Indigenous Social Media Practices in Southwestern Amazonia

Virtanen, Pirjo Kristiina

doi:10.1177/117718011501100403

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…An important theme in much indigenous media research has been the political and cultural potential self-representation brings for organizations and individuals (Basanta, 2013;Landzelius, 2006;Monasterios, 2003;Virtanen, 2015;Wilson et al, 2017;Wilson & Stewart, 2008). This article was concerned with everyday communication and media consumption practices and their intersections with the power structures embedded in mobile technology services.…”

Section: Conclusion: Towards Self-determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Decolonizing mobile media: Mobile Internet appropriation in a Guaraní community

Wagner

Fernández-Ardèvol

2019

Mobile Media & Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The internet has been a valuable resource for many indigenous groups as a vehicle for selfrepresentation. In this paper we describe how the installation of a Wi-Fi signal in a Guaraní community in Greater Buenos Aires-as part of the community leader's decolonizing media projects-generated issues within the community. While much indigenous media research concerns the politics of cultural representation, we consider the politics of everyday, intracommunity mobile communication practices. Firstly, our findings show how the choice of communication medium can become a political issue. An upsurge in mobile-mediated communication within the community contributed to the decline of face-to-face deliberations which were the mainstay for communal sharing arrangements and which held a central position in understandings of Guaraní culture. Secondly, our findings show how discrepancies between users' communication preferences and the readily available mobile media services can generate a use barrier by demotivating users from obtaining the skills needed to effectively appropriate or transform mobile media services. Familiarity with a few mainstream social media apps not only reinforced imaginaries of the internet as a non-indigenous space but also generated set ideas of what the internet supports in terms of communicative form-social networking-and content 1 Sarah Wagner is a doctoral candidate at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Barcelona. Using collaborative methods, her research explores the intersections of indigenous communicative ecologies and ICT service systems. 2 Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol is a senior researcher at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Barcelona. Mobile communication has been one of her main areas of study since 2003, with a combined sociological and economic focus. Her interests are set both in developed and in developing countries.3 type-mainstream media. In the end, the community leader's decolonizing projects aimed at using social media for community media dissemination were not only rejected by community members but also undermined by the dynamics of mobile media practices in the community. We argue that limited mobile technology skills combined with commercially oriented mobile media services can hinder creative and adaptable mobile media practices, and in turn, decolonizing mobile appropriations.

show abstract

Section: Conclusion: Towards Self-determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An important theme in much indigenous media research has been the political and cultural potential that self-representation brings for organizations and individuals (Basanta, 2013; Landzelius, 2006; Monasterios, 2003; Virtanen, 2015; A. Wilson et al, 2017; P.…”

Section: Conclusion: Towards Self-determinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonizing mobile media: Mobile Internet appropriation in a Guaraní community

Wagner

Fernández-Ardèvol

2019

Mobile Media & Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the communities with little knowledge of Indigenous language, the use of language should not be restricted only to school, but even parents should be active in interacting with the child in the Indigenous language. Aside from work with language, there must be new initiatives and the creation of new language domains, such as national health care, Indigenous politics, new genres of music, and social media (see Virtanen, 2015c), so that the language can be what languages should be, namely dynamic. All these public spaces, created for an endangered oral language, shall be based on Indigenous collaboration as well as support from local governments and other collaborators.…”

Section: Final Remarksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Revitalization and Engagements in the Amazon: The Case of Apurinã

Facundes¹,

Virtanen²,

Freitas³

et al. 2019

Handbook of the Changing World Language Map

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several Indigenous languages of Brazil have few speakers; in at least one case one speaker only (Xipaya), in most cases a few tens (Mekens), in other cases a few hundred (Apurinã), and in rare cases a few thousand (Tikuna). In most cases, the original language is being replaced by the dominant language, Portuguese. In this article, the issues concerning the current state of vitality of Amazonian Indigenous languages will be addressed, as well as resources and strategies available to work with the communities. The aim is to identify the main causes of language loss, and the paths required to maintain these languages in the long run. The Apurinã language, which belongs to the Arawak linguistic family, will be discussed as a point of departure for addressing the issues of revitalization and engagements. The Apurinã people themselves, numbering approximately seven thousand, live mainly along the tributaries of the Purus river in Southwestern Amazonia. It was noticed that better results were achieved through a collaborative work with the community, as the diversity of spoken language could be included in the teaching materials. Furthermore, the Indigenous authors could feel the authorship that also strengthened the adoption of the materials. Yet, more work is still needed to recreate functional domains for the language to be used, and these domains shall include contemporary everyday activities as well as storytelling, rituals and chants, but also the creation of new public spaces for language use. The power relations with the dominant society are also key elements in designing Indigenous languages materials according to the population's interests, and their particular linguistic characteristics.

show abstract

“…It has become attractive to present one's own unique culture through Facebook, especially for the opportunities it offers for visual expression [46]. There have been studies conducted on the prevalent use of Facebook among indigenous groups.…”

Section: The Role Of Ict and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, they did not show the extent social media facilitates the learning. The ethnography of Virtanen [46] discusses how Facebook has become a major domain of communication and expression among Brazilian Amazonian indigenous groups. She further concludes that social media is not only a means of selfdetermination, but also generates new reflection of indigenous knowledge.…”

Section: The Role Of Ict and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%