Abstract

One of the central themes of this book, and indeed of most research that focuses on emerging digital cultural practices and forms, is ambiguity. The sociotechnical regimes of the twentieth century, often discussed under the conveniently broad rubric of “mass media,” have broken down—undermining traditional institutions and economies and changing the discursive paradigm of mediated communication itself. When confronted with an anonymously produced, animated GIF combining the structure of a popular meme with recent footage of a celebrity dance routine and textual elements discussing the shortcomings of the latest smartphone release, posted to the comments section of an online video embedded on a social media page beneath an observational-critical comment expressed via emoji, how can we possibly reduce its significance to Lasswell’s ¹ famous dictum that communication can be summarized in terms of “Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?”