Wikipedia and the new media ecology

Besondere Vortrag von Carlos Alberto Scolari / Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona

Saturday July 18, 09:00.

Der Vortrag wird auf spanisch sein, eine Simultanübersetzung in Englisch ist verfügbar

Applying the ecology metaphor to media can be interpreted in two complementary ways: the media as environments or the media as species that interact with each other. In the former case, researchers analyze how technologies create environments that affect the people who use them. As McLuhan put it, the effects of technology “do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance”. For example, television “has changed our sense-lives and our mental processes”. In the latter case―that is, the media as species that live in the same ecosystem―the analysis focuses on the relationships between media. The conference will focus on the Wikipedia from both perspectives: the free-access Internet encyclopedia as a new media species and, at the same time, as an environment that transforms users.

Über Carlos Alberto

Teacher from Departament de Comunicació at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). Doctorate in Applied Linguistics and Languages Communication by the Universita Cattolica di Milano, specialized in the study of digital media and ecology / evolution of the media. Main researcher of the project Transmedia Literacy (Horizon 2020 EU - 2015/18).