Mediating Presents: Producing ‘The Now’ in Contemporary Digital Culture

How have digital media changed our experience of time? They are often described as a ‘real-time’, ‘live’, ‘always- on’ temporality – but are these the same thing? How can we understand the diversity, multiplicity and flexibility of this temporality? This project focuses on four case studies –Twitter, Netflix, Snapchat, The Mindfulness App– critically examining how they produce present temporalities, where ‘the now’ is stretched, condensed and experienced differently through specific techniques. Through close analysis of promotional materials, the conventions of each platform and interviews with users and industry professionals, it develops an original approach, complicating assumptions about contemporary media-culture temporalities.

Supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship.