Language and the Newness of Media

Abstract

How is the newness of new media constructed? Rejecting technological determinism, linguistic anthropologists understand that newness emerges when previous strategies for coordinating social interactions are challenged by a communicative channel. People experience a communicative channel as new when it enables people to circulate knowledge in new ways, to call forth new publics, to occupy new communicative roles, to engage in new forms of politics and control—in short, new social practices. Anthropologists studying media have been modifying the analytical tools that linguistic anthropologists have developed for language to uncover when and how media are understood to provide the possibilities for social change and when they are not. Taking coordination to be a vulnerable achievement, I address recent work that elaborates on the ways that linguistic anthropology segments communication to explore how a particular medium offers its own distinctive forms of authorship, circulation, storage, and audiences.

Emerging technologies as pedagogical tools for teaching and learning science: A literature review

“…It is also used in reference to academic disciplines or fields of study like instructional technology (Elen & Clarebout, ). Further, those interested in the latest technological advancements also resort to qualifiers like “emerging,” metaphorically conceiving of “newness” as outward motion (Cook, ; Gershon, ). New technologies are said to naturally emerge out of or arise from previous human achievements, though what constitutes newness remains a bit obscure.…”

“…Among the technologies most commonly embedded in the school curriculum to support teaching and learning of science are electronic probes (sensors and software), dynamic modeling tools, interactive visualization tools, and integrated e‐learning environments (Krajcik & Mun, ). Their emergent status or newness (Gershon, ) stem not only from their novel material structure (seemingly new design or look) but also from their enabling of novel ways for teachers and students to coordinate pedagogical activity, social interaction, and knowledge construction (i.e., new communicative and epistemic affordances).…”

Being Real on Fake Instagram: Likes, Images, and Media Ideologies of Value

“…While the front stage of performance theory allows a performer to mask the labor (or lack thereof) that occurs behind the scenes (Goffman , 71), animation theory draws our attention to how characters are produced through a collective endeavor (Silvio , 427–42; Gershon ). Instagram posts depict particular versions of the self, and these depictions are often shaped by multiple people.…”

“…While new media such as cell phones or apps are freighted with numerous media ideologies (Dent ), such newness is always constructed (Gershon ). New media “emerge from within cultural contexts, and they refashion other media, which are embedded in the same or similar contexts”—a process Bolter and Grusin (, 17) label remediation, through which media are enmeshed in relation to each other.…”

“…New media “emerge from within cultural contexts, and they refashion other media, which are embedded in the same or similar contexts”—a process Bolter and Grusin (, 17) label remediation, through which media are enmeshed in relation to each other. But what makes media new is not how recently they emerged but whether they offer new ways to coordinate utterances, participant structures, and identity (Gershon ). Media ideologies help us see that remediation is not only about the relation between media, but rather about “the continuities and frictions of certain media and language ideologies as they are engaged by social actors who are evaluating, using, and producing a range of media and communication modalities” (Vidali , 373).…”