This lesson explores how anthropologists study media as part of everyday life and why media research belongs within anthropology. It introduces Jennifer Hasty’s fieldwork in Ghana and connects mass media to modernity.
Participant observation is a fieldwork approach in which a researcher takes part in people’s activities while observing and learning about them. Rather than studying media only from a distance, an anthropologist may work alongside media producers and follow how media are made, shared, and understood.
All flashcards
Participant observation
A fieldwork approach in which a researcher takes part in activities while observing and learning about them.
Modernity
A way of life historically associated with industrial and postindustrial societies, experienced in locally distinctive ways.
Media anthropology
The study of how media are produced, used, and understood within social and cultural life.
Media and cultural life
Media can help people express, preserve, and transmit culture, as well as engage with contemporary concerns.
Cosmopolitanism
A worldly awareness that connects local experience with issues and perspectives beyond one’s immediate setting.
Quiz questions
What is participant observation?Answer: A fieldwork approach in which a researcher takes part in activities while observing and learning about them.
Why do anthropologists avoid treating modern and traditional ways of life as mutually exclusive?Answer: Features of modernity occur in varied societies and are shaped by local histories and cultures.
Which statement best describes cosmopolitanism?Answer: A worldly awareness that relates local experience to issues beyond one’s immediate setting.
Which statement best describes the relationship between media and culture?Answer: People can use media to express, preserve, and transmit cultural practices.
A writer cannot publish through a global platform because their country is not approved for its bank-account requirement. What does this illustrate?Answer: Institutional rules can shape who gains access to global media platforms.
Based on Introduction to Anthropology by Jennifer Hasty, David G. Lewis, Marjorie M. Snipes (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.