Suncem Kocer Camurdan

Preliminary abstract: The goal of this workshop is to launch a sustainable platform for media ethnographers of Turkey where they delve into critical theoretical issues and pressing methodological discussions that are specific to the Turkish context. The Turkish context is comprised of a dynamic and complex cultural field, which makes it a challenging task for media anthropologists to define their researcher identity and to designate their theoretical approach. The current media environment marked by censorship, political pressure, and deepening polarization further complicates the picture for ethnographers of Turkish media and renders it difficult for them to find safe entry points for participant observation. A first in this area, this workshop will constitute a platform where a select group of media ethnographers working in Turkey would develop channels of conversation to define, refine, and expand the tools of anthropological knowledge on media. For three days, eighteen invited media ethnographers would engage in discussions on ethnography as both a methodological endeavour and a theoretical outlook in studying the social and cultural processes of media. The anthropological discourse that flourishes in and through the workshop would result in two forms of concrete outcomes. One of them is a collected volume. The second is a web blog that would have dynamic and interactive content about both media ethnography in Turkey and global tendencies in the relevant anthropological literatures.