This article looks at media representations of the projected regeneration of Northern Ireland, paying particular attention to a recent promotional film made to elicit support for the redevelopment of a part of Belfast’s city centre. Commissioned by Castlebrooke Investments, ‘Tribeca Belfast’ offers a future prospectus of the city that is as superficial as it is bland. It is, however, illustrative of two influential ideas and strategies that took flight at the end of the Cold War and the ‘triumph of capitalism’. One seeks peace through the application of neo-liberal nostrums; the other combines brand theory with state-craft in pursuit of global competitiveness. Both propose models of citizenship that are politically benign, either preferring middle class solipsism or demanding brand loyalty. In Castlebrooke’s projection of a future Belfast, this translates into a city peopled by a mobile professional class, waited upon and entertained by servile locals. But such a sterile vision is inimical to building peace and political progress because it underestimates and downplays the significance of marginalized groups who through their activism and expressions of solidarity can lay better claim to the ‘heart and soul’ of Belfast evoked by Castlebrooke.
{"title":"Tribeca Belfast and the on-screen regeneration of Northern Ireland","authors":"S. Baker","doi":"10.1386/MACP_00012_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/MACP_00012_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article looks at media representations of the projected regeneration of Northern Ireland, paying particular attention to a recent promotional film made to elicit support for the redevelopment of a part of Belfast’s city centre. Commissioned by Castlebrooke Investments, ‘Tribeca\u0000 Belfast’ offers a future prospectus of the city that is as superficial as it is bland. It is, however, illustrative of two influential ideas and strategies that took flight at the end of the Cold War and the ‘triumph of capitalism’. One seeks peace through the application\u0000 of neo-liberal nostrums; the other combines brand theory with state-craft in pursuit of global competitiveness. Both propose models of citizenship that are politically benign, either preferring middle class solipsism or demanding brand loyalty. In Castlebrooke’s projection of a future\u0000 Belfast, this translates into a city peopled by a mobile professional class, waited upon and entertained by servile locals. But such a sterile vision is inimical to building peace and political progress because it underestimates and downplays the significance of marginalized groups who through\u0000 their activism and expressions of solidarity can lay better claim to the ‘heart and soul’ of Belfast evoked by Castlebrooke.","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44537488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jonathan Hendrickx, T. Raats, Heritiana Ranaivoson, M. Opgenhaffen
Abstract In the past decade, public service broadcasters have been confronted with major shifts affecting their remit, portfolio and financing. Heavily fuelled by cutbacks and increasing competition, discussions on 'distinctiveness' have resurfaced again and stand central in many policy discussions on the legitimacy of public service broadcasting. This article critically contextualizes discussions on distinctiveness within broader scholarly work on genre and genre diversity in public service broadcasting. It presents the findings of a comparative, quantitative study of the programming schedule of seven public broadcasters (Flanders, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Portugal and the United Kingdom). The article addresses how discussions on distinctiveness tap into broader discussions on genre diversity and the amount of entertainment in public service broadcasting programming, how we can assess and compare the diversity of genre programming across different broadcasters, and to what extent high levels of specific genres such as entertainment can be linked to other performance indicators of the selected public broadcasters. The article provides a consistent comparison of genre outputs, based on an original database made of a large set of countries and a high, representative number of programmes and applies a consistent set of indexes to assess not only the share of entertainment but also the diversity of the programming. The underlying question to this article is to what extent genre is still valuable to measure performance and legitimacy of public service broadcasting, considering difficulties of measuring 'genre' as proxy for public service media's (PSM) effectiveness.
