Abstract
For more than three decades, media researchers have seen Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a suitable approach to form a new theory of media roles and to study communication technologies as actors, but this relationship has been surprisingly understudied. A review of recent articles on the use of ANT in media theory and related fields shows that there are explications of networks and translations, but it is the key method of uncertainty or contraversion that has not yet been integrated into communication theory.
The aim of this article is to integrate the method of contraversion into the structure of communication, the conceptual model of communication, which will allow us to nuance networks and collectives, to see the unnoticed entities that “knock” to be seen and accounted for. This is the essence of the politics of participation of non-human actors, nonhumans, according to Latour.
The model allows to follow the process of differentiation of socio-technical hybrid objects in communication. The unfolding of this process of becoming represents the stages of communication development, which can be roughly divided into 4 stages, and focus both on the whole process of assemblage and on its stages, in order to notice the influencing entities. In the ANT concept, all assemblages, hybrid entities, consist of actors or non-figurative actants, and all actants are themselves assemblages. In the process of zooming in and describing phenomena, one should go after the actors on the one hand and determine the level of complexity of the network on the other.
The conceptual model of communication, complemented by the ANT contraverses, helps to map reality and is an influential political tool as it reveals hidden actors and shows the asymmetry of influence.
References
Achkasov, V. A., Achkasova, V. A., Bykov, I. A., Grishanina, A. N., Dorskij, A. Ju., Korenjushkina, S. I., Kuz'min, A. E., Mel'nik, G. S., Misonzhnikov, B. Ja., Pobedinskij, I. M., Filatova, O. G., Tjupina, M. Je., & Massaka, I. (2016). Kommunikativnye tehnologii v processah politicheskoj mobilizacii. Obshhestvo s ogranichennoj otvetstvennost'ju «FLINTA». (In Russian).
Baranov, D. A., Vdovchenkov, E. V., Zagidullina, M. V., Kuznecov, A. G., Popravko, I. G., Sokolovskij, S. V., Trubina, E. G., Chalakov, I. H., & Shhepanskaja, T. B. (2016). Rossijskaja antropologija i «ontologicheskij povorot». Izdatel'stvo Tomskogo universiteta. (In Russian).
Blok, A., Farias, I., & Roberts, C. (Eds.). (2020). The Routledge Companion to Actor-Network Theory. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315111667
Blokhin, I. N. (2023). Parameters of Identification and Evaluation of the Professional Ideology of Journalism. Theoretical and practical issues of journalism, 12(2), 183–198. (In Russian).
Caborn, J. (2007). On the Methodology of Dispositive Analysis. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, 1(1), 115–123.
Domingo, D., & Wiard, V. (2016). News Networks. In T. Witschge, C. W. Anderson, D. Domingo, & A. Hermida, The SAGE Handbook of Digital Journalism (pp. 397–409). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957909.n27
Engell, L., & Siegert, B. (2013). ZMK Zeitschrift für Medien-und Kulturforschung. Schwerpunkt Medienanthropologie [ZMK Journal for Media and Cultural Research. Focus on media anthropology]. Zeitschrift Für Medien- Und Kulturforschung, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.28937/ZMK-7-2 (In German)
Gofman, I. (2000). Predstavlenie sebya drugim v povsednevnoy zhizni. KANON-PRESS. (In Russian).
Jäger, M., & Jäger, S. (2007). Deutungskämpfe: Theorie und Praxis Kritischer Diskursanalyse [Struggles of interpretation: Theory and practice of critical discourse analysis]. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90387-3 (In German)
Koup, B. (2021). Kriticheskaya kartografiya kak otvet tsifrovym gorodam. In Seti goroda: Lyudi. Tekhnologii. Vlasti (pp. 301–319). Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. (In Russian).
Latour, B. (2000). When things strike back: A possible contribution of “science studies” to the social sciences. The British Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2000.00107.x
Latour, B. (2006). Essays in symmetrical anthropology. n.p. (In Russian).
