国际传播的“另类想象”:基于媒介基础设施探究全球传播——与尼克尔·斯塔罗塞尔斯基的学术访谈

‘Alternative Imagination’of International Communication:How to Explore Global Communication through Media Infrastructures:An Academic Interview with Nicole Starosielski

在本土国际传播研究中,主流研究较多聚焦于文本、受众、效果,甚少关注国际传播的物质基底,这实则内藏着一种“非物质性迷思”。事实上,国际传播长期以来都与海底电缆、人造卫星、数据中心等媒介基础设施密切关联。尽管这些媒介基础设施甚少在日常生活得到关注,但若运行失常,人们惯常的网络交流都难以实现。有鉴于此,在近年来的“物质性转向”思潮影响下,海底电缆、人造卫星等媒介基础设施逐渐见诸于本土国际传播研究,但此类研究目前仍较为“碎片化”,在研究方法、理论概念等方面仍存在一系列迷思。对此,本文邀请媒介基础设施与全球传播相关研究的国际知名学者尼克尔·斯塔罗塞尔斯基,探讨媒介基础设施与国际传播研究的关联、相关研究方法、理论概念、分析路径,借此为在物质层面寻觅国际传播的“另类想象”提供新思路。

In local international communication studies, the mainstream research focuses more on texts,audiences, and effects, and less on the material substrate of international communication, which in fact conceals an “immaterial myth”. In fact, international communication has long been closely associated with media infrastructures such as submarine cables, artificial satellites, and data centers.Although these media infrastructures receive little attention in daily life, many of the usual online communications are difficult to achieve if they do not function properly. In view of this, under the influence of the “materiality turn” in recent years, media infrastructures such as submarine cables and artificial satellites have gradually appeared in local international communication research, but such research is still fragmented, and a series of myths still exist in terms of research methods and theoretical concepts. In this regard, we invited Nicole Starosielski, an internationally renowned researcher on media infrastructure and global communication, to conduct an academic interview. The interview focuses on the connection between media infrastructures and international communication research, related research methods, theoretical concepts, and analytical paths,in order to provide new ideas for the search of "alternative imagination" of international communication at the material level.