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Re-thinking media and sexuality education
- 1. Re-thinking Media and Sexuality Education A/Prof Kath Albury School of Arts and Media University of New South Wales k.albury@unsw.edu.au Twitter: @KathAlbury These workshop materials can be re-used for non-commercial purposes, with attribution.
- 2. Where did this workshop come from? The creation of this workshop was supported by a UNSW GoldStar Award, 2015. The contents was adapted from two Creative Commons courses (authored or co-authored by Kath Albury). You are welcome to re-use them for non-commercial purposes, with attribution: Sources: Senft, T., Walker Rettberg, J., Losh, E., Albury, K., Gajjala, R., David, G., Marwick, A., Abidin, C., Olszanowski, M., Aziz, F., Warfield, K., & Mottahedeh, N. (2014). ‘Sexuality, dating and gender’, Studying Selfies: A Critical Approach. Retrieved from http://www.selfieresearchers.com/week-four-sexuality-dating-gender/ Albury, K (2009) Media and Sexuality, One-day module for International ‘Short Course in Critical Sexuality Theory and Research Methodologies’, for the Ford Foundation and the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS).
- 3. At the end of this workshop participants will be able to: • Recognise & articulate their current ‘media theories’ and theoretical frameworks drawn from the field of media and cultural studies (in basic terms) • Reflect on & evaluate the utility of alternative theories of media (in basic terms) • Articulate the reasons for choosing/applying specific theories in workplace/settings (in basic terms) • Apply media & cultural studies frameworks/theories in practical settings when appropriate (in basic terms)
- 4. Group discussion • What are your current hot topics in terms of young people & online & mobile media (in terms of your professional role)? • What are your current sources of knowledge, theoretical frameworks, resources for addressing these issues in your professional context?
- 5. Media, cultural studies and textual analysis: some key ideas
- 6. • How do we move beyond the issue of whether texts accurately represent the real world, and consider instead how we use languages and images to make sense of reality? • How can we move from asking what media does to us to ‘what do we do with media?’
- 7. Culture ‘has been used [in the past] to indicate the spread of civilised ideas and beliefs’, but is now applied ‘more neutrally to describe the symbols, meanings and practices that can be associated with living within a media-dominated society’. Nick Stevenson (2002: 227) Understanding Media Cultures • Media and cultural studies view culture as a site of political conflict, or, in Foucauldian terms as ‘a productive network of power relations. Culture and Media
- 9. • Audiences or (media users/consumers) are not just passive receptacles who are brainwashed by ‘media bias and stereotypes, but are active interpreters of the information that is presented to them. • Audiences can also use commercial or mass- produced texts in such a way that they gain a new meaning in their new context.
- 10. • Media operates on multiple levels. • There is always the possibility of multiple strategies for interpreting and using media. • Meanings are not ‘fixed’ into texts, and they are not stable. They change according to the time, or location in which they are consumed. • Factors like class, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, political affiliation, health and physical ability can all effect how a consumer or audience makes sense of a media text.
- 12. Stuart Hall and encoding/decoding • ‘Sender-message-receiver’ model • This model supposes that a signal or message is formulated by a sender. Then, it is transmitted in a clear and coherent way to a waiting receiver. The receiver could be a blank piece of paper written on by the sender, or a body ‘injected’ with a message by the sender. • Otherwise known as the ‘Hypodermic model of communication’. • Hall is critical of this model
- 13. • According to Hall, the message can not be fixed or controlled by the sender/producer, because he or she can not control all the factors involved in transmission and reception. • ‘Distortion’ of the message is built into the process of communication itself, it is not the result of a breakdown in the process. • The meanings that audiences make out of images are produced in particular contexts, and they are also consumed in specific contexts.
- 14. TREE ARBRE
- 16. • No shared language = no shared understanding. • Representations do not distort ‘reality’ – they allow us to make sense of it. • Particular groups have their own collective sense- making practices, also known as codes or discourses. • Media images are not simply faithful renditions (or distortions) of the real world. • They are representations that re–present versions or impressions of reality, and these impressions are based on shared assumptions or understandings. • Encoding - media producers choose to include or exclude certain kinds of words or images in order to shape a meaning that fits a particular world view.
- 17. According to Hall, images may be decoded in three main ways: 1. Dominant reading – the audience’s understanding of a media representation is shaped by the dominant assumptions in their culture. 2. Negotiated reading – the audience accepts parts of the embedded codes, but accepts them selectively, according to their own understandings or experiences. 3. Resistant or oppositional reading – the audience may reject the messages ‘encoded’ outright, because they conflict with the audience’s beliefs or understanding of the world.
