scholarly journals Changing the Narrative of Displacement in Africa: Counter-Narratives, Agency, and Dignity

2021 ◽  
Vol 120 ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Husseina Dinani
Keyword(s):  
Refugee Camp ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
Displacement Based ◽  
Student Discussion ◽  
Geographical Locations ◽  
Contemporary Context

This essay draws on the author’s experiences of teaching Binyavanga Wainaina’s “How to Write about Africa” and select chapters from Ben Rawlence’s City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp in various undergraduate courses at University of Toronto Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. It makes the case for how these works enable instructors to disrupt the normative narrative of displacement based on the victim-perpetrator binary in mainstream media and humanitarian discourses and center the multidimensionality of displaced peoples across different eras and geographical locations. The essay discusses how each work offers students with strong counter-narratives to the dominant depoliticized and depersonalized accounts of dislocation in Africa by considering historical and contemporary context and foregrounding (displaced) Africans as humans that have agency and dignity. Additionally, the essay demonstrates how each work galvanizes students to identify and deconstruct their implicit biases, particularly when it comes to how they may have (unknowingly) contributed to the continuing portrayal of displaced Africans in victimizing ways. Through student discussion and coursework, the essay demonstrates how each work can empower students, who have themselves or have family members who previously experienced dislocation, to share their experiences and use them to build their own counter-narratives, in the process constructing an enriched archive of displacement that goes beyond the frameworks offered in course materials and that can be used to understand processes of displacement beyond the particular contexts discussed in the classroom. Keywords: African experiences, Agency, Displacement, Refugees, Dadaab,

Young feminists, feminism and digital media

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Feminist Poststructuralist ◽  
News Headlines ◽  
Geographical Locations ◽  
Feminist Practice ◽  
Do So

Over recent years, young feminist activism has assumed prominence in mainstream media where news headlines herald the efforts of schoolgirls in fighting sexism, sexual violence and inequity. Less visible in the public eye, girls’ activism plays out in social media where they can speak out about gender-based injustices experienced and witnessed. Yet we know relatively little about this significant social moment wherein an increasing visibility of young feminism cohabits a stubbornly persistent postfeminist culture. Acknowledging the hiatus, this paper draws on a qualitative project with teenage feminists to explore how girls are using and producing digital feminist media, what it means for them to do so and how their online practice connects with their offline feminism. Using a feminist poststructuralist approach, analyses identified three key constructions of digital media as a tool for feminist practice: online feminism as precarious and as knowledge sharing; and feminism as “doing something” on/offline. Discussing these findings, I argue that there is marked continuity between girls’ practices in “safe” digital spaces and feminisms practised in other historical and geographical locations. But crucially, and perhaps distinctly, digital media are a key tool to connect girls with feminism and with other feminists in local and global contexts.

scholarly journals When is a journalist not a journalist? Negotiating a new form of advocacy journalism within the environmental movement

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Vine
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Movement ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Ethical Guidelines ◽  
Investigative Journalism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Advocacy Journalism ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Contemporary Context

Commentary: A New Zealand broadcast journalist of 25 years’ experience comes under fire from former colleagues after joining the environmental campaigning organisation Greenpeace. The ensuing criticism provides insight into how the mainstream media views itself and how sensitive it might be to any perceived threat to its credibility. It opens up an argument about what constitutes a ‘journalist’ in a contemporary context.  A troubling epoch for journalists facing tight newsroom budgets, news trivialisation, fragmented media spheres and dwindling public confidence in the profession. This commentary examines the argument for new terminology to describe the kind of investigative journalism which might be practised within non-government organisations (NGOs) for a mainly digital audience. It also challenges views on objectivity and bias, positing whether advocacy journalism with strict ethical guidelines produced from within an organisation with a known agenda, may serve the public interest more ably than a fragmented mainstream journalism compromised by less obvious biases.

The politics of nostalgia and pessimism

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-191
Author(s):  
Adi Saleem Bharat
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
French Society ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Muslim Identities ◽  
Contemporary Context

This article provides a sociopolitical and historical analysis of Thierry Cohen’s novel Avant la haine (2015) in order to ascertain how this novel negotiates Jewish and Muslim identities and the category of ‘Jewish-Muslim relations’ and broader, more dominant representations of these identities and relations. In doing so, I show how literary interventions into the question of Jewish-Muslim relations and their representations may both challenge and reaffirm polarizing discourses of Jewish-Muslim tension more broadly found in contemporary French society. Most significantly, this novel is steeped in pessimism or at the very least a pessimistic optimism when it comes to perceiving Jewish-Muslim presents and futures. This sense of pessimism suggests the difficulty of articulating counter-narratives in a contemporary context that consistently emphasizes Jewish-Muslim polarization, overdetermined by theories of a new Muslim antisemitism and an importation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This article’s conclusions are not meant to apply to all literary productions on Jewish-Muslim (or inter-ethnic/-religious) relations, but rather to be exploratory in nature, i.e. to suggest how literature may mediate and navigate intergroup relations that are presented as polarized and tense in broader media and political discourses.

scholarly journals Mapping Emerging and Legacy Outlets Online by Their Democratic Functions—Agonistic, Deliberative, or Corrosive?

