Media Studies

According to Geert Lovink, there is no such thing as a “visual culture” that connects film, television, video, and new media. In this chapter, he argues that this mistaken belief has led to the naïve notion that we are all working on the same project, “the media.” In fact, Lovink argues, humanities‐based “media studies” has never had a grip on new media and Internet education. The idea that media are all about images is contradicted by the reality of computers that run on code. A deep institutional confusion holds that new media are ultimately subordinate to the old content‐based broadcasting industries and their outdated revenue models. This essay argues for a long overdue goodbye to the convergence tendencies within media studies departments in favor of full autonomy of new media initiatives. The purpose of critical research into digital technologies is not to rescue the film and broadcasting industries but to develop concepts for the ever‐expanding digital realm itself.

Autonomy · Broadcasting (networking) · Computer security · Confusion · Convergence (economics) · Digital media · Media studies · Multimedia · New media · Political science · Realm · Sociology · Technological convergence · Telecommunications · The Internet · Visual media · World Wide Web · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Law · Psychology