Thinking Anthropologically about Media: Making Local Media

By Johannes Merz

Is it always we who have to make or adapt media for others? What about letting people make their own media for themselves? In our digital age it has become easy enough to produce low-cost media locally, made by local people for local people. To me, in most cases this seems like an obvious best approach, at least when we think anthropologically about media. 

So, let’s start with the people who love media but have gotten accustomed to consuming them, rather than producing them. Tumudagu, a gifted Christian singer, never imagined that he and his friends at church could record his songs in the village and add pictures to them. One day in 2017, I asked Tumudagu about his music. When he learned that I thought it possible to make music videos in his village, his eyes started to sparkle. 

Next, Tumudagu met with his friends at church and they chose several Christian songs that they’d like to perform and record. Then, we started to talk specifics. I’d supply a couple of cheap Canon camcorders and Zoom audio recorders, while the church would practice, find instruments, and rent suitable attire for their performance. We set a date for the shooting.

I arrived in the afternoon on the appointed day. The sun was getting lower, providing perfect light. Tumudagu waited under his mango tree, and slowly others started to arrive. Not only did church members come, but also people from the whole neighbourhood turned up and got involved. The women got dressed in the initiation attire and were ready for the first song. Only women who have been initiated could wear the full attire. These danced for the first song. Younger women, who had not been initiated, also wanted to dance. So we made a second version of the same song with them. 

I set up a camera on a tripod for the dancing and used the second one to take various shots, including of the singers, who sat apart. I put the audio recorders into cardboard boxes to shelter them from the wind. So I could mix instruments and vocals together, I used one audio recorder for the singers, and the other for the dancers and instruments. The recording went well and felt very much like capturing a carefully staged live performance. The improvised nature of the performance is also visible in the videos, which are not perfect. Sometimes it is evident that we used cheap equipment, but we’re still pleased with the results. Having good video editing software (Final Cut Pro X) made up a lot for the cameras’ deficiencies. 

The first afternoon we managed to record three songs before the sun got too low. Since the rented attire could also be used for further songs, we decided to continue shooting the next day. The afternoon was overcast, and we managed to record another three songs. 

With relatively little financial means and time investment, we’ve produced what we consider decent music videos. This shows that localized media projects are feasible even in remoter parts of today’s world. 

Seven years later, nothing further has happened in terms of media production. The Covid pandemic followed by security concerns made it difficult. It might yet be a while before the church will be able to make short clips by themselves, but they have taken the first step. 

The biggest advantage of localizing media production is that people get involved from the very beginning and can then take ownership of the resulting media: The results are truly theirs. I felt that the process of making localized videos was at least as valuable as the final videos themselves. 

You can watch the result here. 

Image from pixabay.com, public domain.

Johannes Merz is a senior anthropology consultant with SIL Global and trainer for International Media Services. He holds a Ph.D. in anthropology and lectures at Moorlands College in the U.K. He and his wife, Sharon, have been based in Benin, West Africa, since 2002. You can contact him at johannes_merz@sil.org.