Historiography and History

Media history

Media History is the written, narrative record of different aspects of media (textual, political, economic, etc.)

What lenses can be used to study media history

Textual (representation), Political economic (industrial), Technological (industrial/audiences), Socio-cultural (representation/audiences)

Media historiography

The act of writing, analysing, and theorising media history

Media historiography: Aesthetic

Tracks issues of form, content, convention, style, and modes of expression – whether dominant (e.g. mainstream TV genres) or subversive/avant-garde (e.g. experimental films)

Media historiography: Political Economy

Explore the role of media as a business within a capitalist system, and the various material dimensions of production, distribution, and ownership regimes behind media

Media historiography: Technological

Show how technology plays a central role in the unfolding of media history, especially from the perspective of mass media and communication.

Media historiography: Sociocultural

Concerned with situating media within the social context in its aesthetics, economies, and technologies, and understanding these factors as symptoms of historical social relations

Media materiality

How media is always a material thing, and not something to be analysed from afar – we are always relating to it, and it always has politics in places.

Example of media materiality

Changing Standards —> Shifts in media formats—from fragile film, to videotape, to digital files—reflect technological, institutional, and cultural changes shaping how media is produced, preserved, and consumed.

Archive

Neutral repositories of information – if information is catalogued and stored, then the “history” contained is simply ready to be accessed by a good historiographer. They are organised according to particular categorisations and standards established by archivists and experts. They are determined by external factors as well (e.g., donations, purchases, migration of public documents, etc.)