OSP: Paul Gilroy - Diasporic identity
There are several important theories we need to learn and apply to our Online, Social and Participatory media unit.
These include Clay Shirky's End of Audience theories, Stuart Hall's work on representation and reality and Paul Gilroy's postcolonial theory of black diasporic identity.
Notes from the lesson
Stuart Hall: representation and reality
Stuart Hall suggests individuals each have their own conceptual map – effectively what we use to decode and understand media texts.
Building on this, Hall outlines three approaches to understanding the relationship between reality and representations:
Reflective approach: the media simply mirrors (or reflects) the real world. This is a limited approach that minimalises the power or complexity of the media.
Intentional approach: the producer of the text constructs the world as they see it and the audience accepts those values encoded in the text. This is effectively the dominant or preferred reading (reception theory) and leaves no room for the negotiated or oppositional reading.
The constructivist approach: this was Hall’s preferred approach and closely matches reception theory with preferred and oppositional readings. This suggests concepts and signs do have some shared meanings but they are not all inherent and can be interpreted by the audience in a number of ways (dependent on their own ‘conceptual map’).
Paul Gilroy: black diasporic identity
We first explored Paul Gilroy’s theories of black diasporic identity when studying music video.
This is the idea that black identity is informed by diaspora – literally the ‘scattering of people’ across the world. He suggests this creates a “liquidity of culture” that means black identity is formed by journeys across seas, not the solid ground of a home country or culture.
Importantly, Gilroy sees this identity as impossible to reverse – there can be no return to the place of origin as the experience of slavery and displacement can never be “rewound”.
Gilroy: black British identity
The Voice newspaper was formed in 1982 to create a voice for the black British community. Gilroy wrote of the dominant representation of black Britons at that time as “external and estranged from the imagined community that is the nation”.
Gilroy suggests diaspora challenges national ideologies and creates “cultural tension”. This tension helps to create the diasporic identity but often comes with negative experiences such as exclusion and marginalisation.
More succinctly, Gilroy sums this up as the white racist’s question to BAME people: “Why don’t you just go home?”
BBC controversy
Gilroy wrote about this in the 1970s and 1980s but it's been in the news much more recently. The BBC found itself embroiled in a controversy regarding BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty's response to Donald Trump suggesting congresswomen should 'go home' to the countries in which they or their parents were born. The original clip and full article can be found below:
Paul Gilroy and Russell Brand
In 2017, Paul Gilroy took part in Russell Brand’s Under The Skin podcast, exploring ideas and modern culture. Watch the following two extracts and consider how Gilroy’s ideas reflect recent events and media culture.
Extract 1: 17.50 – 25.45
Extract 2: 44.30 – 48.08
Paul Gilroy - blog task
Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 170: Gilroy – Ethnicity and Postcolonial Theory. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets
Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:
1) How does Gilroy suggest racial identities are constructed?
He has always argued that racial characters are verifiable developed – shaped by colonisation, bondage, patriot ways of thinking and consumer free enterprise.
2) What does Gilroy suggest regarding the causes and history of racism?
Gilroy is stating that prejudice isn't brought about by race, bigotry causes race. Bigotry isn't brought about by the conflict of at least two races – prejudice is definitely not a characteristic marvel. Rather, Gilroy states that racial contrast and racial personalities are the result of racial mistreatment. Racial characters are brought about by authentic clashes that have brought various gatherings into restriction.
3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy opposed to it?
Ethnic absolutism is a line of reasoning which sees people are a piece of various ethnic compartments, with race as the premise of human separation. Gilroy is against ethnic absolutism as it is counter to his contention that prejudice causes race.
4) How does Gilroy view diasporic identity?
He considers a transatlantic diasporic personality, where gatherings over the Atlantic offer social practices – a "solitary, complex unit" of dark social experts because of a mutual history of persecution and bondage. Gilroy considers dark to be as a result of development – the African diasporic personality depends on ROUTES taken since forever, and not the ROOTS of cause. Gilroy considers this to be a diaspora that can't be switched, not normal for the great position which offers the legend of coming back to the spot of beginning. For Gilroy, the Black Atlantic diaspora is irreversible on the grounds that the experience of subjugation unalterably changed the diasporic personality.
