The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology

Description

The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology provides a broad overview of the widening and flourishing area of media anthropology, and outlines key themes, debates, and emerging directions. The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology draws together the work of scholars from across the globe, with rich ethnographic studies that address a wide range of media practices and forms. Comprising 41 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Companion is divided into three parts Histories Approaches Thematic Considerations. The chapters offer wide-ranging explorations of how forms of mediation influence communication, social relationships, cultural practices, participation, and social change, as well as production and access to information and knowledge. This volume considers new developments, and highlights the ways in which anthropology can contribute to the study of the human condition and the social processes in which media are entangled. This is an indispensable teaching resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students and an essential text for scholars working across the areas that media anthropology engages with, including anthropology, sociology, media and cultural studies, internet and communication studies, and science and technology studies. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Figures Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Media Anthropologies Histories Approaches Media as Infrastructure Media as Practice Media as Materiality Media as Representation Thematic Considerations Relationships Social Inequality and Marginalization Identities and Social Change Political Conservatism Surveillance Emerging Technologies References Part I Histories 1 Media Anthropology and the Digital Challenge Functionalist Foundations National Culture Development Communications Media as Symbolic Systems The Emergence of Media Anthropology The Anthropology of News and Journalism Indigenous and Activist Media Digital Challenges Challenge #1: What’s New About Digital Media? Challenge #2: Digital Divisions Challenge #3: Post-Radial Semiotics Challenge #4: Imagining Communities Challenge #5: Play, Game and Design Conclusion References 2 Indigenous Media: Anthropological Perspectives and Historical Notes Introduction Indigenous Media in an Anthropology of Media Media as Cultural Activism? Media Anthropologists as Activists Indigeneity and the Indigenizing of Media Technologies Sociopolitical Change Internet for Remote First Nation Communities in Canada Conclusion References 3 A Longitudinal Study of Media in Brazil Prime-Time Society (PTS) The Stage Model Liberal Attitudes TV’s Contraceptive Effect The Research Continues: Amazon Town TV (ATTV) Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó TV The Next Round Final Remarks Notes References Part II Approaches A Media as Infrastructure 4 “Here, Listen to My CD-R”: Music Transactions and Infrastructures in Underground Hip-Hop Touring Infrastructures of Industry, Touring, and Merchandise Sales Ethnographies of Underground Hip Hop Unpacking the CD-R CD-R Exchanges in Underground Hip Hop Conclusion Notes References 5 “Technology Is Wonderful Until It Isn’t”: Community-Based Research and the Precarity of Digital Infrastructure Background “Not Quite Plumb”: Squaring Fundamental Infrastructures and Foundational Knowledge Imaging Discussion: Exploring Possibilities and the Promise of Technology Zoom Matters: Technology Literacy and Community Dialogues During a Pandemic Lessons Learned References 6 Media Migration Ethnographic Context Media Migration Histories Media Migration Dynamics and Migration Theory Motivations for Leaving Migrating to Self-Actualize Relation to Diaspora Migratory Return A Collective Conversation About Media Migration Types of Media Migration Departures and Arrivals Conclusion References 7 The Digitally Natural: Hypomediacy and the “Really Real” in Game Design Games and Remediation Ritual and the Real From Explicit to Implicit Participation Conclusion Notes References B Media as Practice 8 Media Practices and Their Social Effects Practices, Worlds, Effects Mediatising Effects Worlding Effects Who Needs Effects? Conclusion Notes References 9 Television Is Not a Democracy: The Limits of Interactive Broadcast in Japan The Twenty-First Century Audience Television Is Not a Democracy Is Nico Nico Douga the Enemy? The Future of Television, the Status of Images Conclusion Notes References 10 Producing Place Through Play: An Ethnography of Location-Based Gaming Play as a Media Practice Playable Locative Media Play as a Practice of Place-Making Social Place-Making With Locative Media Towards Locative Gaming Platforms: Pokémon Go Conclusion: Play as a Place-Making Practice References 11 PhotoMedia as Anthropology: Towards a Speculative Research Method Introduction Visual Anthropology as a Practice Photography as an Object: Observing Photograph(ing) as a Method: Thinking Photography as an Intervention: Imagining Towards a Future-Oriented Media Anthropology