The construction of usefulness: how users and context create meaning with a social networking system
The construction of usefulness: how users and context create meaning with a social networking system
The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication
The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication
Mapping actors and agendas: political frameworks of systems design and participation
Human-Computer Interaction
Where there's a will there's a way: mobile media sharing in urban india
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
ICTD'09 Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development
Folk music goes digital in India
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Anthropology, development and ICTs: slums, youth and the mobile internet in urban India
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development
Understanding agency in interaction design materials
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Understanding Jugaad: ICTD and the tensions of appropriation, innovation and utility
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information and Communications Technologies and Development: Notes - Volume 2
Proceedings of the 4th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development
| Hi-index | 0.01 |
Building on a growing body of human-computer interaction (HCI) literature on information and communication technology (ICT) use in the developing world, this paper describes the vast, growing mobile media consumption culture in India, which relies on the ubiquity of informal socioeconomic practices for reproducing, sharing, and distributing pirated digital media. Using an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) based approach, we show how piracy not only fuels media consumption, but also drives further technology adoption and promotes digital literacy. To do this, we first uncover the role of piracy as a legitimate actor that brings ICT capability to underserved communities and reveal the heterogeneous character of the pirated mobile media distribution and consumption infrastructure in India. We then emphasize the benefits of an ANT-based theory-driven analysis to HCI's efforts in this arena. In particular, ANT enables us to one, draw attention to the ties in the pirate media network that facilitate the increased decentralization of piracy in India; two, highlight the progressive transition from the outsourcing to the self-sourcing of users' media needs as this network evolves; and three, recognize the agency of human and non-human entities in this inherently sociotechnical ecosystem.