Lisa Parks | University of California, Santa Barbara (original) (raw)

Recent by Lisa Parks

Film Quarterly , 2024

Lisa Parks introduces and interviews director Erica Tremblay on the occasion of the Apple TV+ rel... more Lisa Parks introduces and interviews director Erica Tremblay on the occasion of the Apple TV+ release of her first feature film, Fancy Dance (2023). A queer and Native American director, writer, and producer from the Seneca-Cayuga Nation, Tremblay has quickly established herself as one of the most exciting new writers and directors working in the media industries today. Her work stems from a personal artistic mandate to craft stories that showcase and celebrate contemporary Native American characters not typically seen on screen. This is an edited transcription of a live interview with filmmaker Erica Tremblay conducted by Lisa Parks at the Pollock Theater at UC Santa Barbara on February 22, 2024. The event was organized and sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center.

NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies, 2024

New Media and Society, 2023

Building on research on network sovereignty in American Indian communities, this study explores h... more Building on research on network sovereignty in American Indian communities, this study explores how the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are imagined and used by members of the Blackfeet community in Montana. Using qualitative mixed methods, including interviews with 38 Blackfeet community members, the study provides a brief overview of the Siyeh Corporation's Internet services in Blackfeet territory and presents a thematic analysis of interview data focused on three issues: the Internet as a daily lifeline; peoples' ideals and standards of sovereignty; and tensions around network sovereignty. The article explores how Blackfeet community members assess their tribe's moves to assert network sovereignty, presenting a range of opinions regarding tribally owned and operated Internet services. Building from interview data,

Film Quarterly, 2023

In 2019 a parade of tech start-ups, including Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, Slack, and WeWork, participa... more In 2019 a parade of tech start-ups, including Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, Slack, and WeWork, participated in what venture capitalists called the "unicorn stampede." These start-ups, each valued at more than $1 billion, all entered the public market the same year. As these companies prepared for their initial public offerings (IPOs), scandals played out in the news media that rocked the tech ecosystem and generated public intrigue. Over the past decade, an entire cycle of Big Tech media has explored the inner workings of tech companies and their powerful impact on daily life around the globe. 1 Given the hands-off approach to media and corporate regulation in the United States, Big Tech media have created spaces for commentary and deliberation about these companies, their founders, and their power. In an era in which US regulators are largely asleep at the wheel, political campaigns rarely mention media or corporate regulation, and mainstream-press writers continue to idolize Big Tech leaders, TV dramas can play a crucial role in drawing attention to key issues. They have, for instance, confronted structural inequalities in the tech workplace, questioned the myth of corporate "self-regulation," and highlighted the urgent need for federal and state action.

Media Industries, 2021

This article explores the labor of contemporary digital privacy advocates and their myriad effort... more This article explores the labor of contemporary digital privacy advocates and their myriad efforts to protect and preserve public interests during the era of Big Tech companies. It is based on qualitative interviews with professional staff, lawyers, and policy analysts at multiple major advocacy organizations in Washington, DC. We have employed a grounded theory approach to address four labor-related themes that consistently emerged across our interviews: coalition building, agenda formulation, the art of navigating public-and private-sector relationships, and balancing a domestic and global policy landscape. In the current policy landscape, there is an intensifying degree of advocacy-industry coordination taking place, in part because of US regulatory roll-backs under the Trump administration and a gridlocked Congress. As a result, advocacy organization staff members often rely on companies for information to do their assessment and agenda-setting work. They also apply pressure to these companies and force them to think about how their technologies and operations impact users and publics around the world; they mount legal challenges to various media and tech initiatives to ensure public interests are protected; and some end up working with or for these companies in ways that may impart and integrate the values of advocacy organizations within profit-driven organizations. This article explores the multiple dimensions of advocacy labor which itself is often excluded from media policy and industry analysis.

