ABSTRACT

This chapter explores what it means to conduct media fieldwork by critically reflecting upon a collaborative research project in rural Zambia in 2012 and 2013. It discusses what a media studies approach to fieldwork entails and what the affordances and limits of such an approach might be. The chapter also discusses of four principles that are important to consider when conducting future media fieldwork in developing rural communities. Reflexively pointing to the challenges that researchers encounter during media fieldwork can contribute to a collective knowledge and facilitate stronger future research collaborations. The concept of attunement recognizes that researchers are embedded within material conditions and affective relations when they are conducting fieldwork. There is a need to rethink the very terms of media in relation to more multifarious conditions in the world—to investigate the dynamic intra-actions of media within and across various rural communities, materials, practices, and sectors.