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John Postill

RMIT University, Media & Communications, Faculty Member

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John Postill gained a PhD in Anthropology at University College London in 2000. He specialises in the study of media and sociocultural change and to date has done fieldwork in Malaysia, Indonesia and Spain. He currently lectures at the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne. His publications include The Rise of Nerd Politics (2018), Digital Ethnography (2016), Localizing the Internet (2011), Theorising Media and Practice (2010) and Media and Nation Building (2006). He is presently working on his first novel, a work of social science fiction titled The School. He occasionally tweets as @JohnPostill.

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Noel B. Salazar

KU Leuven

University of Delaware

Matthew J Weait

University of Oxford

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Curtin University

University College Cork

University of Tsukuba

Microsoft Research

Benjamin Isakhan

Deakin University

Martin van Bruinessen

Universiteit Utrecht

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Books by John Postill

The Rise of Nerd Politics

The Rise of Nerd Politics, 2018

The irruption of WikiLeaks, Anonymous, Snowden and other tech-savvy actors onto the global politi... more The irruption of WikiLeaks, Anonymous, Snowden and other tech-savvy actors onto the global political stage raises urgent questions about the impact of digital activism on political systems around the world. The Rise of Nerd Politics is an anthropological exploration of the role that such actors play in sparking and managing new processes of political change in the digital age. Drawing from long-term ethnographic research in Spain and Indonesia - as well as case studies from the United States, Iceland, Tunisia, Taiwan, Brazil and elsewhere - Postill tracks the rise of techno-political 'nerds' as a new class of political brokers with growing influence. The book identifies and explores four domains of 'nerd politics' that have dramatically expanded since 2010: data activism, digital rights, social protest and formal politics. A lively and engaging intervention at the conjuncture of anthropology, media studies and sociology, The Rise of Nerd Politics offers a pertinent reflection on the future of political change in the digital age.

Theorising Media and Practice

by Birgit Braeuchler and John Postill

Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it... more Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it has had very limited impact on media studies. This book draws on the work of practice theorists such as Wittgenstein, Foucault, Bourdieu, Barth and Schatzki and rethinks the study of media from the perspective of practice theory. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from places such as Zambia, India, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, Norway and Denmark, the contributors address a number of important themes: media as practice; the interlinkage between media, culture and practice; the contextual study of media practices; and new practices of digital production. Collectively, these chapters make a strong case for the importance of theorising the relationship between media and practice and thereby adding practice theory as a new strand to the study of anthropology of media.

More info: Birgit Braeuchler & John Postill (eds.) 2010. Theorising Media and Practice. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books

http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BrauchlerTheorising

Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice

by John Postill, Heather Horst, Jo Tacchi, and Tania Lewis

This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use... more This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world. It contextualises digital and pre-digital ethnographic research and demonstrates how the methodological, practical and theoretical dimensions are increasingly intertwined.

Digital ethnography is central to our understanding of the social world; it can shape methodology and methods, and provides the technological tools needed to research society. The authoritative team of authors clearly set out how to research localities, objects and events as well as providing insights into exploring individuals’ or communities’ lived experiences, practices and relationships.

The book:

Defines a series of central concepts in this new branch of social and cultural research
Challenges existing conceptual and analytical categories
Showcases new and innovative methods
Theorises the digital world in new ways
Encourages us to rethink pre-digital practices, media and environments

This is the ideal introduction for anyone intending to conduct ethnographic research in today’s digital society.

Localizing the Internet: An Anthropological Account

Focusing on Subang Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, this study offers an in-depth examination of t... more Focusing on Subang Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, this study offers an in-depth examination of the workings of the Internet at the local level. In fact, Subang Jaya is regarded as Malaysia’s electronic governance laboratory. The author explores its field of residential affairs, a digitally mediated social field in which residents, civil servants, politicians, online journalists and other social agents struggle over how the locality is to be governed at the dawn of the ‘Information Era’. Drawing on the field theories of both Pierre Bourdieu and the Manchester School of political anthropology, this study challenges the unquestioned predominance of ‘network’ and ‘community’ as the two key sociation concepts in contemporary Internet studies. The analysis extends field theory in four new directions, namely the complex articulations between personal networking and social fields, the uneven diffusion and circulation of new field technologies and contents, intra- and inter-field political crises, and the emergence of new forms of residential sociality.

