Media History vs. Media Change: ahistoricism, technological determinism, and other problems

Abstract By examining fashionable concepts such as Media Change and Media Evolution , this article argues that, although they are often presented as updating or replacing conventional Media History , they are not. On the contrary, they constitute evolutionary theories and, as such, represent a devaluation of historical research, including by prioritizing the bias of change over its relationship with the idea of continuity. Technological determinism is another problem, given that narratives arising from this approach give very little importance to human agency contextualized in political and social life, limiting themselves largely to the account of invention and innovation of media as a technology in progress. Nevertheless, it is worth recognizing that notions such as convergence and transmedia present in Media Change can be of value for a renewal of Media History , through more fluid and integrative narratives of the different mass media, which have long been studied individually.