- 18. The Circuit of Culture (du Gay et al. 1997/2012)
- 19. Example: Facebook • Who ‘makes’ it? Where & why? • Who uses it? How? Where? • What functions does it serve for its users? • How is it regulated? (macro and micro) • How does it encourage certain kinds of use, and discourage others? (affordances)
- 20. Contemporary media culture and ‘produsers’ • Smartphones, social media and convergent media culture blurs the line between ‘producer’ and ‘consumer.’ • People of all ages use media to negotiate their identities – including gender and sexual identity. • Can Hall’s model’s of encoding/decoding be applied to these practices?
- 21. Couldry’s taxonomy of media practice (2012) • Searching and search enabling (a process that includes ‘liking’ Facebook posts); • Showing and being shown (a loosely defined set of practices that might involve posting selfies on Instagram); • Presencing (or “managing presence-to-others across space” – again, selfies and sexting might fit in this category) (2012, 49); • Archiving (or “presencing’s equivalent in time”- for example, a Tumblr page, or Facebook’s Timeline) (2012, 51-52) and; • Complex media related practices. These include: ‘keeping up with the news’, ‘commentary’, ‘keeping all channels open’ via ‘continuous connectivity; and ‘screening out’ (i.e. going offline, or deleting social media profiles) (2012, 53-57).
- 22. • The Selfie Course
- 23. Public privacy selfie exercise • Take a selfie that DOESN'T show your face (could be your bag, your feet, your body, whatever) that your friends might recognise you by.
- 24. Producing sexuality and gender online • Which look gets the most Tinder matches?
- 25. Exercise: Sexuality & mediated self-representation • In pairs, use your smartphone, take a ‘public’ (head and shoulders) selfie that you would use for dating website or app.
- 26. Questions for reflection • How did you (or your partner) communicate identity through media production? • How easy/difficult was it to create you image? • What qualities did you try to communicate? (ie friendly, not creepy, easygoing but not ‘slutty’) • Did you try to avoid or actively confront ‘myths & stereotypes’ in relation to sexuality or gender? Why? Why not?
- 27. Small group brainstorming exercise • How could you use the theoretical frameworks we’ve looked at today in your professional setting? • In groups of four (or pairs if you prefer) think of an exercise or activity you currently use, and incorporate one (or more) of the following frameworks:
- 28. Encoding/decoding (all texts are open to dominant, negotiated and resistant readings) The circuit of culture (any text or practice can be studied in relation to production, regulation, representation, identity & consumption) Media as practice (showing & been shown, searching & search enabling, archiving, prescencing, commentary, keeping up with the news, connecting & disconnecting etc)
- 29. • Evaluation • Final Q & A • Many thanks!
- 30. Useful readings • boyd, d. (2014) It’s complicated: the social life of networked teens • Couldry, N. (2012) Media, Society, World: social theory and digital media practice London: Polity • Du Gay, P., S. Hall, L. Janes, A.K. Madsen, H. Mackay & K. Negus. (2013) Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman, 2nd.Ed. London: Sage. • e Silva, A., and Frith, J. (2012), Mobile interfaces in public spaces: Locational privacy, control, and urban sociability. Routledge,
Editor's Notes
- Photo credit https://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2736563610/ As McKee observes, researchers in the fields of media and cultural studies are interested in the ways that people use media and other cultural texts to make sense of the world. These researchers generally have a social justice agenda, and tend to view both the production and consumption of media as political processes, both in the general sense, and in the sense that media can be seen to influence or reflect personal identity formation. While some media research has focused fairly narrowly on analysing media content in order to detect ‘bias’ or ‘stereotypes’, for the purposes of this module we are asking more open-ended questions.
- Rather than asking whether particular media texts are good or bad, we will ask how particular media texts can be understood, and why we understand them in particular ways. To answer these questions, we need to move beyond the issue of whether texts accurately represent the real world, and consider instead how we use languages and images to make sense of reality. Within cultural studies, media is studied as one aspect of popular culture (i.e. everyday cultural production) rather than high culture such as opera or ballet. The term popular culture tends not to refer to traditional cultural practices, such as religious ceremonies, or folk practices, such as arts and crafts. It is usually applied to things like television programs, magazine articles, advertising, film and, more broadly, popular fashion and music. If, for example, we refer to ‘hip-hop culture’, we may be describing dance styles, recorded or live music, clothing, telephone ring-tones, slang and/or graffiti.