Theorising Media and Practice

Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it... more Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it has had very limited impact on media studies. This book draws on the work of practice theorists such as Wittgenstein, Foucault, Bourdieu, Barth and Schatzki and rethinks the study of media from the perspective of practice theory. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from places such as Zambia, India, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, Norway and Denmark, the contributors address a number of important themes: media as practice; the interlinkage between media, culture and practice; the contextual study of media practices; and new practices of digital production. Collectively, these chapters make a strong case for the importance of theorising the relationship between media and practice and thereby adding practice theory as a new strand to the anthropology of media. See http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/new-book-theorising-media-and-practice-brauchler-and-postill-2010/

Media and Nation Building

Papers by John Postill

Tweeting Religion in Indonesia When Political Arenas Go Viral

The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combined with the rise of political Islamism in rece... more The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combined with the rise of political Islamism in recent years, are changing the ways in which people engage with religious matters in the world's largest Muslim country. One significant change is the way that religious and political figures incorporate a combination of online and offline audiences in maintaining their public authority.

Ethnography in a Digital World. In Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practices

Indonesian Religion as a Hybrid Media Space: Social Dramas in a Contested Realm

Asiascape: Digital Asia, 2018

The popularity of social media in Indonesia, along with the rise of political Islam, is changing ... more The popularity of social media in Indonesia, along with the rise of political Islam, is changing the ways in which people engage with religious matters in the country. In this article, we deploy post-Bourdieuan field theory to explore Indonesia’s religious domain as a ‘hybrid media space’ – a social space mediated by old and new media agents interacting to produce viralized forms of public communication. We undertake this exploration through three viral controversies, or ‘social dramas’, triggered by a perceived breach of the religious space’s order. All three dramas involved political Islamists in contention with various political actors, namely the Muslim senator Fahira Fahmi, the West Sumatran atheist Alexander Aan, and the then governor of Jakarta, ‘Ahok’. These examples shed light on the current state of Indonesia’s religious space and its multiple mediations, as well as taking field theory into new communicative and religious terrain.

Social Media Ethnography: The Digital Researcher in a Messy Web

Media International Australia, 2012

Social media practices and technologies are often part of how ethnographic research participants ... more Social media practices and technologies are often part of how ethnographic research participants navigate their wider social, material and technological worlds, and are equally part of ethnographic practice. This creates the need to consider how emergent forms of social media-driven ethnographic practice might be understood theoretically and methodologically. In this article, we respond critically to existing literatures concerning the nature of the internet as an ethnographic site by suggesting how concepts of routine, movement and sociality enable us to understand the making of social media ethnography knowledge and places.

What is the point of media anthropology? Authors' replies

Social Anthropology, 2009

Hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy: the many faces of Anonymous

Choice Reviews Online, 2015

Mobile ensembles: The uses of mobile phones for social protest by Spain¿ s indignados

During the 2011 wave of protests millions of citizens around the globe employed a vast range of d... more During the 2011 wave of protests millions of citizens around the globe employed a vast range of digital media to demand greater democratic freedoms and social justice. Although mobile phones were widely used in all these protests, their significance remains unclear. This chapter draws from both qualitative and quantitative research to shed light on the recent uses of mobile technologies for social protest, with Spain's Indignados (or 15M) movement as the case study. The chapter argues for the importance of processual analyses of the new protests that situate the uniqueness of each mobile technology and 'mobile ensemble' within a particular moment in the collective biography of a movement. This approach reveals the importance of smartphones as new articulators of online spaces and occupied physical spaces, especially via Twitter and live streaming.

The Logic of Connective Action

Information, Communication & Society, 2012

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or s... more This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sublicensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Multitudinous identities: a qualitative and network analysis of the 15M collective identity

Information, Communication & Society, 2015

The emergence of network-movements since 2011 has opened the debate around the way in which socia... more The emergence of network-movements since 2011 has opened the debate around the way in which social media and networked practices make possible innovative forms of collective identity. We briefly review the literature on social movements and 'collective identity', and show the tension between different positions stressing either organization or culture, the personal or the collective, aggregative or networking logics. We argue that the 15M (indignados) network-movement in Spain demands conceptual and methodological innovations. Its rapid emergence, endurance, diversity, multifaceted development and adaptive capacity, posit numerous theoretical and methodological challenges. We show how the use of structural and dynamic analysis of interaction networks (in combination with qualitative data) is a valuable tool to track the shape and change of what we term the 'systemic dimension' of collective identities in network-movements. In particular, we introduce a novel method for synchrony detection in Facebook activity to identify the distributed, yet integrated, coordinated activity behind collective identities. Applying this analytical strategy to the 15M movement, we show how it displays a specific form of systemic collective identity we call 'multitudinous identity', characterized by social transversality and internal heterogeneity, as well as a transient and distributed leadership driven by action initiatives. Our approach attends to the role of distributed interaction and transient leadership at a mesoscale level of organizational dynamics, which may contribute to contemporary discussions of collective identity in network-movements.