5) What did Gilroy suggest was the dominant representation of black Britons in the 1980s (when the Voice newspaper was first launched)?
Gilroy proposes that the predominant philosophy at the time was "outer and repelled from the envisioned network that is the country" - again identifying with the idea that Black Britons were regularly untouchables in the public arena and felt like they didn't have a place.
6) Gilroy argues diaspora challenges national ideologies. What are some of the negative effects of this?
Negative impacts incorporate avoidance, being presented to backward belief systems and furthermore minimization.
7) Complete the first activity on page 3: How might diasporic communities use the media to stay connected to their cultural identity? E.g. digital media - offer specific examples.
Diasporic people group utilise the media to remain associated with their social character from multiple points of view. Right off the bat, they may utilise the media to understand news and stay mindful of what's going on in their nation of origin. Besides, they may watch motion pictures or arrangement that start from their nation of origin. For instance, Netflix now incorporates numerous outside TV arrangement or motion pictures.
8) Why does Gilroy suggest slavery is important in diasporic identity?
He recommends that the effect that bondage had (is as yet having) can't be disregarded, and that along these lines, there will consistently be Diaspora. This thought alludes to the way that we can't come back to the time before bondage, as Africa has experienced such significant political changes because of the impacts of subjugation; along these lines it isn't feasible for us to return to life before it.
9) How might representations in the media reinforce the idea of ‘double consciousness’ for black people in the UK or US?
Dark individuals can frequently be spoken to as being free with full citizenship and rights. Nonetheless, they may once in a while not feel thusly as they "reliably feel they are taking a gander at themselves through the eyes of others"
10) Finally, complete the second activity on page 3: Watch the trailer for Hidden Figures and discuss how the film attempts to challenge ‘double consciousness’ and the stereotypical representation of black American women.
The trailer endeavors to challenge the cliché portrayal of dark ladies by having 3 dark lady working for NASA. They have exceptionally regarded vocations that are frequently connected with men as it were. In any case, they are awesome at their employments and even have all the earmarks of being making exceptionally huge enhancements inside the organization, demonstrating that even dark American ladies can exceed expectations in their lives. The trailer challenges 'twofold awareness' by having the ladies be glad for what their identity is. They couldn't care less what anybody considers them, rather, they expect to demonstrate to everybody how smart they are.
This is your half-term homework - due in your first exam lesson after half-term.
Make sure you've also got the last sections of your Teen Vogue case study complete plus your regular stories from Teen Vogue and The Voice:
Teen Vogue - audience and representation
Teen Vogue - industry and social media
Teen Vogue and The Voice - weekly story focus
These include Clay Shirky's End of Audience theories, Stuart Hall's work on representation and reality and Paul Gilroy's postcolonial theory of black diasporic identity.
Notes from the lesson
Stuart Hall: representation and reality
Stuart Hall suggests individuals each have their own conceptual map – effectively what we use to decode and understand media texts.
Building on this, Hall outlines three approaches to understanding the relationship between reality and representations:
Intentional approach: the producer of the text constructs the world as they see it and the audience accepts those values encoded in the text. This is effectively the dominant or preferred reading (reception theory) and leaves no room for the negotiated or oppositional reading.
The constructivist approach: this was Hall’s preferred approach and closely matches reception theory with preferred and oppositional readings. This suggests concepts and signs do have some shared meanings but they are not all inherent and can be interpreted by the audience in a number of ways (dependent on their own ‘conceptual map’).
Paul Gilroy: black diasporic identity
We first explored Paul Gilroy’s theories of black diasporic identity when studying music video.
This is the idea that black identity is informed by diaspora – literally the ‘scattering of people’ across the world. He suggests this creates a “liquidity of culture” that means black identity is formed by journeys across seas, not the solid ground of a home country or culture.
