Media, culture and diversity
Seminar 1: Introduction
Introductions
• How identity and diversity are dealt with, produced, represented, regulated, consumed and
constructed in and through popular media culture
Election of Miss Belgium 2018
• Angeline Flor Pua
• Made the news: Chinese-Filipino diasporic background
• Backlash on Twitter “does not look Belgian” (white)
• Othering (she is different) and degrading (making problematic jokes, racist)
• Racism and digital media:
o Speed (30 minutes after winning)
o Globalization/international debate
• Blunt (rechtuit) racism, sexism and homophobia: no longer publicly condoned (vergeven)
• But what about structural sexism? de verkiezing op zich
• Models as commodities (koopwaar)?
City of Ghent Promotion Campaign (launched November 2017, image: Jeroen Van Zwol)
• Homophobic and sexual violence
• Challenge structural racism
• Inclusivity without assimilation
• Use of exaggerations = problematic?
• Romani population? (zigeuners)
• Effectivity of such campaigns?
See You in the Next Live – AB Concerts promotional campaign
• Ancienne Belgique – concert hall (Brussels)
• Currently closed due to Covid-19
• Benoît Do Quang (videographer and artist), Ayco Duyster (radio host), Grâce Kamashi (bar
manager), DVTCH NORRIS (rap), Blu Samu (hip hop/rap)
• Main theme: looking forward to live music
• “Next “Live” will be diverse and inclusive
• Window-dressing?: veel zeggen dat je gaat doen rond diversiteit, maar niet doen niet het geval bij AB
A closer look…
• … at BOEF
• Sofiane Boussaadia
• Dutch rapper (°1993), Algerian parents
• Musical bio:
Debut performance in 2015; 2016: EP ‘Gewoon Boef’ (Zonamo Underground); 2017: Slaaptekort
(BoefMusic); 2019: EP ’93’(Trifecta); 2020: Allemaal een Droom (Boef)
• Personal life: rocky road
• Popular artist! (+/-1.332.000 listeners/month on Spotify)
1
,A reconstruction of what happened:
• Car trouble on NYE 2017
• Snapchat: “Picked up by three kechs. My life is a movie. Happy New Year. I’m buying a boat this
year, just you wait”
• First ‘wave’ of criticism: use of word ‘kech’
• BOEF uploads another video: “I succeeded in upsetting a few people because I said ‘kech’, but
what are you doing in a club with alcohol, with short skirts at eight o’clock in the morning, with
boys? What are you doing? You’re just a kech”
• Underscoring image of ‘superior’ masculinity
o Commercial logics of an artist persona (noemt zichzelf BOEF)
o Sociocultural role of the artist!
• Second wave of criticism: heated, mediated, and polarized
• BOEF issues an apology later that day
Analysis of the responses/practices:
• Denouncing (aanklagen): women, feminist scholars, fellow rappers
Exposing ‘structural sexism’
• Support: online and offline, manager
Asking for nuance, importance of youth culture, ‘slang’
• Parody: ordinary citizens, satire blogs
Using humor to voice criticism
• Boycott: spokespersons with symbolic capital
Refusals by radio DJs to play songs, removal of festival line-ups, ending professional
collaborations…
• Setting up (mediated) debates
Putting things into perspective
• #MeToo as context
Spontaneous, uncontrolled digital movement that denounces sexism in all its forms
Singling out individuals, not always addressing structural issues
• Ethnic identity and double standards
Sunny Bergman and Selma Omari: fighting sexism with racism (mensen gebruikten het om racistisch te
zijn)
Everyday and structural racism, homophobia, ignoring sexism by white persons
Racial slur, framing it as Islam-related, using BOEF to boycott R&B and hip hop…
• BOEF’s ‘final’ response:
o New song and video (‘Antwoord’, 2018)
o Live performance and apology
• “We rappers are saying ‘bitches’ and so on, but we really don’t think less of women
Course setup
• Course: gaining insight into
+ how popular (media) culture deals with diversity
+ the role of popular (media) culture in making sense of the world
2
, • Approach:
o To offer historical perspectives, contexts and milestones in the history of engaging
with sociocultural diversity in popular media culture.
o To provide key theoretical insights from media, communication, and cultural studies and
social theory to help us make sense of the various modes identities have been represented
in popular media culture.
o To offer reflections on contemporary trends, transformations and challenges that
haveemerged in late modern societies.
Concrete objectives
(1) Describe, explain and reflect on the key concepts, important theories, and historical and
contemporary debates prevailing in the research on media, culture and diversity.
