Anthropology of the media: between communication and cultural studies. Folds, tensions and challenges

This article reviews the intersections between anthropology and communication from the perspective that brought both disciplines closer together: Cultural Studies. These were interested in mass media, daily life of people and their connection with the media, and also in ethnography as a theoretical-methodological approach. This article is structured in three moments. First, it focuses on how anthropology enters communication studies, then it reviews how communication folds over anthropology, especially taking account of the concern of the notion of culture and the incorporation of ethnography as a method. Finally, in the conclusions, it analyzes the connections and disconnections of the perspectives in the face of the new challenges of media research and accounts for the disputes generated around the use of ethnography for research.

KEYWORDS:
Anthropology; cultural studies; communication; ethnography