Theorizing Media Memory: Six Elements Defining the Role of the Media in Shaping Collective Memory in the Digital Age

This article wishes to untangle the relationships between media and collective memory and present the contribution of communication scholarship in general, and journalism studies in particular, to our understanding of the term “collective memory.” After presenting the roots of the concept, the article deconstructs it by providing six perspectives on the term: (a) its multidirectional disposition (from the present to the past and vice versa), (b) its concretization in media texts and other products, (c) the functional role it plays for the community, (d) its socio‐political aspects, (e) the technological qualities of the process of the mediatization, (f) its narratological characteristics and formation. Each of the abovementioned attributes throws a different light on the mediation of collective memory and provides insights regarding the role of the media in the construction of cultural memory and shared recollections in the digital age.     

PRODUCING ARTISTIC VALUE:

Cultural forms gain artistic recognition when their producers of meaning "prove" that they (a) contain "serious" meanings and aesthetic genuineness; (b) they are produced by a definable creative entity and (c) the creative entity is autonomous, producing its works for their own sake. Since the 1960's, critics have claimed artistic recognition for rock music. They have done so by stressing the "subversive" meaning of rock, by identifying the rock-group and the rock individual-musician as autonomous creative entities, by consecrating a body of albums as the "masterpieces" of rock and by defining several sonic components as rock's genuine aesthetic language. Although the realization of this claim remains partial, it demonstrates that the belief in artistic cultural hierarchies is a structuring force in contemporary culture.