Global Media and Communication, 2021

Brazilians have adopted WhatsApp as a national media and communication infrastructure over the pa... more Brazilians have adopted WhatsApp as a national media and communication infrastructure over the past several years, although it is controlled by its private US-based owner, Facebook. This article explores the diverse, contentious and influential roles the app played in the country during disruptions to its use from 2015 to 2018. Using content analysis, we critically engage with user-generated memes and news media coverage responding to these disruptions. In these cases, Brazilians self-reflexively questioned the app's role in their everyday lives and country, reassessing what it means to rely on a national infrastructure owned by an unaccountable global media conglomerate.

When researchers invoke the term 'last billion' to refer to emerging ICT users, they often focus ... more When researchers invoke the term 'last billion' to refer to emerging ICT users, they often focus on network access as a 'solution' while neglecting important considerations such as local ownership or knowledge, both of which are essential to sustainable and empowering uses of these technologies in developing contexts. Research reveals that mere access to networks without active community involvement can fail to empower already marginalized and disenfranchized users. Building upon these findings, this article uses ethnographic methods to explore the meanings of 'network sovereignty' in rural, low-income communities in developing countries. It presents two case studies focused on local network initiatives in Oaxaca, Mexico and Bunda, Tanzania and then offers an assessment matrix to support future network sovereignty research based on five categories: community engagement; local cultures/ontologies; digital education and technological knowledge; economic ownership; and community empowerment. Our comparative research reveals that communities that are able to assert collective ownership over local infrastructure, embed network initiatives within local cultures, and prioritize digital education are much more likely to create and sustain local networks that support their economic, political, and cultural lives.

ZMK (Journal for Media and Cultural Research - Germany), 2020

This article focuses on the development of the Project Mercury earth station in Zanzibar during t... more This article focuses on the development of the Project Mercury earth station in Zanzibar during the period, 1959–1964. To historicize the earth station’s establishment, I adopt a nodal approach and com- bine archaeological, archival, and phenomenological methods in an effort to bring forth the geopolitical and sociotechnical relations that resulted in the Zanzibar station. My discussion moves from a general description of Mercury’s "world-wide tracking"network, to an analysis of Zanzibari opposition to the station, to a re- counting of the building of the station in the midst of this opposition. This earth station, not only contributed to the science of satellite tracking and telemetry, it was an essential node in the first "world wide tracking network" to rely on real- time computing to monitor a manned satellite. What is not as well known, however, is the precarious geopolitical fulcrum upon which the Zanzibar Mercury station’s precise measurements were taken. Given this, I define the station as a contrapuntal node—as a site opposed by local publics—to raise questions about the histories and materialities of other network facilities that have been built against peoples’ will. While network extensions and occupations have been structural to colonial power, Africans’ responses to and involvement in the formation of particular network nodes is much lesser known. These material relations are significant as they helped to shape early global real-time computing networks that became precursors of the internet and world wide web. As Wendy Chun argues in her crucial research on network cultures, the democratic potential of communication technologies stems from vulnerabilities rather than control. Building on Chun’s proposition, in this article I reframe the investigation of network dialectics of freedom and control in relation to the material construction of a node and excavate the social struggles that give life to global networking.

Media+Environment, 2020

This essay introduces a special stream of Media+Environment focused on "disaster media." In the p... more This essay introduces a special stream of Media+Environment focused on "disaster media." In the process, the authors conceptualize this term in relation to "natural" and other disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and explore how understandings of "disaster media" are embedded within several areas of humanities-based film and media scholarship. Writing from the social ecological premise that consequences of disasters stem in large part from systemic actions, the introduction develops three general arguments about disaster media as an analytic. First, disasters cause people to rethink what "media" are and to contend with the fact that, especially during disasters, media are constantly changing and being updated; they also escape the screen and sculpt the environment (media are not only representational but also affective and infrastructural). Second, because they come to the fore in relation to crisis situations, disaster media help expose structural inequalities; practices of relief and reform need to happen and can be facilitated (or inhibited) by mediatic means. Finally, disaster media need to be considered in relation to the multiple temporalities of climate disruption (from the longue durée of glacial flow to uncertain and sudden extreme weather). Discussing these issues, the authors also introduce pieces in the stream that are focused on humanitarian drone interventions and glacier-melt artworks.