Media anthropology in a world of states

EASA Media Anthropology e-Seminar, Apr 19, 2005

This paper suggests that media anthropology should pay closer attention to the manifold nation-bu... more This paper suggests that media anthropology should pay closer attention to the manifold nation-building uses of media technologies, especially in postcolonial and post-Soviet countries. Adopting an ethnological approach, it questions the present celebration of the creative appropriation of media forms, and argues that it is time to reintroduce diffusionist approaches that can complement the prevailing appropriationism. In the same ethnological vein, it also suggests that modern states are not imagined communities but rather the ...

Localizing the internet: an anthropological account

At a critical time of democratic reform across many parts of Southeast Asia, Subang Jaya is regar... more At a critical time of democratic reform across many parts of Southeast Asia, Subang Jaya is regarded as Malaysia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s electronic governance laboratory. The focus of the study is Subang Jaya&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s field of residential affairs, a digitally mediated social field in which residents, civil servants, politicians, online journalists and other social agents struggle over how the locality is to be governed at the dawn of the&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; Information Era.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; Drawing on the field theories of both Pierre Bourdieu and the Manchester School of political anthropology, this study ...

Public anthropology in times of media hybridity and global upheaval

The growing popularity of new social and participatory media at a time of global turbulence raise... more The growing popularity of new social and participatory media at a time of global turbulence raises challenging questions for anthropologists wishing to engage with publics beyond academia. In this chapter I draw from my experience as a media anthropologist researching activism and social protest to explore some of these challenges. I argue that an updated public anthropology is required if we are to reach out beyond the mass media channels familiar from previous decades. The new digital media environment is a ‘hybrid’ system made up of old and new technologies, actors and practices interacting in contingent ways (Chadwick 2011) as well as a domain of cultural production mired in a deep political and economic crisis. This situation demands open-ended, idiosyncratic, and collaborative approaches to public engagement that take into account both the unique affordances of today’s digital technologies and the aftereffects of the 2011 and 2013 waves of social protest around the globe. I exemplify this argument through my experience with four distinct platforms, namely a mailing list, a research blog, Twitter and Facebook, in a range of public contexts.

Media and social changing since 1979: Towards a diachronic ethnography of media and actual social changes

In this paper I address the question of how to study media and social change ethnographically. To... more In this paper I address the question of how to study media and social change ethnographically. To do so I draw from the relevant media anthropology literature, including my own research in Malaysia and Spain. I first sketch a history of media anthropology, identifying a number of key works and themes as well as two main phases of growth since the 1980s. I then argue that anthropologists are well positioned to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of media and social change. However, to do so we must first shift our current focus on media and ‘social changing’ (i.e. how things are changing) to the study of media in relation to actual social changes, e.g. the suburbanisation of Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s to 2000s, or the secularisation of morality in post-Franco Spain. This shift from the ethnographic present continuous to the ethnographic past tense – a move from potential to actual changes – does not require that we abandon our commitment to ethnography in favour of social history. Rather, it demands new forms of ‘diachronic ethnography’ that can handle the processual, finite logic of actual social changes.

Imagining Mundane Futures

Anthropology in Action

When people move country, they experience new social, infrastructural, and ambient contingencies,... more When people move country, they experience new social, infrastructural, and ambient contingencies, which enables them to imagine otherwise unknowable possible futures ‘at home’. In this article, we mobilise a design anthropological approach to show how collaboration with temporary migrants can generate understandings that generate insights regarding future sustainable products in emerging economies. We draw on research with temporary Indonesian student migrants in Australia, which explored how they envisioned their possible domestic futures through their changing laundry practices.

The Rise of Nerd Politics

The Rise of Nerd Politics, 2018

The irruption of WikiLeaks, Anonymous, Snowden and other tech-savvy actors onto the global politi... more The irruption of WikiLeaks, Anonymous, Snowden and other tech-savvy actors onto the global political stage raises urgent questions about the impact of digital activism on political systems around the world. The Rise of Nerd Politics is an anthropological exploration of the role that such actors play in sparking and managing new processes of political change in the digital age. Drawing from long-term ethnographic research in Spain and Indonesia - as well as case studies from the United States, Iceland, Tunisia, Taiwan, Brazil and elsewhere - Postill tracks the rise of techno-political 'nerds' as a new class of political brokers with growing influence. The book identifies and explores four domains of 'nerd politics' that have dramatically expanded since 2010: data activism, digital rights, social protest and formal politics. A lively and engaging intervention at the conjuncture of anthropology, media studies and sociology, The Rise of Nerd Politics offers a pertinent reflection on the future of political change in the digital age.

Theorising Media and Practice

by Birgit Braeuchler and John Postill

Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it... more Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it has had very limited impact on media studies. This book draws on the work of practice theorists such as Wittgenstein, Foucault, Bourdieu, Barth and Schatzki and rethinks the study of media from the perspective of practice theory. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from places such as Zambia, India, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, Norway and Denmark, the contributors address a number of important themes: media as practice; the interlinkage between media, culture and practice; the contextual study of media practices; and new practices of digital production. Collectively, these chapters make a strong case for the importance of theorising the relationship between media and practice and thereby adding practice theory as a new strand to the study of anthropology of media.

More info: Birgit Braeuchler & John Postill (eds.) 2010. Theorising Media and Practice. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books

http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BrauchlerTheorising

Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice

by John Postill, Heather Horst, Jo Tacchi, and Tania Lewis

This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use... more This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world. It contextualises digital and pre-digital ethnographic research and demonstrates how the methodological, practical and theoretical dimensions are increasingly intertwined.

Digital ethnography is central to our understanding of the social world; it can shape methodology and methods, and provides the technological tools needed to research society. The authoritative team of authors clearly set out how to research localities, objects and events as well as providing insights into exploring individuals’ or communities’ lived experiences, practices and relationships.

The book:

Defines a series of central concepts in this new branch of social and cultural research
Challenges existing conceptual and analytical categories
Showcases new and innovative methods
Theorises the digital world in new ways
Encourages us to rethink pre-digital practices, media and environments

This is the ideal introduction for anyone intending to conduct ethnographic research in today’s digital society.

Localizing the Internet: An Anthropological Account

Focusing on Subang Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, this study offers an in-depth examination of t... more Focusing on Subang Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, this study offers an in-depth examination of the workings of the Internet at the local level. In fact, Subang Jaya is regarded as Malaysia’s electronic governance laboratory. The author explores its field of residential affairs, a digitally mediated social field in which residents, civil servants, politicians, online journalists and other social agents struggle over how the locality is to be governed at the dawn of the ‘Information Era’. Drawing on the field theories of both Pierre Bourdieu and the Manchester School of political anthropology, this study challenges the unquestioned predominance of ‘network’ and ‘community’ as the two key sociation concepts in contemporary Internet studies. The analysis extends field theory in four new directions, namely the complex articulations between personal networking and social fields, the uneven diffusion and circulation of new field technologies and contents, intra- and inter-field political crises, and the emergence of new forms of residential sociality.

Theorising Media and Practice

Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it... more Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it has had very limited impact on media studies. This book draws on the work of practice theorists such as Wittgenstein, Foucault, Bourdieu, Barth and Schatzki and rethinks the study of media from the perspective of practice theory. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from places such as Zambia, India, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, Norway and Denmark, the contributors address a number of important themes: media as practice; the interlinkage between media, culture and practice; the contextual study of media practices; and new practices of digital production. Collectively, these chapters make a strong case for the importance of theorising the relationship between media and practice and thereby adding practice theory as a new strand to the anthropology of media. See http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/new-book-theorising-media-and-practice-brauchler-and-postill-2010/

Media and Nation Building

Tweeting Religion in Indonesia When Political Arenas Go Viral

The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combined with the rise of political Islamism in rece... more The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combined with the rise of political Islamism in recent years, are changing the ways in which people engage with religious matters in the world's largest Muslim country. One significant change is the way that religious and political figures incorporate a combination of online and offline audiences in maintaining their public authority.

Ethnography in a Digital World. In Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practices

Indonesian Religion as a Hybrid Media Space: Social Dramas in a Contested Realm

Asiascape: Digital Asia, 2018

The popularity of social media in Indonesia, along with the rise of political Islam, is changing ... more The popularity of social media in Indonesia, along with the rise of political Islam, is changing the ways in which people engage with religious matters in the country. In this article, we deploy post-Bourdieuan field theory to explore Indonesia’s religious domain as a ‘hybrid media space’ – a social space mediated by old and new media agents interacting to produce viralized forms of public communication. We undertake this exploration through three viral controversies, or ‘social dramas’, triggered by a perceived breach of the religious space’s order. All three dramas involved political Islamists in contention with various political actors, namely the Muslim senator Fahira Fahmi, the West Sumatran atheist Alexander Aan, and the then governor of Jakarta, ‘Ahok’. These examples shed light on the current state of Indonesia’s religious space and its multiple mediations, as well as taking field theory into new communicative and religious terrain.

Social Media Ethnography: The Digital Researcher in a Messy Web

Media International Australia, 2012

Social media practices and technologies are often part of how ethnographic research participants ... more Social media practices and technologies are often part of how ethnographic research participants navigate their wider social, material and technological worlds, and are equally part of ethnographic practice. This creates the need to consider how emergent forms of social media-driven ethnographic practice might be understood theoretically and methodologically. In this article, we respond critically to existing literatures concerning the nature of the internet as an ethnographic site by suggesting how concepts of routine, movement and sociality enable us to understand the making of social media ethnography knowledge and places.

What is the point of media anthropology? Authors' replies

Social Anthropology, 2009

Hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy: the many faces of Anonymous

Choice Reviews Online, 2015

Mobile ensembles: The uses of mobile phones for social protest by Spain¿ s indignados

During the 2011 wave of protests millions of citizens around the globe employed a vast range of d... more During the 2011 wave of protests millions of citizens around the globe employed a vast range of digital media to demand greater democratic freedoms and social justice. Although mobile phones were widely used in all these protests, their significance remains unclear. This chapter draws from both qualitative and quantitative research to shed light on the recent uses of mobile technologies for social protest, with Spain's Indignados (or 15M) movement as the case study. The chapter argues for the importance of processual analyses of the new protests that situate the uniqueness of each mobile technology and 'mobile ensemble' within a particular moment in the collective biography of a movement. This approach reveals the importance of smartphones as new articulators of online spaces and occupied physical spaces, especially via Twitter and live streaming.

The Logic of Connective Action

Information, Communication & Society, 2012

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or s... more This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sublicensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Multitudinous identities: a qualitative and network analysis of the 15M collective identity

Information, Communication & Society, 2015

The emergence of network-movements since 2011 has opened the debate around the way in which socia... more The emergence of network-movements since 2011 has opened the debate around the way in which social media and networked practices make possible innovative forms of collective identity. We briefly review the literature on social movements and 'collective identity', and show the tension between different positions stressing either organization or culture, the personal or the collective, aggregative or networking logics. We argue that the 15M (indignados) network-movement in Spain demands conceptual and methodological innovations. Its rapid emergence, endurance, diversity, multifaceted development and adaptive capacity, posit numerous theoretical and methodological challenges. We show how the use of structural and dynamic analysis of interaction networks (in combination with qualitative data) is a valuable tool to track the shape and change of what we term the 'systemic dimension' of collective identities in network-movements. In particular, we introduce a novel method for synchrony detection in Facebook activity to identify the distributed, yet integrated, coordinated activity behind collective identities. Applying this analytical strategy to the 15M movement, we show how it displays a specific form of systemic collective identity we call 'multitudinous identity', characterized by social transversality and internal heterogeneity, as well as a transient and distributed leadership driven by action initiatives. Our approach attends to the role of distributed interaction and transient leadership at a mesoscale level of organizational dynamics, which may contribute to contemporary discussions of collective identity in network-movements.

Media anthropology in a world of states

EASA Media Anthropology e-Seminar, Apr 19, 2005

This paper suggests that media anthropology should pay closer attention to the manifold nation-bu... more This paper suggests that media anthropology should pay closer attention to the manifold nation-building uses of media technologies, especially in postcolonial and post-Soviet countries. Adopting an ethnological approach, it questions the present celebration of the creative appropriation of media forms, and argues that it is time to reintroduce diffusionist approaches that can complement the prevailing appropriationism. In the same ethnological vein, it also suggests that modern states are not imagined communities but rather the ...

Localizing the internet: an anthropological account

At a critical time of democratic reform across many parts of Southeast Asia, Subang Jaya is regar... more At a critical time of democratic reform across many parts of Southeast Asia, Subang Jaya is regarded as Malaysia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s electronic governance laboratory. The focus of the study is Subang Jaya&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;s field of residential affairs, a digitally mediated social field in which residents, civil servants, politicians, online journalists and other social agents struggle over how the locality is to be governed at the dawn of the&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; Information Era.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; Drawing on the field theories of both Pierre Bourdieu and the Manchester School of political anthropology, this study ...

Public anthropology in times of media hybridity and global upheaval

The growing popularity of new social and participatory media at a time of global turbulence raise... more The growing popularity of new social and participatory media at a time of global turbulence raises challenging questions for anthropologists wishing to engage with publics beyond academia. In this chapter I draw from my experience as a media anthropologist researching activism and social protest to explore some of these challenges. I argue that an updated public anthropology is required if we are to reach out beyond the mass media channels familiar from previous decades. The new digital media environment is a ‘hybrid’ system made up of old and new technologies, actors and practices interacting in contingent ways (Chadwick 2011) as well as a domain of cultural production mired in a deep political and economic crisis. This situation demands open-ended, idiosyncratic, and collaborative approaches to public engagement that take into account both the unique affordances of today’s digital technologies and the aftereffects of the 2011 and 2013 waves of social protest around the globe. I exemplify this argument through my experience with four distinct platforms, namely a mailing list, a research blog, Twitter and Facebook, in a range of public contexts.