(2) Apply key concepts onto historical and contemporary phenomena that relate to media,
culture and diversity in order to make a scholarly sound and informed judgment and
evaluation of these phenomena.
(3) Argue what the relevance is of media, communication and cultural studies for the analysis of
contemporary problems and demonstrate the sociocultural role and responsibility of a media and
communication scholar.
(4) Being able to successfully conduct a small research project on diversity and popular (media)
culture in a group
(5) Being able to clearly and concisely communicate a research project on diversity and popular
(media) culture to fellow students
Limitation
Focus on Western popular media culture:
• Program-related reasons
• Paradigmatic reasons
• Practical reasons
• Unfamiliar with cases? Watch-and-listen list (at end of PPT)
Seminar 2
IDENTITY, DIVERSITY AND POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE: KEY CONCEPTS
• Defining ‘identity’, ‘subjectivity’ and ‘culture’
• Politics of representation, stereotyping and intersectionality
Seminar 3
ON GENDER IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• Theoretical perspectives on sex and gender
• Researching gender and popular media culture
• Focus on gender and rock music
Seminar 4
ON SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• A theoretical & historical approach to sexual diversity
• Sexual diversity in popular media culture:
• History of sexual diversity in audiovisual culture
• Self-representation of LGBTQ young people on social networks
3
, Seminar 6
ON RACE AND ETHNICITY IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• Theories and debates on ‘race’ and ethnicity
• Studies on ‘race’, ethnicity and popular media culture
• Black musicians, Black popular music
Seminar 7
ON DISABILITY IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• Guest lecture by Susan Vertoont
• (Dis)abled bodies in western societies, exploration of concepts such as ‘ab/normality’, ‘inclusion’,
‘participation’ and ‘belonging’
• A quantitative and qualitative approach to studying disability
Seminar 8
ON SOCIAL CLASS IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• How has social class been approached in the key fields?
• Not taken seriously & various divergent approaches to study social class
• Social class in popular media culture
• Representations of social class
• Audiences and social class
Seminar 9 and 10
DEALING WITH DIVERSITY
• Student presentations of group assignments normally on campus
• Not everyone has to give the actual presentation, but everyone hasto be present in the room
• Normally between 13.00 and 18.30 (but depends on Corona-measuresand final number of
students and groups)
4
Seminar 1: Introduction
Introductions
• How identity and diversity are dealt with, produced, represented, regulated, consumed and
constructed in and through popular media culture
Election of Miss Belgium 2018
• Angeline Flor Pua
• Made the news: Chinese-Filipino diasporic background
• Backlash on Twitter “does not look Belgian” (white)
• Othering (she is different) and degrading (making problematic jokes, racist)
• Racism and digital media:
o Speed (30 minutes after winning)
o Globalization/international debate
• Blunt (rechtuit) racism, sexism and homophobia: no longer publicly condoned (vergeven)
• But what about structural sexism? de verkiezing op zich
• Models as commodities (koopwaar)?
City of Ghent Promotion Campaign (launched November 2017, image: Jeroen Van Zwol)
• Homophobic and sexual violence
• Challenge structural racism
• Inclusivity without assimilation
• Use of exaggerations = problematic?
• Romani population? (zigeuners)
• Effectivity of such campaigns?
See You in the Next Live – AB Concerts promotional campaign
• Ancienne Belgique – concert hall (Brussels)
• Currently closed due to Covid-19
• Benoît Do Quang (videographer and artist), Ayco Duyster (radio host), Grâce Kamashi (bar
manager), DVTCH NORRIS (rap), Blu Samu (hip hop/rap)
• Main theme: looking forward to live music
• “Next “Live” will be diverse and inclusive
• Window-dressing?: veel zeggen dat je gaat doen rond diversiteit, maar niet doen niet het geval bij AB
A closer look…
• … at BOEF
• Sofiane Boussaadia
• Dutch rapper (°1993), Algerian parents
• Musical bio:
Debut performance in 2015; 2016: EP ‘Gewoon Boef’ (Zonamo Underground); 2017: Slaaptekort
(BoefMusic); 2019: EP ’93’(Trifecta); 2020: Allemaal een Droom (Boef)
• Personal life: rocky road
• Popular artist! (+/-1.332.000 listeners/month on Spotify)
1
,A reconstruction of what happened:
• Car trouble on NYE 2017
• Snapchat: “Picked up by three kechs. My life is a movie. Happy New Year. I’m buying a boat this
year, just you wait”
• First ‘wave’ of criticism: use of word ‘kech’
• BOEF uploads another video: “I succeeded in upsetting a few people because I said ‘kech’, but
what are you doing in a club with alcohol, with short skirts at eight o’clock in the morning, with
boys? What are you doing? You’re just a kech”
• Underscoring image of ‘superior’ masculinity
o Commercial logics of an artist persona (noemt zichzelf BOEF)
o Sociocultural role of the artist!
