New perspectives in critical data studies : the ambivalences of data power / Andreas Hepp, Juliane Jarke, Leif Kramp, editors

We live in times that are characterised by a multiplicity of media: Traditional media like television, radio and newspapers remain important, but have all undergone fundamental change in the wake of digitalization. New media have been emerging with an increasing speed: Internet platforms, mobile media and the many different software-based communication media we are recently confronted with as ‘apps’. This process is experiencing yet another boost from the ongoing and increasingly fast sequence of technological media innovations. In our late modern social world, communication processes take place across a variety of media. As a consequence, we can no longer explain the influences of media by focusing on any one single medium, its content and possible effects. In order to explain how media changes are related to transformations in culture and society we have to consider the cross-media character of communications. Furthermore, today’s digital media are not only means of communication, but also of continuous generation and processing of data. Editeur