Introduction : prospects for a digital anthropology

Anthropology's interest in visual communication dates back more than a century, as part of what may be considered the rich history and legacy of visual anthropology and ethnographic film. Moreover, anthropology has always been intricately linked to new media developments from photography to early cinema (when these media were new), from documentary and cinema verité to experimental film. The increasing engagements by anthropologists in applied and public visual research and practice are a sign that ethnographic studies of the social practices of media may provide contemporary anthropology with renewed strategies for a voice in international affairs and public debate. These include areas such as media policy, international law, communication rights, migration, media diversity and democracy. Its agenda must open up to new fields of study and, in a context of expanding globalisation, urbanisation and technological change, anthropology must reorient its inquiry with other related fields in the arts, humanities and sciences that have emerged strongly in recent decades. The aim of this special issue is not to trace the history of visual anthropology, but to map out some of the directions in which the discipline is going, in light of current prospects offered by new digital media theory and practice. What we are seeing today is a more active engagement by anthropologists with media technologies as instruments of cultural mediation and social participation.