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Papers by Heather Horst

This article draws upon the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) State of Media and Communica... more This article draws upon the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) State of Media and Communication Report to examine the implications of a changing media landscape for journalism practice in the Pacific region. The report contributes to an understanding of the diverse media and communications environments in the Pacific Islands (PI) region and captures aspects of the variations both in media, and in context, across and within the 14 Pacific Islands countries. This article highlights the need for synergies in the Pacific Islands to strengthen legislation, capacity-building initiatives and content production in a fast-changing digital environment.

In response to both the gap in qualitative knowledge relating to ICTs and development, and the ne... more In response to both the gap in qualitative knowledge relating to ICTs and development, and the need to generate more detailed accounts of the social, cultural and political dynamics that constrain or facilitate ICT interventions and pro-social communication more broadly, a team of researchers came together and established a research group (Information Society Research Group) to work in partnership with local institutions in pursuit of its research agenda in the four countries chosen for the study, India, Ghana, South Africa and Jamaica. In each country, in order to gauge differences in uptake and use of ICTs, an urban and rural research site was chose. The purpose of this strategy was to ensure some basic comparability between the four countries. The findings of the study are presented under the following categories:
-New networks and the management of remoteness
-Health and welfare
-Civil Society strengthening and rights
-Education
-Gender Equity
-Livelihoods and economy

This chapter explores the negotiations around knowledge production and forms of “knowing” in coll... more This chapter explores the negotiations around knowledge production and forms of “knowing” in collaborative, distributed, and interdisciplinary projects that privilege ethnography as an epistemological and methodological approach to knowing. More specifically, it explores the relationships between “traditional” forms of knowing and knowledge production and the processes of “being in fieldwork” in contemporary anthropology’s complex and dynamic research environment that is increasingly mediated through digital technologies, spaces, places, and artefacts. Drawing upon my participation on three ethnographic collaborations over the past decade, I reflect upon a shift from personalized, private experiences of fieldwork, wherein the individual self is the primary instrument of knowing, to a de-centred self by which knowledge is constructed through different forms of interaction and mediated in and through digital interfaces and technology. I conclude with a brief discussion of the challenges of each mode of mediation and collaboration.

The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, 2011

The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2014

Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, 2013

ABSTRACT How do users incorporate mobile money into their existing practices and adapt it to thei... more ABSTRACT How do users incorporate mobile money into their existing practices and adapt it to their needs? The answers can be surprising. Simultaneously a commodity, a store of value, and a social good, mobile money combines a large array of applications within the one platform. This is why mobile money has been touted for its potential for socioeconomic development, as a profitable commercial enterprise, and even as a tool for strengthening governance. The fact that customers rarely use it for just one purpose can also make it difficult to untangle customers’ motives and behaviors. In this paper we compare our own research with other studies to demonstrate how deploying a full suite of ethnographic methods (qualitative and quantitative) can provide significant insights into users. We present three key insights relating to time, trust, and traces / trajectories, and make suggestions for the future of mobile money research.

International Journal of Communication, 2011

... HEATHER A. HORST University of California, Irvine This article analyzes how new media are bei... more ... HEATHER A. HORST University of California, Irvine This article analyzes how new media are being appropriated within the Brazilian society. ... As the producer of the video, Fernando Motolese recounts: At 2 am on Saturday, a Brazilian wrote in English that it was a bird. ...

This article draws upon the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) State of Media and Communica... more This article draws upon the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) State of Media and Communication Report to examine the implications of a changing media landscape for journalism practice in the Pacific region. The report contributes to an understanding of the diverse media and communications environments in the Pacific Islands (PI) region and captures aspects of the variations both in media, and in context, across and within the 14 Pacific Islands countries. This article highlights the need for synergies in the Pacific Islands to strengthen legislation, capacity-building initiatives and content production in a fast-changing digital environment.

In response to both the gap in qualitative knowledge relating to ICTs and development, and the ne... more In response to both the gap in qualitative knowledge relating to ICTs and development, and the need to generate more detailed accounts of the social, cultural and political dynamics that constrain or facilitate ICT interventions and pro-social communication more broadly, a team of researchers came together and established a research group (Information Society Research Group) to work in partnership with local institutions in pursuit of its research agenda in the four countries chosen for the study, India, Ghana, South Africa and Jamaica. In each country, in order to gauge differences in uptake and use of ICTs, an urban and rural research site was chose. The purpose of this strategy was to ensure some basic comparability between the four countries. The findings of the study are presented under the following categories:
-New networks and the management of remoteness
-Health and welfare
-Civil Society strengthening and rights
-Education
-Gender Equity
-Livelihoods and economy

This chapter explores the negotiations around knowledge production and forms of “knowing” in coll... more This chapter explores the negotiations around knowledge production and forms of “knowing” in collaborative, distributed, and interdisciplinary projects that privilege ethnography as an epistemological and methodological approach to knowing. More specifically, it explores the relationships between “traditional” forms of knowing and knowledge production and the processes of “being in fieldwork” in contemporary anthropology’s complex and dynamic research environment that is increasingly mediated through digital technologies, spaces, places, and artefacts. Drawing upon my participation on three ethnographic collaborations over the past decade, I reflect upon a shift from personalized, private experiences of fieldwork, wherein the individual self is the primary instrument of knowing, to a de-centred self by which knowledge is constructed through different forms of interaction and mediated in and through digital interfaces and technology. I conclude with a brief discussion of the challenges of each mode of mediation and collaboration.

The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, 2011

The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2014

Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, 2013

ABSTRACT How do users incorporate mobile money into their existing practices and adapt it to thei... more ABSTRACT How do users incorporate mobile money into their existing practices and adapt it to their needs? The answers can be surprising. Simultaneously a commodity, a store of value, and a social good, mobile money combines a large array of applications within the one platform. This is why mobile money has been touted for its potential for socioeconomic development, as a profitable commercial enterprise, and even as a tool for strengthening governance. The fact that customers rarely use it for just one purpose can also make it difficult to untangle customers’ motives and behaviors. In this paper we compare our own research with other studies to demonstrate how deploying a full suite of ethnographic methods (qualitative and quantitative) can provide significant insights into users. We present three key insights relating to time, trust, and traces / trajectories, and make suggestions for the future of mobile money research.

International Journal of Communication, 2011

... HEATHER A. HORST University of California, Irvine This article analyzes how new media are bei... more ... HEATHER A. HORST University of California, Irvine This article analyzes how new media are being appropriated within the Brazilian society. ... As the producer of the video, Fernando Motolese recounts: At 2 am on Saturday, a Brazilian wrote in English that it was a bird. ...

This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use... more This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world. It contextualises digital and pre-digital ethnographic research and demonstrates how the methodological, practical and theoretical dimensions are increasingly intertwined.

Digital ethnography is central to our understanding of the social world; it can shape methodology and methods, and provides the technological tools needed to research society. The authoritative team of authors clearly set out how to research localities, objects and events as well as providing insights into exploring individuals’ or communities’ lived experiences, practices and relationships.

The book:

Defines a series of central concepts in this new branch of social and cultural research
Challenges existing conceptual and analytical categories
Showcases new and innovative methods
Theorises the digital world in new ways
Encourages us to rethink pre-digital practices, media and environments

This is the ideal introduction for anyone intending to conduct ethnographic research in today’s digital society.

Position paper. First Workshop of the Digital Ethnographies Lab, RMIT.