Review: Mathias Spohr (2003). Das gemeinsame Maß. Ansätze zu einer allgemeinen Medientheorie [The Common Measure. Approaches to a General Media Theory]

Abstract

Matthias SPOHR attempts to explain the effects of a Media Turn and argues that measuring is the actual medium. Citing most of the influential authors in the fields of philosophy, media theory and poststructuralism, he sets out to outline a General Media Theory. He confronts the challenge in a very erudite manner, but seems to lose his way in a fragmented world marked by contradictory positions. He tries to harmonise highly heterogeneous viewpoints but as a result his thoughts are not really informative. Taking a global view of his 300-page commentary, one has to conclude that "less would have been more" and that a competent and critical editor ought to have intervened in order to make Mathias SPOHR's intellectual efforts more effective. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs050250

Keywords

• anthropology
• media and cultural sciences
• difference/indifference
• criticism of civilization and technology