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Despite the fact that new media are continually seen as “natural born killers” of old media, old media rarely die and very often persist. In what is alternately called the “age of the Internet,” the “digital revolution,” the “metaverse,” the era of “artificial intelligence,” old media such as books, cinema, radio, television, analogue photography, and several others are still in use. Moreover, there is a kind of re-emergence of “the analogue” in various forms and for different incentives, including nostalgia. This Thematic Section is the outcome of an intellectual journey that the five editors undertook first separately and then combined. The occasion for bringing together prior interests and combining theoretical and empirical understandings of the reasons why and the different modes how media persist over time was facilitated by the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) virtual post-conference (co-)organized jointly by three ECREA sections in September 2021: the Communication History section together with the sections of Radio and Sound, as well as Television Studies. It is no coincidence that these three sections are concerned with old media, which seem to decline but apparently also do persist, as those are the sections dealing with the mediated relationship of the old and the new, the past and the present such as the viewing and screening practices of television, transformation of sonic environment from radio toward podcast, and in general old media remediating into new ones.

This article explores the concept of failure in the study of media, particularly digital media, and their evolution and appropriation in the social context. The attention given to the notion of failure in digital media effectively helps deconstruct the prevailing discourse around the digitization process today, which is generally described as a largely beneficial, advantageous, and successful phenomenon. The article starts by presenting an analytical grid for carefully reconsidering the idea of failure in the study of digital media. It then expands on the theoretical implications of four eclectic theses about failure in digital media. The author’s overall aim is to contribute to the “normalization” of digital media’s discourse on innovation by addressing the phenomenon of failure in all its dimensions, and not just as a necessary, preparatory stage in the media’s inevitable ultimate success.

This thematic section is devoted to the 7th Conference of the European Communication and Research Association (ECREA), held in Lugano from October 31st to November 3rd, 2018. The section contains three different parts: three conference keynote speakers’ papers translated into Italian language, six reports of special panels on topics related to the conference theme that were chosen by the local organizing committee of USI Università della Svizzera italiana, and, finally, a conference report written by Fiona Fehlmann. The reports on special panels are written in English language, the conference report in German and French language. This thematic section thus fully embraces the flexibility with respect to publication languages offered by Studies in Communication Sciences.

The main conference topic for the ECREA conference in Lugano addressed the many ways in which centers, cores and peripheries, and also mainstreams and alternatives are dealt with in academic media and communication research. The premise of this panel was to apply this general outline of the conference for academic introspection and to recount the many shifting centers and peripheries of communication research over time and discuss the redrawing of the contours of our expanding field. Less than two decades back, the question what the main subjects of media and communication inquiry were would have highlighted the centrality of (already slowly declining) mass media as the main pillars alongside journalism and public communication. Since then, the very notion of mediated communication has become less clear and has expanded to nearly all areas of the human experience and encompasses a variety of technologies, tools, platforms and intermediaries for communication.

This introduction provides an overview of the articles included in the second part of the special issue on "digital circulation", whose first portion has been published in the previous issue of the Journal (1/2016). In doing so, the authors reconnect the content of this issue with the theoretical and empirical insights developed in the introduction that accompanied the first part.

The concept of “digital circulation”, together with the idea of “social life of digital things”, is highly evocative. Yet science and technology studies have not addressed it in depth to date. This introduction looks at the major converging dimensions examined in the papers in the first part of a special issue focusing on the notion of digital circulation. Specifically, if focuses on digital circulaton’s material ontology and on the infrastructures that sustain the processes of circulation, seeing them as pivotal points in theoretical considerations aimed at bridging science and technology studies, media and communication studies and other neighboring fields. This introduction also provides an overview of the articles that make up this issue of Tecnoscienza.

Neste artigo analisamos a inserção do agronegócio na educação, especificamente, a campanha De Olho no Material Escolar e seus atravessamentos com os procedimentos do Escola sem Partido. Para tanto, realizamos pesquisa bibliográfica e documental acerca das temáticas em questão. Como resultado, observamos indícios de que o De Olho no Material Escolar compõe uma frente de expansão político-ideológica do agronegócio que busca, por meio da combinação entre força e consenso, interferir nos rumos da educação brasileira, reproduzindo de forma mais sofisticada os métodos desenvolvidos pelo Escola sem Partido. Palavra-chave: Agronegócio; Questão Agrária; Educação.

Refletiremos neste artigo acerca de como o ensino de geografia é ministrado nas escolas rurais, para tanto relacionaremos a geografia escolar com o paradigma da educação rural, assim como apresentaremos a possibilidade de construção de um novo paradigma contra- hegemônico, a educação do campo. Esta relação entre a educação rural e o ensino de geografia, é vista por nós como pautada pelo paradigma moderno, que com seus ideais coloniais e eurocêntricos de dominação teria fomentado uma educação urbanocêntrica para as escolas rurais. Por fim, refletiremos sobre a possibilidade de um ensino de geografia articulado à construção de uma educação verdadeiramente do campo, questionando: uma geografia do campo é possível? PALAVRAS-CHAVE: educação rural, educação do campo, ensino de geografia e modernidade. RESUMEN Reflexionaremos en este artículo sobre como la enseñanza de geografia es ministrada en lãs escuelas rurales, para eso relacionaremos la geografia escolar con el paradigma de la educación rural, así como presentaremos la posibilidad de construcción de un nuevo paradigma contra- hegemónico, la educación del campo. Esta relación entre la educación rural y la enseñanza de geografia es vista por nosotros como pautada por el paradigma moderno, que con sus ideales coloniales y eurocéntricos de dominación habria fomentado una educación urbanocéntrica para las escuelas rurales. Por fin, reflexionaremos sobre la posibilidad de una enseñanza de geografia articulada a la construcción de una educación verdaderamente del campo, cuestionando: ¿es posible una geografia del campo? PALABRAS CLAVE: educación rural, educación de campo, enseñanza de la geografia y modernidad.

Este artigo, desenvolvido a partir da pesquisa do mestrado acadêmico no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da FFP/UERJ, teve por objetivo analisar o processo de fechamento de escolas rurais e nucleação escolar no estado do Rio de Janeiro, sendo um de seus efeitos a reorganização espacial da oferta escolar, de modo a restringi-la nos espaços rurais concentrando-a em espaços urbanos. Para tanto, realizou-se um levantamento de dados junto aos Indicadores Demográficos e Educacionais do MEC, no qual foi possível verificar a expansão do processo de fechamento de escolas rurais no estado analisado, no período entre 2007 e 2010. Por meio dos dados foram elaboradas tabelas, gráficos e mapas ilustrativos que demonstram a espacialidade da retração da oferta escolar rural em grande parte dos municípios do Rio de Janeiro conformando uma mudança na espacialidade da oferta escolar e provocando uma política de esvaziamento do campo, uma clara negação às resoluções vigentes acerca da nucleação escolar e ao direito à educação. As reflexões acerca dos resultados da pesquisa quantitativa e das análises desenvolvidas indicam a efetividade do processo de nucleação de escolas rurais, o que é um dos reflexos das tensões que envolvem Estado e movimentos sociais populares do campo e, consequentemente, embates entre educação rural e educação do campo.