Paper long abstract:

Technological determinism has been a tacit companion in most of the Media Studies tradition since their beginnings, focusing mainly in the study of the media effects and impacts of new technologies on society or culture. But the language of "effects and impacts" has been progressively influenced by other approaches, like STS, that take this determinism into account and surpasses it.

Media Archaeology and ANT approaches, even with important differences between them, have also some key points in common that are contributing decisively to the development of Media Studies. First of all, their battle against technological and social determinism; then the redefinition of the agencies involved; also the resignification of the materiality of media and its relation with discourses; and finally the redistribution of causalities and linear temporality as well, amongst many others. In this sense, through the analysis of similarities and differences between them, we would like to approach to Media Archaeology as a strategic connector between key contributions of STS to the Media Studies.

Our goal in this communication it is to expose some of the onto-epistemic contributions of STS to Media Studies through the dialogue and analysis of contributions and limitations of a Media Archaeology approach to key study cases of media apparatus.