bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Critical Examination of Treatment Recommendations for Diarrhoea
Authors: Polo Etaoghene Paul
Published: November 2024

Primarily, this article emphasises that while conducting research, especially one involving human subjects, researchers are expected to comply with applicable global and national ethical standards. Should a researcher fail to do so, he/she stands the risk of breaching research ethics, and this is capable of rendering his/her research unacceptable. Accordingly, this article, making reference to relevant ethical theories, critically examines and analyses the actions of a researcher who set out to investigate treatment recommendations for diarrhoea. Ultimately, a number of ethical pitfalls in the stated research are x-rayed and some recommendations for subsequent studies are provided in this paper.
The Acceptance of Educational Content and University Support: Effects of E-learning Acceptance and Student Computer Competency
Authors: Shabeer Muhammad Burhan , Shamim-ur-Rasul Sahibzada , Iqbal Misbah , Kazmi Syed Sheheryar Ali , Memom Anam
Published: November 2024

E-learning among university students is examined through educational content acceptance and university support, highlighting students' computer competency mediating effect. To optimize e-learning environments, it is essential to understand elements enhancing ELA. In the present study, 500 university students enrolled in e-learning courses were surveyed quantitatively. SEM analyzes the association among variables and measures constructs via validated scales. Moreover, It is hypothesized that construct educational content acceptance and university support positively influence ELA, with students' computer competency acting as a mediating factor. Hence, ELA is significantly predicted by both educational content acceptance and university support, with computer competency partially mediating the relationship. Using empirical evidence, this study provides actionable insights to educational institutions seeking to improve learning effectiveness.
Will tokenisation deliver efficiency? And what kind?
Authors: Milkau Udo
Published: November 2024

This paper attempts to provide a careful and balanced look at some of the benefits and challenges of tokenisation of securities. A fundamental problem is the lack of consistency in how ‘tokenisation’ should be defined. According to a report by McKinsey & Company in 2023, ‘Tokenization adoption was poised for success six years ago, but progress was limited … the path could be different this time’. In the past, tokenisation was: (1) limited to a process of creating a representation of financial, intellectual or physical assets on a blockchain (ie distributed ledger technology [DLT]); and (2) discussed as a narrative of disintermediation and programmability as a basis for efficiency gains. As it became clear that DLT, with its basic game-theoretical approach, comes with high costs and opaque governance, traditional platforms with high efficiency such as the European TARGET2-Security (T2S) with atomic settlement and delivery-versus-payment (DvP) show up as blueprints for efficiency. A proposal of the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) for a unified ledger, Project Guardian of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), both in 2023, and an announcement of the U.S. Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) in 2024 about ‘settlement on a common regulated venue … [of] tokenized assets’ can be regarded as paradigms for a new and pragmatic approach, with coordination and synchronisation as key objectives in the context of financial market infrastructures.
Review of Phytochemistry and Hypolipidemic Effects of Vaccinium oxycoccus
Authors: Rakshitha S  , Umamaheshwari K R  , Vidya K  , Yashaswini B C
Published: November 2024

Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus), a small evergreen shrub of the Ericaceae family, represents a valuable medicinal plant with diverse therapeutic applications in both traditional and modern medicine. The fruit's remarkable properties stem from its rich composition of bioactive compounds, primarily flavonoids including anthocyanidins, proanthocyanidins, and phenolic acids, which contribute to its potent antioxidant activity. Beyond its basic nutritional value of minerals and vitamins, cranberry demonstrates a uniquely low sugar content compared to other berries. Clinical and preclinical studies have established its efficacy in preventing urinary tract infections, exhibiting anticancer properties, and protecting cardiovascular health. The fruit shows promising results in obesity management and metabolic disorder treatment, with significant effects on lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis prevention attributed to its polyphenolic content. Research has documented its ability to regulate blood pressure, modulate glucose metabolism, and protect mitochondrial function. The antimicrobial properties extend beyond urinary tract applications, while anti-inflammatory effects suggest broader therapeutic potential. Modern investigations continue to uncover novel applications in functional foods and preventive medicine, particularly focusing on metabolic disorders and cardiovascular health. These findings establish cranberry as a significant natural therapeutic agent, warranting further investigation into its molecular mechanisms and clinical applications
A Review on Current Understanding, Clinical Manifestations, and Therapeutic Approaches of Anxiety Disorders
Authors: V Naveen , S Felic , A V ASWIN , K C ARUL PRAKASAM
Published: November 2024

