Second of an 8-part series of slidepacks for a course and book about the role, insights, and possible future of media studies for a life in media. Feel free to use, please cite, and share your comments!

1. Media Studies for a Life in Media
02 Your life

2. “media are are any (symbolical or technological) systems that
enable, structure or amplify communication between people.”

3. “media are infrastructures with three components: the
artifacts or devices used used to communicate or
convey information, the activities and practices in
which people engage to communicate or share
information, and the social arrangements or
organizational forms that develop around those
devices and practices.”

4. media as artifacts
media as activities
media as arrangements

5. media as artifacts

6. media as what we use

7. remote control
video recorder
joystick
computer mouse
mobile phone
interface

8. 1. the remote control

12. 2. the video recorder

17. 3. the joystick

25. 4. the computer mouse

30. 5. the mobile phone

34. 6. the interface

40. • long histories
• evolution rather than revolution
• (the illusion of) user agency and control
• converging uses and applications
• increasingly personal and intimate
• from big to small
• closer to the body
• striving to be natural

41. media disappear

46. “Nothing was your own except the few
cubic centimeters inside your skull.”
“You never had a camera in my head.”
“Brain-reading tech is coming. The law is
not ready to protect us.”

49. the dark side of media as artifacts

51. when media are born

52. when media die

56. Media are…
ubiquitous and pervasive.
intimate and personal.
special and ordinary.
charismatic and messy.

57. Media are…
secret-exposing machines…
neither ‘good’ or ‘bad’
neither ‘new’ or ‘old’
really, really interesting 

58. media as artifacts
media as activities
media as arrangements

59. media as activities

60. “media are what we do”

67. Ivan Illich (1926-2002)

68. Ivan Illich (1926-2002)

72. Antoine Geiger (2015)

73. media disappear

74. media as artifacts
media as activities
media as arrangements

75. media as arrangements

78. “media are what we do”

79. so what did you do today?

80. Caïro – January 2011

81. worldwide – June 2020

82. Brussels – October 1996
Moldavia – April 2009
Ukraine – November 2004
Seattle – November 1999

83. Beijing – June 1989

84. “We begin to become aware of just
how much of our reality is open
source and up for discussion.”
Douglas Rushkoff

87. media arrangements
media activities
media artefacts

88. we live in media
media are what people do
media disappear