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A lot of public information about science and technology, and indeed about most ideas and products, is gained through a range of media: newspapers, radio, tele- vision, billboards and so on. Businesses and industries rely almost entirely on these to communicate with their target audiences, and in this representational arena, as in more direct interpersonal forms of communication, cross-cultural translation and an analytic eye are useful.

Elizabeth Colson and Conrad Kottak make the point that in a globalizing world it is vital for us to consider the way that communications media create multiple linkages between local, regional, national and international spheres of activity, exposing people to external institutions and alternative ways of life (Colson and Kottak 1996). Kottak’s own research is concerned with how the introduction of television has changed local life in Brazil. He did a longitudinal study with four communities, looking at their engagement with TV over time (Kottak 1996).

Kottak’s research revealed several stages: an initial period in which the novelty of the technology meant that the medium was more of a focus than the message; then a stage at which people were highly receptive to its messages. Things would then settle down into a more subtle and pervasive mode, in which its influence was revealed in changes in behaviour and cultural choices. He makes the point that electronic media instantaneously transmit information and images within and across national boundaries, and that in doing so it is a major socializing agent, competing with family, school, peers, community and church. It directs attention towards some things and away from others, casting television directors as knowledge gatekeepers and regulating public access to information. ‘The mass media play an increasingly prominent role in national and international culture. They propel a globally spreading culture of consumption, stimulating participation in the cash economy. Particularly for non-literate people, the most significant mass medium is television’ (Kottak 1996: 135).

The research also showed that this is not simple matter of globalization and homogenization: local cultural variations make a major difference to how TV is engaged with and received: ‘As print has done for centuries . . . the electronic mass media can also spread, and even create, national and ethnic identities. Like print,

television and radio can diffuse the cultures of different countries within their own boundaries, thus enhancing national cultural identity (Kottak 1996: 135).

The issue of how media contribute to the way that people imagine their own and others’ identities is also the focus of Daniel Lefkowitz’s (2001) research on the Israeli newspaper business. He notes Teun Van Djik’s observation that the way news is portrayed often perpetuates racism and prejudice, for example by linking minority ethnic groups and crime, and reproducing ideologically dominant representations of identity. Obviously this has major social and political implications, and there are connections with the kind of work discussed in Chapter 1, in which anthropologists involved in advocacy and conflict resolution try to combat stereotypical representations by providing in-depth ethnographic accounts of cultural groups and their worldviews.

The way that people perceive and represent their own identity also has a major impact on how they engage with ‘the market’, for example influencing what they choose to buy; what they want to eat; what they want to read; and what they want to see on television. In working with business and industry, a number of anthropologists are involved in this area of research. For example, Simon Roberts’ consultancy firm specializes in examining people’s responses to media:

[It is] a small research company called Ideas Bazaar that currently employs four people full time, and a host of freelance researchers, many graduates or postgraduates of anthropology. Our work to date has focused on three principal areas, some by design, some by accident: Print and Broadcast Media, Technology and Communications, and Organisations and Change. (Roberts 2006: 76)

The consultancy’s research has covered a variety of areas: conducting audience research and getting involved in programme ideas development for the BBC; making investigations of mobile phone use; studying people’s late-night television viewing and their readership of local and regional newspapers.

research project at the London-based not-for-profit think-tank and consult- ancy, The Work Foundation [which] investigates the impact of information and communications technologies in the UK . . . Most iSociety projects use ethnographic research as a first choice methodology . . . Broadly speaking we help our clients understand the worlds in which they operate, from their audiences’ perspectives, and then we assist them in acting upon this understanding. Our job, as we see it, is to give them a new understanding of a familiar environment. (Roberts 2006: 76–7)

Anthropological experience is also useful in ensuring that communications are culturally sensitive. A few years ago, the Royal Anthropological Institute responded to a request from the UK’s Advertising Standards Board to review advertisements in terms of their cultural meanings, and advise the Board accordingly. The panel, composed of anthropologists working in different parts of the world, was able to put forward a range of perspectives on the meanings that might be ascribed to the ads by diverse cultural groups.

As writers such as Sean Nixon (2003) and Liz McFall (2004) have observed, ad- vertising is of course intimately concerned with cultural beliefs and values, hoping to present products in a way that accords with what is considered culturally desirable. Advertising content and how people respond to it is therefore fertile ground for anthropological analysis, as is the ‘advertising culture’ of the companies who produce this particular product.2 _{There are many ways to approach the analysis of advertising:}

for example, in his work with Japanese advertising agencies, Brian Moeran, who is based at the Copenhagen Business School, thinks of it classically as ‘storytelling’:

An advertising agency may be seen as a dedicated storytelling organization . . . Participant observation in the agency has impressed upon me that making ads is mainly a matter of talk. There is talk about accounts, rival agencies, and all the people and institutions (corporate clients, publishing houses, television networks, production shops, celebrities, and so on) that constitute the field of Japanese advertising. There is talk about ad campaigns themselves – about how one marketing analysis successfully repositioned a luxury item as an everyday commodity, or another creative idea enabled a product to ‘speak’ to an elusive consumer group, and so on. (Moeran 2007: 160)

Robert Morais conducts research on advertising organizations in America. Seeking to ‘unpack’ the client-agency relationship he follows Helen Schwartzman’s (1987) example in studying meetings, focusing on those

. . . between the manufacturer (client) and the advertising agency, where advert- ising ideas are presented, discussed, and selected. Although the participants enter

these meetings with the common goal of reaching agreement on the ideas that will be advanced to the next step in the creative development process, the attendees have additional, sometimes conflicting, professional and personal objectives. To achieve their objectives, meeting participants must have a command of unwritten rules, understand subtle verbal and nonverbal behavior, comprehend and navigate the delicate client-agency balance of power, demonstrate the craft of negotiation, and impress their superiors. American advertising creative meetings contain the defining attitudes, behaviors, and symbols of the client- agency relationship. (Morais 2007: 150)