The message is the mode: Modes in digital media and media theory

This article develops the concept of ‘modes’ through a survey of media theory and examples from digital media. Theorists who employ the concept offers three insights: modes are changes to perception affected by media, are the ways humans link with media to produce desire, and are liminal forms shared by producers and consumers. Examples from digital media also provide three lessons: modes direct media interfacing, constituting a software of perception that operates via a ‘perceiving as’ similar to metaphor. Media scholars should study modes because the digital environment capitalizes on modes, with the potential for dark clouds and silver linings.