Mediated Belonging and the Security of Home 


• In Event: Grounding Transnational Communication Flows in Global Contexts: Emerging Research From Metropolitan Miami

Abstract

Relying on 211 interviews with immigrants in greater Miami, in this project I identify and theorize propositions about how immigrants engage in mediated human interaction and shared cultural consumption in search of the "ontological security" associated with home. Ontological security is an unconscious, emotionally experienced phenomenon that taps deeply held notions of trust in the predictability and continuity of social environs. It is strongest when we are embedded in relationships, communities and physical landscapes associated with the natal home. When ontological security diminishes, it may manifest as emotional strain or existential anxiety, and if left unattended, even psychological distortion. The project extends ideas from media studies, the sociology of emotions and the anthropology of space and place. My purpose is to update ideas about media consumption, identity, and community formation that no longer describe how we construct belonging or experience exclusion in an era of enhanced mobility and trans-border communication.

Author

• Sallie L. Hughes, U of Miami