• Second wave of criticism: heated, mediated, and polarized
• BOEF issues an apology later that day
Analysis of the responses/practices:
• Denouncing (aanklagen): women, feminist scholars, fellow rappers
Exposing ‘structural sexism’
• Support: online and offline, manager
Asking for nuance, importance of youth culture, ‘slang’
• Parody: ordinary citizens, satire blogs
Using humor to voice criticism
• Boycott: spokespersons with symbolic capital
Refusals by radio DJs to play songs, removal of festival line-ups, ending professional
collaborations…
• Setting up (mediated) debates
Putting things into perspective
• #MeToo as context
Spontaneous, uncontrolled digital movement that denounces sexism in all its forms
Singling out individuals, not always addressing structural issues
• Ethnic identity and double standards
Sunny Bergman and Selma Omari: fighting sexism with racism (mensen gebruikten het om racistisch te
zijn)
Everyday and structural racism, homophobia, ignoring sexism by white persons
Racial slur, framing it as Islam-related, using BOEF to boycott R&B and hip hop…
• BOEF’s ‘final’ response:
o New song and video (‘Antwoord’, 2018)
o Live performance and apology
• “We rappers are saying ‘bitches’ and so on, but we really don’t think less of women
Course setup
• Course: gaining insight into
+ how popular (media) culture deals with diversity
+ the role of popular (media) culture in making sense of the world
2
, • Approach:
o To offer historical perspectives, contexts and milestones in the history of engaging
with sociocultural diversity in popular media culture.
o To provide key theoretical insights from media, communication, and cultural studies and
social theory to help us make sense of the various modes identities have been represented
in popular media culture.
o To offer reflections on contemporary trends, transformations and challenges that
haveemerged in late modern societies.
Concrete objectives
(1) Describe, explain and reflect on the key concepts, important theories, and historical and
contemporary debates prevailing in the research on media, culture and diversity.
(2) Apply key concepts onto historical and contemporary phenomena that relate to media,
culture and diversity in order to make a scholarly sound and informed judgment and
evaluation of these phenomena.
(3) Argue what the relevance is of media, communication and cultural studies for the analysis of
contemporary problems and demonstrate the sociocultural role and responsibility of a media and
communication scholar.
(4) Being able to successfully conduct a small research project on diversity and popular (media)
culture in a group
(5) Being able to clearly and concisely communicate a research project on diversity and popular
(media) culture to fellow students
Limitation
Focus on Western popular media culture:
• Program-related reasons
• Paradigmatic reasons
• Practical reasons
• Unfamiliar with cases? Watch-and-listen list (at end of PPT)
Seminar 2
IDENTITY, DIVERSITY AND POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE: KEY CONCEPTS
• Defining ‘identity’, ‘subjectivity’ and ‘culture’
• Politics of representation, stereotyping and intersectionality
Seminar 3
ON GENDER IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• Theoretical perspectives on sex and gender
• Researching gender and popular media culture
• Focus on gender and rock music
Seminar 4
ON SEXUAL DIVERSITY IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• A theoretical & historical approach to sexual diversity
• Sexual diversity in popular media culture:
• History of sexual diversity in audiovisual culture
• Self-representation of LGBTQ young people on social networks
3
, Seminar 6
ON RACE AND ETHNICITY IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• Theories and debates on ‘race’ and ethnicity
• Studies on ‘race’, ethnicity and popular media culture
• Black musicians, Black popular music
Seminar 7
ON DISABILITY IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• Guest lecture by Susan Vertoont
• (Dis)abled bodies in western societies, exploration of concepts such as ‘ab/normality’, ‘inclusion’,
‘participation’ and ‘belonging’
• A quantitative and qualitative approach to studying disability
Seminar 8
ON SOCIAL CLASS IN POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
• How has social class been approached in the key fields?
• Not taken seriously & various divergent approaches to study social class
• Social class in popular media culture
• Representations of social class
• Audiences and social class
Seminar 9 and 10
DEALING WITH DIVERSITY
• Student presentations of group assignments normally on campus
• Not everyone has to give the actual presentation, but everyone hasto be present in the room
• Normally between 13.00 and 18.30 (but depends on Corona-measuresand final number of
students and groups)
4