Machinic Infrastructures of Truth, Moscow, 2021

Proceedings of CSCW ’21 (Pre-print). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 20 pages. , 2021

Machines, from artificially intelligent digital assistants to embodied robots, are becoming more ... more Machines, from artificially intelligent digital assistants to embodied robots, are becoming more pervasive in everyday life. Drawing on feminist science and technology studies (STS) perspectives, we demonstrate how machine designers are not just crafting neutral objects, but relationships between machines and humans that are entangled in human social issues such as gender and power dynamics. Thus, in order to create a more ethical and just future, the dominant assumptions currently underpinning the design of these human-machine relations must be challenged and reoriented toward relations of justice and inclusivity. This paper contributes the "social machine" as a model for technology designers who seek to recognize the importance, diversity and complexity of the social in their work, and to engage with the agential power of machines. In our model, the social machine is imagined as a potentially equitable relationship partner that has agency and as an "other" that is distinct from, yet related to, humans, objects, and animals. We critically examine and contrast our model with tendencies in robotics that consider robots as tools, human companions, animals or creatures, and/or slaves. In doing so, we demonstrate ingrained dominant assumptions about human-machine relations and reveal the challenges of radical thinking in the social machine design space. Finally, we present two design challenges based on non-anthropomorphic figuration and mutuality, and call for experimentation, unlearning dominant tendencies, and reimagining of sociotechnical futures.

International Journal of Communication, 2020

A slow shutdown is an ensemble of flexible state regulations implemented over time that have the ... more A slow shutdown is an ensemble of flexible state regulations implemented over time that have the effect of prohibiting, interrupting, or making too costly online content creation. A slow shutdown differs from a technical shutdown in which a state authority blocks access to the Internet or platforms within its sovereign boundaries, usually for a short period. This article conceptualizes and delineates a slow shutdown in Tanzania. Using the method of process tracing, the article describes the Tanzania government's adoption of a series of repressive information and Internet regulations from 2010 to 2018 and analyzes its controversial 2018 online content regulations, which led many Tanzanians to cease expressive activities on the Internet. Drawing on Tanzanian policy documents, English-language national and international press coverage, nongovernmental organization reports, and Tanzanian blogs and websites, the study highlights the social impacts of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party-led government's laws. It also extends research on media control and networked authoritarianism by demonstrating the variable forms, temporalities, and affects of Internet shutdowns and considering their relation to gender and class differences. State regimes around the world are turning to new methods to assert their power, including Internet shutdowns. For more than a decade, China, Iran, and Turkey have used Internet shutdowns to disrupt citizens' access to online information. These and other governments also have filtered Internet content, blocked access to Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp, and carefully monitored Internet users'

Books by Lisa Parks

In the post-9/11 era, media technologies have become increasingly intertwined with vertical power... more In the post-9/11 era, media technologies have become increasingly intertwined with vertical power as airwaves, airports, air space, and orbit have been commandeered to support national security and defense. In this book, Lisa Parks develops the concept of vertical mediation to explore how audiovisual cultures enact and infer power relations far beyond the screen. Focusing on TV news, airport checkpoints, satellite imagery, and drone media, Parks demonstrates how "coverage" makes vertical space intelligible to global publics in new ways and powerfully reveals what is at stake in controlling it.

Life in the Age of Drone Warfare, 2017

This volume's contributors offer a new critical language through which to explore and assess the ... more This volume's contributors offer a new critical language through which to explore and assess the historical, juridical, geopolitical, and cultural dimensions of drone technology and warfare. They show how drones generate particular ways of visualizing the spaces and targets of war while acting as tools to exercise state power. Essays include discussions of the legal justifications of extrajudicial killings and how US drone strikes in the Horn of Africa impact life on the ground, as well as a personal narrative of a former drone operator. The contributors also explore drone warfare in relation to sovereignty, governance, and social difference; provide accounts of the relationships between drone technologies and modes of perception and mediation; and theorize drones’ relation to biopolitics, robotics, automation, and art. Interdisciplinary and timely, Life in the Age of Drone Warfare extends the critical study of drones while expanding the public discussion of one of our era's most ubiquitous instruments of war.

