{"id":2802,"date":"2016-08-29T15:27:06","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T19:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/?post_type=cu-people&#038;p=2802"},"modified":"2026-03-03T00:28:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:28:53","slug":"young-liam-cole","status":"publish","type":"cu-people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/profile\/young-liam-cole\/","title":{"rendered":"Young, Liam Cole"},"template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"people-type":[335,19,20,330,334],"areas-of-expertise":[191,194,199],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Young, Liam Cole | School of Journalism and Communication<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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University","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"acf":{"last_name":"Young","job_title":"Co-Director, School of Journalism and Communication; Associate Professor and Program Head, Communication and Media Studies","degrees":"B.A. History, Calgary; B.A. International Relations, Calgary; M.A. Popular Culture, Brock; Ph.D. Media Studies, Western","heading":"","biography":"<p>I currently serve as Program Head of COMS and Co-Director of the School of Journalism and Communication. See this <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/communication\/\">welcome message<\/a> for more on my work in this role.<\/p>\n<p>My scholarship and teaching span four overlapping areas: media theory and cultural techniques, histories of data and information, infrastructure studies, and internet studies.<\/p>\n<p>I am presently working on two major projects:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177%2F0263276420915992\"><strong><em>Salt Studies: Techniques of Taste and Time<\/em><\/strong><\/a> traces global histories of salt and positions this seemingly banal substance as a medium of culture and civilization.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1215\/17432197-10969188\"><strong><em>All In: Gambling, Speculation, and the Financialization of Sport<\/em><\/strong><\/a> situates the recent legalization and mainstreaming of sports gambling within longer histories of datafication, financialization, and speculation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Generally, I work within what is sometimes called the \u201ccivilizational\u201d stream of media theory, especially its Canadian and German variants, typified by Innis, McLuhan, Benjamin, and Kittler (among others).<\/p>\n<p>The question of how human societies hold together across time and space animates my teaching and research across a range of topics\u2014from early modern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctv5jxm7n.8#metadata_info_tab_contents\">double-entry bookkeeping and state bureaucracies<\/a> to 20<sup>th<\/sup> century <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctv5jxm7n.7\">pop music<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcript-publishing.com\/978-3-8376-5561-2\/interrogating-datafication\/?number=978-3-8394-5561-6\">box office<\/a> charts; from <a href=\"http:\/\/journal.media-culture.org.au\/index.php\/mcjournal\/article\/viewArticle\/961\">logistical media<\/a> of ports, shipping containers, and barcodes to the history and rise of <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1215\/17432197-10969188\">sports gambling<\/a>; from the cod fisheries and <a href=\"https:\/\/read.dukeupress.edu\/cultural-politics\/article\/13\/2\/227\/129370\/Innis-s-InfrastructureDirt-Beavers-and-Documents\">fur trade<\/a> of the 17<sup>th<\/sup> and 18<sup>th<\/sup> centuries to <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177%2F0263276420915992\">common salt<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/handsbook.ca\/#foreword\">human hands<\/a> as media of culture. In each case, I am interested primarily in questions of epistemology (how we know about these things) and infrastructure (how they are built into and operate in the world). My first book, <a href=\"https:\/\/library.oapen.org\/handle\/20.500.12657\/49985\"><em>List Cultures: Knowledge and Poetics from Mesopotamia to BuzzFeed<\/em><\/a> <em>(Amsterdam University Press, 2017; Open Access) <\/em>explored such themes by tracing the list as a cultural technique of administration and imagination.<\/p>\n<p>The transatlantic nature of my work has led to visiting positions at the <a href=\"https:\/\/ikkm-weimar.de\/en\/former-fellows\/liam-cole-young\/\">Internationales Kolleg f\u00fcr Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie<\/a> at the Bauhaus-Universit\u00e4t Weimar, Germany (2018) and the Department of <a href=\"https:\/\/cc.au.dk\/aktuelt\/nyheder\/nyhed\/artikel\/visiting-professor-liam-young-working-on-salt-infrastructure-and-data\">Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab<\/a> at Aarhus University, Denmark (2021).<\/p>\n<p>I am available to supervise graduate students who are interested in sports, popular culture, platform and internet studies, media history and theory, histories of data and information, and recent debates in infrastructure studies.<\/p>\n<h3>Selected Publications<\/h3>\n<h4>Books<\/h4>\n<p><em>Young, Liam C. 2017. