Media Materialities

Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies, the consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form, format and ephemeral meaning.  Contributors consider a range of media artefacts including 8mm film, board games, maps, videogames, cassette tapes, transistor radios and Twitter, amongst others and punctuate these with considerations with less formal, often personal takes exploring the meanings of media in context. This collection creates spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of media, culture, and society.

Brings together a breadth of perspectives addressing media materialities, and their significance to the study of media, culture, and society. Offers new thinking and perspectives on media materialities, including work that explores media materiality, and the past, physical and digital tensions and media materialities in digital games. 32 b&w illus.

Provides new perspectives on the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats, materiality, and meaning. Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies, our consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form – the physical qualities of objects and the meanings which extend from them; format – objects considered in relation to the protocols which govern their use, and the meanings and practices which stem from them; and ephemeral meaning – the ways in which media artefacts are captured, transformed, and redefined through changing social, cultural, and technological values.

Each section includes empirical chapters which provide expansive discussions of perspectives on media and materiality. It considers a range of media artefacts such as 8mm film, board games maps, videogames, cassette tapes, transistor radios and Twitter, amongst others. These are punctuated with a number of short takes – less formal, often personal takes exploring the meanings of media in context.

We seek to consider the materialities which emerge across the broad and variegated range of the term’s use, and to create spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of study of media, culture, and society.