Not All Voices Are Equal Online
The web promised more democratic conversation—but power, profit, and platform design still shape who gets heard.
In our episode with Alice E. Marwick, we explore how social movements push back, why bad actors thrive, and why meaningful discourse remains so difficult.
Watch the full discussion here:
https://youtu.be/6n1fQqdu5Gw
The Communication History exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland is fantastic. The material culture of telegraph, assistive tech and disability, undersea cables and telephone booths, Minitel terminals and the BBC micro.
https://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/departments/science-technology/technology
#minitel #history #museum #mediastudies #communication #retrocomputing
Updated the reading list for in-game photography. It now contains almost 50 items: https://sebastianmoering.com/basic-readings-on-in-game-photography . It's fascinating seeing this field grow!
#ingamephotography
#virtualphotography
#gamestudies
#spielwissenschaft
#mediastudies
#aesthetics
This is a list of basic readings on in-game photography as a practice, medium, and art form: Web sources http://gamescenes.org https://gta5.photography/artworks https://videogametourism.at http://ingame.photography
Artificial Intelligence and Film Studies: Midjourney versus CAMELS
CAMELS? As an English teacher, I’ve done a lot of analytical film studies over the years. The biggest problem is always students’ grasp of technical language: film analysis tends to drift off into character and plot description, even more so than for written texts. So, when I teach film, I lean more into my Media Studies background. In the UK I completed my undergrad in English and American Literatures. When I trained to teach, it was in English, Media, and Drama. Then, when I first […]https://leonfurze.com/2023/03/29/artificial-intelligence-and-film-studies-midjourney-versus-camels/
Where do we disconnect from our devices — and what role do physical spaces play in that?
Together with Nils S. Borchers, I have a new article out today in Media, Culture & Society: "Spaces of digital disconnection: A go-along study of dining areas, libraries, and movie theaters."
Using a go-along method, we examined how everyday spaces like dining areas, libraries, and movie theaters shape people's disconnection from digital media — sometimes by social norms, sometimes by institutional rules, sometimes simply by the atmosphere of a place.
Our findings suggest that digital disconnection is not just an individual practice, but is deeply embedded in the spatial and social contexts we move through.
🔗 doi.org/10.1177/01634437261428614
#DigitalDisconnection #MediaStudies #DigitalCulture #NewPublication
Dichotomies in Media and Communication Theory
Bart Cammaerts
(Taylor & Francis, 27/02/2026 - 278 pages)
"This innovative textbook explores media and communication theory, and its intersections with social and political theory, through the prism of eight core dichotomies – communication/media, private/public, production/reception, material/symbolic, mainstream/alternative, abundance/scarcity, control/freedom, and virtual/real – revealing their complex interrelationships and significance in understanding contemporary media and communication landscapes.
Students will gain a nuanced understanding of media and communication theories by examining both sides of each dichotomy and their dynamic interplay. The book historicizes each concept pair, illustrates them with past and present examples, and demonstrates how competing paradigms often complement rather than contradict each other. This approach helps readers grasp theoretical complexity, recognize the democratic importance of media and communication, and develop critical thinking skills through engaging case studies and discussion questions in each chapter.
This textbook is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking media and communication theory courses. Instructors teaching critical media and communication theory will find the dichotomy-based approach particularly valuable for helping students navigate complex theoretical debates and understand the field's intellectual development. It will also be useful supplementary reading for specific topics within broader media studies programs."
https://books.google.pt/books?id=btitEQAAQBAJ
#MediaTheory #CommunicationTheory #MediaStudies #CriticalTheory
This innovative textbook explores media and communication theory, and its intersections with social and political theory, through the prism of eight core dichotomies – communication/media, private/public, production/reception, material/symbolic, mainstream/alternative, abundance/scarcity, control/freedom, and virtual/real – revealing their complex interrelationships and significance in understanding contemporary media and communication landscapes.Students will gain a nuanced understanding of media and communication theories by examining both sides of each dichotomy and their dynamic interplay. The book historicizes each concept pair, illustrates them with past and present examples, and demonstrates how competing paradigms often complement rather than contradict each other. This approach helps readers grasp theoretical complexity, recognize the democratic importance of media and communication, and develop critical thinking skills through engaging case studies and discussion questions in each chapter.This textbook is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking media and communication theory courses. Instructors teaching critical media and communication theory will find the dichotomy-based approach particularly valuable for helping students navigate complex theoretical debates and understand the field's intellectual development. It will also be useful supplementary reading for specific topics within broader media studies programs.
New post on the Kinomatics blog all about Boxing Day cinemagoing in Australia: https://kinomatics.com/projects/australian-cinema/putting-the-box-office-in-boxing-day/
We look through the last 10 years of box office data to see how well the festive period is holding up as a key date in the Australian cinema calendar. The short version: Boxing Day was more important than ever during the pandemic, but its recovery hasn't really materialised.
This post is the first in a series of data-driven pieces we'll be doing on the Australian film industry.
Please boost if you think people in your network would be interested in this - I'll need extra help getting seen now I'm on my own little server!
#cinemastudies #mediaindustries #mediastudies #filmindustry #dataviz
#newissue 44 & 45 of #CinémaetCie, #film and #mediastudies journal
Where volume 45 depicts another #HistoryOfCinema beyond the supposed hegemony of #Hollywood, volume 44 analyzes #DecolonialPractices in #WorldCinema, such as that of #Palestine, #Uruguay, and #Cameroon.
⬇️ Available here in #OpenAccess: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/issue/archive?mtm_campaign=mastodon
The Internet is Crack
#BruceSterling
Kevin Driscoll 📳੯‧̀͡⬮
Reel Tubes
Sebastian Möring, PhD
Leon Furze
Guido Zurstiege
Miguel Afonso Caetano
Pete Jones
Milano University Press