On the material and the symbolic: Silverstone’s double articulation of research traditions in new media studies

Imagine the typical suburban living room, a post-war creation co-evolving with the rise of consumer society as a communal family space, replacing the Goffmanian division of public and private spaces – formal parlour for guests, all-purpose ‘back room’ for family – which preceded it (see Goffman, 1959).This living room contains, and displays to its occupants and visitors, many objects of both symbolic value and material worth: the three piece suite of sofa and armchairs, the nest of coffee tables, an assortment of lamps, decorative objects and photographs.And, significantly, a fast-changing set of consumer goods that are distinct from the foregoing: the television set, now wide screen, increasingly digital; the DVD player with its accompanying shelf of popular titles; the HiFi with CD player and radio; the computer with internet access squeezed into a corner; and last, left lying on various items of furniture, someone’s mobile phone, iPod or Blackberry. Roger Silverstone wrote about television, about the household consumption of technologies, even about suburbia.When I look back over his books, this image of the living room resonates throughout his writings – a room many of us have spent our lives in, raised our families in, and yet a room culturally and historically positioned between two key moments.The first of these, the preceding period, was a time when public and private spaces were carefully new media & society