In Signal Traffic, editors Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski use the term "media infrastructure"... more In Signal Traffic, editors Lisa Parks and Nicole Starosielski use the term "media infrastructure" to signal a shift in critical focus and approach that questions the international telecommunication network as a given. Contributors instead confront vital questions concerning the multiple and hybrid forms networks take, the different ways they are imagined and engaged with by publics around the world, their local effects, and what human beings experience when a network fails.

Exploring such issues leads some of the essayists to examine the physical objects and industrial relations that make up an infrastructure. Others venture into the marginalized communities that live on the edges of media infrastructures--people orphaned from the knowledge economies, technological literacies, and epistemological questions linked to infrastructural formation and use. The wide-ranging insights delineate the oft-ignored contrasts across industrialized and developing regions, rich and poor areas, and urban and rural settings, bringing technological differences into focus.

Down to Earth presents the first comprehensive overview of the geopolitical maneuvers, financial ... more Down to Earth presents the first comprehensive overview of the geopolitical maneuvers, financial investments, technological innovations, and ideological struggles that take place behind the scenes of the satellite industry. Satellite projects that have not received extensive coverage—microsatellites in China, WorldSpace in South Africa, SiriusXM, the failures of USA 193 and Cosmos 954, and Iridium—are explored. This collection takes readers on a voyage through a truly global industry, from the sites where satellites are launched to the corporate clean rooms where they are designed, and along the orbits and paths that satellites traverse. Combining a practical introduction to the mechanics of the satellite industry, a history of how its practices and technologies have evolved, and a sophisticated theoretical analysis of satellite cultures, Down to Earth opens up a new space for global media studies.

In 1957 Sputnik, the world’s first man-made satellite, dazzled people as it zipped around the pla... more In 1957 Sputnik, the world’s first man-made satellite, dazzled people as it zipped around the planet. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, more than eight thousand satellites orbited the Earth, and satellite practices such as live transmission, direct broadcasting, remote sensing, and astronomical observation had altered how we imagined ourselves in relation to others and our planet within the cosmos. In Cultures in Orbit, Lisa Parks analyzes these satellite practices and shows how they have affected meanings of “the global” and “the televisual.” Parks suggests that the convergence of broadcast, satellite, and computer technologies necessitates an expanded definition of “television,” one that encompasses practices of military monitoring and scientific observation as well as commercial entertainment and public broadcasting.

Roaming across the disciplines of media studies, geography, and science and technology studies, Parks examines uses of satellites by broadcasters, military officials, archaeologists, and astronomers. She looks at Our World, a live intercontinental television program that reached five hundred million viewers in 1967, and Imparja tv, an Aboriginal satellite tv network in Australia. Turning to satellites’ remote-sensing capabilities, she explores the U.S. military’s production of satellite images of the war in Bosnia as well as archaeologists’ use of satellites in the excavation of Cleopatra’s palace in Alexandria, Egypt. Parks’s reflections on how Western fantasies of control are implicated in the Hubble telescope’s views of outer space point to a broader concern: that while satellite uses promise a “global village,” they also cut and divide the planet in ways that extend the hegemony of the post-industrial West. In focusing on such contradictions, Parks highlights how satellites cross paths with cultural politics and social struggles.

From the 1967 live satellite program "Our World" to MTV music videos in Indonesia, from French te... more From the 1967 live satellite program "Our World" to MTV music videos in Indonesia, from French television in Senegal to the global syndication of African American sitcoms, and from representations of terrorism on German television to the international Teletubbies phenomenon, TV lies at the nexus of globalization and transnational culture.

Planet TV provides an overview of the rapidly changing landscape of global television, combining previously published essays by pioneers of the study of television with new work by cutting-edge television scholars who refine and extend intellectual debates in the field. Organized thematically, the volume explores such issues as cultural imperialism, nationalism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, ethnicity and cultural hybridity. These themes are illuminated by concrete examples and case studies derived from empirical work on global television industries, programs, and audiences in diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts.

Developing a new critical framework for exploring the political, economic, sociological and technological dimensions of television cultures, and countering the assumption that global television is merely a result of the current dominance of the West in world affairs, Planet TV demonstrates that the global dimensions of television were imagined into existence very early on in its contentious history. Parks and Kumar have assembled the critical moments in television's past in order to understand its present and future.