Anxiety disorders represent a significant global mental health challenge, affecting approximately 4% of the world's population with a notably higher prevalence among women. These disorders encompass various conditions, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Panic Disorder, Specific Phobias, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Each condition presents unique manifestations while sharing common features of excessive fear and worry that significantly impair daily functioning. The pathophysiology involves complex interactions between neurobiological systems, particularly the GABA, serotonin, and norepinephrine pathways, along with structural and functional changes in key brain regions such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Recent advances in understanding genetic and epigenetic factors have revealed the role of genes like SLC6A4 and BDNF in anxiety susceptibility. Current treatment approaches combine psychological interventions, primarily Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), with pharmacological treatments such as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). Emerging therapeutic options, including ketamine therapy and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), show promise for treatment-resistant cases. Despite available treatments, barriers such as social stigma and limited access to mental health services prevent many individuals from seeking help. The aim of this review is to provide current knowledge about anxiety disorders
CARCINOMA HEPÁTICO DE ORIGEM NEUROENDÓCRINA EM CÃO DA RAÇA BEAGLE: RELATO DE CASO
Authors: Fernandes Alex Luciano , Bellissimo Denis Zanon , Steinbock Daysa , Bellissimo Giancarlo Zanon
Published: November 2024

The case reported is a hepatic carcinoma of neuroendocrine origin, an extremely rare tumor originating in hormone-producing neuroendocrine cells, which is difficult to diagnose without biopsy, surgical resection and necropsy. This publication describes a case of this disease, which does not discriminate between sexes, with a preference for adults and the elderly and no racial predisposition. The best treatment is surgical resection, the extent of which will be determined by the size and location of the lesions.
PESSOA COM TRANSTORNO DO ESPECTRO AUTISTA E A APLICAÇÃO DA CIDADANIA NO MUNICÍPIO DE JARU: EXPECTATIVA VS. REALIDADE
Authors: Ramos Simone Flávia Silva , Neves Gislene de Laparte
Published: November 2024

Este artigo analisa o nível de conhecimento e acesso das famílias de pessoas com Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) às leis, benefícios e serviços públicos disponíveis no município de Jaru. A pesquisa buscou identificar lacunas na disseminação de informações e barreiras enfrentadas no exercício pleno da cidadania. Com base em dados coletados por meio de questionários, a análise aponta dificuldades relacionadas ao desconhecimento de direitos legais e benefícios sociais, destacando a necessidade de maior conscientização e articulação entre famílias, instituições e poder público. O estudo conclui que a inclusão plena depende não apenas de legislações, mas também de informações claras e acessíveis para todos os envolvidos.
O PAPEL DO ENFERMEIRO NO MANEJO DE COMPORTAMENTOS DISRUPTIVOS EM PACIENTES COM TEA
Authors: Silva Karoni Oliveira , Ferreira Luana De Sousa Silva , Bezerra Morgane Abreu , Silva Vanessa Pereira Da , Lima Verônica De Sousa , Sousa Vivian Rafaela Castro , Alencar Pedro Henrique Rodrigues
Published: November 2024

O presente artigo explora o papel do enfermeiro no atendimento a crianças com  Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA), enfatizando práticas empáticas, holísticas e  baseadas em conhecimento especializado, a partir de uma análise integrativa de três  estudos principais. A pesquisa destaca a importância de estratégias como a empatia  e a Análise do Comportamento Aplicada (ABA), bem como a colaboração com os  familiares, para melhorar a qualidade de vida desses pacientes. O primeiro estudo  aborda a necessidade de uma prática de enfermagem adaptada às particularidades  comportamentais e emocionais das crianças com TEA, enfatizando técnicas de  comunicação e identificação de gatilhos para manejar crises. O segundo estudo  evidencia a eficácia da ABA na redução de comportamentos repetitivos e na melhoria  de habilidades sociais, ressaltando a importância da percepção dos familiares, que  facilita a colaboração com os enfermeiros. Já o terceiro estudo discute as  potencialidades e desafios da prática de enfermagem em saúde mental, reforçando a necessidade de formação contínua e recursos adequados para intervenções  integradas e efetivas. Ao traçar paralelos entre os estudos, o artigo revela que o  manejo de pacientes com TEA requer uma abordagem multidisciplinar e contínua,  onde o enfermeiro atua como facilitador de um atendimento adaptado e compassivo.  A conclusão reforça a relevância de programas de formação específicos que  capacitem os profissionais a aplicar técnicas como a ABA de maneira humanizada e  centrada no paciente, sugerindo a criação de diretrizes para o atendimento  especializado no contexto de saúde mental e pediátrica, e consolidando o papel  essencial do enfermeiro no cuidado desses pacientes.
PERFIL MICROBIOLÓGICO DAS INFECÇÕES RELACIONADAS À ASSISTÊNCIA À SAÚDE EM HOSPITAIS UNIVERSITÁRIOS: REVISÃO DE LITERATURA
Authors: Pereira Bárbara do Nascimento , Silva Deivison Miranda da , Silva Marcos Vinícius da Cruz , Nascimento Débora Maira Messias Leal do , Leal Lílian Filadelfa Lima dos Santos , Martins Ianderson de Siqueira , Penalva Filho Ney , Nascimento Jorge Messias Leal do
Published: November 2024

