John Postill
I am an anthropologist specialising in the study of digital media. I hold a PhD in social anthropology from University College London (UCL). Currently I am Senior Lecturer in Media at Sheffield Hallam University and a Fellow of the Digital Anthropology Programme at UCL.
In September 2010 I took up a one-year Senior Fellowship at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona where I investigated the uses of social media for activism in collaboration with Sarah Pink, most recently in connection with the indignados (#15M) movement. I am now writing up the findings from this research in the form of book chapters, articles and a book.
I am also interested in the possible media applications of practice theory, in rethinking sociality and related concepts, and in how to theorise the elusive relationship between digital media and sociocultural change.
I have lived and worked in various fields in Spain, Britain, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, Malaysia and Romania. Previously I held research fellowships at Cambridge University, Bremen University and the Academy of Art and Design in Karlsruhe and taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, Staffordshire University and the National School of Political Science and Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest.
My first book, Media and Nation Building, was published by Berghahn in 2006. This study draws on historical and ethnographic research to explain how the Iban, an indigenous people of Borneo, have been an integral part of Malaysia’s nation-building project since independence in 1963 – an ongoing project that relies on a range of state and commercial media. My second ethnography, Localizing the Internet, based on fieldwork among Internet activists in Peninsular Malaysia, was published in 2011. I have also edited a volume with Birgit Bräuchler entitled Theorising Media and Practice (2010), also with Berghahn.
I am the editor, with Mark A. Peterson, of Berghahn’s Anthropology of Media Series, the convenor of the EASA Media Anthropology Network and a member of the editorial board of Anthropology Today.
The aim of this blog is to put out in the public domain materials that I am already working with as part of my research activity under the broad theme of media anthropology. The idea is to keep colleagues, students and others informed of my work as well as to keep an online notebook for my own personal use, e.g. as an easy way of tracking down materials that may otherwise have remained hidden in my personal records.
To get in touch with me, please use the Contact page and I will try to reply quickly. You can also reach me via email (j.postill[at]shu.ac.uk) or Twitter at @JohnPostill.
John Postill
Sheffield, 28 April 2012
(Header illustration: Nature)
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hi john. read yoyr post in AIR list. i am indonesian. was working with indonesian ngo and social movement, did phd on internet and civil society in indonesia and now wondering around in manchester … maybe one day we can meet and talk? best, y.
Congratulations on the work of disseminating achieved on this site.
Thanks Christian, that’s very encouraging feedback. I’m hoping to give the blog a more public edge over time, e.g. by engaging from an anthropological perspective with some of the media-related issues discussed on the scientific salon Edge.org. I’m a great fan of Edge.org but it does have a conspicuously low proportion of anthropologists as contributors.
Hi John!
What a wonderful site you do!
Im doing doctor degree at PUC-Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Im very surprise to research youth literacies in the internet. The resources you put here will help me a lot!
Congratulations!
Many thanks for the compliment, Iliana. I’m glad you find the site of use. What exactly are your researching?
Oi, John!
I wrote you an email explaining a little bit more about my research.
My study describes practices and representations of reading and writing of digital natives. I visited 6 teenagers in their homes one time a week for 2 months, looking things they like to do on pc and asking them about the digital reading and writing meanings.
I will buy your book now!
Thanks for this and for the more detailed email, it sounds terrific. Did you find a lot of diversity among all six teenagers (including digital skills), i.e. highly idiosyncratic sets of individual practices? And what were the commonalities?
PS I’m very interested in the *rewards* of media practice (see Warde 2005, this blog). What do your young people ‘get out of’ their digital media practices? What makes them sustain some digital practices but not others (spending time and money on them)?
Dear John!
I just finished to do the interviews, in the sense I trascribed all meetings, video recordered, and I save their print screens and digital and press favourite stories. I will use the software Nudist to analyse the empyrical material. I ll have my qualify 2 on november and then I will have more details to share with u. Its interestint to know how important the computer is for all of them, and how paper receive a special meaning to express feelings. They love the possibility to create fake profiles because in this way they can express themselves with freedom, includding topics about sex.
Obrigado Iliana. I look forward to it.