Remediation: Understanding New Media

Citation

Bolter, J.D. and Grusin, R. (1999), "Remediation: Understanding New Media", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 208-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij.1999.4.4.208.1

Digital media comes under the spotlight in this part historical, and part theoretical, examination of the ways in which media affect and interact. The theory of mediation offered shows that new media do not expel and replace the old media, but rather, as Marshall McLuhan originally showed over 30 years ago, they rival and refashion what were earlier seen as the “new media”. This refashioning is their “remediation”.

Remediation is seen to have two major logics: immediacy and hypermediacy. These are explained by the authors in building their theory of networks of remediation. A range of media for representation are then examined and their convergence into a “push” technology is contemplated. The conclusion is that all media refer for their meaning to other media. This is remediation.

This book is being hailed as a classic in the exploration of the effects and consequences of moving into a digitally represented world. Significantly, the authors operate in a school of literature, communication and culture. We simply cannot afford to allow our inquiries to separate. We must continue our quest for understanding of the mediated self. We have responsibility to those around us and to ourselves to understand better the particular ways in which computers and the Internet affect contemporary notions of identity. This book will certainly help us in accomplishing this.