This is the companion site to the EASA Media Anthropology Network workshop and research project Critical Perspectives on Media and Social Change. The workshop will be held on 27 May 2011 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. I will be there as well, representing Oxford University's OII and bringing Palestine/Lebanon -related analyses to what will hopefully be a rich debate with new ciritcal-research collaborations. Do follow the blog and place your comments/suggestions!
Rationale
The anthropology of media has grown dramatically since the late 1980s. This thriving subfield has already made an important contribution to the broadening of media studies away from its traditional Western heartland to all regions of the globe. In addition, media anthropology is beginning to have a theoretical impact as its practitioners continue to produce ground-up theorising on the production, circulation and appropriation of media. One key area to which anthropologists have much to contribute is the elusive relationship between media and social change – a subject of great public interest, yet one in which futuristic hyperbole abounds. This workshop brings together anthropologists and others working on a range of media-related areas (such as development, activism, governance, and digital media production) to discuss critically our current understanding of media and social change and identify key questions in urgent need of research and theorisation. This exercise will form the basis of a future comparative research bid.
