How should we understand the new digital media and the effect of digital networks on global communication? Medium theory would be an obvious candidate, suggesting that we are in the middle of a transition from a society based on analogue media (print and electronic) to a society based on digital media. However, the present article suggests we examine another candidate: complexity theory. According to writers such as John Urry, we are in the middle of a paradigm turn, the so-called complexity turn. The aim of this article is to discuss whether complexity theory can be applied to media studies. What are the gains, and what would we lose? The author takes as his point of departure two case examples. The first is the case of the Mohammed cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands- Posten. The second is the case of the Internet. How are we to understand the Internet as a qualitatively new medium? The author goes on to present two fundamental concepts of complexity theory. The first is the concept of complexity. The second is the concept of mediated communication, which appears to change significance in the context of complexity theory.
| http://medcraveonline.com ii. Students wellbeing linked to their participation in the Danish school gardens program 'Gardens for Bellies'. 3,4 According to the public health discourse, wellbeing can be characterized by being mentally healthy. In order to achieve a state of wellbeing, the individual must avoid to be mentally threatened, e.g. being lonely, feeling anxiety, suffering from low self-esteem, being self-destructive or having a mental diagnosis, for example ADHD, depression or other diagnoses that demand medical treatment. Wellbeing is analyzed and expressed through the concept of "risk behaviour". The public health discourse of wellbeing is a subset of the general health paradigm, and consequently the dominating concepts are concepts like "disease", "risk", "treatment" and sociomedical interventions. Lack of wellbeing is seen as the result of social infection, and consequently e.g. young people suffering from the lack of wellbeing should be treated medically or through social interventions. Consequently, a high level of wellbeing is characterized by a risk-free or non-disease state of affairs. A prominent example of this discourse of wellbeing can be found in the above mentioned Danish National Report of wellbeing of adolescents. Looking at the questionnaire behind the report, most questions are characterized by negative values: "Are you too busy?" "Do you feel lonely?" "Have you tried to harm yourself?" "Have you ever tried to commit suicide?"etc. It is obvious, that wellbeing is characterized negatively: Feeling well is avoiding the risks of factors that harm wellbeing. The means to realize wellbeing are medically informed and focus on changing individuals through medical or social interventions. The idea behind this discourse is that wellbeing can be realized through causally based interventions, i.e. that the individual human being is open to external interventions.
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