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In recent decades, media theory has become one of the most influential trends in contemporary thinking, namely within cultural studies, the arts and humanities. Spreading mostly from the German scholarly scene, under the influence of post-structuralism, media theory has developed as a fundamental theoretical framework, for many fields of theoretical and applied research, through authors such as the late Friedrich Kittler, 1943-2011. Commenting on several aspects of Kittler's work, and on its impact in different fields of art and culture, this essay collection examines recent developments in me

AbstractWhile de-Westernisation is an interesting political intervention in media theory, analytically it offers little. We critique this approach through six inter-related arguments. The first point of critique challenges the putative singularity of the West. The second line of enquiry raises questions about the emergence of new academic disciplines and their intellectual offerings. Our third point is that the call to de-Westernise Media Studies is naïve, ignores history and the long patterns of global interconnectedness that have mutually formed the West/Rest. The fourth argument is that "de-Westernisation" suggests that the theory and methods of Media Studies offer nothing of use outside their original birthplaces, while the fifth argument is the conceptual danger of nativism. The sixth critique centres on the problem of essentialising culture as a determinate object. Examining the contemporary media practices of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we suggest that the true alternative to a repressive theocracy is its internal challenge by women, students and other parts of civil society that offers a critical third way beyond the binary divide.

This article introduces the concept of "digital light" into the Russian-language space of media theory, and also offers its conceptualization as a distributed network medium that transforms cultural practices. The article substantiates the need to distinguish digital light as a separate concept. Unlike the concept of "electric light" introduced by McLuhan, the content of the concept of "digital light" is based on the constructive and physical features of this medium, and not on abstract ideas about "pure information". This article describes the media properties of digital light, determined by its semiconductor structure and the property of sampling the electrical signal. It substantiates the productivity of considering these structures in the context of a broad concept of digital light, rather than individual technological forms or software solutions. Considered not as a separate technological form, like a light bulb or a screen, but as covering the entire set of radiating and controlling means, and as a dynamic developing network, the elements of which can be both visible to a person and invisible to him (as a part of the infrastructure), digital light creates various situations of multi-channel exchange of electrical signals, eliminating the boundaries between its own digital structure and the illuminated objects of the environment. In particular, digital light allows interactive digital installations to exist and can process and visualize big data in real time. Digital light, understood in this way, turns out to be a medium with its own "message", which overcomes McLuhan's claim of electric light as a "medium without a message".

1. Introduction : logistical media theory -- 2. Logistical worlds -- 3. Into the cloud -- 4. Economies of waste -- 5. New regimes of knowledge production -- 6. Coded vanilla -- 7. Imperial infrastructures -- 8. Sovereign media and the ruins of a logistical future.

Since its initial formulation in 1988, the Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model (PM) has become one of the most widely tested models of media performance in the social sciences. This is largely due to the combined efforts of a loose group of international scholars as well as an increasing number of students who have produced studies in the US, UK, Canadian, Australian, Japanese, Chinese, German, and Dutch contexts, amongst others. Yet, the PM has also been marginalised in media and communication scholarship, largely due to the fact that the PM"s radical scholarly outlook challenges the liberal and conservative underpinnings of mainstream schools of thought in capitalist democracies. This paper brings together, for the first time, leading scholars to discuss important questions pertaining to the PM"s origins, public relevance, connections to other approaches within Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, applicability in the social media age, as well as impact and influence. The paper aligns with the 30th anniversary of the PM and the publication of the collected volume, The Propaganda Model Today, and highlights the PM"s continued relevance at a time of unprecedented corporate consolidation of the media, extreme levels of inequality and class conflict as well as emergence of new forms of authoritarianism.

This article addresses the question of new media studies' meta-theoretical premises. It is argued that the field's exceptional openness towards theory and method is a valuable asset, which needs to be cultivated by means of a more explicit meta-theoretical debate. Drawing on critical theory, three meta-theoretical criteria concerning power, reason and closure are suggested and applied in a review of common theoretical perspectives at use in the field. A discussion of political economy and postmodern perspectives prepares the ground for an analysis of approaches inspired by Habermas and Foucault. The article concludes by advocating the theoretical concept of the dispositif or social apparatus, developed by Foucault and Deleuze. It is argued that the concept provides an effective tool to map the intricate relations of power and knowledge around the internet, as well as a possibility to analyse how processes of subjectification are fostered or circumscribed in specific settings.

1. Origins and definitions -- 2. Methodological approaches centered on values -- 3. Traditional approaches focusing on attitudes and activities -- 4. French approaches -- 5. The analysis of products, goods, and services purchased by the consumer -- 6. Fields of application of lifestyles -- 7. Problems and critiques raised by studies of lifestyles -- 8. New methodological and conceptual proposals -- 9. Social media and a theory and method for future research -- 10. General conclusions.

International audience ; Since its initial formulation in 1988, the Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model (PM) has become one of the most widely tested models of media performance in the social sciences. This is largely due to the combined efforts of a loose group of international scholars as well as an increasing number of students who have produced studies in the US, UK, Canadian, Australian, Japanese, Chinese, German, and Dutch contexts, amongst others. Yet, the PM has also been marginalised in media and communication scholarship, largely due to the fact that the PM"s radical scholarly outlook challenges the liberal and conservative underpinnings of mainstream schools of thought in capitalist democracies. This paper brings together, for the first time, leading scholars to discuss important questions pertaining to the PM"s origins, public relevance, connections to other approaches within Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, applicability in the social media age, as well as impact and influence. The paper aligns with the 30 th anniversary of the PM and the publication of the collected volume, The Propaganda Model Today, and highlights the PM"s continued relevance at a time of unprecedented corporate consolidation of the media, extreme levels of inequality and class conflict as well as emergence of new forms of authoritarianism.