NYSGS: What Is Media Ecology?

What is Media Ecology?

“Media ecology” is as intriguing a name for a field of inquiry as it is a difficult one to explain. As Dennis Cali notes in Mapping Media Ecology: Introduction to the Field*, “‘Media’ itself is commonplace, but compounding it with ‘ecology’ places it just beyond the ability of the newcomer to the field to infer what it might imply.” It attracts people from a wide variety of perspectives and disciplines, many of whom value the way media ecology welcomes exploration in unconventional ways, and sometimes defies traditional methods and boundaries. However, this openness to exploration and willingness to challenge convention also creates confusion. Some people embrace media ecology at the same time as they misunderstand, misinterpret and/or distort its key texts and principles. Others might mistake its flexibility and reach with a lack of rigor or validity.

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in media ecological theories and theorists, which have been showing up in news reports, popular magazines, and podcasts. So this seems like a good time to revisit questions like: What is media ecology? What isn’t media ecology? What kinds of questions do media ecologists try to answer? What methods do they use to answer those questions? What are some good starting points for the media ecology-curious? We will explore these questions, and more, with a panel of scholars who were trained in the Media Ecology doctoral program at NYU.

Free and open to the public. Go to https://nysgs.org/event-6598129 for more information and to register.