An analysis of the interrelationship between media forms, format, and meaning.
Media Materialities brings together a team of scholars to analyze the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats, materiality, and meaning. Deploying a number of different qualitative methodologies, the contributors address three overarching concepts: form, format, and ephemeral meaning. They investigate a range of media artifacts, such as 8mm film, board game maps, videogames, cassette tapes, transistor radios, and Twitter. Their goal is to create spaces for conversation and debate about the implications that this plurality of material meanings might have for the study of media, culture, and society.
List of Figures Acknowledgements Foreword – Nicholas Gebhardt Introduction SECTION 1: FORM Short Take 1: My Notebook – Lee Griffiths 1. Investigating the Illicit: The Material Traces of Britain’s Early Trade in Obscene 8mm Films – Oliver Carter Short Take 2: ‘Press the Start Button’ – Harrison Charles 2. On, Off, and in the Map: Materializing Game Experiences Through Player Cartography – Nick Webber Short Take 3: Making Order Out of Chaos – Hilary Weston Jones 3. The Solid State of Radio – Sam Coley Short Take 4: Materialities of Television History – E. Charlotte Stevens SECTION 2: FORMAT Short Take 5: Only Dancing. Again – Philip Young 4. Between Analogue and Digital: The Cassette Tape as Hybrid Artefact – Iain A. Taylor Short Take 6: Patch Lead Possibilities – Chris Mapp 5. ‘Because It Is Not Digital’: The Cultural Value of the Analogue Book in Digital Age – Christian Moerken Short Take 7: Materialities of Spatial Confinement: Trefeglwys Meets Beirut – Dima Saber 6. Essentially (Not) the Game: Reading the Materiality of Video Game Paratexts – Regina Seiwald Short Take 8: Materialities and Craft Value – Karen Patel SECTION 3: EPHEMERAL MEANING Short Take 9: Still Angry: Still Feeding – Matt Grimes 7. Stamp of Approval: A Prosopography of the English Midlands Videogame Industry – Alex Wade and Adam Whittaker Short Take 10: The Edward Colston Experience – Martin Cox 8. Reframing Materiality in the Caribbean Diaspora Podcast – Rachel-Ann Charles and Tim Wall Short Take 11: We’re all Victorians Now – Kirsten Forkert 9. You Can Look, Share and Comment, But You Can’t Touch: The Relationship Between the Materiality and Physicality of Photographs in an Online Community Archive – Vanessa Jackson Short Take 12: Location, Agency, and Hashtag Activism During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Yemisi Akinbobola 10. Thirty-Seven Retweets – John Hillman Conclusion: Shifting Horizons of Possibility – Susanna Paasonen Notes on Contributors Index
Dr Iain A. Taylor is senior lecturer in music at University of the West of Scotland, and co-managing editor of Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music. Dr Oliver Carter is reader in creative economies at the Birmingham Centre for Media for Media and Cultural at Birmingham City University.
