“Remediation” Book Chapter Published in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media (2021)

A chapter I wrote on “Remediation” has been published in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media (Routledge, 2021), edited by Mona Baker, Bolette B. Blaagaard, Henry Jones, and Luis Pérez-González. 

https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Encyclopedia-of-Citizen-Media/Baker-Blaagaard-Jones-Perez-Gonzalez/p/book/9781138665569

Remediation by Owen Gallagher in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media

Remediation by Owen Gallagher in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media (2021)

Abstract

Remediation broadly refers to the representation of one medium within another medium, often, in practice, leading to the incorporation of the ‘old’ into the ‘new’. This process can occur in a number of different ways, from the faithful adaptation or translation of a text into another media form, to the improvement, refashioning, absorption or repurposing of content into a more advanced technological state. This can have the effect of causing the medium of consumption to become either more transparent or more opaque, highlighting its relative immediacy or hypermediacy, respectively.

The theory of remediation is important within the sphere of citizen media because non-affiliated citizens are increasingly expressing themselves publicly using remediated content such as remixes, memes, mashups and bricolage. The figure of the independent remixer or meme-artist has become representative of a cultural desire to ‘talk back’ to the media, to politicians and big business, to highlight injustices, expose irresponsible behaviour and engage in various forms of socio-political action, potentially inspiring real change.

This entry considers the role of remediation in citizen media, focusing on a number of relevant examples and case studies from the past decade where newer forms of remix have been used to engage in political discourse or support social action. For example, critical remix video has emerged as an extremely potent form of citizen media production through its remediation of existing source material in order to critically engage with ideological biases and highlight perceived wrongs. The Cambridge Dictionary offers an alternative definition of remediation as “the process of improving or correcting a situation”, which, as this entry shows, is precisely what citizen-engaged remix aims to do.

References

Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin (2000) Remediation: Understanding new media, Cambridge: MIT Press.

Deuze, Mark (2006) ‘Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering principal components of a digital culture’, The Information Society 22(2): 63-75.

Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York:  NYU Press.

Jenkins, Henry et al. (2017) ‘Participatory Politics’, in Eduardo Navas, Owen Gallagher and xtine burrough (eds) Keywords in Remix Studies, New York: Routledge, pp.230-245.

Gallagher, Owen (2018) Reclaiming Critical Remix Video: The Role of Sampling in Transformative Works. New York: Routledge, pp. 131-204.

McLuhan, Marshall (1994) Understanding Media: The extensions of man, Cambridge: MIT Press.

Navas, Eduardo, Owen Gallagher and xtine burrough (2015) ‘Section IV: Politics’, in Eduardo Navas, Owen Gallagher and xtine burrough (eds) The Routledge Companion to Remix Studies, New York: Routledge, pp.321-408.

The State of the Nation Address 2011 – Enda Kenny Recut

Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny reassures the nation in the run-up to Christmas by telling it like it is, in this critical remix video, which uses footage from the original RTE ‘State of the Nation Address’ broadcast from December 2011 recut and remixed with Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise.

Fair Use Notice:
This remix is a satirical transformative work, which forms part of a doctoral research project and has been constructed for educational and research purposes, as well as critical commentary, therefore it represents a ‘fair use’ of copyrighted material, according to section 107 of U.S. copyright law.

Attributions
State of the Nation Address by Enda Kenny, RTE (2011)
Conquest of Paradise, Vangelis

Remixed in Dec.2011 by Owen Gallagher, PhD Researcher, NCAD, Dublin, Ireland
http://criticalremix.com | http://totalrecut.com | http://remixstudies.org

Do They Know It’s Christmas – Occupy / Band Aid Mashup 2011

In this Critical Remix Video (CRV), the three ‘official’ versions of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ from 1984, 1989 and 2004 are mashed together with the most recent version, from the TV musical ‘Glee’ (2009). All four music videos are combined with footage from the Occupy Wall Street movement, contrasted against footage from the Arab Spring uprisings, in particular, those which took place in African countries in 2011.

Fair Use Notice:
This remix is a transformative work, which forms part of a doctoral research project and has been constructed for educational and research purposes, as well as critical commentary, therefore it represents a ‘fair use’ of copyrighted material, according to section 107 of U.S. copyright law.

Attributions
Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid (1984)
Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid II(1989)
Do They Know It’s Christmas – Band Aid 20 (2004)
Do They Know It’s Christmas – Glee (2009)
News Footage – AP, RT, CNN (2011)

Remixed in Dec.2011 by Owen Gallagher, PhD Researcher, NCAD, Dublin, Ireland
www.criticalremix.com | www.totalrecut.com | www.remixstudies.org