Keywords for Studying Media, Culture & Information

A keyword is a word to be studied. Within cultural studies there is a tradition (started by Raymond Williams) to collect and interrogate words that are undergoing dramatic changes in meaning. He examined them through a method of cultural analysis which is now known as “keywording” which involves identifying significant words through selection. Williams himself examined over a 100 words in his two editions of Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976; 1983). What it is important to note is that these collections are neither dictionary definitions nor merely a list of “important” words.

A keyword is a research concern. At first glance a word like culture would seem to have a self-evident meaning. But if you examine its past and the words we use to articulate its meaning today, it no longer has the meaning it once had. Why? Finding out the answer requires some research. In fact, the words Williams chose to analyze (media, culture, community, etc.) are often used as the basis for articulating research questions in media, culture and information studies. And to Williams’ point, their meanings are still shifting as they come into contact with other words under transformation. For example: new media, algorithmic culture, online community.

This page curates over two decades of keywords texts written in books and special issues of journals. While this list focuses on keywords, it also includes some important concepts for media studies students at the University of Amsterdam. Additionally, there are other keywords related projects that might be of interest but are not accessible via the UvA library, including Connectedness: An Incomplete Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene and Words of Weather: A Glossary.

Version 2 of the Index contains approximately 400 items (100 more than the original version). The index was created by Steve Jankowski at the University of Amsterdam Media Studies Department in 2023. It is specifically designed for media studies students at UvA.

Influences: In addition to being informed by Raymond Williams' keywords, this index was also inspired by the Meme Studies Index, The Cyberfeminism Index, The Cryptosyllabus, and the The Feminist Finance Syllabus. As well, my thinking about keywords started when I first read Ted Striphas's keyword article algorithmic culture and asking Nicholas John a question at his ICA presentation about sharing as a keyword.

Colophon: The fonts used are Wremena (Typefaces of the Temporary State), Jost (Indestructible Type), and Petrona (Glyph Co.).