Online Gods

I hope you’re all doing fine, Ian here from Online Gods. We’ve recently published episode 16 of Online Gods and decided it’s time to take a short break. I hereby declare the close of season one of online gods. We’d like to thank you all for listening to the first season, especially those who’ve been in touch in various ways. After a short break, we’re going to put our heads together in the autumn and think about Season 2, including how and if we can do something a bit different. As ever, any thoughts you might have on that are really appreciated. In the meantime we’re really excited to announce a new partnership with EPW Engage. An online initiative of Economic and Political Weekly, EPW Engage is a really wonderful fit for the Online Gods. Not only do they explore the digital as a medium for publishing (as we do), but also as an enabler of new methodologies and conceptual explorations (again, as we do). EPW Engage are going to be republishing the entire first season of Online Gods and, when we meet to plan the new season, we’ll do so with them in mind. Thanks!

This month we're talking with Iginio Gagliardone about Technopolitics and Swati about the Indian Atheists.

This month we’re talking about digital news images with Zeynep Gürsel and online surveillance with Nayantara Ranganathan. What is it that allows certain things to circulate through digital networks and others not? What sort of labour goes into moving certain things along and holding certain things up? How aware are we of the digital architectures through which data – our data – flows? In this episode of Online Gods we explore these questions and related questions across two different topics – news images and online surveillance. In the first half of the podcast, we discuss digital news images with anthropologist Zeynep Gürsel, who has undertaken ethnography with those she calls image brokers, the individuals who help turn photographs and other images into news by selecting and circulating them. Then, in the second half of the podcast we’ll speak with Nayantara Ranganathan a Programme Manager at the Internet Democracy Project about their organisation’s work specifically in regards to research and workshops relating to online surveillance.

  This month we're speaking about Nerd Politics with John Postill and Gaylaxy Magazine with Sukhdeep Singh. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich. We are an official podcast collaborator of the American Anthropological Association. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.  

This month we're speaking about Religious Nationalism with Peter van der Veer and Political Comics with Appupen. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich. We are an official podcast collaborator of the American Anthropological Association. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we’re speaking with Marwan Kraidy about the body and with Mahima Kukreja about Me Too India. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich. We are an official podcast collaborator of the American Anthropological Association. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we're speaking with Daniel Miller about scalable sociality and Abhishek Mazumdar about The Logical Indian.   Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich. We are an official podcast collaborator of the American Anthropological Association. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we talk with with Francis Cody about the public sphere and Govindraj Ethiraj about fake news busting. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich. We are an official podcast collaborator of the American Anthropological Association. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

  This month we speak to Faye Ginsburg about the digital age and Waseem Shan about his Instagram account Mangalore My Life. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.  

This month we speak to Craig Calhoun the public sphere and Sunil Abraham about digital privacy. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we speak with Carole McGranahan about lies and Atul Khatri about comedy. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we speak with Radhika Gajjala about cyberfeminism and Sofia Ashraf about online content creation. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we speak with Nick Couldry about the mediated construction of reality and Nida Hasan about Change.org India Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we speak with Irfan Ahmad about rumour and Paromita Vohra about the Agents of Ishq. Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we speak with Victoria Bernal about digital diaspora politics & Rishi Bagree about being a right wing twitter superstar Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

This month we speak with Angela Zito about Media as Religion & Kuffir Nalgundwar about Round Table India (Dalit Online Media). Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats.

Online Gods - A Podcast about Digital Cultures in India and Beyond Online Gods is a monthly podcast on digital cultures and their political ramifications, featuring lively conversations with scholars and activists. Presented by anthropologist Ian M. Cook, the podcast is a key initiative of the five year ERC project ONLINERPOL www.fordigitaldignity.com led by media anthropologist Sahana Udupa at LMU Munich, and cohosted by HAU Network for Ethnographic Theory. Online Gods represents our collective commitment to multimedia diffusion of research in accessible and engaging formats. Online Gods is part theoretical exploration into some of the key concepts in the anthropology of media, and part research into how increased online interaction is changing the public sphere. Taking India and the India diaspora as its focal point, the podcast continues in the great anthropological tradition of bringing the global and the specific into conversation with one another as it analyses what online cultures do to political participation, displays of faith and feelings of national belonging. Each podcast will feature news, a discussion with a scholar about a key concept and a chat with an online god – one of the key players in India’s e-public sphere. We are intrigued as to whether a podcast can produce ethnographic theory. As notions of ethnographic fieldwork continue to be reimagined in the digital age, we believe the podcasts are not just a platform that can disseminate what is already gathered, analyzed and theorized. We use podcasts as a way to communicate academic concepts, and as well engage in conversations with people who have carved out new pathways of public participation through the digital. These conversations could be yet another way to approach the mediated, interlocked and territorially eclectic fields that we, as anthropologists, are increasingly drawn into. We believe it is possible to be both sophisticated and yet comprehensible, and that the spoken form can bring forth an accessibility that is sometimes missing from the canonical written forms. We even wonder whether academic podcasting might herald a technologically-enabled return to the centrality of oral traditions in intellectual exploration - can podcasting weaken reading's hegemonic hold on consumption of academic knowledge? The podcast’s parent project ONLINERPOL is funded by the European Research Council Starting Grant Agreement Number 714285.  Taking contemporary landscapes of digital politics in India and the Indian diaspora in Europe as the primary focus, the five year project examines how online media recasts questions of faith and nation, and reshapes political participation. At the core of our endeavor is the value of digital dignity – to study and advocate for spaces where political expression can expand in an enabling culture of contacts, without the fear of shame and intimidation.  “Online Gods” is one effort to foster an enabling culture of contacts by disseminating critical concepts that have inspired latest scholarly thinking on digital media. It is also a platform where scholars, activists and general interest publics can meet through the easy conversational form of the podcasts. ***** In this episode we speak to Ralph Schroeder about Big Data and Nisha Susan about The Ladies Finger.