Technology and Media studies

There is such a difference between saying, “October is the most beautiful month of the year,” and “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” (L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables). One way is trite and dull; the other whimsical and heartfelt. Words, in their meaningful expressions of sentiment, comprise the lexicon and, in turn, the frames of the narratives we read and write; differences in lexicon affect appreciation of the narrative generally. The transition from the printed word to the electronic word altered not only our lexicon, but also our understanding of messages, both via restyled expression and innovative media. Today, there is such a difference between expressing a thought in a printed context, and expressing a thought with new media tools.

Indeed, the digital realm has been a platform for new narratives to spring up, changing how we – as readers and writers – perceive and express information. Words can mean so much to us, but the way messages are relayed – their platforms especially – is just as important to understanding messages. Within the ever-changing landscape of the New Mediasphere, stories and ideas are written and shared with words, links to videos, and, most recently, memes via a plethora of digital tools; we are now also capable of sharing others’ messages and ideas in just seconds.

Changes in technology have thus changed how we relate to information. As creators and sharers of content, we use these multimedia tools every time we want to say or write something. Yet, do we understand how they work? Within higher education and in public discourse, media studies have typically focused on theories surrounding message transmission via news outlets, and the effects of message transmission on readers and consumers of knowledge. With the rise of digital and multimedia outlets, these theories have shifted to accommodate the flux in roles of information creation (e.g., information consumers are now also information producers). Now, not only is the role of technology considered in undergraduate and graduate courses, but also the digital tools themselves and the use of these tools. In other words, a curriculum of doing is being implemented in our universities, a curriculum which need not only flourish within the university. Open-access tools for social network analysis, for example, are springing up on the Internet, allowing anyone to download public data from blogs and social networking sites.

The Technology and Media Studies Interview Section includes interviews with professors and researchers whose work critiques, interprets, and expands upon digital technology as a tool and technology’s effects on users’ narratives. This Section continues the discussion on Figure/Ground’s noted four central problems in today’s university environment – academic capitalism, the university in the information age, the sovereignty of disciplines, and mentorship and pedagogy – as it relates to studies of media and technology. Today, media studies harbors ideas from philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and other, diverse disciplines that exemplify how and why we use media, and how that changes our perceptions of information. The technological tools that we use in message transmission appear not just in our homes, but also in our classrooms and lecture halls; these academic spaces are now allowed to enter into the home with online courses. Thus, technology and media change not just the way we interact with information, but also how we engage with others in communal arenas of thought. It is the hope of Figure/Ground Communication that readers of this section will come to a better understanding of media in society and the academy, our roles as creators and shapers of content in a digital landscape, and the tools we may take for granted in sharing our messages, narratives, and ideas.

Katharine Armstrong
Editor

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