Media Archaeology and Digital Communication
Summary
Media archaeology investigates the material, temporal and forgotten strata of media technologies, emphasising non-linear histories and the interplay of emergence and obsolescence. It traces how analogue artefacts, from telephones to modular synthesisers, inform contemporary digital culture and reveal enduring patterns of use and reuse. Digital communication examines the social, cultural and political dynamics of information exchange across networked platforms, focusing on algorithmic architectures, user practices and mediated discourse. Together, these approaches illuminate the deep entanglement of past and present media, demonstrating that digital interfaces are not neutral conduits but active agents shaping cognition and social relations. By recovering overlooked technologies and tracing the genealogies of digital concepts, researchers develop critical literacies, inform design of sustainable infrastructures and foster resilient communities. This interdisciplinary field addresses global challenges—from heritage preservation and democratic governance to design ethics—showing how a layered understanding of media can guide technology policy and educational practice in an era defined by rapid obsolescence and perpetual reinvention.
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Media Archaeology and Digital Communication publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in media archaeology and digital communication across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Media archaeology: The analysis of historical, material and forgotten media layers to uncover the genealogies of present-day technologies.
Obsolescence: The process by which technologies fall out of use and acquire new cultural meanings over time.
Digital materiality: The physical infrastructures and artefacts underpinning digital media, such as hardware components and networks.
Genealogical enquiry: A method tracing the historical emergence and transformation of concepts to reveal underlying power structures and design assumptions.
References
- Rethinking “digital”: a genealogical enquiry into the meaning of digital and its impact on individuals and society. AI & SOCIETY (2023).
- Theorizing failure in digital media. Four eclectic theses. Annals of the International Communication Association (2024).
- Telephones, music and history: From the invention era to the early smartphone days. Convergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (2021).
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