Media Infrastructure Studies by Lisa Parks

During the past decade, digital distribution has brought about major changes in the ways that sta... more During the past decade, digital distribution has brought about major changes in the ways that states regulate, corporations profit from, and people consume media content in places around the world. These technological and industrial shifts have also catalyzed an important area of inquiry in media studies, leading to investigations of 'connected viewing' defined by Holt and Sanson as a 'broader ecosystem in which digital distribution is rendered possible and new forms of user engagement take shape'. Most scholarly research on connected viewing has focused on postindustrial contexts in North America, Europe, and East Asia. Few have considered these practices in developing contexts such as rural sub-Saharan Africa, where energy infrastructure is underdeveloped and media devices are scarce. Adopting a user-centered approach, this article situates the concept of connected viewing in rural Zambia and explores how remote communities with very limited resources access and produce media content across various platforms. The research is based upon 6 weeks of fieldwork in Macha, Zambia, in 2012 and 2013. It begins with a descriptions of the ways people energize media devices in Macha and proceeds to a discussion of three exemplary connected viewing scenarios: (1) the daisy-chaining of satellite TV services, (2) the streaming of YouTube videos, and (3) the production and distribution of local music video. Far from a model of 'video on demand' typical in most postindustrial settings, Machan distribution practices generate more occasional, collective, and limited experiences of television that are scaled to local capacities, enabled by an amalgam of technologies, and frequently interrupted by power outages and network failures. Despite this, underserved rural Zambian audiences are pushing connected viewing practices forward in ways that the region's telecom and media companies are not by innovating cross-platform tactics for (re)distributing audiovisual content in conditions of energy, bandwidth, and economic scarcity.

Film Quarterly , 2024

NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies, 2024

New Media and Society, 2023

Film Quarterly, 2023

Media Industries, 2021

Global Media and Communication, 2021

ZMK (Journal for Media and Cultural Research - Germany), 2020

Media+Environment, 2020

Machinic Infrastructures of Truth, Moscow, 2021

Proceedings of CSCW ’21 (Pre-print). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 20 pages. , 2021

International Journal of Communication, 2020

Life in the Age of Drone Warfare, 2017

This chapter explores what it means to conduct media fieldwork by critically reflecting upon a co... more This chapter explores what it means to conduct media fieldwork by critically reflecting upon a collaborative research project in rural Zambia in 2012 and 2013. It discusses what a media studies approach to fieldwork entails and what the affordances and limits of such an approach might be. By fieldwork, we are referring to the practice of traveling to a location, visiting various sites in and around that locale, interviewing and conversing with people in structured and semi-structured ways, and observing any number of activities, objects, or relations that help to characterize or define media-related phenomena at the site. Fieldwork also encompasses the complex issues and relations that emerge in the context of such investigations.

in Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures

Media, Culture & Society, 2019

An estimated 4 billion people worldwide still lack reliable access to the Internet, with the majo... more An estimated 4 billion people worldwide still lack reliable access to the Internet, with the majority concentrated in developing countries. It is within this context that a significant expansion of the satellite Internet industry is taking place, bringing grand visions of social and economic growth through connectivity. Previously dismissed as a limited technology due to high operating costs and latency, as well as the failure of early ventures like Teledesic, satellite Internet has re-emerged in recent years as a viable alternative to the time and energy-intensive practice of laying thousands of miles of fiber optic cable. Utilizing innovative non-synchronous orbit constellations of small, mass-produced satellites that lower production costs and improve latency to better compete with broadband, new Silicon Valley-related companies such as OneWeb, SpaceX, and O3b have promised cheap, high-speed Internet access throughout the world. Drawing upon industry research, site visits, and interviews with technical specialists, development experts, and other actors, this article briefly explores the history of satellite Internet services, analyzes the promises of emerging satellite Internet companies, and argues that without serious commitments from governments and the private sector to follow through on this rhetoric, satellite Internet technology could fail to reach the communities that need it most.