{"title":"'Distinctiveness' and programme diversity in public broadcasting revisited: A seven-country comparison","authors":"Jonathan Hendrickx, T. Raats, Heritiana Ranaivoson, M. Opgenhaffen","doi":"10.1386/macp_00002_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00002_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the past decade, public service broadcasters have been confronted with major shifts affecting their remit, portfolio and financing. Heavily fuelled by cutbacks and increasing competition, discussions on 'distinctiveness' have resurfaced again and stand central\u0000 in many policy discussions on the legitimacy of public service broadcasting. This article critically contextualizes discussions on distinctiveness within broader scholarly work on genre and genre diversity in public service broadcasting. It presents the findings of a comparative, quantitative\u0000 study of the programming schedule of seven public broadcasters (Flanders, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Portugal and the United Kingdom). The article addresses how discussions on distinctiveness tap into broader discussions on genre diversity and the amount of entertainment in public\u0000 service broadcasting programming, how we can assess and compare the diversity of genre programming across different broadcasters, and to what extent high levels of specific genres such as entertainment can be linked to other performance indicators of the selected public broadcasters. The article\u0000 provides a consistent comparison of genre outputs, based on an original database made of a large set of countries and a high, representative number of programmes and applies a consistent set of indexes to assess not only the share of entertainment but also the diversity of the programming.\u0000 The underlying question to this article is to what extent genre is still valuable to measure performance and legitimacy of public service broadcasting, considering difficulties of measuring 'genre' as proxy for public service media's (PSM) effectiveness.","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48237494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Real Jordanian women don't get harassed: Mapping sexual harassment along ultra-nationalist lines","authors":"S. Al-Mahadin","doi":"10.1386/macp_00007_7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00007_7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44713087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To save your country, flag your teacher: Anonymous reporting of liberal indoctrination as academic witch-hunt in Orbán's Hungary","authors":"J. Tóth","doi":"10.1386/macp_00009_7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00009_7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41676704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Digital mediation is implicated in the production of cultural identity in multiple ways. The representations produced and circulated on social media platforms, along with the ubiquitous nature of these platforms, become part and parcel of the production and performance of cultural identity. This paper investigates discourses of Facebook mediation and cultural identity among a sample of international undergraduates in media and communication at a major Dutch university. The analysis of 43 written student essays reveals four discourses: Facebook as a mirror of cultural identity, as a cultural mosaic, as a site of cultural difference and as an opportunity for critical reflection on the idea of cultural identity. Interestingly, these discourses are permeated by a recurrent vision of individual control of both mediation and cultural identity. This article discusses the ideological work entailed in these discourses, calling for more awareness raising on the ways in which social media actively construct social reality.
{"title":"Facebook and cultural identity: Discourses on mediation among international students","authors":"D. Dumitrica","doi":"10.1386/macp_00003_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00003_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Digital mediation is implicated in the production of cultural identity in multiple ways. The representations produced and circulated on social media platforms, along with the ubiquitous nature of these platforms, become part and parcel of the production and performance\u0000 of cultural identity. This paper investigates discourses of Facebook mediation and cultural identity among a sample of international undergraduates in media and communication at a major Dutch university. The analysis of 43 written student essays reveals four discourses: Facebook as a mirror\u0000 of cultural identity, as a cultural mosaic, as a site of cultural difference and as an opportunity for critical reflection on the idea of cultural identity. Interestingly, these discourses are permeated by a recurrent vision of individual control of both mediation and cultural identity. This\u0000 article discusses the ideological work entailed in these discourses, calling for more awareness raising on the ways in which social media actively construct social reality.","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44049507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Intersectionality is a critical approach to theorizing and exploring the interlocking of social inequality categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, class and sexuality in various levels of policies, social discourses, institutions and subject positionings. While social discourses do not arise in isolation from an all-encompassing media world, media, as co-producers of social power relations, are particularly interesting for the concept of intersectionality. However, the intersectional approach is rather a research field at the margins of German communication studies. This article discusses the theoretical prerequisites and methodological implications of intersectionality and provides examples of how an empirical implementation is possible in media research.
{"title":"Researching intersectionality in media studies: Theoretical approaches, methods and applications in communication and media research practice","authors":"Assimina Gouma, J. Dorer","doi":"10.1386/macp_00005_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00005_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Intersectionality is a critical approach to theorizing and exploring the interlocking of social inequality categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, class and sexuality in various levels of policies, social discourses, institutions and subject positionings. While\u0000 social discourses do not arise in isolation from an all-encompassing media world, media, as co-producers of social power relations, are particularly interesting for the concept of intersectionality. However, the intersectional approach is rather a research field at the margins of German communication\u0000 studies. This article discusses the theoretical prerequisites and methodological implications of intersectionality and provides examples of how an empirical implementation is possible in media research.","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43211099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The immigrant Chinese family has increasingly been represented in transnational Chinese cinema(s) over the past three decades. Two representative films, The Wedding Banquet (Lee, 1993) and Saving Face (Wu, 2004), are chosen to shed light on Chinese filmmakers' engagement with the complex process of identity formation for immigrants through the artifice of family conflict. Both movies examine how homosexuality can pose a threat to traditional Chinese family ethics such as filial piety, family continuity and family reputation, and how the seemingly incompatible ideological standpoints can be accommodated in the end. In both cases, on the one hand the depicted denial of homosexuality comes from its association with failed family education and bad ethnic and cultural practice, and its violation of traditional Chinese values. Therefore, sexuality becomes linked to the effect of Americanization and what it means to be Chinese. On the other hand, the 'undesirable' homosexual identity can be accepted or at least tolerated within the family as long as the family lineage is ensured, or the family remains intact. The disaporic subjects show us that submission to one's ethnicity can be modified or unlearned.
