Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Transnational Families and Media Practices: Methods, Ethics and Critical Approaches’

This Special Issue brings together interdisciplinary perspectives to explore the mediated experiences of transnational families in the digital age. Building on the foundational concept of transnationalism, the collection examines how migrants sustain and transform familial, emotional and material ties across borders. Over the past three decades, the transnational approach has provided a critical framework for understanding the complex networks and spatialities of contemporary migration. Expanding this lens, the contributions in this issue foreground the role of media and communication technologies as key infrastructures through which transnational families negotiate intimacy, care and belonging. Digital media have not only extended the scope of transnational family practices but also reshaped the meanings of presence, absence and connectedness. By engaging with diverse methodological and theoretical approaches, this Special Issue illuminates how transnational families experience, imagine and reproduce their cross-border lives through media, offering new insights into the intersections of migration, technology and kinship.