Migration and New Media

by Mirca Madianou; Daniel Miller

• ISBN13: 9780203154236
• ISBN10: 0203154231
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2013-03-01
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

How do parents and children care and look after each other when they are separated because of migration? The way in which families maintain long distance communication has been revolutionised by the emergence of a variety of internet- and mobile phone-based platforms including email, instant messaging , social networking sites , videocalling and texting. These have created a new communicative environment, termed '¬Üpolymedia'¬". We are now in an era when it is possible to maintain intimacy and care at a distance and such communicative opportunities may even play a role in shaping decisions relating to migration and settlement. This book draws on a long-term ethnographic study of prolonged separation between transnational Filipino migrant mothers in the UK and their left-behind children in the Philippines. The authors seek to go beyond both media studies and anthropology to construct a new theory of mediated relationships that combines findings from both disciplines and has considerable importance for the social sciences more generally.