Migration and New Media ─ Transnational Families and Polymedia

"The way in which families maintain long distance communication when they are separated because of migration has been revolutionised by the emergence of a variety of internet- and mobile phone-based platforms. These platforms have created a new communicative environment, which the authors call 'polymedia'. 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. It is unique in theway it provides firstly a theory of the new experience of media itself, as polymedia. This is complemented by a theory of relationships based on an analysis of mother-child communication. 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."--Publisher's description.

Mirca Madianou is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, UK. She is the author of Mediating the Nation and several articles on the social consequences of the media.

Daniel Miller is Professor of Material Culture at the Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK. His most recent books include Tales from Facebook and Digital Anthropology (edited with Heather Horst).