Considering that healthcare-associated hospital infections (HAIs) are acquired 48 hours after hospital admission, or manifest within 3 days after hospital discharge, they may be associated with healthcare prophylaxis, causing an impact on the health of the patient. patient, family, hospital institutions and even society as a whole. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the bacterial incidence of surfaces and equipment in emergency rooms, medication rooms, intermediate care rooms and surgical blocks at a university hospital. Hospital infections represent a challenge when it comes to clinical practice regarding hospitalized patients. Its parameter determines a considerable increase in the hospitalization period, in lethality and, at the same time, contributes to high hospital costs. Hospitalized patients, specifically in the Intensive Care Unit, are particularly more exposed to hospital infections, given their clinical conditions, which require invasive procedures and antimicrobial therapy. This study aimed to observe and determine the prevalence of nosocomial infection (HI) distributed across sectors of a tertiary hospital in Pernambuco, specialized as a day hospital, which offers consultations in different specialties such as Anesthesiology, Cardiology, General Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Internal Medicine, Urology among the different specialties. Data collection was carried out, with a retrospective of these exams on hospitalized patients from 2019 to 2023.
A RELEVÂNCIA DAS FERRAMENTAS DE QUALIDADE NA OTIMIZAÇÃO DOS PROCESSOS EMPRESARIAIS
Authors: Silva Milena Dos Santos , Nascimento Max Rhyan Belchior Do , Anjos Luis Jorge Souza Dos , Junior João Ernesto Rodrigues , Ferreira Gildean Barbosa , Conceição Carlean Macedo Da , Araújo Bruno Teixeira De , Chaves Neto Mario Soares , Silva Antonia Carolaine Carvalho Da , Gomes Bernardo Rurik Aparecido
Published: November 2024

O conceito de qualidade, nas suas mais variadas facetas, tem evoluído e tornando-se mais compreensível quando é analisado, entendido e aplicado, através dos tempos, nas empresas. A gestão de qualidade é responsabilidade de todos os níveis de gestão. A sua implementação envolve todos os membros de uma organização. Um planejamento eficiente ara obter sucesso em suas ações de produzir com qualidade. Este trabalho tem por objetivo identificar e compreender o conceito de qualidade e o uso das ferramentas específicas dessa área, visando destacar a sua devida importância. A metodologia utilizada consiste em pesquisa bibliográfica em materiais sobre o assunto sendo de caráter exploratório descritivo, na abordagem qualitativa.
What Is a Journal for?
Authors: Cubitt Sean
Published: November 2024

Sean Cubitt's manifesto for Media Theory
Open Theory
Authors: Manghani Sunil
Published: November 2024

Sunil Manghani's manifesto for Media Theory
Configuring Media Theory
Authors: Steinberg Marc
Published: November 2024

Marc Steinberg's manifesto for Media Theory
What is Media Theory?
Authors: Dawes Simon
Published: November 2024

Simon Dawes's introduction to the inaugural issue of Media Theory.
Reimagining Journalism to Help Save Democracy and Fight Trumpism
Authors: Henrichsen Jennifer R.
Published: November 2024

This manifesto examines the discourse used by journalists in their coverage leading up to and following Donald Trumpâ€™s ascendancy to the presidency in the United States. To examine this topic, I conducted a qualitative textual analysis of a sample of English language newspaper articles, collected primarily via Lexis-Nexis and Media Cloud between June 2015 and October 2017. My corpus included articles from leading national newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post and metajournalistic discourse from the Columbia Journalism Review. I show how journalists discursively rely on historical analogies to make sense of an unprecedented political phenomenon known as Donald Trump and Trumpism, and how, by looking to the past, journalists seek to bolster their cultural authority at a time when trust in the media is at record lows.
The Propaganda Model and Intersectionality: Integrating Separate Paradigms
Authors: Zollmann Florian , Klaehn Jeffery , Sikka Tina , Comeforo Kristin , Broudy Daniel , Troeger Mandy , Poole Elizabeth , Edgley Alison , Mullen Andrew
Published: November 2024

The world is currently witnessing a revitalisation of the right and of authoritarian political tendencies. Right-wing forces across the globe have been able to push misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic discourses into the mainstream of politics and media. Whilst these developments have been fuelled by the neoliberal economic programmes unrolled since the 1970s, sexism and racism have always been anchored within the structures of real existing capitalism. This suggests, then, that many of the societal issues we are encountering today are rooted in structural disadvantage and oppression pertaining not only to economics and class but also to gender, race and ethnicity. Yet, approaches in Communication Studies and Cultural Studies have often engaged in separate interrogations of media misrepresentations in relation to either class and economics, or gender and/or race. On the other hand, intersectional scholarship has long highlighted how these societal spheres are interconnected and should thus be researched simultaneously. The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model constitutes the leading analytical tool to theorize and investigate media bias. The following contributions will conceptualize and illustrate how the PM relates to intersectional scholarship and societal structures. This will be done on the basis of theoretical elaborations and empirical case studies as well as broader discussions of the politics within the disciplines of Communications Studies and Cultural Studies. It will be demonstrated that the PM can be used to unveil interlocking media biases and misrepresentations deriving from parallel societal discriminations including classism, sexism and racism.
US Media Power and the Empire of Liberty
Authors: Chakravartty Paula
Published: November 2024

