Towards an Intermedial Theory of Medial Agency: Environing Media

Based on a rough conceptual divide of (parts of) media studies, including intermedial studies, this article presents two positions based on interests in media as transmission and representation, or media as ecological frame, or media agency. Following that, the article discusses how a new concept in environmental studies, ‘environing media’ or ‘environing technologies’ – where representation and media ecological agency seem to find a fruitful meeting point – is discussed in more detail. That description and discussion are put into a debate with central ideas of intermedial studies, before the final part of the article briefly exemplifies the theoretical ideas in the case of the IPCC report’s Summary for Policymakers (2021).