Steps toward cosmopolitanism in the study of media technologies

Abstract

Most scholarship on media technologies can be organized along two main dimensions of inquiry: the production or consumption of these technologies, and their content or material dimensions. This map of the field of inquiry would produce four specific research areas: the production of content, the consumption of content, the production of materiality, and the consumption of materiality. Despite their respective contributions, these silos have also resulted in important scholarly limitations. Thus, in this paper, we consider the intellectual opportunities that arise from reevaluating these traditions through the lens of cosmopolitanism, which promotes the crossing of scholarly territories in the study of media technologies in order to rethink assumptions and taken-for-granted processes. We propose some steps toward cosmopolitanism in the study of media technologies by elaborating on the theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, and design implications of conducting research at the intersection of these four areas.