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University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol
Thursday 12th and Friday 13th July 2007
> Click here to view the detailed programme overview (online)
> Click here to download the detailed programme overview (pdf)
Conference Programme - Abstracts
Panel 4: Mediating Identity 1
Chair: Dr Elspeth kydd
Nation, faith, ethnicity, culture: studying media consumption and identity in England using ethnography
Cathy Baldwin, University of Oxford
media
consumption, identity,
ethnography, England
Media researchers
engaged in audience
studies have borrowed
ethnographic methods
from anthropology –
fieldwork observation
and open-ended
interviews - since the
‘interpretive turn’
in 1980s media theory.
It is noticeable that
few media researchers
working with
ethnography go to the
lengths of the ‘classic’
anthropologists. These
are people who spend a
year or more of their
lives living in the
community alongside
their research
subjects,
participating in the
same daily routine and
exploring their
research problem or
question by observing
and experiencing it
for themselves. Since
the early 1990s, more
anthropologists have
applied their
traditional technique
to media studies.
This paper will explore the advantages, challenges and disadvantages for
investigating the relationship between media consumption and identity formation
amongst ordinary people in England of carrying out a fully-fledged
anthropological fieldwork study. From summer 2007, I will spend 18 months living
and working with members of the white English majority and minority ethnic
groups in Swindon, England. I will encounter crucial issues in debates around
the theory and methodology of ethnography in accessing and exploring media
consumption activities and ‘media talk’ in private homes and public spaces.
Those discussed in this paper will include gaining access in the first instance;
the insecurity of allowing informants’ media preferences to direct the study
and not imposing my own agenda; accessing native language media in the case of
ethnic minorities; observing links between media content and informants’ talk
and behaviour; and the ethics of eliciting data on the basis of a personal
relationship with an informant.
Television news representations of Islam in France and Russia
Galina Miazhevich, University of Manchester (and Henri Nickels, University
of Surrey)
islam, discourse analysis, objectivity and impartiality, public service broadcasting, media studies
Current news
discourse on Islam
focuses much attention
on issues such as the War on Terror,
the Islamic threat,
or multiculturalism.
The controversial
nature of these issues
begs the question of
knowing how news
discourse on Islam is
articulated,
especially in relation
to the canons of
objectivity and
impartiality in public
service broadcasting.
This paper
investigates how
current news discourse
on Islam is
articulated in the
flagship public
television news
programmes in France (Journal de 20 Heures
on France 2) and
Russia (Vremia
on Channel One)
through the means of a
comparative discourse
analysis. These
countries provide an
ideal basis for
comparison, with
similarities and
differences in their
relations with Islamic
states and Muslim
populations, as well
as being both highly
centralised states
preparing for
presidential
elections.
Similarities and
differences in news
coverage will
highlight distinctive
modes of media
representation of
Islam in each country,
while pointing towards
the existence of
shared European
perceptions and
representations of
Islam and Muslims. It
is anticipated that a)
Islam will be
represented as a
problematic issue in
news discourse; b)
France and Russia will
exhibit similarities
and differences in the
cross-cultural
circulation of the
meaning of Islam;
and c) there will be
strong national biases
in news coverage.
Representations
of identity in the
Hong Kong Press:
a quantitive discourse
analysis of
Chinese-language
newspaper in Hong Kong
Mengmeng Zhang, Loughborough University
Hong Kong, identity, democracy, discourse analysis, newspaper
This paper
investigates the most
important newspapers
in Hong Kong, to
reveal relationships
between recent
political events and
collective identity in
Hong Kong, and
understand the
dramatic increase in
the interest of
further democracy
since the handover
from Britain in 1997.
In the modernist
theories of
nationalism (e.g.
Anderson 1983; Gellner
1983, 1997), the mass
media are repeatedly
mentioned as major
instruments for
spreading and
maintaining national
identities. Due to
that, the mass media
are an excellent
source for an
investigation into
issues of identity.
How did the media in
Hong Kong represent
the Hongkongese
identity in relation
to democracy and
autonomy? Were these
representations based
on nationalism?
The main source for analysis consists of newspaper articles published in the most important Hong Kong daily newspapers between 2002 and 2007, a period marked by many important political events. Thematically, the sample will be limited to articles covering the main events and debates related to issues of democracy and autonomy. The reports will be analysed by means of a combination of content analysis and critical discourse analysis. Unlike most existing research drawing on CDA, this project applies this method to a non-European language, and aims to probe the applicability of CDA to the most commonly spoken language in the world. This paper will present the results of analysis conducted so far.
Panel 1: Imperialism
and Globalisation
Panel 2: Online Citizens and Democracy
Panel 3: Television Audiences
Panel 4: Mediating Identity 1
Panel 5: Reporting the Conflict
Panel 6: Journalism and Social Responsibility
Panel 7: Sexual Representations in Cinema
Panel 8: Popular Culture
Panel 9: Still Image
Panel 10: Branding, Advertising and Corporate Cultures
Panel 11: Film and Theatre
Panel 12: Alternative Film
Panel 13: Feminism, Gender and Identity
Panel 14: Fan Culture and Online Audiences
Panel 15: Public Service Broadcasting and Radio
Panel 16: Design for Screen
Panel 17: Uses of Music and Sound in Film
Panel 18: Mediating Identity 2
Panel 19: Citizens, Interaction and the Public Interest
Note: Please be aware that the programme might be subject to changes. Please refer back to this page for a final programme overview nearer the conference. The final programme will also be communicated to delegates via email.
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