Article:
The Inchoate Field of Digital Offline: A Reflection on Studying Mobile Media Practices of Digital Subalterns in India

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dc.creatorM., Rashmi
dc.date.accessioned2020-03-10T10:06:53Z
dc.date.available2020-03-10T10:06:53Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.description.abstractThis article reflects on studying mobile phones as digital technologies, while much of the scholarly preoccupation thus far has been to study them as communication technologies. Based on the doctoral study on subaltern users and their mobile media digital practices in India, it discusses some of the theoretical issues and outlines methodological possibilities while entering the field. It makes distinction between the theoretical orientations of techno-sociality and sociality of technology, and highlights the significance of adopting the latter to study new socialities that are emerging due to human interaction with technology. It discusses some challenges of doing qualitative research in new media contexts and suggests measures for overcoming them. In this regard, it reviews the suitability of virtual ethnography and participant observation as methodological approaches to mobile phones. While the popular trend has been to resort to technologised tools of data collection and processing (even within qualitative research in new media and digital technologies) this article suggests and discusses the usefulness of a more basic, yet powerful method of long interview to study users and document their practices. It concludes how such a choice can also be regardful of some ethical issues involved in studying user practices on mobile phones.en
dc.identifier.doi10.25969/mediarep/13510
dc.identifier.urihttp://digicults.org/files/2019/11/dcs-2017-0213.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://mediarep.org/handle/doc/14436
dc.languageeng
dc.publishertranscript
dc.publisher.placeBielefeld
dc.relation.isPartOfissn:2364-2114
dc.relation.ispartofseriesDigital Culture & Society
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectmobile phoneen
dc.subjectethnographyen
dc.subjectmedia practiceen
dc.subjectHandyde
dc.subjectMobiltelefoniede
dc.subjectEthnographiede
dc.subjectMedienpraxisde
dc.subject.ddcddc:790
dc.titleThe Inchoate Field of Digital Offline: A Reflection on Studying Mobile Media Practices of Digital Subalterns in Indiaen
dc.typearticle
dc.type.statuspublishedVersion
dspace.entity.typeArticleen
local.coverpage2021-05-29T02:31:51
local.identifier.firstpublishedhttp://digicults.org/files/2019/11/dcs-2017-0213.pdf
local.source.epage227
local.source.issue2
local.source.issueTitleMobile Digital Practices
local.source.spage219
local.source.volume3

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3(2) 2017: Mobile Digital Practices