Imaginative Speculation Techno-reflexivity Conclusion Note References 12 Content-As-Practice: Studying Digital Content With a Media Practice Approach Introduction Understanding Digital Content-As-Practice Human Actors, Practical Sense, and Technological Affordances From Social Media Algorithms to Routinised Practices Content-as-Practice and the Holocaust Memorial Methodological Consequences Conclusion Notes References C Media as Materiality 13 The Materiality of the Virtual in Urban Space Media Materiality and Urban Placemaking Mobile Media in Café Culture Public Media Mutuality Digital Materiality and Organizing in Pandemic Brooklyn The Virtual Matter of Urban Space References 14 Anthropology and Digital Media: Multivocal Materialities of Video Meetings and Deafness Digital Media Anthropology A Video Meeting at SVT Teckenspråk Being D/Deaf at SVT Teckenspråk “Artifacts” Experiences Practices Processes Conclusion Notes References 15 Cloudwork: Data Centre Labour and the Maintenance of Media Infrastructure The Transcendental Media Imaginary The People in the Cloud Cloud Pressure Caring for Data Conclusion Notes References 16 Media Anthropology and Emerging Technologies: Re-Working Media Presence Shifting Modes of Media and Technological Presence Interventional Ethnography Content, Communication, and Presence Bringing the Experience of Smart Home Technologies to Life Towards an Applied Media Anthropology Conclusion Acknowledgements References D Media as Representation 17 #Everest: Visual Economies of Leisure and Labour in the Tourist Encounter Visibility and Everest in Global Visual Cultures Digital Communication as Building and Disrupting Relationships in the Everest Tourism Industry Conclusion: the Aesthetics of Everest for Mediating Aspirations References 18 Postcolonial Digital Collections: Instruments, Mirrors, Agents Situating the Postcolonial in Museums Into the Digital Three Postcolonial Theories of (Digital) Representation The Digital as Instrument The Digital as Mirror Or Mimesis The Digital as Agent Postcolonial Digital Projects in Theory and Practice New Forms of Digital Collecting Instrumentalizing the Database Digital Objects and Mimetic Returns Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References 19 Ethnographies of the Digitally Dispossessed Media Anthropology and the Sources of Power/Knowledge Entering Via Flagged Erasures Following Sources and Their Characterisation Analysing the Networks That Traverse Articles New Centres of Power/Knowledge Notes References Part III Thematic Considerations A Relationships 20 “Friends From WeChat Groups”: The Practice of Friendship Via Social Media Among Older People in China Introduction Mediated Friendship in the Chinese Context Daily Use of WeChat and WeChat Groups Among Older People in Shanghai Different Types of WeChat Groups Friend-making and Guanxi Practice in WeChat Groups Conclusion Acknowledgement Notes References 21 Mediated Money and Social Relationships Among Hong Kong Cross-Boundary Students Money as Media Methods and Social Context Digital Money Differentials: Payment and Place Mediating Family Relations: Parental Nurturance and Control of Offspring Consumptive Relations: “Simple” and “Complex” Payment Repertoires Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References 22 Narratives of Digital Intimacy: Romanian Migration and Mediated Transnational Life Introduction Digital Intimacies as Discursive Formations Case Background and Research Methodology: Studying Romanian Transnational Cultural Formations Mothers’ Diasporic Efforts Toward Cultural Reproduction How Cultures of Migration Shape Mediated Transnational Relationships Conclusion Notes References B Social Inequality and Marginalisation 23 Mediating Hopes: Social Media and Crisis in Northern Italy Introduction Crisis in Northern Italy Online Branding and Local Forms of Socialities Giulia: Social Media and the Practice of Hoping Laura and Luca: Self-Branding and the Crafting of Meaningful Relationships Social Media and the Mediation of Hope References 24 Digital Inequality and Relatedness in India After Access Inequalities After Access Understanding Gradations of Use The Diversity of Digital Practices After Access Refashioning of Social Hierarchies Digital Recreation as Social Change Conclusions Notes References 25 In This Together: Black Women, Collective Screening Experiences, and Space-Making as Meaning-Making Introduction Distance and Distancing in Black Women’s U.S. Media Histories A Night Out: Alternatives of Black Media Screening and Engagement Co-Production of Meaning: Why Screening Events Are Important Sites of Inquiry Visceral Validation: Reclaiming Space, Body, and Affect Conclusion: Black Un/Imagining in Collective Screening Spaces References 26 Black Gamer’s Refuge: Finding Community Within the Magic Circle of Whiteness Introduction The Dissolution of Black People Discord Black Girl Gamers, the Black Spoil Sport, and Possibilities Within the Magic Circle of Whiteness Conclusion Notes References C Identities and Social Change 27 Inking Identity: Indigenous Nationalism in Bolivian Tattoo Art Introduction