STS and Media Studies. Alternative Paths in Different Countries

Abstract

This section presents three perspectives on the trajectories of interaction between science & technology studies and media studies in three different national contexts: Germany, France and Italy. Each of the contributions focuses on a specific country and adopts a distinctive standpoint to unfold how STS and media studies have interacted or have maintained boundaries and differences. The first contribution about Germany moves from the outcomes of two workshops on these topics and highlights how STS and media studies seem to tap into each other in a highly selective manner, filling some of their conceptual and empirical gaps, but not engaging in an actual mutual discussion. The second text assumes as fulcrum the concepts of “mediation” and “dispositif” in order to argue that, in France, these ideas has played the role of “boundary objects”, enabling a dialogue between the two different fields. Finally, the third and last input to this section reconstructs some of the trajectories that led specific groups or individuals working in communication studies and semiotics in Italy to connect with the STS framework, arguing that the concept of “mediation” emerges as a productive common ground for both communication and STS scholars.