Weaving Mediation and Embodiment: The Media Ethnographer as Figurations of Mediation

Authors

  • Frédérik Lesage School of Communication, Simon Fraser University
  • Alberto Lusoli School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

Keywords:

mediatization, figurations, mediation, media ethnography, media manifold, startup culture

Abstract

Building on previous ethnographic approaches, we propose a framework to describe and analyze how media ethnographers are themselves constituted in relation to processes of mediatization. Drawing from mediatization theory, we advance a twofold conception of the media ethnographer as being composed by interweaving processes of embodiment and mediation, which we refer to as figurations of mediation. Using a fourfold typology, we show how different kinds of figurations of mediation establish the media ethnographer’s relations to the field, to research participants, and to research instruments in different ways. We argue that this framework affords media ethnographers the conceptual and methodological tools required to empirically observe and describe how the media ethnographer shifts from compositions through, in, of, and with media. Finally, we demonstrate how this framework can be operationalized by applying it to a case study of startup workers in Vancouver that involves the online platform Meetup.

Author Biographies

Frédérik Lesage, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

Frédérik Lesage is an Associate Professor in information and communication technologies at Simon Fraser University' s School of Communication in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Lesage's research explores the interplay between digital media and practices of cultural production. His most recent work centres on the design cultures of digital media and the mediatization of software skills.

Alberto Lusoli, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University

Alberto Lusoli is a Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University, School of Communi-cation, working at the intersection of media studies, science and technology studies and critical management studies. He's conducting research on the cultural dimension of the startup economy with a particular focus on Vancouver's tech and new-media industries.

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Published

2021-04-29

Issue

Vol. 15 (2021)

Section

Articles

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