Global Media and Communication, 2021

In 2015 a simple black-and-white drawing appeared in a tweet with the statement, "whatsapp will b... more In 2015 a simple black-and-white drawing appeared in a tweet with the statement, "whatsapp will be blocked for 48 hours starting thursday at midnight" (Fig. 1). 1 The drawing depicts a person in silhouette sitting against a wall and facing a vast, white, empty space. Brazilian WhatsApp users circulated this drawing as a meme, along with many others, upon facing the daunting prospect of a court-ordered WhatsApp shutdown. The meme parodically conveys the sense of disconnection and social alienation users felt during Brazil's WhatsApp shutdowns in 2015 and 2016, and speaks to WhatsApp's growing prominence in Brazilian media and communication practices. Fig. 1-"whatsapp will be blocked for 48 hours starting thursday at midnight." 1 All memes and other texts written in Brazilian Portuguese have been translated by the authors, while keeping their original style of writing and capitalization.

This article explores how social media users in Turkey conceptualize and navigate free speech cha... more This article explores how social media users in Turkey conceptualize and navigate free speech challenges in the wake of recent government crackdowns on media institutions. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 40 social media users in Istanbul, including people from LGBTQ, feminist, Kurdish, journalist, activist, and academic communities , who have been on the front lines of free speech struggles in Turkey. Informants' comments converged around a theme of transmit-trap dynamics, which emphasizes user experiences in the context of " networked authoritarianism, " and speaks to the ways Turk-ish social media users find themselves simultaneously empowered by and targeted within social media platforms.

This article describes the complex media environment of urban Zambia based on qualitative intervi... more This article describes the complex media environment of urban
Zambia based on qualitative interviews with 42 active ICT and
social media users in Lusaka. After a contextual discussion of media
censorship and Internet freedom, the article draws upon interview
data to delineate four circumvention practices: (1) platform
jumping; (2) anonymity; (3) self-censorship; and (4) negotiation
of legal challenges. Rather than approach circumvention as a set
of techniques disseminated from the information capitals of
the world to those in the “global south,” this study approaches it as
a set of cultural practices that emerges within particular
sociohistorical conditions and platforms of communication.

The Internet is a critical tool for communication and knowledge acquisition in societies across t... more The Internet is a critical tool for communication and knowledge acquisition in societies across the globe. Unfortunately, its use has become a battlefield for governments, corporations, and individuals to censor speech and access to information. In this paper, we present research into the use of social media for free speech in Turkey, Mongolia, and Zambia as a basis for discussing the limits of Internet freedoms. We discuss the actors, adversaries, social and technological limits, as well as limitations of existing tools for the free exchange of ideas on-line. We conclude with a discussion of how design and development choices for technology can affect marginalized communities, as well as the ethical and technical considerations for developing tools and applications that support Internet freedoms.

Online social networks are major hubs of communications that are used to share information by soc... more Online social networks are major hubs of communications that are used to share information by societies worldwide. However, the ability to freely communicate on these platforms is increasingly restricted in countries across the globe and existing technological solutions do not fully address the needs of affected communities. In this paper we explore the design process of SecurePost, a novel tool that allows verified group anonymity to those communicating publicly on online social networks. We present survey-based research and ethnographic interviews of communities vulnerable to censorship conducted in Zambia, Turkey, and Mongolia between 2013 to 2016. We use analysis of this data to ground our work. We explore needs and requirements of users such as modes of censorship, resistance to network disruption, and appropriate platform consideration. We outline our technological solution and expand on how on-the-ground research of user communities guides technological requirements.

LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2020

Thanks to Myron Dewey, Dean Dedman Jr., Adrienne Keene, Caren Kaplan and Janet Walker for their... more Thanks to Myron Dewey, Dean Dedman Jr., Adrienne Keene, Caren Kaplan and Janet Walker for their inspiring work.

