Mediology
The term mediology is a philosophy of science developed primarily in France, which aims to examine the interdisciplinary scientific examination of the historical conditions, the social and cultural effects of the mass media within culture. Its founders and representatives - including Régis Debray - expressly do not understand it as media theory . In Germany, there are numerous parallels to a humanities-oriented media studies , to New Film History or to a materialistically argued cultural studies.
Mediology presents an interdisciplinary approach that deals with the mediality of culture or, more precisely, with the various forms of communication of culture. Mediology is not defined by the subject “media”, but by its method. The word “medio” does not stand for medium, but rather designates an ensemble of technically and socially determined means of symbolic transmission. As methods of analysis, mediology suggests the investigation of the complex correlation between a symbolic body (e.g. an aesthetic form), a form of collective organization (e.g. an economic system) and a technical system of communication. Mediology thus does not concentrate on individual aspects of media, but on the connection between media technology, media organization and media aesthetics and thus also on their effectiveness or power.
For a long time, mediology was only received sporadically in German-speaking countries by authors such as Lorenz Engell , Frank Hartmann , Torsten Meyer , Peter Sloterdijk , Joseph Vogl , Thomas Weber and a few others.
literature
- Debray, Régis (1999 and 2007): Beyond the Pictures. A history of image viewing in the West. Rodenbach 1999 (or 2nd edition 2007, Avinus Verlag), original title Vie et mort de l'image. Une histoire du regard en Occident, published in 1992 in Paris by Gallimard.
- Debray, Régis (2003): Introduction to Mediology. Facets of media culture. Bern: Main. (Introduction à la médiologie, Paris 2000)
- Debray, Régis (1994): Manifestes médiologiques (Paris: Gallimard 1994) (German partial translation in: Lorenz Engell; Oliver Fahle; Britta Neitzel; Claus Pias; Joseph Vogl (ed.): Kursbuch Medienkultur. The authoritative theories from Brecht to Baudrillard. Stuttgart: DVA 1999, For a Mediology pp. 67-75 (2nd ed.))
- Hartmann, Frank (2003): Mediology. Approaches to a media theory in cultural studies. Vienna: Facultas WUV.
- Mersmann, Birgit / Weber, Thomas (2008): Mediology as a method. Berlin: Avinus Verlag.