ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I argue that actor-network theory, or ANT as it is commonly referred to, has much to offer media studies. I am not the first one to suggest so. A growing number of media scholars have commented upon ANT, or have used some of its concepts in their analysis of media (e.g. Couldry 2001 and 2008; Hemingway 2009; Kendall and Wickham 2001; De Valck 2006; Muecke 2009; Bennett 2005). This chapter aims to make a contribution to this burgeoning intersection of actor-network theory and media studies, and also explain why ANT seems to be such a productive framework for understanding contemporary media. The main argument is that ANT’s highly original ontology of the social yields insights into how our contemporary media ‘function’, and can thus help us grasp them, especially regarding media production. In parallel, the article argues that ANT can bring together questions and issues that previously had been scattered across the divide between political economy and cultural studies.