Interview of Lisa Parks by Geert Lovink

Television and New Media, 2020

This short article explores the changing meanings of "media" in media studies in relation to emer... more This short article explores the changing meanings of "media" in media studies in relation to emerging technologies and critical paradigms in the field. After brief discussion of various media studies approaches, including media ecologies and algorighmic cultures, the article discusses the institutional rise of data sciences and compares this field to media studies. The author argues that while the foundational assumptions, methodological frameworks, and mindsets of data sciences and media studies differ, curious co-existences can morph into lively collaborations rather than turf battles, and concludes by pointing to research that explemplies a productive synthesis. Generally, I am not one for broad brushstrokes. In my own research I tend to become mired in media materialities, rather than commit to meta-level extrapolations. However, when given the opportunity recently to comment on some changes in media studies over the past thirty years, I decided to give it a try. To guide me, I borrowed a technique from Charlotte Brunsdon's (1998) chapter, "What is the 'Television' of Television Studies?" Reflecting on the development of a relatively new field of study, Brunsdon recognized that television scholars conceptualized and approached their

Journal of Visual Culture, 2019

In this interview, Lisa Parks shares her reflections on a range of questions that remain central ... more In this interview, Lisa Parks shares her reflections on a range of questions that remain central to her research, including what television is at the present moment and might become in the future; how satellites could be treated as part of an integrated history of media; the compart-mentalizations of academia; research on surveillance, and the relationship between surveillance and capitalism; the invisibility and materiality of infrastructure, and the significance of field-based research practices; the entanglement of scholarship and social engagement; the emerging Silicon Valley satellite industry, vertical mediation and political resistance ; and the urgency of environmental media studies.

Information, Communication & Society, 2021

When researchers invoke the term ‘last billion’ to refer to emerging ICT users, they often focus ... more When researchers invoke the term ‘last billion’ to refer to emerging ICT users, they often focus on network access as a ‘solution’ while neglecting important considerations such as local ownership or knowledge, both of which are essential to sustainable and empowering uses of these technologies in developing contexts. Research reveals that mere access to networks without active community involvement can fail to empower already marginalized and disenfranchized users. Building upon these findings, this article uses ethnographic methods to explore the meanings of ‘network sovereignty’ in rural, low-income communities in developing countries. It presents two case studies focused on local network initiatives in Oaxaca, Mexico and Bunda, Tanzania and then offers an assessment matrix to support future network sovereignty research based on five categories: community engagement; local cultures/ontologies; digital education and technological knowledge; economic ownership; and community empowerment. Our comparative research reveals that communities that are able to assert collective ownership over local infrastructure, embed network initiatives within local cultures, and prioritize digital education are much more likely to create and sustain local networks that support their economic, political, and cultural lives.

Africa Today, 2001

... Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War, and the State. Berkeley: University of California Pres... more ... Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War, and the State. Berkeley: University of California Press. Keane, Fergal. 1996. Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey. ... Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh. Myers, Garth, Thomas Klak, and Timothy Koehl. 1996. ...

Television & New Media, 2020

This short article explores the changing meanings of “media” in media studies in relation to emer... more This short article explores the changing meanings of “media” in media studies in relation to emerging technologies and critical paradigms in the field. After brief discussion of various media studies approaches, including media ecologies and algorighmic cultures, the article discusses the institutional rise of data sciences and compares this field to media studies. The author argues that while the foundational assumptions, methodological frameworks, and mindsets of data sciences and media studies differ, curious co-existences can morph into lively collaborations rather than turf battles, and concludes by pointing to research that explemplies a productive synthesis.

Satellites and the Televisual, 2012

Canadian Journal of Communication

This article engages with three different modes of Earth observation—historical network maps, Goo... more This article engages with three different modes of Earth observation—historical network maps, Google Earth interfaces, and fieldwork—to develop the concept of “signal territories” and elucidate a critical approach for studying U.S. broadcast infrastructure. This approach: 1) highlights physical infrastructures—technological hardware and processes in dispersed geographic locations—as important sites for historical and critical analysis in media and communication studies; 2) explores multiple modes of infrastructure representation—ranging from cartography to phenomenology, from hand-drawn maps to digital interfaces, from circuit diagrams to site visits; and 3) foregrounds the biotechnical aspects and resource requirements of broadcast infrastructures, probing their dynamic operations and complex materialisms. Engaging with what Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller call a “materialist ecology” of media, the article explores what is at stake in understanding media infrastructures from up clo...