This brief essay reflects on the legacy of the work of Edward S. Herman in shaping critical theories of US media and empire through the long 20th century and into the current era of the forever War. I argue that the work of Herman (and Chomsky) poses a lasting challenge to celebratory liberal theories of media freedom, and instead documents the constitutive role of the commercial US media institutions and technologies in fortifying illiberal forces with implications both â€œat homeâ€ and abroad. In closing, I briefly consider the decolonial significance of Edward Hermanâ€™s persistent critique of US media power.
Herman in Theory and Practice: Race and Power
Authors: Costley White Khadijah
Published: November 2024

With the passing of Edward Herman, it is important to reflect on the ways that race and power figured in the theories he posited about the media. This essay discusses Hermanâ€™s theories on the ways in which capitalism and race intersect within news.
Introduction: Edward S. Herman and the Propaganda Model Today
Authors: Dawes Simon
Published: November 2024

This article introduces the special section Edward S. Herman and the Propaganda Model Today.
Take Back the Algorithms! A Media Theory of Commonistic Affordance
Authors: Miyazaki Shintaro
Published: November 2024

This essay critiques the â€˜black-boxingâ€™ of many computational processes, which are argued to result in a kind of â€˜unaffordabilityâ€™ of algorithms. By engaging with current theoretical debates on â€˜commoningâ€™ â€“ signifying a non-profit-oriented, solidarity-based approach to sharing, maintaining, and disseminating knowledge and experience â€“ the essay offers a formulation of commonistic affordance in algorithmic contexts. Through the discussion of widely used computational tools such as the Viola-Jones object detection framework, radical steps towards a â€˜making affordableâ€™ of algorithms are outlined, and the widespread corporate propertisation of computation processes is contrasted with a speculative vision of algorithmic commoning.
(Digital) Media as Critical Pedagogy
Authors: Alvarez Maximillian
Published: November 2024

From chalkboard sites to social media, from smartphones to interactive grading software, there is an overabundance of digital learning tools at our fingertips, many of which float into our classrooms on airy praise from university administrators, politicians, and corporate technicians alike who tout the incorporation of these technologies into our teaching as an undeniably positive step toward the â€œenhancementâ€ of student learning. Rather than promoting a critical model of learning by which students and teachers can explore the matrix of possibilities â€œaffordedâ€ by their relationship to new media, the techno-fetishist instrumentality of â€œtechnology-enhanced learningâ€ functions as an efficient means of materializing neoliberal market ideology and adjusting us to accepting our positions as self-contained users of discrete tools that define for us what the goals and processes of learning will be. It is imperative, then, that we engage ourselves and our students in the critical pedagogical process of learning to learn in conversation with â€“ not at the behest of â€“ media. To do so gets to the very heart of critical pedagogy itself, because, as I argue, the ontological assumptions underwriting the very hope and possibility of critical pedagogy as a political project are nothing if not the essential coordinates for a media theory of being. If we are to determine how to develop a sufficiently critical pedagogy in the age of digital media, we must first re-locate the learning process in the exploration of the open, dialectical circuits between human and world through which life itself is mediated, and from which political change is made possible.
Mediated Bodily Routines as Infrastructure in the Algorhythmic City
Authors: Ridell Seija
Published: November 2024

This article proceeds from the observation that, in 21st century cities, algorithmic technologies engage people as bodily beings in the production of space in ways that warrant theoretical discussion on urban infrastructure and infrastructural power. While human corporeality is an increasingly prominent issue in critical (media) infrastructure studies, my argument in the article is that the structural role of corporeality in the pervasively computed urban context remains undertheorised. A key starting point demanding reconsideration concerns the ontological separation of human embodiment from the materiality of infrastructure. To overcome this separation, I direct attention to urbanites’ mediated bodily habits and routines, stressing their importance in infrastructural constitution. The power-infused interrelational dynamic that these routines enact is addressed in the article by developing a conceptualisation that combines views of classic social and urban thinkers with more recent, particularly nonrepresentational, theorisation. As a methodological bridge towards empirically investigating how mediated bodily routines ‘infrastructure’, I propose a reworking of Henri Lefebvre’s notion of rhythm in terms of the algorithmic qualities of contemporary cities.
Pirate Traces
Authors: Méndez Cota Gabriela
Published: November 2024

