Swedishness on Stage

Globalization, stagflation and economic uncertainty challenged the Swedish welfare model during the 1980s, driving renegotiations of state-market relations domestically as well as re-conceptualizations of Sweden’s place in the world internationally. This article addresses how a key media event – the 1638–1988 New Sweden 350th Anniversary of the New Sweden Colony in North America (New Sweden-88) – reflects these shifts. Drawing upon materials from the National Committee for New Sweden ’88 and various public-private Swedish-American foundations and initiatives as well as Swedish and US media reception, the paper argues that these renegotiations of Swedish self-identity in the late 1980s contributed in certain ways to prepare the intellectual ground for far-ranging reforms of the Swedish welfare model which followed during the globalized 1990s.

Non-binary gender markers: Mobility, migration, and media reception in Europe and beyond

Although European Union legal frameworks tend to conceive of sex and gender in binary terms, a growing number of countries in Europe and around the world have been increasingly allowing for third gender markers and non-binary possibilities in identity documents, passports, and public registries, of which the X marker in the sex or gender field has become the most common. However, initiatives like the X, which may initially signal trans-friendliness, must be considered alongside heightened border surveillance. As more and more European countries begin to follow this trend of expanding possibilities for registering (non-binary) gender (e.g. Malta, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands), we look here to some illustrative examples (e.g. Nepal, Canada, Pakistan) that have been at the forefront of non-binary legal recognition to interrogate the complications and conundrums that these developments may provoke in European contexts.

Health and beauty portrayals in youth-targeted print magazine advertising : where does the disabled body fit?

Using a visual semiotic analysis and qualitative interview of physically disabled individuals, this study evaluates the definitions and representations of beauty in the "Western" context in relation to, and contrasting portrayals of, physical disability in mainstream magazine advertising. The study finds a lack of representation of disability in advertising, with persistent implications that being physically different is associated with unattractiveness and, therefore, social undesirability. Directions for future research in advertisement portrayals, media reception, and the development of educational programs are presented.

Health and beauty portrayals in youth-targeted print magazine advertising : where does the disabled body fit?

Using a visual semiotic analysis and qualitative interview of physically disabled individuals, this study evaluates the definitions and representations of beauty in the "Western" context in relation to, and contrasting portrayals of, physical disability in mainstream magazine advertising. The study finds a lack of representation of disability in advertising, with persistent implications that being physically different is associated with unattractiveness and, therefore, social undesirability. Directions for future research in advertisement portrayals, media reception, and the development of educational programs are presented.

From the barbecue to the sauna: A comparative account of the folding of media reception into the everyday life

How and why do people still get print newspapers in an era dominated by mobile and social media communication? In this article, we answer this question about the permanence of traditional media in a digital media ecosystem by analyzing 488 semi-structured interviews conducted in Argentina, Finland, Israel, Japan, and the United States. We focus on three mechanisms of media reception: access, sociality, and ritualization. Our findings show that these mechanisms are decisively shaped by patterns of everyday life that are not captured by the scholarly foci on either content- or technology-influences on media use. Thus, we argue that a non-media centric approach improves descriptive fit and adds heuristic power by bringing a wider lens into crucial mechanisms of media reception in ways that expand the conceptual toolkit that scholars can utilize to analyze the role of media in everyday life.

Metody, miejsca odbioru i rytuały towarzyszące percepcji treści telewizji tradycyjnej i WebTV wśród licealistów zamieszkujących województwo podkarpackie

