is only more true today, highlighting in particular how far media studies as a new academic lingua franca has penetrated area studies. It also reminds us of all the ways this language remains a tower of babel. As it has risen in prominence, a fundamental concern of media studies has been how to delimit the study of media when all aspects of social and cultural interaction come to look mediated. Does one focus on media as an empirical and technological form? Does one look to the representational worlds that different media create? Or are media best viewed ontologically through the social relations they knit together and the knowledge formations they make possible? While not entirely independent, an emphasis on any one approach yields different insights and requires different methodologies to demarcate the horizons of interpretive possibility. This task of demarcation [End Page 490] is the first challenge that editors Marc Steinberg and Alexander Zahlten confront in their introduction. For them, the potentially infinite array of objects that media studies addresses is reframed as the twin problems of how media have been thought about over time (i.e., media theory) and how this knowledge is mediated by space, specifically the "technological, historical, institutional, and cultural practices that form the ground" (p. 3) of the space called Japan. Of primary concern are not media objects as they coconstitute the human condition but the thinking of media as itself an effect of shifting "medial conditions of production" (p. 7). That this volume will strictly be a meta-history of media is reinforced by the editors' warning that the essays "do not treat individual media as a set of channels or technologies to be covered each in turn. The reader will not find a procession of media commodities or institutions, from woodblock prints to newspaper to film to radio to film to video, and so on, each afforded a distinct chapter" (p. 25). Every book must choose a frame, and media theory certainly demands our attention as much as the study of media objects. The implication that the two frames do not belong together, however, is a curious one. The same media turn of which Media Theory in Japan is a part has also generated important new histories of channels and technologies, commodities and institutions, by Japan studies scholars, including monographs by Michael Bourdaghs (music), Seth Jacobowitz (stenography and writing), Thomas Lamarre (television), Paul Roquet (music and sound), Atsuko Sakaki (photography), and Kerim Yasar (sound). This is an equally lively, and equally theoretical, wing of the current media studies tower of babel. So why provisionally cordon it off? Or rather, what definition of "media theory" is proposed by this act of division, and what are its implications for the future study of media in Japan? While Steinberg and Zahlten frame the volume as a collective engagement with media as epistemology (albeit a materially conditioned one), the contributors address this...

Cibo come patrimonio. Un’introduzione

L’articolo esamina lo stadio degli studi sulla storia del cibo e la storia dell’alimentazione alla luce del concetto di Patrimonio. Il saggio non segue le traiettorie distinte del tema del cibo e di quello del patrimonio, bensì riflette sul convergere di questi temi e sul prender forma di un oggetto nuovo per la ricerca: quello del cibo, appunto, in quanto patrimonio.

МЕДІА У КОНТЕКСТАХ МЕДІА-АРХЕОЛОГІЇ ТА ВІЗУАЛЬНОЇ АНТРОПОЛОГІЇ

Abstract. Introduction . In the era of Post-Present, are a universal characteristic of preserving and transmission of information, creating a new reality, since radically changing both and communication links. In the information age, there are specific types of media, which becomes the basis for the formation of a new discourse, a peculiar form of medial turn or post-medial age. The purpose of the article is the analises of in the context of media-archeology and anthropology. Media research is primarily related to the emergence and study of technical and their impact on human identity. Methods. The methodology of the research is connected with using of analytical, comparative and axiological methods, as well as the systemic, historical and cultural approaches. Results. Media turn from the means of deepening the vision of reality into its transponder, which leads to the emergence of a separate reality format, which causes creation of research strategies for comprehension of the expansion of images and definition of their ontological status. The emergence of indicates a change in the methods of researching the media, rethinking the content of the very concept of media. Originality. The problem of the goes beyond the category of mode of perception and requires the inclusion of the category experience of perception, which makes it possible to apply the term visual not only to the on-screen forms of culture and communication, but also to design and architecture; not only to the visible, but also to the imaginary (psychotherapy and philosophical anthropology), or to contemplative (various psychopractices of spiritual life); in which universal are the prism of vision and memory technology. Conclusion. The subject field of archeology and anthropology of Post-Present is not only a change in the methods of visualization and mediation, but also through a rethinking of the concept of media and the study of influence on practices – the identification of the origins and conditions for the formation of the representation culture in general.