Late in the summer of 2019, Gary Hall gave a series of talks hosted by the Philosophy Department at Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City. One of them was titled ‘Liberalism Must be Defeated. On the Obsolescence of Bourgeois Theory in the Anthropocene’. As the organizer of this event, I was curious about the reception of this argument in a context that does not usually name ‘liberalism’ as the enemy, even though it is no stranger to anti-bourgeois positions on intellectual activity. Universidad Iberoamericana is a private Jesuit college that has catered historically to the Mexican elites while upholding a reputation for its political commitments to democracy and social justice. Indeed, one could argue that it is a liberal alliance between religion and business that provides the conditions for the Philosophy Department’s younger generation of scholars to teach and write about the kind of (French, German, Italian) radical theory that Gary Hall’s work embraces and seeks to renew. While most attendants of the talk at IBERO did not at all lack the theoretical framework to understand in what sense liberalism must be defeated, or why bourgeois theory should be regarded as obsolete, I was curious about the conditions of taking Hall’s performative argument on board. Was it a critique of how successful Anglo scholars operate, or was it also about how ‘we’ operate here in Mexico City? Is ‘our’ work liberal bourgeois theory too, and therefore obsolete? If so, could we do better than appear tolerant of a disruptive performance that was challenging us to aspire to something different, something unknown, something like existing otherwise?
Contingency and Causality
Authors: Wickberg Adam
Published: November 2024

This article analyses specific acts of handwriting on paper in relation to digitization. It frames the artifact of the digital image of the handwritten note as a post-digital object, which is defined by the inseparability of analogue and digital and also highlights a relation to the digital in which internal opposition is a part of it. The article discusses the media function of post-digital contingency through two particular cases of handwriting on paper that circulates online. Firstly, it analyses post-digital handwriting in the political sphere using the example of the social media posting and sharing of Donald Trump’s signature after he took presidential office. Secondly, it elaborates post-digital handwriting as an aesthetic phenomenon by discussing the Instagram account of renowned Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist who has posted nearly 4,500 handwritten notes to 320,000 followers over eight years. Finally, it places these discussions into the context of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger to arrive at a better understanding of how the ontological difference of post-digital handwriting is produced.
Horizonless Worlds: Navigating the Persistent Present of the Border Regime
Authors: Awan Nishat
Published: November 2024

Through discussing the persistent present of displacement the essay argues that a politics of time is being mobilised as a biopolitical means of control in migrant lives. This can be seen in the circularity of displacement, deportation and return, where waiting and disorientation become forms of control. The discussion emerges from field research and interviews I carried out in the villages of north Punjab, Pakistan, where many people are caught in this chronopolitics of migration. The migrant experience of borders is read alongside a critical interrogation of the computational technologies deployed in border management, including EuroDAC and iMap. They produce a form of imperial temporality for which the horizon acts as a constitutive trope of progress, while simultaneously producing a sense of a horizonless world through the networked logic and ubiquity of datafication. I end with a discussion of how it may be possible to find other orientations within these normative spatiotemporalities of a bordered world.
Connecting Present Moments and Present Eras with Interactive Documentary
Authors: Harris Ella
Published: November 2024

Interactive documentary is a non-linear digital form of documentary that allows users numerous pathways through multimedia content. This was the original meaning behind the abbreviation i-docs (Aston and Gaudenzi, 2012) and the sense in which I use the term. While in recent years the ‘i’ has expanded to include immersion, my focus remains on interactivity and nonlinearity. The nonlinearity and multimodality of i-docs are being taken forward into experiments with i-docs as an academic method, including my own.
In this paper I discuss my use of i-docs to study London’s pop-up culture, focusing on two kinds of ‘present’ that i-docs illuminated. First, I explore how working with i-docs elucidated present moments as they are imagined and experienced in pop-up culture: a phenomenon defined by its celebration of ephemerality and unpredictability. Secondly, I explore how the i-doc foregrounded pop-up culture’s role within the present era; revealing pop-up as implicated in politicized processes of urban change in the post 2008 crash climate. Overall, the paper demonstrates how i-docs can make us attentive to both present moments and present eras as well as, crucially, to the relationships between these two kinds of present.
The Accident in Being
Authors: Phillips John W P
Published: November 2024

Michel Serres’s work traces a historical transition where technologies of mediation replace a framework of life formerly managed by an economics of production. Readings of Serres tend to affirm in this transition the opening to an ecology (econarratology or media-ecology) or towards a replacement of the human in trans- or post-humanism. In this article I analyse the terms of the transition in Serres’s affirmation of a philosophy grounded in the potential for connection between the traditions of storytelling and the sciences of connection. The article rediscovers within his overt Hellenism a figure of the Anthropos affirmed in the Sophist philosophies that Plato had set out to destroy. If science proceeds, first in its Hellenic dawn, and more recently in seventeenth century arithmetic, then it must be disabused of its war-game attitude. Serres affirms science (almost singularly) as the condition on which the species might continue its adventure into the future, and in the process he establishes a position that may challenge ecologically oriented discourses.
In Medias Naturae
Authors: Bühlmann Vera
Published: November 2024

