From sociality of media to the social as a medium: Diagrams and models of media theory

This article takes mediating processes, rather than media objects, as its focus. It examines three different formulations of knowledge mediation, each of which can be modelled as a diagrammatic structure that takes historical as well as contemporary form. These three formulations are declarative/instrumental, contemplative/generative, and stochastic/constitutive, and each is positioned differently with respect to the idea that media “operationalize” knowledge. The goal is to suggest that we might “think media” beyond instrumental activity, by paying attention to mediating processes, rather than media objects, and that this might shift focus in media theory from attending to the social character of media, towards understanding the mediating aspects of “the social”.