Media Materialities

Provides new perspectives on the increasingly complex relationships between media forms and formats, materiality, and meaning. Drawing on a range of qualitative methodologies, our consideration of the materiality of media is structured around three overarching concepts: form - the physical qualities of objects and the meanings which extend from them; format - objects considered in relation to the protocols which govern their use, and the meanings and practices which stem from them; and ephemeral meaning - the ways in which media artefacts are captured, transformed, and redefined through changing social, cultural, and technological values.Each section includes empirical chapterswhich provide expansive discussions ofperspectives on media and materiality.It considers a range of media artefactssuch as 8mm film, board games maps,videogames, cassette tapes, transistorradios and Twitter, amongst others. Theseare punctuated with a number of shorttakes - less formal, often personal takesexploring the meanings of media incontext.We seek to consider the materialitieswhich emerge across the broad andvariegated range of the term's use, and tocreate spaces for conversation anddebate about the implications that thisplurality of material meanings might havefor the study of study of media, culture,and society.