Media Theory in North America and German-Speaking Europe

Ubiquitous and indispensible, media technologies have taken on an epistemological or even ontological significance: we learn what we know, and we become what we are, through print, TV, digital, mobile and other communications. “No part of the world, no human activity,” as Sonia Livingstone says, “is untouched…. Societies worldwide are being reshaped, for better or for worse, by changes in the global media and information environment.” Seeing media as a lens or even as an a priori condition for understanding historical, social and cultural change has become increasingly prevalent and urgent on both sides of the Atlantic. However, with some notable exceptions, this work has been developing independently, producing a wide-ranging if fruitful heterogeneity. On the one side are the interdisciplinary and theoretically-engaged Medienwissenschaften (media studies), with over sixty programs in universities in Germany alone. On the other side is work developing out of the Toronto school and a variety of theoretical and disciplinary traditions. Areas of research and scholarship relevant to this dialogue include communication, philosophy, media literacy, and literary and cultural studies.

This conference is focussing on such issues as:  

• Recent developments in media theory in North America and central Europe, for example:

  • Media and materiality

  • The construction of “mediality” in theory and practice

  • Media and the (post)human

  • The “mediatic turn” as milestone or misnomer

• The foundational contributions of McLuhan, Innis and the Toronto School, of Flusser, Luhmann, Hartmann, Kittler and others

• Media as means of socialization and education

• Towards a philosophy of media (Inter)disciplinary implications of media-theoretical developments

Conference Organizers: