Anthropology of Media

The course deals with ethnographic studies in mass media (anthropology of media) and with use of mass media to popularize anthropology (media anthropology). Media as social and cultural practices. Forms and contents of mass media, media production. Ethnography of the public and its role in production of meaning. Everyday use of media technologies. Ideology and power. Theory of communication. Coding and decoding. Cultural policy and activism. History of mediated popularization of knowledge and its consequences with classical anthropologists. Popular topics in anthropology and ethnology (implications of the exotic, national discourses) in the past and the present (descriptions, contextualizations and interpretations of events/news around the world; representations of heritage and identities). Discussion of the past and present processes in publishing houses and the press. Rhetorical and linguistic styles in media communication.