Tattoo, Identity, and Place The Politics of Indigeneity Tattoos With Indigenous Symbolism From Abstraction to Appropriation? Conclusion Notes References 28 Being Known and Becoming Famous in Kampala, Uganda Introduction From Taboo to Tabloid: Sex and Development in Uganda’s Public Sphere The Producers The Sensitization Model Modernity Claims, Morality Claims Cross-Generational Sex Starts With You! Notes References 29 The Hall of Mirrors: Negotiating Gender On Chilean Social Media Identity Construction On Social Media Alexa Normative Gender, Radical Potential Damned If You Do … Damned If You Don’t … Conclusion Notes References D Political Conservatism 30 Media Anthropology and the Crisis of Facts Introduction “One to Eight”: The Dominance of Media-Driven Political Right A Concern With Civility and Incivility Talk About Racism As Lack of Civility Ali Does Know How to Use the Toilet Incivility of Toilet Habits Freedom to Eroticize Torture The “Nation in Danger” and the Indifference to Facts Conclusion Note References 31 Conspiracy Media Ecologies and the Case for Guerilla Anthropology America’s Stonehenge Vandalized Mediated Conspirituality The Case for Guerrilla Archaeology Aftermath Notes References 32 Researching Political Trolls as Instruments of Political Conservatism in Turkey: A Historical Framework and Methodological Reflections On a Discourse Community Introduction Why Study Political Trolls? In the Field: Different Historical Moments, Multiple Methods Trolling as a Discourse Community in the Service of Political Conservatism Conclusion Notes References 33 Performing Conservatism: A Study of Emerging Political Mobilisations in Latin America Using “Social Media Drama” Analysis Introduction Morally Centred Social Movements: The State of Affairs A “Social Media Drama” Analysis for Conservative Mobilisation Performing Conservatism in Latin America Performing Conservatism and Co-Creation in Lima Performing Conservatism in Bogota’s Autonomous Media Concluding Remarks References E Surveillance 34 Algorithmic Violence in Everyday Life and the Role of Media Anthropology Introduction Tech-Surveillance and the Question About Profiling ‘There Is So Much More to Me as a Person’: Everyday Negotiations With Algorithmic Profiling, Human Reductionism, and Inequality Algorithmic Violence, Bureaucracy, and the Role of Anthropology Conclusion References 35 Queer and Muslim?: Social Surveillance and Islamic Sexual Ethics On Twitter Enjoining the Right and Forbidding the Wrong as Social Surveillance “LGBT Is Disgusting”/“You Are Married to Your Cousin”: Islamic Sexual Ethics On Twitter Conclusions: Toward a Theory of Contingent Privacy Online References 36 Queer Sousveillance: Publics, Politics, and Social Media in South Korea Surveillance Studies and Social Media Enumeration and Practices of Queer Sousveillance Conclusion References F Emerging Technologies and Contemporary Challenges: Data, AI and VR 37 The Algorithmic Silhouette: New Technologies and the Fashionable Body Closet Ethnography: Dress, Clothing, and Identity in the Caribbean Fashioning Silhouettes Visibility and Misrecognition Algorithmic Silhouettes in Context Conclusion References 38 Unlocking Heritage In Situ: Tourist Places and Augmented Reality in Estonia Making Apps for Tourist Sites From Touristic Flânerie to Augmented Heritage Embodying Imaginings in Tourist Places Conclusion References 39 Precarity, Discrimination and (In)visibility: An Ethnography of “The Algorithm” in the YouTube Influencer Industry Context: The Influencer Industry and Rise of Professional Content Creators Critical/Ethnographic Approaches to Algorithms in Cultural Work Algorithmic Hearsay and Folk Theories Pleasing The Algorithm Gods Algorithmic Detectives and Conspiracy Theorists Influencer Practices: Gaming The Algorithm Feeding the Hungry Algorithm Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Algorithmic Optimisation Versus Authenticity Influencer Experiences: Feeling the Algorithm The Fear of Algorithmically Induced Invisibility Algorithmic Discrimination: The Marginalisation of Creators On YouTube Conclusions References 40 AI Design and Everyday Logics in the Kalahari Ethnographies of AI Explainable Algorithms Data and the Global Souths Ethnography, HCI and Africa Localising Technology Production Translating Inhabitant Knowledge Explainable AI in the Kalahari Engaging With Ju|’hoansi People At the Intersection of AI, Programming Languages, Probability Theory and Local Predictive Practices Predictive Logics: Stories and Spinner Games Conditional Probability: Trees With Holes, Water and Snakes Numbers Are Stories Temporal Registers Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References 41 Ethnography Of/and Virtual Reality Defining Immersion Producing and Consuming Immersion Critiquing Immersion Conclusion Notes References Afterword Achievements Comparisons Future Dialogues Conclusion References Appendix Art Communication Systems Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Failures Games and Gaming Global South Labor and Entrepreneurship LGBTQ+ Methods Nationalism Visuality Media types Countries Index