Media, to Michel Serres, are not solely a cultural praxis, technology, or institution; in his circumstantial universalism, there is a veritable metaphysics of milieu at work. At the core of Serres’ relevancy for media theory (on whose project this article focuses mainly) is the architectonic status of public knowledge in what he calls the Chronopedia. This architectonics involves radical re-conceptions of space and time that allow philosophy, at least in principle, to maintain compatibility with contemporary science and technology. This article profiles two related projects in the light of each other, that of a Grand Récit of the Universe (Michel Serres) and that of The Unnameable Present (Roberto Calasso). For both projections, there appears nothing more urgent today than re-connecting a broad public vocabulary, repository of images and ideas, puzzles too, as well as expectations and understandings with regard to the abstractions and powers at work in the technology and science that organise how we live today, in the dawn of the Anthropocene.
(Re)thinking Body-Technology Relations with Michel Serres
Authors: Tucker Ian
Published: November 2024

This paper highlights several key principles of the work of Michel Serres and considers them in relation to life in contemporary socio-technical worlds, e.g. notions of relationality, noise, bodies, sense and data. A journey with Serres involves seeking novelty in spaces ‘outside’ of existing knowledge producing practices. This paper highlights how, for Serres, mediation as noise does not operate via a singular universal interface, but is multiple and processual – in essence, everything is mediation. Using contemporary examples of new technologies (e.g. AI and play writing; AI and emotion) the paper considers the value of a Serrian mode of thought for understanding emerging relations between bodies and technologies. It concludes with acknowledging the growing political focus on Serres’ later work, in which he became increasingly concerned to (re)define the contract between humanity and the world. His notion of appropriation through pollution encompasses notions of information and data as forms of algorithmic appropriation, as much if not more, than physical pollution.
Michel Serres’ Messengers
Authors: Barker Timothy
Published: November 2024

Although central to his philosophy of communication, the figure of the messenger in Michel Serres’ thought has so far received little attention in English speaking media and cultural theory. This essay explores the characters of messengers that Serres develops throughout his philosophical project, focusing on the way that they allow him to develop topics such as the ethics of exchange, interdisciplinarity, pedagogy, rituals of communication and what he sees as the violence of dialectics. The discussion of Serres’ work then leads to a discussion of the messenger figure in terms of the interruptions that they can introduce to systems of exchange, ending with an exploration of what Serres’ thought may offer as we try and grapple with a new culture of miscommunication.
Interleaving as Cultural Technique in the Audio CD and the End of Archaeophonography
Authors: Bell Eamonn
Published: November 2024

This article discusses a significant if imperceptible feature of how audio compact discs (CDs) inscribe sound: interleaving. It shows how CDs materialize interleaving—the microtemporal re-ordering of data—as a cultural technique of contemporary digital media, and, as such, how the CD’s surface testifies to much more general operations of cultural data processing than those that appear to be at stake in the few media-theoretical discussions of the format to date. First, I provide a brief overview of the CD’s operating principles, followed by a closer examination of the error-correction and detection system used in CD media. I explain how interleaving co-operates with this system to improve the resilience of disc media to both pre-sale defect and post-sale damage. I interpret this tacit and little-remarked-upon operation of CD players in cultural-technical terms. The perplexities of digital sound media push the principles of contemporary sound reproduction well beyond the kind of efficient and effective critical scrutiny we may associate with what I here call archaeophonographic sound media (for example, tape and vinyl LPs), unless we are willing to confidently assert the value of the media-technical explanatory register to digital media history.
Symmetrifying Smart Home
Authors: Ahn Sungyong
Published: November 2024

This paper investigates how the current domestic application of the Internet of Things (IoT), called “smart home,” changes the socio-phenomenological meaning of place-making. It describes a smart home as a topological continuum that could unfold lots of functional spaces—those optimized for a variety of predictable user behaviors and intentions, such as going to bed, working out, and energy-saving—according to how software applications redeploy its embedded sensors and actuators into certain algorithmic orders. This continuum once buried under people’s daily routines is constantly re-excavated in a smart home and re-differentiated into the new service domains of the IoT. This paper develops a topological framework to analyze the new form of media power behind this perpetual place-binding of smart spaces, which I term topological power. For this goal, it borrows Bernhard Riemann and Henri Poincaré’s mathematical thinking of manifold, or multiplicity, beneath the geometric structure of space.
Mutually Assured Heteronomy: On the Ethics and Politics of Dialogue and Dissemination
Authors: Pinchevski Amit
Published: November 2024

Setting dialogue in opposition to dissemination is one of the main themes of Speaking into the Air. This however does not entail regarding them as dichotomous or mutually exclusive. This article proposes that dialogue and dissemination are in fact interconnected, forming what I call “mutually assured heteronomy”: each finds its justification and limitation in the other. Neither autonomous nor combining to create a greater whole, dialogue and dissemination are caught in an interruptive bond. This reading allows reconsidering the ways ethics and politics are conceptualized in Speaking, revealing them as similarly linked in a non-dialectical, mutually implicating bond.
Speaking into the Ear: Fecund Truth's Virgin Medium
Authors: Karim Karim H.
Published: November 2024

