Media Anthropology
represents a convergence of issues and interests on anthropological approaches to the study of media. The purpose of this reader is to promote the identity of the field of study; identify its major concepts, methods, and bibliography; comment on the state of the art; and provide examples of current research. Based on original articles by leading scholars from several countries and academic disciplines,
Media Anthropology provides essays introducing the issues, reviewing the field, forging new conceptual syntheses.
Mihai Coman Born in Fagaras, Romania, in 1953, Mihai Coman has graduated from the College of Letters within the University of Bucharest (1976), and holds a PhD in Letters (1985). He was teacher in a Romanian high school (1976-1982), journalist (1982-1989) and publisher (1989-1990). He was the first Dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication Studies within the University of Bucharest, and the first coordinator of doctoral studies in communications. Mihai Coman is considered to be the founder of journalism and communication education in Romania. Until 1989 he had specialized in cultural anthropology studies on Romanian folklore. He has published four volumes of mythology studies (The Sources of Myth - 1980, The Sister of Sun - 1983, Mythos and Epos - 1985, The Point and the Spiral - 1992) and a vast synthesis on animal mythology (Bestiarul mitologic roman, 1986, 1988, second edition published in 1996). Other mythology studies have appeared in scientific journals L'Ethnologie francaise, Etudes indo-europeennes, Kurier. After 1989 he published the reference volume Introducere in sistemul mass media and has coordinated the two volumes of Manual de jurnalism, a book which sold more than 20,000 copies. In this period he has started to elaborate the theoretical and analytical framework of mass media anthropology through studies published in scientific journals such as the francophone Reseaux, MediaPouvoirs, Communication, or in collections such as Roger Tessier (ed), La transition en Roumanie - communication et qualite de la vie, Montreal, Presse de l'Universite du Quebec, 1995, J. M. Pomorskiego, Z. Bajki (ed), Valeriana, Essays on Human Communication, in honour of Valery Pissarek, Krakow, 1996, Bernard Miege, Gaetan Tremblay (ed), 2001 Bogues: globalisme at pluralisme, vol I (TIC et societe), Laval, Les Presses Universitaires du Laval, 2003, INA - Television, memoire et identite nationale, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2003. In 2003, as a synthesis of these investigations, he published with Presses Universitaires de Grenoble the book Pour une anthropologie des medias.
He has also published numerous scientific studies in journals and books dedicated to the transformations in the mass media in post-communist countries (Romänischer Journalismus in einer Übergangspériode, in vol. "Medienlandschaft im Umbruch", Berlin, Vistas, 1994, The Third Elite, in Ph. Glenn, O. Soltys (ed), "Media′95", Prague, Charles University Press,1996, Les Journalistes roumains et leur idéologie professionelle, en K. Feigelson, N. Pelissier (ed), "Télé-révolutions culturelles: Chine, Europe Centrale, Russie", Paris, Ed. L′Harmattan, 1998, Developments in Journalism Theory about Media "Transition" in Central and Eastern Europe (1990-1999), in "Journalism Studies", nr. 1, vol. 1, 2000, Media in Romania (A Sourcebook), Berlin, Vistas Verlang, 2004)
Mihai Coman was visiting professor at Institut Fur Journalistik, Dortmund University, Germany (2000-2001), at The Department of Communication of the University Stendhal, Grenoble, France (1998-1999) at The Department of Communication of the University Paris XIII, France (1996), at The Department of Communication, University of Quebec at Montreal (1993) and a Fulbright researcher at Department of Communication, California State University, Chico, USA (1999)
He is a member of international organizations (AEJMC, EJTA, IAMCR, AAA, ORBICOM), and on the editorial boards of communication journals such as Reseaux, Communication, Journalism Studies.
