Topic: Media Studies

How performances of tactical imperceptibility—or “stealth”—have become a key political practice in digital culture as a means of escaping surveillance and tracking technologies. In The Aesthetics of Stealth, Toni Pape proposes...

A provocative study that reconsiders our notion of play—and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color. Contemporary theorists present play as something wholly constructive and...

The first book-length study of Nairobi-based female filmmakers—and how their dogged pursuit of opportunities, innovation, and cultural support is defining an industry. Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is home to...

How systematic comparative research can unlock the potential of social media scholarship. Though diverse and fruitful, social media scholarship too often focuses on single platforms in single countries, disconnected from...

The precarious reality of videogame production beyond the corporate blockbuster studios of North America. The videogame industry, we're invariably told, is a multibillion-dollar, high-tech business conducted by large corporations in...

An in-depth look at Ukraine's attempts to shape how it is perceived by the rest of the world. During times of crisis, competing narratives are often advanced to define what...

How prisoners serve as media laborers, while the prison serves as a testing ground for new media technologies. Prisons are not typically known for cutting-edge media technologies. Yet from photography...

How a generation of tech-savvy young Cambodians is restoring historical media artifacts from before the war—and, in the process, helping to repair the Khmer Rouge's cultural destruction. During the Khmer...

A systematic theory of DIY electronic culture, drawn from a century of artists who have independently built creative technologies. Since the rise of Arduino and 3D printing in the mid-2000s,...

The art of mashup music, its roots in parody, and its social and legal implications. Parody needn't recognize copyright—but does an algorithm recognize parody? The ever-increasing popularity of remix culture...

An ethnographic study of diverse children on the autism spectrum and the role of media and technology in their everyday lives. In spite of widespread assumptions that young people on...

The cultural ramifications of online live streaming, including its effects on identity and power in digital spaces. Some consider live streaming—the broadcasting of video and/or audio footage live online—simply an...