Contrary to the widespread view of myth as falsehood, its hermeneutic interpretation has long been seen as providing insight for life’s conundrums. Peters’ (1999) juxtaposition of perfect angelic exchanges of meaning with flawed human discourse opens up fresh approaches for examining communication’s complexities. Religious thought has dealt intriguingly with the ‘media problem’ posed by angels and mortals’ incommensurable difference. Muslim philosophy posits a subtle faculty of the creative imagination / active intellect as a pristine mediator between them. This article explores reparative potential for disinformation’s chaos-inducing harm in our time through an intertextual study of old Jewish, Christian and Muslim narratives, in which speaking and hearing’s relationship with truth is a core value. Scriptural discourses about the discerning mode of the Virgin Mary and the Prophet Muhammad’s respective receptions of the Word offer understanding for engagement with our turbulent mediascape and underline the always current value of such symbolic narratives.
Advertising and its Adversaries
Authors: Aronczyk Melissa
Published: November 2024

What do we gain – and what might we lose – by treating promotional or strategic communication as a lesser form of address than more ‘authentic,’ ‘informative,’ or ‘factual’ forms? This essay offers a perspective on advertising as communication that is less about manipulation than about its attempts, successful or not, to privilege the receiver. I argue that a more expansive treatment of the convergence of social communication and advertising has the potential not only to sharpen intellectual critique but also to contribute to more reflexive pedagogy. At issue is the recognition that what John Durham Peters called ‘horizons of incommunicability’ may become a starting point for common exchange.
Celestial Apparitions: Media-Machine, Broadcasting and Aerial Advertising
Authors: Thibault Ghislain
Published: November 2024

In the interwar period, as commercial aviation was beginning to take shape, a range of technical innovations led to the development of the field of ‘aerial advertising’. Aerial advertising took on various media forms (sonic, visual, textual) and supports (leaflets, light projections, billboard-like print advertising, smoke, audio speakers) and turned to the sky as screen, support, milieu or medium for mass communication. This essay sets out to revisit the case of aerial advertising, mobilizing some of the key lessons and themes from Speaking into the Air. I explore the specific symbolic and technical configurations of transportation and communication put forth by aerial advertising. Then, turning to the two foundational models of dissemination and dialogue, I address the ambiguous role of pilots as speakers/writers. Finally, I use the case of aerial advertising to explore some of the negotiations around the various meanings of broadcasting and conclude on the question of the persistence of presence.
Specters of Causality
Authors: Sprenger Florian
Published: November 2024

Electricity is invisible, only its effects can be perceived, but they should not be mistaken for electricity itself, because electricity designates a condition of matter. The article describes how in eighteenth century electricity research, the aesthetics of electricity – the forms in which it appears and its representations – are haunted by the anaesthetics of its object. It investigates one specific challenge in the early history of electricity research, in which questions of mediation, aesthetics, perceivability and causality are fundamentally connected: attempts to measure the speed of electric transmissions through wires. The article describes these phenomena as ‘specters of causality’, that means forces that become perceivable only in the form of aesthetic effects which cloak the physical events which happen in the realm of the invisible. Specters of causality made imperceptibility perceptible. These ghosts of mediation materialized the invisible transmission of electricity as an aesthetic experience. The causality that connects actions with effects at a distance through a wire challenges the perceptual status of immediacy and mediation.
Revisiting the Pharmakon
Authors: O'Gorman Marcel
Published: November 2024

The concept of the techno-pharmakon, introduced by Plato in Phaedrus and later adopted by Jacques Derrida, reached the apex of its philosophical utility in the work of Bernard Stiegler. The simple idea that technology can either be a remedy or a poison, an idea central to Stiegler’s work, is an irresistible binary for media theorists. This essay begins with a critical reflection on that useful binary and on the white male legacy of the pharmakon itself, a legacy that I confess to have perpetuated. If technology can either cure or kill, it does not do so equally; rather, the pharmakon achieves radical variability depending on factors of race, gender, and ability. Put simply, this essay argues that the very same systemic power asymmetries that are responsible for our most pressing social problems are embedded in our technological systems. Moreover, these same power asymmetries haunt media theory itself, leading me to argue that the pharmakon needs to be troubled. I draw carefully on queer theory to recommend a path toward this disturbance of the power systems embedded in both technoculture and in media theory.
The Data Pharmacy
Authors: Chia Aleena , Neves Joshua
Published: November 2024