Importantly, Gilroy sees this identity as impossible to reverse – there can be no return to the place of origin as the experience of slavery and displacement can never be “rewound”.
Gilroy: black British identity
The Voice newspaper was formed in 1982 to create a voice for the black British community. Gilroy wrote of the dominant representation of black Britons at that time as “external and estranged from the imagined community that is the nation”.
Gilroy suggests diaspora challenges national ideologies and creates “cultural tension”. This tension helps to create the diasporic identity but often comes with negative experiences such as exclusion and marginalisation.
More succinctly, Gilroy sums this up as the white racist’s question to BAME people: “Why don’t you just go home?”
BBC controversy
Gilroy wrote about this in the 1970s and 1980s but it's been in the news much more recently. The BBC found itself embroiled in a controversy regarding BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty's response to Donald Trump suggesting congresswomen should 'go home' to the countries in which they or their parents were born. The original clip and full article can be found below:
Paul Gilroy and Russell Brand
In 2017, Paul Gilroy took part in Russell Brand’s Under The Skin podcast, exploring ideas and modern culture. Watch the following two extracts and consider how Gilroy’s ideas reflect recent events and media culture.
Extract 1: 17.50 – 25.45
Extract 2: 44.30 – 48.08
BBC controversy
Gilroy wrote about this in the 1970s and 1980s but it's been in the news much more recently. The BBC found itself embroiled in a controversy regarding BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty's response to Donald Trump suggesting congresswomen should 'go home' to the countries in which they or their parents were born. The original clip and full article can be found below:
Paul Gilroy and Russell Brand
In 2017, Paul Gilroy took part in Russell Brand’s Under The Skin podcast, exploring ideas and modern culture. Watch the following two extracts and consider how Gilroy’s ideas reflect recent events and media culture.
Extract 1: 17.50 – 25.45
Extract 2: 44.30 – 48.08
Paul Gilroy - blog task
Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 170: Gilroy – Ethnicity and Postcolonial Theory. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets
Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:
1) How does Gilroy suggest racial identities are constructed?
Gilroy is stating that prejudice isn't brought about by race, bigotry causes race. Bigotry isn't brought about by the conflict of at least two races – prejudice is definitely not a characteristic marvel. Rather, Gilroy states that racial contrast and racial personalities are the result of racial mistreatment. Racial characters are brought about by authentic clashes that have brought various gatherings into restriction.
3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy opposed to it?
Ethnic absolutism is a line of reasoning which sees people are a piece of various ethnic compartments, with race as the premise of human separation. Gilroy is against ethnic absolutism as it is counter to his contention that prejudice causes race.
5) What did Gilroy suggest was the dominant representation of black Britons in the 1980s (when the Voice newspaper was first launched)?
Gilroy proposes that the predominant philosophy at the time was "outer and repelled from the envisioned network that is the country" - again identifying with the idea that Black Britons were regularly untouchables in the public arena and felt like they didn't have a place.
Negative impacts incorporate avoidance, being presented to backward belief systems and furthermore minimization.
8) Why does Gilroy suggest slavery is important in diasporic identity?
He recommends that the effect that bondage had (is as yet having) can't be disregarded, and that along these lines, there will consistently be Diaspora. This thought alludes to the way that we can't come back to the time before bondage, as Africa has experienced such significant political changes because of the impacts of subjugation; along these lines it isn't feasible for us to return to life before it.
9) How might representations in the media reinforce the idea of ‘double consciousness’ for black people in the UK or US?
10) Finally, complete the second activity on page 3: Watch the trailer for Hidden Figures and discuss how the film attempts to challenge ‘double consciousness’ and the stereotypical representation of black American women.
Make sure you've also got the last sections of your Teen Vogue case study complete plus your regular stories from Teen Vogue and The Voice:
Teen Vogue - audience and representation
Teen Vogue - industry and social media
Teen Vogue and The Voice - weekly story focus