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aup.nl\/en\/book\/9789462981102\/list-cultures\"><em>List Cultures: Knowledge and Poetics from Mesopotamia to BuzzFeed<\/em><\/a>. Amsterdam University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Reviews: <a href=\"https:\/\/cjc.utpjournals.press\/doi\/full\/10.22230\/cjc.2020v45n3a3855\"><em>Canadian Journal of Communication<\/em><\/a> (September 2020), Ian Reilly; <a href=\"https:\/\/read.dukeupress.edu\/cultural-politics\/article-abstract\/14\/3\/407\/136858\/Cultural-Infrastructure?redirectedFrom=PDF\"><em>Cultural Politics<\/em><\/a> 14.3 (Fall 2018), Rob Coley; <a href=\"https:\/\/leonardo.info\/review\/2018\/05\/review-of-list-cultures-knowledge-and-poetics-from-mesopotamia-to-buzzfeed\"><em>Leonardo<\/em><\/a> (May 2018), Jan Baetens; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.lse.ac.uk\/usappblog\/2017\/12\/24\/book-review-list-cultures-knowledge-and-poetics-from-mesopotamia-to-buzzfeed-by-liam-cole-young\/\"><em>LSE Review of Books<\/em><\/a> (December 2017), Marianne Koob<\/p>\n<h4>Articles and Chapters<\/h4>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2024. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1215\/17432197-10969188\">All In: Derivative and Financialization in Sports Betting<\/a>.\u201d <em>Cultural Politics <\/em>20, no 1.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2022. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcript-publishing.com\/978-3-8376-5561-2\/interrogating-datafication\/?number=978-3-8394-5561-6\">Film Box Office Charts and the Metadata of Culture<\/a>.\u201d In <em>Interrogating Datafication: Towards a Praxeology of Data<\/em>. Edited by Marcus Burkhardt, Daniela van Geenen, Carolin Gerlitz, Sam Hind, Timo Kaerlein, Danny L\u00e4mmerhirt, Axel Volmar. transcript Verlag.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C., Hannah Dick and Chris Russill. 2021. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org\/index.php\/mt\/article\/view\/142\">Introduction: Into the Air<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org\/index.php\/mt\/article\/view\/158\">A History of the Idea of <em>Speaking into the Air<\/em>: A Conversation with John Durham Peters<\/a>.\u201d <em>Media Theory <\/em>5.2.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2021. \u201cColonization\u2019s Logistical Media: The Ship and the Document.\u201d In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dukeupress.edu\/assembly-codes\"><em>Assembly Codes: The Logistics of Media<\/em><\/a>. Edited by Matthew Hockenberry, Nicole Starosielski and Susan Zieger. Durham NC: Duke University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2020. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177%2F0263276420915992\">Salt: Fragments from the History of a Medium<\/a>.\u201d <em>Theory, Culture and Society<\/em>. 37, no. 6.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2020. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/amodern.net\/article\/innis-office\/\">Harold Innis\u2019s Office: Techniques of Scholarship and Textual Production<\/a>.\u201d <em>Amodern 10<\/em>: <em>Technique<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2019. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.22230\/cjc.2019v44n4a3719\">The Innis-McLuhan Field: In Search of Media Theory<\/a>\u201d <em>Canadian Journal of Communication<\/em> (special Issue on \u201cMany McLuhans\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. and Ira Wagman. 2019. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/imaginations.glendon.yorku.ca\/?p=12584\">On the Mediality of Two Towers: Calgary\u2014Toronto<\/a>\u201d. <em>Imaginations <\/em>10, no. 2.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2017. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/read.dukeupress.edu\/cultural-politics\/article\/13\/2\/227\/129370\/Innis-s-InfrastructureDirt-Beavers-and-Documents\">Innis\u2019s Infrastructure: Dirt, Beavers, and Documents in Material Media Theory.\u201d<\/a> <em>Cultural Politics<\/em> 13, no. 2.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2015. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/journal.media-culture.org.au\/index.php\/mcjournal\/article\/viewArticle\/961\">Cultural techniques and logistical media: Tuning Anglo-American and German media studies<\/a>.\u201d <em>M\/C Journal<\/em> 18, no. 2 (Feature article in special issue on \u2018Technique\u2019)<\/p>\n<h4>Commentary<\/h4>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2026. &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-sports-betting-is-changing-the-way-people-watch-sports-275303\">How sports betting is changing the way people watch sports.<\/a>&#8221;\u00a0<em>The Conversation Canada.\u00a0<\/em>18 February.<\/p>\n<p>Young, Liam C. 2023. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-ottawa-senators-bidding-war-is-about-a-lot-more-than-ticket-sales-and-star-power-205799\">The Ottawa Senators bidding war is about a lot more than ticket sales and star power<\/a>.\u201d <em>The Conversation Canada<\/em>. 17 May.<\/p>\n","first_name":"Liam Cole","twitter_profile":"lcyoung","linkedin_profile":"","youtube_channel":"","pinterest_profile":"","facebook_profile":"","profile_image":23095,"personal_website":"","select_building":"river","office_number":"4317","department_list":"school-of-journalism","on_campus":"yes","phone_number":"","phone_extension":"4155","mobile_number":"","email_address":"LiamC.Young@carleton.ca","expertise":"yes","instagram_profile":"","office_address":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu-people\/2802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu-people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu-people"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu-people\/2802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23818,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu-people\/2802\/revisions\/23818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"people-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people-type?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"areas-of-expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/areas-of-expertise?post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}