Media and social changing since 1979: Towards a diachronic ethnography of media and actual social changes

In this paper I address the question of how to study media and social change ethnographically. To... more In this paper I address the question of how to study media and social change ethnographically. To do so I draw from the relevant media anthropology literature, including my own research in Malaysia and Spain. I first sketch a history of media anthropology, identifying a number of key works and themes as well as two main phases of growth since the 1980s. I then argue that anthropologists are well positioned to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of media and social change. However, to do so we must first shift our current focus on media and ‘social changing’ (i.e. how things are changing) to the study of media in relation to actual social changes, e.g. the suburbanisation of Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s to 2000s, or the secularisation of morality in post-Franco Spain. This shift from the ethnographic present continuous to the ethnographic past tense – a move from potential to actual changes – does not require that we abandon our commitment to ethnography in favour of social history. Rather, it demands new forms of ‘diachronic ethnography’ that can handle the processual, finite logic of actual social changes.

Imagining Mundane Futures

Anthropology in Action

When people move country, they experience new social, infrastructural, and ambient contingencies,... more When people move country, they experience new social, infrastructural, and ambient contingencies, which enables them to imagine otherwise unknowable possible futures ‘at home’. In this article, we mobilise a design anthropological approach to show how collaboration with temporary migrants can generate understandings that generate insights regarding future sustainable products in emerging economies. We draw on research with temporary Indonesian student migrants in Australia, which explored how they envisioned their possible domestic futures through their changing laundry practices.

Remote ethnography: studying culture from afar

Hjorth, L., Horst, H., Galloway, A., & Bell, G. (Eds.). The Routledge companion to digital ethnography. Taylor & Francis., 2017

In this chapter I explore some of the challenges faced by ethnographers wishing to study a local ... more

Indonesian Religion as a Hybrid Media Space: Social Dramas in a Contested Realm

by Leonard Chrysostomos Epafras and John Postill

The popularity of social media in Indonesia, along with the rise of political Islam, is changing ... more The popularity of social media in Indonesia, along with the rise of political Islam, is changing the ways in which people engage with religious matters in the country. In this article, we deploy post-Bourdieuan field theory to explore Indonesia’s religious domain as a ‘hybrid media space’ – a social space mediated by old and new media agents interacting to produce viralized forms of public communication. We undertake this exploration through three viral controversies, or ‘social dramas’, triggered by a perceived breach of the religious space’s order. All three dramas involved political Islamists in contention with various political actors, namely the Muslim senator Fahira Fahmi, the West Sumatran atheist Alexander Aan, and the then governor of Jakarta, ‘Ahok’. These examples shed light on the current state of Indonesia’s religious space and its multiple mediations, as well as taking field theory into new communicative and religious terrain.

Tweeting Religion in Indonesia: When Political Arenas Go Viral

by Leonard Chrysostomos Epafras and John Postill

American Ethnologist (virtual), Nov 2017

The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combined with the rise of political Islamism in rece... more The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combined with the rise of political Islamism in recent years, are changing the ways in which people engage with religious matters in the world’s largest Muslim country. One significant change is the way that religious and political figures incorporate a combination of online and offline audiences in maintaining their public authority.

The diachronic ethnography of media: from social changing to actual social changes

In this article I address the challenge of how to study media and actual social changes ethnograp... more In this article I address the challenge of how to study media and actual social changes ethnographically. To do so I draw from the relevant media ethnography literature, including my own research in Malaysia and Spain. I argue that ethnographers are well positioned to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of media and social change. However, to do so we must first shift our current focus on media and 'social changing' (i.e. how things are always changing) to the study of media in relation to actual social changes, e.g. the suburbanisation of Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s to 2000s, the secularisation of morality in post-Franco Spain, or the success of new indignados parties in Spain's 2015 local government elections. This shift from the ethnographic present continuous to the past simple – a move from potential to actual changes – does not require that we abandon ethnography in favour of social history. Rather, it demands new forms of 'diachronic ethnography' that can handle the biographical, phase-by-phase logic of actual social changes. It also requires that we conduct not only multi-sited (Marcus, 1995) but also multi-timed fieldwork on specific congeries of media practices, forms and agents.

Victims, volunteers and voices of the digital age

In this chapter we draw from recent ethnographic and archival research in Indonesia to explore ho... more In this chapter we draw from recent ethnographic and archival research in Indonesia to explore how digital activists in that country translate or 'modulate' (Kelty 2008) key digital issues – which are sometimes highly technical and abstract – to reach diverse publics, often with remarkable success. We argue that Indonesia's digital activists have developed an effective pedagogical folksonomy in which three particular digital personas stand out, namely victims (korban), volunteers (relawan) and voices (suara) of the digital age. Each of these complexly mediated personas is endowed with unique attributes and located within a specific corner of Indonesia's digital activism space, and each is integral to efforts to educate diverse publics about the digital issues at stake. These three 'digital keywords' (Peters 2016) may seem both familiar and mundane, but we suggest that the work of personification that they enable has significant consequences for the framing of ongoing civil society struggles in post-Suharto Indonesia. We conclude that whether a certain individual or group is labelled a digital 'victim', 'voice' or 'volunteer' makes a difference to the evolution and eventual outcome of a given techno-political contention.

