A Diachronic, Scale-Flexible, Relational, Perspectival Operation: In Defense of (Always-Reforming) Medium Specificity

Abstract

At least since Friedrich Kittler declared fiber-optic cable the “end of media,” there has been an idea in cinema and media studies that as all media become digital, the concept of medium specificity makes less and less sense. Meanwhile, many wonder if our field is coherent, as media scholars turn their attention to such objects as dust, cities, and whales. I argue that digital convergence makes medium specificity more rather than less vital, though in a reformed formulation. While our far-flung objects cannot cohere our discipline, a use of medium specificity as a diachronic, scale-flexible, relational, perspectival operation can.