Media, The State, And The Senses

(Cross-listed as FMS 107.) States mobilize mass media to strengthen nationalism, spur development, and protect regimes. Yet, people interpret media in complex ways; they delight in media's excesses; they contextualize media within their everyday lives. We examine how people actively sense and make sense of media. People also engage in processes of media production that yield other ways of place-making, objectifying ethics, and practicing politics. We will attend to the possibilities and limitations of diverse media technologies (television, film, radio, cassette tapes, newspapers, and the Internet) due to material forms and institutional structures. Ethnographic examples from a variety of locations will be included.