Editing Media studies (section)

=== Germany ===
In [[Germany]], two main branches of media theory or media studies can be identified.

The first major branch of media theory has its roots in the humanities and cultural studies, such as film studies ("Filmwissenschaft"), theater studies ("Theaterwissenschaft"), [[German studies|German language and literature studies]] ("Germanistik"), and Comparative Literature Studies ("Komparatistik"). This branch has broadened out substantially since the 1990s, causing a culturally-based media studies (often emphasized more recently through the disciplinary title ''Medienkulturwissenschaft'') in Germany to be developed and established.

This plurality of perspectives make it difficult to single out one particular site where the branch of Medienwissenschaft originated. While the Frankfurt-based theatre scholar Hans-Theis Lehmanns' term "post dramatic theater" points directly to the increased blending of co-presence and mediatized material in the German theater (and elsewhere) since the 1970s, the field of theater studies from the 1990s onwards at the Freie Universität Berlin, led in particular by Erika Fischer-Lichte, showed particular interest in the ways in which theatricality influenced notions of performativity in aesthetic events. Within the field of Film Studies, again, both Frankfurt and Berlin were dominant in the development of new perspectives on moving image media. Heide Schlüpman in Frankfurt and {{ill|Gertrud Koch (film theorist)|lt=Gertrud Koch|de|Gertrud Koch (Filmwissenschaftlerin)}}, first in Bochum then in Berlin, were key theorists contributing to an aesthetic theory of the cinema (Schlüpmann) as ''dispositif'' and the moving image as a medium, particularly in the context of illusion (Koch). Many scholars who became known as media scholars in Germany were originally scholars of German, such as Friedrich Kittler, who taught at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and completed both his dissertation and habilitation in the context of ''Germanistik''. One of the early publications in this branch of media studies was a volume edited by Helmut Kreuzer entitled ''Literature Studies - Media Studies'' (''Literaturwissenschaft – Medienwissenschaft''), which summarizes the presentations given at the Düsseldorfer Germanistentag in 1976.

The second branch of media studies in Germany is comparable to [[Communication Studies]]. Pioneered by [[Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann]] in the 1940s, this branch studies mass media, its institutions, and its effects on society and individuals. The German [[Institute for Media and Communication Policy]], founded in 2005 by media scholar [[Lutz Hachmeister]], is one of the few independent research institutions that is dedicated to issues surrounding media and communications policies.

The term ''Wissenschaft'' cannot be directly translated to ''studies'', as it invokes both scientific methods and the humanities. Accordingly, German media theory combines philosophy, psychoanalysis, history, and scientific studies with media-specific research.