Publishing Journal ›› 2026, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (1): 15-24.

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Visible Residues Technological Phantoms and Echoes of Time: A Media Archaeology of Digital Publishing 

  

  1. (School of Literature, Zhejiang University/ Digital Publishing Research Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou,310058

  • Received:2025-08-07 Revised:2025-09-22 Online:2026-02-09 Published:2026-02-09

Abstract: Grounded in the technological reality of digital publishing, this study explores its embedded historical residues and cultural heterogeneity from a media archaeological perspective. As a publishing form that integrates text encoding, algorithmic orchestration, and interface operations, digital publishing not only carries the functional logic of content digitization, but also reveals deep layers of material residue through its dependence on file formats, protocol standards, and hardware infrastructures. The logic of databases and platforms compresses heterogeneous media experiences into standardized linear content streams, while obsolete technological paths and non-mainstream publishing practices persist as “ghosts of technologyhaunting the dominant publishing mechanisms. In this sense, the development of digital publishing does not follow a trajectory of continuous, linear progress, but rather evolves through rupture, recursion, and heterogeneous assemblage. By analyzing the materiality, heterogeneity and nonlinearity of digital publishing through the lens of media archaeology, it may be understood as a media system reassembled from historical remnants—offering a critical 

Key words:

Media archaeology  , Digital publishing  , Materiality  , Heterogeneity  , Nonlinearity

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