Media Ecology

Media ecology, in its distinct North American and European contexts, develops biological ecology by emphasizing interactions between instances of technological mediation in cultural, communicational, and artistic contexts; it is a research field that treats media systems as environments. It moves beyond the traditional linear model of communication and media studies, which focuses on the effects of media, by claiming that we can only make sense of things around us by considering their interactive relationships. Media ecology is both a theoretical commitment and a methodological approach to media: We can analyze specific media ecologies, and we can engage in media-ecological thinking, all the while asserting processes of mediation as basic to the study of media. By intervening in mainstream debates, which typically consider media artifacts and ...