Taking up the therapeutic discourse of contemporary neuro wearables, this essay explores how models of the quantified self are increasingly supplemented by pharmacological mediations. We argue that contemporary neuro wearables are more than instruments for self-tracking; they are increasingly devices of therapeutic transmission. Pharmacological media rely on digital wellness ideologies and offer datafied solutions to the toxicity of both big tech and big pharma. Beyond questions of efficacy—that is, the question of whether neuro devices do what they say—this essay focuses on matters of cultural framing and aspiration that underpin the wellness industry. Our interest is to supplement current understandings of bio-technical management by tracing the emergence of what we term the data pharmacy—where data and pharma industries and cultural imaginaries are increasingly fused within an emergent paradigm of computational wellness. This pivot in big tech’s wellness portfolio translates existing biodata and health analytics into pharmacological techniques that aim to automate ways of thinking, feeling, and being.
The Turn towards New Criticalities in the Study of Media, Communication and Journalism
Authors: Svensson Göran
Published: November 2024

Using Boltanski’s (2011) idea that critique is the contestation of social and cultural orders, different ways of such contestations in the social sciences and the humanities and in media, communication and journalism research are mapped. Four overarching orientations towards doing critique are identified – open, reforming, resonant and emerging. The critical is seen to reside in a wide landscape covering many forms of critique articulating different criticalities. It is argued that these developments in different research fields, together with new ways of looking at and relating these fields, shows a turn towards new criticalities. A communicative critique is also advocated as an instrument for more dialogue across divides of ontology and epistemology, theories and methods, in the mapping of how the critical is articulated in the social sciences and the humanities as well as in the studies of media, communication and journalism. Thereby, the article is an invitation to consider the relevance of critique and criticality, also for the post-critical movement and scholars not labelling themselves critical.
Lauren Berlant on Genre
Authors: Cefai Sarah
Published: November 2024

There is no doubt that the writing of Lauren Berlant is influential in media and cultural studies as well as across gender and feminist studies and other work in critical, cultural and materialist traditions. Given the complexity of Berlant’s work and its integral refusal of taxonomic and hegemonic terms, it can be difficult for the reader to coherently grasp the singularity of even their most powerful concepts. This essay attempts to think with Berlant’s conceptualisation of genre without displacing the concept from their work through representational summarisation. The essay is part close reading, part exegesis and part experimentation – I hope just as Berlant would have wished. Rather than aim for an even description that accounts for Berlant’s various interventions in a measured way, the method of this essay is to think-write with the ellipsis, to undertake a translation that puts to one side the fantasy of mastery but still seeks to deepen our understanding of the intended meaning of Berlant’s texts. For Berlant, intended meanings would be about what something brings into the world. At minimum, this is my best effort at partaking in a cultural studies pedagogy that foregrounds the practice of critical thinking as world making. The essay then offers an invitation to the reader to learn from Berlant’s work about what the theoretical concept of genre can do. Just as this abstract does, the essay moves in and out of convention, where the sociality of affect does its work to congeal, to disturb, to make sense and make senseless. To move on.
Introduction
Authors: Pedwell Carolyn
Published: November 2024

In this Introduction to our special section on ‘Laurent Berlant and Media Theory’, I argue, with our contributors, that both appreciating and extending Berlant’s vital contributions to media theory requires addressing the distinctive place of ‘mediation’ in her/their writing. The first section addresses the challenges and potentialities of efforts to position Berlant within existing genealogies of media theory, with particular attention to their work on affective genres, scenes, cases, and attachments. The second section explores the shifting relations among infrastructure, data politics and the making of media theory that Berlant’s capacious mode of cultural critique helps us sense and make sense of – with a focus on intimacy-infrastructure entanglements, whether with respect to the ‘inconvenience’ of networked media and AI or the affective possibilities of collaborative projects of writing otherwise. What constitutes Berlant’s most profound lesson concerning what it means to live lives immanently mediated by aesthetic-material forms, genres, and infrastructures, I conclude, is that friction, vulnerability, and ambivalence, are our vital animating conditions – and how we negotiate them personally and collectively is both a matter of survival and an affective-political art.
The Work of Art in the Age of Multiverse Meme Generativity
Authors: Nilsen Ervik Andreas
Published: November 2024

This article adapts Walter Benjamin’s theory of technological reproducibility to examine how generative AI transforms art. Through analysis of a range of works of art and online popular culture, the article theorizes the aesthetics of generative AI. From the characteristic glitches and recurrent formats, the aesthetics are conceived as muddled confusions of parts, attempts at reinserting what Benjamin terms aura, and as surrealist assemblages of characters, styles and worlds. In Benjamin’s conception, popular culture becomes our collective imaginary, which today feeds into a memetic visual conversation of imitation and variation. AI points toward an age of multiverses where characteristics, current events and cultural artifacts blend together to achieve success in social network attention economies. Following Benjamin, the article examines the politics of these transformative media technologies. More than a risk to the livelihood of artists and deep-faked disinformation, this article argues for the radical potential in freeing visual culture from the property rights of corporations.