Mobile ensembles: The uses of mobile phones for social protest by Spain’s indignados

by Arnau Monterde and John Postill

Monterde, A. and J. Postill forthcoming 2013. Mobile ensembles: The uses of mobile phones for social protest by Spain’s indignados. In G. Goggin and L. Hjorth (eds.) Routledge Companion to Mobile Media.

During the 2011 wave of protests millions of citizens around the globe employed a vast range of d... more During the 2011 wave of protests millions of citizens around the globe employed a vast range of digital media to demand greater democratic freedoms and social justice. Although mobile phones were widely used in all these protests, their significance remains unclear. This chapter draws from both qualitative and quantitative research to shed light on the recent uses of mobile technologies for social protest, with Spain’s Indignados (or 15M) movement as the case study. The chapter argues for the importance of processual analyses of the new protests that situate the uniqueness of each mobile technology and ‘mobile ensemble’ within a particular moment in the collective biography of a movement. This approach reveals the importance of smartphones as new articulators of online spaces and occupied physical spaces, especially via Twitter and live streaming.

Digital rights in Southeast Asia and beyond: a review of RightsCon 2015

Last week I was in Manila to attend the 4th meeting of the RightsCon series, held on 24-25 March ... more Last week I was in Manila to attend the 4th meeting of the RightsCon series, held on 24-25 March 2015. This series of conferences seeks ‘to advance solutions to human rights challenges by concentrating on the possibilities within the tech sector’. In the following review I first discuss eight of the sessions I attended by clustering them into four paired sessions under the subheadings ‘Ruling the internet’, ‘Regional networks’, ‘Online fundamentalism’ and ‘Social media interventions’. I then offer some first reflections on the event.

The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. W.L. Bennett and A. Segerberg.

The Logic of Connective Action asks a timely question, namely ‘how digitally networked action wor... more The Logic of Connective Action asks a timely question, namely ‘how digitally networked action works in an era of increasingly personalised political participation’ (p. 211). The book’s premise is that the long-term decline in membership of civic and political organisations observed across the West, along with a ‘personalisation’ of lifestyles and media practices, suggests people’s engagement (or not) with politics may have changed.

Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Gabriella Coleman. NY: Verso Books, 2014.

The past five years have seen a global flourishing of political initiatives in which tech-minded ... more The past five years have seen a global flourishing of political initiatives in which tech-minded actors of different kinds (geeks, hackers, bloggers, online journalists, citizen politicians, etc.) have played prominent roles. From whistleblowing to online protests, from occupied squares to anti-establishment parties, these ‘freedom technologists’ can no longer be dismissed, particularly after Edward Snowden’s revelations about the surveillance abuses of America’s NSA and allied agencies. Based on long-term anthropological fieldwork, Gabriella Coleman’s Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, is a riveting account of one these new collective actors: Anonymous.

Media Rituals: A Critical Approach - by Nick Couldry

Anthropological Theory, 2005

Recently, a number of anthropologists have taken an interest in the relationship between ritual a... more Recently, a number of anthropologists have taken an interest in the relationship between ritual and media. Some of this work can be found in a 1998 edited volume entitled Media, Ritual and Performance edited by F. Hughes-Freeland. In her introduction Hughes-Freeland engages with the problem of defining ritual. In post-structuralist fashion, she does so by eschewing ‘essential’ definitions in favour of an ad-hoc, relational approach. The term ritual becomes ‘an odd-job word’. In stark contrast, Media Rituals, by the media theorist Nick Couldry, pursues a stable definition of ‘media ritual’ from beginning to end. Couldry describes his approach as ‘post-Durkheimian’ and ‘antifunctionalist’. His starting point is Victor Turner’s understanding of rituals as actions that embody and betoken transcendent values rather than as texts that ‘express’ cultural ideals (Geertz). Media rituals are actions that reproduce the ‘myth’ of the media as privileged access points to the centre of society – the ‘myth of the mediated centre’. This mythical reproduction takes place through tacit categories (e.g. media vs. non-media person) as well as values that engage and direct our attention.

The anthropology of news and journalism: global perspectives – Edited by S. Elizabeth Bird

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, JRAI, Dec 2011

This landmark volume opens with the valid premise that media anthropologists have so far neglecte... more This landmark volume opens with the valid premise that media anthropologists have so far neglected the study of the news media and journalism in favour of entertainment media such as radio, television and film. The book sets out to rectify this situation by bringing together leading scholars in the field with contributions published here for the first time. The aim is to reach out not only to other anthropologists but also to students and scholars in media, communication and journalism studies. Describing news as a form of ‘cultural meaning making’ or ‘cultural storytelling’ the editor, Elizabeth Bird, argues that anthropologists have an important contribution to make to the long overdue de-Westernisation of this interdisciplinary field. The book consists of an Introduction followed by three sections of varying length: Part 1 (eight chapters) on the ethnography of news production, Part 2 (five chapters) on everyday news practices and Part 3 (three chapters) on news in the new media era.