Latour, B. (2014). Peresborka sotsial'nogo: Vvedenie v aktorno-setevuyu teoriyu (I. Polonskaya, Trans.). Izdatel'skiy dom Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki. (In Russian).
Latour, B. (2017). On Actor-Network Theory. A Few Clarifications, Plus More Than a Few Complications. Philosophical Literary Journal Logos, 27(1), 173–200. https://doi.org/10.22394/0869-5377-2017-1-173-197 (In Russian).
Manovich, L. (2021). Exploring Urban Social Media: Selfiecity and On Broadway Projects. In Seti goroda: Lyudi. Tekhnologii. Vlasti (pp. 320–335). Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. (In Russian).
Markov, A. V. (2021). Kriticheskaya teoriya. Ripol Klassik. (In Russian).
Markov, A. V. (2022). To the Theory of Dark Media. Articult, 1, 75–84. https://doi.org/10.28995/2227-6165-2022-1-75-84 (In Russian).
McLuhan, H. M. (2003). Ponimanie media: Vneshnie rasshireniya cheloveka (V. Nikolaev, Trans.). Kanon-press. (In Russian).
Orlova, G., & Morris, D. (2021). Pandemiya v (bez)umnom gorode: Tsifrovye protezy i affordansy moskovskoy samoizolyatsii. In Seti goroda: Lyudi. Tekhnologii. Vlasti (pp. 114–146). Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. (In Russian).
Sartre, J.-P. (2000). Bytie i Nichto. Opyt fenomenologicheskoy ontologii. Respublika. (In Russian).
Shaev, Yu. M. (2017). The Internet of Things and B. Latour’s Actor-network Theory: Methodology and Ontology. Humanitarian Vector, 12(3), 40–45. https://doi.org/10.21209/1996-7853-2017-12-3-40-45 (In Russian).
Shelehov, I. L., & Belozerova, G. V. (2017). Visualization of the Family System: B. Hellinger’s Method in the Context of a Scientific Paradigm. ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics, 1, 86–103. https://doi.org/10.23951/2312-7899-2017-1-86-103 (In Russian).
Smorgunov, L. V. (2020). Ontological turns in contemporary political science: in search for compliance with politics. Socialʹnye i gumanitarnye znania, 6(2), 122. https://doi.org/10.18255/2412-6519-2020-2-122-133 (In Russian).
Sosnovskaya, A. (2023). Conceptual Communication Model for the Sociological Analysis of Urban Heritage Conflicts. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4400765
Sosnovskaya, A. M. (2022). Antagonism of Discourses around Cultural Heritage. Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies, 4(3), 123–133. https://doi.org/10.46539/gmd.v4i3.316 (In Russian).
Sosnovskaya, A. M. (2023). Novye ontologii kak perspektiva izucheniya politicheskikh otnosheniy: Aktorno-setevaya teoriya i media. Medi@l'manakh, 2, 29−34. (In Russian).
Sosnovskaya, A., & Gris, O. (2023). Use of Social Networks by Russian Politicians. In X.-S. Yang, S. Sherratt, N. Dey, & A. Joshi (Eds.), Proceedings of Seventh International Congress on Information and Communication Technology (Vol. 447, pp. 547–555). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1607-6_49
Teurlings, J. (2013). Unblackboxing production: What media studies can learn from actor-network theory. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048518678-007
Teurlings, J. (2017). What Critical Media Studies Should Not Take from Actor-Network Theory. In Applying the Actor-Network Theory in Media Studies (pp. 66–78). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0616-4.ch005
Vakhshtayn, V. S.* (2022). Voobrazhaya gorod: Vvedenie v teoriyu kontseptualizatsii. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. (In Russian).
Yaneva, A. (2022). Latour for Architects: Thinkers for Architects (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429328510
Zagidullpna, O. M. V. (2016). Mediatizatsiya mobil'nykh kommunikatsiy (aktorno-setevoy podkhod). Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, 5, 80–89. (In Russian).
* Recognized as a foreign agent by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.