ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the rooted in anthropological and ethnographic methods, and at the same time emerge from creative and multi-method approaches that include digital methods, interviews, participant-observation, diaries, and analyses of artifacts. The part on “History” traces foundational scholarship in media anthropology as well as the history of senior scholars’ works and their impact on the development of the field. The second part, “Approaches,” provides an overview of the main perspectives in media anthropology, including “materiality,” “representation,” “infrastructure,” and “practice.” Malaby analyses the role of “hypomediacy” in which practices of game remediation are denied, with implications for how institutions use gaming infrastructures to make claims about reality. Practice theory as applied to media anthropology served an important role in expanding the field beyond textual and audience consideration, which remain important, but constitute only part of the human mediation saga.