{"title":"Diasporic Chinese family drama through a transnational lens: The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Saving Face (2004)","authors":"Q. Han","doi":"10.1386/macp_00004_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00004_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The immigrant Chinese family has increasingly been represented in transnational Chinese cinema(s) over the past three decades. Two representative films, The Wedding Banquet (Lee, 1993) and Saving Face (Wu, 2004), are chosen to shed light on Chinese\u0000 filmmakers' engagement with the complex process of identity formation for immigrants through the artifice of family conflict. Both movies examine how homosexuality can pose a threat to traditional Chinese family ethics such as filial piety, family continuity and family reputation, and how\u0000 the seemingly incompatible ideological standpoints can be accommodated in the end. In both cases, on the one hand the depicted denial of homosexuality comes from its association with failed family education and bad ethnic and cultural practice, and its violation of traditional Chinese values.\u0000 Therefore, sexuality becomes linked to the effect of Americanization and what it means to be Chinese. On the other hand, the 'undesirable' homosexual identity can be accepted or at least tolerated within the family as long as the family lineage is ensured, or the family remains intact. The\u0000 disaporic subjects show us that submission to one's ethnicity can be modified or unlearned.","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49562030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article unpacks how legislators in five Canadian provinces turn to official languages (French and English) for digital constituent outreach. In a linguistically fragmented society, use of languages is highly strategic as they can help spread information on political matters to the public and help legislators build support ahead of elections. This article first measures legislators' uses of bilingualism in the digital mediascape with the help of an index. It finds that legislators tend to be mostly unilingual in their digital constituent communications. Second, this article identifies factors influencing legislators' linguistic choices. It tests correlations between legislators' socio-demographic and political profile (e.g. gender, party affiliation, political rank) and uses of official languages. It also determines if the linguistic makeup of legislators' ridings impacts language choices. This article concludes that these variables may impact legislator's use of bilingualism depending on the province of origin and the type of online platform.
{"title":"Dynamics of digital constituent outreach and engagement in linguistically divided societies: A quantitative look at the Canadian case","authors":"Emmanuelle Richez, Vincent Raynauld","doi":"10.1386/macp_00001_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00001_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article unpacks how legislators in five Canadian provinces turn to official languages (French and English) for digital constituent outreach. In a linguistically fragmented society, use of languages is highly strategic as they can help spread information on political\u0000 matters to the public and help legislators build support ahead of elections. This article first measures legislators' uses of bilingualism in the digital mediascape with the help of an index. It finds that legislators tend to be mostly unilingual in their digital constituent communications.\u0000 Second, this article identifies factors influencing legislators' linguistic choices. It tests correlations between legislators' socio-demographic and political profile (e.g. gender, party affiliation, political rank) and uses of official languages. It also determines if the linguistic makeup\u0000 of legislators' ridings impacts language choices. This article concludes that these variables may impact legislator's use of bilingualism depending on the province of origin and the type of online platform.","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45141415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) is one of the world's most followed political leaders on Twitter. During the 2014 and 2019 election campaigns, he and his party used various social media networking and the Internet services to engage with young, educated, middle-class voters in India. Since his first sweeping win in the 2014 elections, Modi's political communication strategy has been to neglect the mainstream news media, and instead use social media and government websites to keep followers informed of his day-to-day engagements and government policies. This strategy of direct communication was followed even during a critical policy change, when in a politically risky move half-way through his five-year prime ministership, Modi's government scrapped more than 85 per cent of Indian currency notes in November 2016. He continued to largely shun the mainstream media and use his social media accounts and public rallies to communicate with the nation. As a case study of this direct communication strategy, this article presents the results of a study of Modi's Twitter articulations during the three months following the demonetization announcement. We use mediatization of politics discourse to consider the implications of this shift from mass communication via the mainstream news media, to the Indian prime minister's reliance on direct communication on social media platforms.
{"title":"Political communication Modi style: A case study of the demonetization campaign on Twitter","authors":"Usha M. Rodrigues, M. Niemann","doi":"10.1386/macp_00006_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00006_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) is one of the world's most followed political leaders on Twitter. During the 2014 and 2019 election campaigns, he and his party used various social media networking and the Internet services to engage with young,\u0000 educated, middle-class voters in India. Since his first sweeping win in the 2014 elections, Modi's political communication strategy has been to neglect the mainstream news media, and instead use social media and government websites to keep followers informed of his day-to-day engagements and\u0000 government policies. This strategy of direct communication was followed even during a critical policy change, when in a politically risky move half-way through his five-year prime ministership, Modi's government scrapped more than 85 per cent of Indian currency notes in November 2016. He continued\u0000 to largely shun the mainstream media and use his social media accounts and public rallies to communicate with the nation. As a case study of this direct communication strategy, this article presents the results of a study of Modi's Twitter articulations during the three months following the\u0000 demonetization announcement. We use mediatization of politics discourse to consider the implications of this shift from mass communication via the mainstream news media, to the Indian prime minister's reliance on direct communication on social media platforms.","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1386/macp_00006_1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48840432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The rhetoric of the binge-eating body: An ethics of mourning in post-Sewol South Korea","authors":"Minkyu Sung","doi":"10.1386/macp_00008_7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00008_7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44504,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45456665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}