The Manchester School: Practice and Ethnographic Praxis in Anthropology - T.M.S. Evens & Don Handelman (eds).

Ethnos, 2007

This volume revisits the extended-case method, an ethnographic research strategy developed in the... more This volume revisits the extended-case method, an ethnographic research strategy developed in the 1940s to 1960s by members of the so-called Manchester School of anthropology led by Max Gluckman. The book opens with an introductory section, followed by sections on the theorisation, history and practice of the extended-case method, and concluding with a coda by Bruce Kapferer. The introduction features reprints of classic texts by Gluckman (1961) and Mitchell (1983); the following section engages critically with the method's enduring strengths and weaknesses, exploring new theoretical possibilities by way of Heidegger, Goffman, Deleuze and Guattari; the historical section traces the method's mixed ancestry, including its hitherto little known Chicago connections; finally, the practical section assesses the method's relevance to contemporary anthropological analysis.

Call for Chapters: Theorising Media and Conflict

by John Postill and Birgit Braeuchler

The aim of this interdisciplinary volume is to bring together media anthropologists and other med... more The aim of this interdisciplinary volume is to bring together media anthropologists and other media and communication scholars working to collectively address the elusive relationships between media and conflict. On the one hand, the volume is a continuation of a long tradition of conflict research in anthropology and neighbouring fields. On the other, it will contribute to the consolidation of media and conflict as a distinct area of scholarship.

CFA: Theorising Media and Conflict workshop, Vienna, 23-24 Oct 2015

by John Postill and Philipp Budka

In a recent survey of the interdisciplinary literature on media and conflict, Schoemaker and Stre... more In a recent survey of the interdisciplinary literature on media and conflict, Schoemaker and Stremlau (2014) found that most existing studies display Western-centric biases, normative assumptions and unsubstantiated claims about the impact of media in conflict situations. With their ethnographic methods and ground-up theorising, anthropologists are therefore well placed to make a strong contribution to the advancement of this area of scholarship. Although a growing number of anthropologists have studied media in conflict and post-conflict contexts – working on diverse topics such as media representations, cyberwar, internet activism, social protest, video-making, or radio dramas – so far they have done so in relative isolation from one another. The result is a fragmentation of the field and a dissipation of efforts.
The aim of this workshop is to remedy this situation by bringing together media anthropologists and other media and communication scholars working on the complex relationship between media and conflict.

CFP: Media, culture and change across the Pacific: perspectives from Asia, Oceania and the Americas

by Raúl Castro-Pérez and John Postill

This conference will be held in Lima, Peru, on 16-17 November 2015. The aim is to bring together ... more This conference will be held in Lima, Peru, on 16-17 November 2015. The aim is to bring together media anthropologists and other media and communication scholars and researchers from across the Pacific region ( i.e. East and Southeast Asia, Australasia, the Pacific islands, and Pacific countries in the Americas) to share their current research, compare and contrast findings, and discuss possible research collaborations and funding bids. The conference will also serve to launch a new interdisciplinary network: the Trans-Pacific Media Research Network. The best papers will be published in an invited special issue of the international journal Media, Culture and Society under the conference theme

Freedom technologists bibliography

In this working bibliography I bring together a large set of (mostly academic) references on a sp... more In this working bibliography I bring together a large set of (mostly academic) references on a specific category of political actor that I am calling ‘freedom technologists’, namely those tech-minded individuals, groups and organisations who have a keen interest in the democratic and emancipatory potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). In other words, freedom technologists combine technological and political notions and skills to pursue greater Internet and democratic freedoms, which they regard as being inextricably entwined (Postill 2014). Far from being techno-utopians or deluded ‘slacktivists’ (Morozov, 2013, Skoric, 2012), in my experience most freedom technologists are in fact techno-pragmatists, that is, people who take a very practical view of the limits and possibilities of new technologies for political change. This working bibliography is part of current research towards my forthcoming book Freedom Technologists: Digital Activism and Political Change in the 21st Century (working title). Further suggestions are always welcome via email or via the comments section.

DATA ETHNOGRAPHIES (I); Personal data in an uncertain world

by Edgar Gómez Cruz, Sarah Pink, Deborah Lupton, Heather Horst, John Postill, Paul Dourish, and Vaike Fors

Position paper. First Workshop of the Digital Ethnographies Lab, RMIT.