ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines the boundary line between amateur media practice and the canons of professional media and film practice. It considers several key stages of the development, from early amateur film formats such as 9.5 mm, 8 mm and Super 8 mm, and 16 mm to VHS videotapes and mobile phone digital formats. Amateur media technologies have been widely developed and adapted by users across generations, gender and nationalities, making it a rich research source for media scholars, historians, anthropologists, sociologists and researchers of new media communication networks. The book offers scholars, researchers, and students of new media studies and digital humanities several novel perspectives on current theoretical and practice-based projects dedicated to amateur media. It focuses on the relation between memory-recording practices and memory-archiving practices.