Współczesny sposób korzystania z mediów zmienił strukturę i funkcje przestrzenną miejsc odbioru. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest wskazanie metod odbiorczych, miejsc odbioru i opis rytuałów, które towarzyszą obecnie młodym ludziom podczas korzystania z mediów. W artykule zaprezentowano wyniki badań przeprowadzonych wśród podkarpackich licealistów w 2018 roku. W badaniu zastosowano dwustopniowy sposób ustalenia agregatu badawczego: (1) pisma do dyrektorów wylosowanych 14 placówek oświatowych oraz (2) rozesłanie prośby o wypełnienie ankiety do osób deklarujących przynależność do jednostki edukacyjnej za pomocą otwartego konta na portalu Facebook. Zastosowanie wyszukiwania celowego w serwisie Facebook umożliwiło dotarcie z ankietą do uczniów będących w rzeczywistości członkami społeczności danej szkoły, co – w opinii autora niniejszej publikacji – było działaniem uniemożliwiającym generowanie odpowiedzi przez osoby niebędące w grupie badawczej. Przeprowadzenie badania wśród podkarpackich licealistów jest motywowane regionalnym charakterem badań prowadzonych w rzeszowskim ośrodku akademickim. Zagregowane i opracowane wyniki pozwoliły uprawdopodobnić postawione w procesie konceptualizacji badań hipotezy i stanowią przyczynek do dalszych badań zjawiska. Methods, Places and Rituals Accompanying the Perception of the Content of Traditional Television and WebTV among High School Students Residing in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship The modern way of using the media has changed the spatial structure and functions of the places of media reception. The aim of this article is to indicate the reception methods, the places of reception and the description of the rituals that accompany young people today when using the media. The article presents the results of the research conducted among secondary school students from Podkarpackie Voivodeship (in the South of Poland) in 2018. The study used a two-stage method of gathering the research material: 1) letters to directors of 14 randomly selected educational institutions were followed by (2) a request to fill in the questionnaire sent to students, using an open account on Facebook. The use of targeted search on Facebook made it possible to reach students who were actually members of the school’s community with the survey, the results of which made it possible to substantiate the hypotheses put forward in the process of conceptualization of research and constitute a contribution to further research on the phenomenon of rituals accompanying the perception of media content.

Introducing quantitative reception aesthetics: Television reception and textual engagement

This article introduces quantitative reception aesthetics as a method and demonstrates how big data derived from social media services and textual analysis can be employed to uncover hitherto hidden processes of media spectatorship. It demonstrates how mixing quantitative and qualitative methods allows us to understand textual engagement and how media spectatorship evolves over time. Taking the Norwegian web series, Skam (2015–2017), as its case study, the article demonstrates how (web)television engagement on Instagram is linked to aesthetics and narrative events and how textual engagement is more universal than perhaps post-structuralist reception studies of media reception might have us believe.

Academics against Gender Studies

In Germany, knowledge production by gender researchers has been under attack not only from male rights activists, Christian fundamentalists and right-wing parties and movements, but also from scientists in various fi elds. Based on a discourse analysis of their publications (2009-2017) and a media reception analysis, this essay analyses arguments used by ‘gender’-critical scientists and the socio-political backgrounds to where they position themselves. I show that their arguments do not belong to scientifi c discourse, but can be interpreted as a form of science populism which lends ‘scientific’ authority to the formation of authoritarian, anti-feminist discourses that aims to reify ‘secure’ knowledge about ‘gender’. Accordingly, ‘gender-critical’ scientists are read mainly by non-scientific publics, including right-wing and Christian fundamentalist media and actors. As I will show, the phenomenon of scientists taking action against ‘gender’ can be situated in historical antifeminism, as well as contemporary discourses on the crisis-like character of the dynamics regarding gender knowledge and societal conditions.

“Four-Legged Terror” or “Ultimate New Yorker”?: Urban Rat Videos and Their Media Reception

Online videos of subway rats in New York and their media reception are examined in order to observe how they reflect sociocultural attitudes towards these non-human animals. It is argued that regardless of whether a particular video was purposefully staged as a hoax or whether its creators were convinced they were filming “true life,” virtually all these materials produce a deeply stereotypical vision of these animals and provide interpretations of their behaviors that conform to deep-seated cultural scripts and prejudices. Contemporary videos contribute to a long-enduring myth about rats that is deeply embedded in Western culture. They complement this myth with a new one that establishes rats as the ultimate urbanites who are granted individuality and extensively anthropomorphized.