Wednesday 7 December 2016 – Lunchtime seminar with Dr Elisa Oreglia (Centre for Media Studies, SOAS, University of London)

Title: The World (Wide Web) through an App: Internet Use in Myanmar
Speaker: Dr Elisa Oreglia (Centre for Media Studies, SOAS, University of London)

Elisa Oreglia (PhD, UC Berkeley) is a lecturer in Global Digital Media at the Centre for Media Studies, SOAS, University of London. She studies the appropriation of digital media among marginal users in China and Myanmar, with a particular focus on local knowledge production and information sharing practices.

In 2014, the mobile phones landscape of Myanmar changed almost overnight. Two new operators disrupted the monopoly of the state-owned company, pushing the price of SIM cards down to USD1,5, building new towers throughout the country, and offering fast connectivity and cheap deals for smartphones. Two years later, almost half the population uses a mobile, and 80% of these users have a smartphone. Drawing from ethnographic research carried out since 2014, this talk will focus on the experiences of first-time Internet users in semi-urban and rural areas in Myanmar. It will describe what it means to experience the Internet through apps, rather than through a browser, and reflect on what lessons can be drawn for human-computer interaction and interface design for marginal populations.

1.00PM – 2.00PM
WEDNESDAY 07 DECEMBER 2016
CANTOR 9129

See here for details of other seminars in the series.

All SHU staff and students are welcome to attend the C3RI Lunchtime Research Seminars. If you are from outside of the University and would like to attend a seminar, please email C3RI Administrator to arrange entry.