What is Media? Concept of Media and Epistemological Transition

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to provide an answer to the simple question of what media is. Media is identified as tools, signs, mass media, or art forms, but the classification of media types does not allow for a solution to the systematic problem. This is because we cannot define the characteristics of media, namely ‘mediality’ that run through all types of media. We explore how modern media theory departs from traditional epistemology to solve the systematic problem of media concepts. One way is to understand media as operating in a different realm from signs and language. We can refer to Derrida’s argument that performance and event are more important in communicative situations than structure and sign. However, these are latent or virtual. Then, based on system theory, there is a way to define the concept of media as something that cannot be defined according to the contingency or can be fluidly changed depending on the situation. ‘Latent or absent presence’ and ‘essenceless and contingent presence’ are both unfamiliar understandings of presence. But if we accept that understanding, we can resolve the contradictions of media concepts.