総合情報学科 メディア情報専攻

This laboratory sees media and technology as human tools that reflect the time and place of their creation. We focus on how media are used by producers, distributors and consumers to reflect and construct social realities as well as to perform social identities. We look at specific examples—from film, photography, fashion, manga, SNS and other formats—to ask how politics and economics shape media and the human capacity for communication and knowledge. Students can select any media or technological object of their interest to research. Examples include but are not limited to: manga and changing gender roles in Japan, YouTuber video bloggers or Twitch streamers and new forms of work, the impact of SNS on language and communication, the localization of media such as videogames and anime in global circulation, the rise of bioinformatics for the study of human disease, and the universal presence of computer code and AI in daily life.

Students should have an interest in the critical analysis of media and technology. They will learn about anthropological concepts of globalization, race, class, gender and power and how to use them for analysis and research. Students can explore the use of media itself as a research tool, such as still photography, documentary video or ethnographic film production. They will also learn how to use qualitative research methods, such as interviews and questionnaires.