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110150
Author(s):  
Rainer Freudenthaler ◽  
Hartmut Wessler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Refugee Camp ◽  
Online News ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Moral Case ◽  
Partisan Media

In this study, we offer a novel approach to research on migration reporting by focusing on the argumentative substance prevalent in different online outlets. Taking German refugee policy as our case in point we map the role that moral, ethical–cultural, legal, and pragmatic argumentations play within journalistic, partisan, and activist outlets; and how these coincide with incivility and impoliteness. Using dictionary-based content analysis on a data set of 34,819 articles from thirty online news outlets published between April 10, 2017, and April 10, 2018, we find that legacy mainstream media, partisan media, and activist media perform vastly different functions for the larger public sphere. We observe that human rights activist media perform an advocatory function by making the moral case for refugees, whereas corrosive partisan media at the fringe—particularly within the contra-refugee camp—often present opponents as inherently illegitimate enemies. Implications for public sphere theory and directions for future research on emerging and legacy media are discussed.

Misogynoir in women’s sport media: race, nation, and diaspora in the representation of Naomi Osaka

2020 ◽  
pp. 016344372096091
Author(s):  
Sabrina Razack ◽  
Janelle Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Black Diaspora ◽  
Women's Sport ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Asian Identity ◽  
Information And Communication

Overt and subtle misogynoir (anti-Black misogyny) pervade sport and sport media, as women in the Black diaspora are rarely in control of sporting regulations or their media representations. One recourse racialized athletes have at their disposal, however, is active resistance. This paper provides a textual analysis of the intolerable misogynoir aimed at tennis professional Naomi Osaka, and key moments in her media (mis)representations. Results revealed three main themes: (1) ongoing misogynoir and colorism of sport media and athlete sponsors; (2) racial, national and diaspora media (mis)representations; and (3) resistance to gendered racism through self-representation. After Osaka’s historic win at the 2018 US Open, narratives of her Japanese nationality and Asian identity became the story that rendered her Blackness invisible, and enabled her to be read against her opponent Serena Williams. Some information and communication technologies (ICTs), including social media, presented counter-narratives and a recognition of the mainstream media vilification and erasure of Black women. At times, ICTs disrupted racist dominant narratives, and counter-narratives of Osaka’s Blackness and position as part of the Haitian jaspora (diaspora) prevailed.

scholarly journals Demystifying immigrant youth representations : a look at mainstream and immigrant perspectives within literature and media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Natsu Kawahatsu
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Immigrant Youth ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
White Hegemony

Firstly, this paper analyses two mainstream films, Gran Torino and Entre les Murs (The Class) and looks at how depictions of immigrant youth are often negative and perpetuate stereotypes and racist ideologies. Through the lens of whiteness, I will argue that mainstream media plays an important role in maintaining white hegemony by othering people of colour, in particular, immigrant youth. Secondly, the paper analyses immigrant produced media and literary works and explores how they can offer powerful narratives that critique and analyze issues of social inequality. Utilizing Freire's idea of "conscientization", I contend that youth learn to raise awareness of oppressive conditions in their community and problematize those conditions within society. The counter-narratives that immigrant youth develop refute "othered" identities by moving the focus away from the white dominant voice.

scholarly journals A clown, a political messiah or a punching bag? Rethinking the performative identity construction of celebrity through social media

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy Tse ◽  
Vivienne Leung ◽  
Kimmy Cheng ◽  
Joey Chan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Online Audiences ◽  
A Site ◽  
Self Presentations ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Identity Production

In meeting the changing demands of authenticity and visibility in social media, performances of identity and connections are discussed to entail new sociotechnical labours and digital literacies. Research has looked into the construction and presentation of celebrity identities, in light of these developments, but has paid little attention on the celebrities’ experiences and perspectives, which is also due to the lack of willingness of industry insiders in this culturally sensitive business to be interviewed and genuinely talk about its problems. Twelve in-depth interviews with celebrities and entertainment industry practitioners were conducted between 2014 and 2015. Particularly, this article draws on the cases of two established celebrities in Hong Kong and China, and assesses how and why they were unable to actively construct and perform their preferred media identities, highlighting the blurring boundaries among traditional celebrities, micro-celebrities and ordinary people for their construction of online identities through social media, and also elucidating the opportunities and challenges posed by today’s evolving media environment. We argue that social media only superficially open up a site of counter-narratives for celebrities to resist the identities imposed on them by the mainstream media and online audiences. The interviewed celebrities’ contradictory experiences in their self-presentations in social media offer alternative angles to understanding the incoherent and unstable celebrity identity production processes, the blurring boundaries between celebrities and ordinary people through such processes as well as the celebrities’ capacity to reclaim control in asserting their ‘true’ selves.

scholarly journals Demystifying immigrant youth representations : a look at mainstream and immigrant perspectives within literature and media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Natsu Kawahatsu
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Immigrant Youth ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
White Hegemony

Firstly, this paper analyses two mainstream films, Gran Torino and Entre les Murs (The Class) and looks at how depictions of immigrant youth are often negative and perpetuate stereotypes and racist ideologies. Through the lens of whiteness, I will argue that mainstream media plays an important role in maintaining white hegemony by othering people of colour, in particular, immigrant youth. Secondly, the paper analyses immigrant produced media and literary works and explores how they can offer powerful narratives that critique and analyze issues of social inequality. Utilizing Freire's idea of "conscientization", I contend that youth learn to raise awareness of oppressive conditions in their community and problematize those conditions within society. The counter-narratives that immigrant youth develop refute "othered" identities by moving the focus away from the white dominant voice.

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