Dead media: Obsolescence and redundancy in media history

an article by Tara Brabazon (Charles Sturt University, Australia) published in First Monday Volume 18 Number 7 (July 2013)

Abstract

Adjectives attend the new: fresh, clean, exciting, dynamic, innovative and productive.

Oppositional binaries cling to the old: tired, worn, redundant, sick, slow and useless.

While anti–discrimination policies can address these connotations when applied to people, the consequences of such ideologies on ‘old media’ are under–researched. While media and cultural studies departments teach ‘New Media’ courses, ‘Old Media’ courses remain invisible and unpopular.

This paper extends these adjectives and narratives by following a challenge Bruce Sterling posed to researchers: to understand ‘Dead Media.’

I explore the origins of this term and how and why an interest in Dead Media has — in itself — died.

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