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Michael Wesch

Cultural Anthropologist, Digital Ethnography Expert, Emerging Explorer by National Geographic

Michael Wesch
Travels From Travels From:
Kansas, USA
Speaking Fee Speaking Fee:
Live Event: $5,000 - $10,000
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Categories Categories:
Categories Categories:
Business, Education, Innovation, Journalism, Science, Social Media, Social Sciences, Technology
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Michael Wesch Biography

Dubbed "the explainer" by Wired magazine, Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture.

After spending two years studying the implications of writing on a remote indigenous culture in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea, Wesch turned his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society. His videos on culture, technology, education, and information have been viewed by millions, translated in over 15 languages, and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide.

Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award, and he was recently named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic. He has also won several teaching awards, including the 2008 CASE/Carnegie US Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities.

Wesch graduated summa cum laude from the Kansas State University anthropology program in 1997 and returned as a faculty member in 2004 after receiving his doctorate in anthropology at the University of Virginia, where he pursued research on social and cultural change in Melanesia, focusing on the introduction of print and print-based practices like mapping and census-taking in the Mountain Ok region of Papua New Guinea. He lived in the region for a total of 18 months between 1999 to 2003. This work inspired Wesch to examine the effects of new media more broadly, especially digital media.

To this end, Wesch launched the Digital Ethnography Working Group, a team of undergraduates exploring human uses of digital technology. Coinciding with the launch of this group, Wesch created a short video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us." Released on YouTube January 31, 2007, it quickly became one of the most popular videos in the blogosphere and has now been viewed more than 12 million times.

He followed up the success of "The Machine is Us/ing Us" with "A Vision of Students Today," a short video he created with 200 K-State students exploring the state of higher education today. The video was the most popular video on the web in October 2007 and now has more than four million views.

Wesch also has led K-State undergraduate students in a three-year study of YouTube culture. The resulting 55-minute video has now been viewed more than one million times and was called "a phenomenon" by The New York Times.

Saying that "the more individualistic we become, the more we crave community," Wesch speaks on the innate modern-day connection between the media and our sense of cultural and individual identity. Drawing this connection into the world of marketing, he explains how, in worrying about page views and unique visitors, we can lose our view of the big picture: What are we contributing to society?

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Speaker profile last updated by AAE Talent Team on 06/18/2024.

Michael Wesch Speaking Topics

  • A Brief History of the Word "Whatever"

  • Effective Collaboration

  • College Students and Generation Y

  • Education and Technology

  • Social Media

  • Our Mediated Culture & What It Means for Marketers

    It took tens of thousands of years for writing to emerge after humans spoke their first words. It took thousands more before the printing press and a few hundred again before the telegraph. Yet today, a new medium of communication emerges every time somebody creates a new web application. A Flickr here, a Twitter there... and a new way of relating to others emerges, and along with it new types of conversation, affiliations, and collaboration. Using examples from anthropological fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, YouTube, university classrooms, and projections into the future, professor and keynote speaker Michael Wesch offers a fascinating look at the often-unnoticed but profound ways in which media "mediate" our culture and transform the way brands and companies need to consider how they relate to their clients and consumers.

Michael Wesch Videos

  • Michael Wesch - US Zeitgeist 2010
    Michael Wesch - US Zeitgeist 2010
  • TEDxNYED - Mike Wesch - 03/06/10 - YouTube
    TEDxNYED - Mike Wesch - 03/06/10 - YouTube
See All Videos »

FAQs on booking Michael Wesch

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  • What topics does Michael Wesch speak about?

    Michael Wesch is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Business, Education, Innovation, Journalism, Science, Social Media, Social Sciences, Technology.

  • Where does Michael Wesch travel from?

    Michael Wesch generally travels from Kansas, USA, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.

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Michael Wesch is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as A Brief History of the Word "Whatever", Effective Collaboration, College Students and Generation Y, Education and Technology, Social Media and Our Mediated Culture & What It Means for Marketers. The estimated speaking fee range to book Michael Wesch for your event is $5,000 - $10,000. Michael Wesch generally travels from KS, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Mitch Resnick, Jimmy Wales, Clay Shirky, John Legend and Michael Rogers. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Michael Wesch for an upcoming live or virtual event.

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