Memory and media in the twenty-first century

Media shape our memories. Humans have created external records to support remembering for thousands of years, ranging from cave paintings to archives, monuments, bodily practices, and printed books (see, for example, Donald 2001 ; Heersmink 2024 ). Media are used by both individuals and groups seeking to preserve and, at the same time, shape their identities and narratives of the past. This collection on “Memory and Media in the Twenty-First Century” encompasses nine articles that focus on the interactions and transitions between different media formats and modes of remembering, as well as between individual and collective remembering. To capture the multitude of perspectives and the multilayered nature of the phenomena under investigation, our understanding of memory draws on the concept of connective memory , which assumes that “memories are shaped by connections between people, objects, media, and institutions” (Ekelund 2023 , p. 1; for the original formulation of the concept, see Hoskins 2011 ).