Miscommunications

In the so-called post-truth age it is important to critically reflect on the construction, or constructedness, of any type of communication, from human dialogues to news reporting, from fictional media forms to electronic signals, from artistic practices to computer algorithms. With respect to the current waves of fake news, new academic research about miscommunication and misinformation is not only welcome, but also urgently needed. It is especially essential to distinguish between communication and information, or even better, to rethink communication as a process of (mis)information transfer, as an action of human and non-human actors, each with their own intentions, inattentions, imperfections, material qualities, etc. In order to grasp the complexity of this topical subject, it is crucial to adopt a combined media technological, media philosophical and media historical approach. This is precisely what the volume Miscommunication: Errors, Mistakes and the Media, edited by Maria Korolkova and Timothy Barker, is offering. * Wanda Strauven, Adjunct Professor, Institute of Theater, Film and Media Studies, Goethe University, Germany *
Miscommunications promises to turn media studies and media theory inside out, by taking seriously the ways in which glitches, noise, and distortion do not just interfere with the transmission of messages, but actually contribute to such messages by transforming their meanings. * Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University, USA *