Researching media through practices: an ethnographic approach

Anthropological and ethnographic research on media have been largely focused on analyzing reception of media products (television, radio, press and film) and media consumption related to domestic appropriation of technologies (Rothenbuhler et al., 2005). There is also a wide body of research devoted to the study of the political dimension of alternative and indigenous media (Ginsburg, 2002). However, there has been a separation between media and internet studies, and between the analysis of media reception and practices of self-production, such as family photography or home video. Current digital media practices urge reexamination of self-produced content and media flows from a broader perspective that cuts across divisions between public and private, corporative media products and people's releases, home production and cultural industry, political activism and everyday life.