"The Anthropology of Media" and "Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain"

Abstract

Book reviews of "Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain". Faye D. Ginsburg, Lila Abu‐Lughod, and Brian Larkin, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press and "The Anthropology of Media: A Reader". Kelly Askew and Richard R. Wilk, eds. Anthropologists have often approached media as something haphazardly stumbled on while conducting fieldwork or as a basis of anecdotal comparison in discussions of more substantial issues. The topic is consistently approached uncritically, and the presence of various forms of media in different cultural settings is either considered exotic or disregarded as commonplace.