Will the Media Be Willing to Be a Messenger?——On the “Entanglement” and “Diffraction” of the Media

XU Shengquan

Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (11) : 65-83.

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Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (11) : 65-83.
Specific Topic / Medium Theory Studies

Will the Media Be Willing to Be a Messenger?——On the “Entanglement” and “Diffraction” of the Media

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Abstract

In response to the “media fundamentalism” in the German media theory that “the media produced the content it transmits”, Krämer proposed the “messenger model” and advocated the restoration of the “postal principle” of transmission, treating the media as a neutral and heterogeneous messenger is only responsible for the transmission of information. Although the messenger model has its theoretical legitimacy, treating the media as a messenger is still deep in a representationalism paradigm, and the media is only “representation” the world. From the perspective of Barad’s “Agential Realism”, the media’s “representation” action itself will also cause the reconstruction of the world, prompting the world to become a new reality. The media is diffracting the world, and “diffraction” means that the media represent the world through the “entanglement”. Emphasizing the “entanglement” and “diffraction” of the media has a positive meaning for getting rid of the static understanding of the media, or just treating the media as an active entity free from interference by others. The mediation process of the media is a entangled processes of becoming.

Key words

Sybille Krämer / representationalism / Karen Barad / agential realism / becoming

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XU Shengquan. Will the Media Be Willing to Be a Messenger?——On the “Entanglement” and “Diffraction” of the Media[J]. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2021, 43(11): 65-83

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Funding

Humanities and Social Sciences Project of Ministry of Education of China(20YJC860034)
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