- In his book Understanding Media Cultures, Nick Stevenson offers a useful definition of culture, which, he notes, ‘has been used [in the past] to indicate the spread of civilised ideas and beliefs’, but is now applied ‘more neutrally to describe the symbols, meanings and practices that can be associated with living within a media-dominated society’ (2002: 227). Media and cultural studies view culture as a site of political conflict, or, a productive network of power relations. Like any academic discipline, media and cultural studies are characterised by dissent, particularly around the nature of power itself and the ways it acts on cultural consumers, in this case, media audiences. This module draws on a Foucauldian model of power, which sees power relations as dynamic. Power is not simply domination, or the means by which the strong oppress the weak. Power is not just exercised one way; it involves ‘power to’ not just ‘power over’.
- Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/111460603@N04/11362395454/
- In the context of media audiences, this means that audiences or ‘consumers’ are seen not just as passive receptacles who are brainwashed by ‘media bias and stereotypes’ but as active interpreters of the information that is presented to them. While they may accept media content unquestioningly, their interpretation is coloured by their existing beliefs and values, and can run completely counter to the ‘official’ narrative or plotline presented in a media text (such as a news story or advertising billboard). Audiences can also use commercial or mass-produced texts in such a way that they gain a new meaning in their new context. For example, reggae music was created by Jamaicans in the context of working-class, post-colonial, black culture. Reggae music draws on pop music traditions created by African-Americans, who are also descendents of slaves and histories of forced dispossession and migration. Reggae music and its associated cultural practices and images (such as dreadlocked hairstyles, pictures of Bob Marley) have been popularised widely, and now appear way beyond their original Jamaican context. In Australia, for example, young white surfers and young indigenous musicians have adapted reggae music and fashion within their specific subcultures. Depending on which reggae fan you speak to, reggae can symbolise black resistance to white colonisers, the freedom to smoke marijuana, or just a good beat. Some commentators would suggest that the ‘correct’ meaning of reggae is diluted or co-opted when consumers adapt it to their cultural context or consume it in ways that ignore the political and social context in which it was produced. Within this module, you will certainly be invited to think critically about media texts. However, it is worth considering what can be lost when there is too much insistence on finding (or enforcing) the ‘correct’ interpretation of a media text. For most people, consuming media is associated with leisure, entertainment or relaxation. Even news media such as television and newspapers are not seen purely as a site of ‘factual information’ – they entertain as well as inform. This does not mean that media audiences who want to relax or be entertained are not also seeking to make sense of their everyday lives and the world around them.
- It is important to remember that media operates on multiple levels. This means that whether you are producing media texts, consuming them or commentating, there is always the possibility of multiple strategies for interpreting and using media. Meanings are not ‘fixed’ into texts. Meanings are not stable either. They change according to the time, or location in which they are consumed. Factors like class, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, political affiliation, health and physical ability can all effect how a specific consumer (or group of consumers or ‘audience’) makes sense of a media text. Importantly, even ‘bad’ media texts can offer opportunities for emotional engagement, whether it is based on disgust, pleasure or surprise. This makes them prime sites for learning and thinking.
- Stuart Hall and encoding/decoding Stuart Hall is not the only well-known theorist in media and cultural studies, but his work is highly respected, and very influential. His work draws on anthropology, sociology, linguistics and politics, and takes a political approach to the study of everyday media and culture. Hall considers issues of race, class and gender as they arise in the context of everyday interactions, particularly through debates in popular and news media. A common model within media communications theories that favour the media effects approach is called the ‘Sender-message-receiver’. This model supposes that a signal or message is formulated by a sender. Then, it is transmitted in a clear and coherent way to a waiting receiver. The receiver, in this model, could be seen as a blank piece of paper written on by the sender, or as a body ‘injected’ with a message by the sender. This model is sometimes referred to as the hypodermic model of communication, because it assumes that the message is delivered in a pure or uncontaminated way, just as a medicine is delivered by hypodermic needle. Stuart Hall is very critical of this model arguing it is too simple. It assumed that if messages were not transmitted in an undiluted form, this was because (a) the sender had prepared them incorrectly, or (b) the receiver was not intelligent enough to understand them correctly.
- In contrast Hall believes that the message (however skilfully crafted) cannot be fixed or controlled by the sender/producer, because she could not control all the factors involved in transmission and reception. ‘Distortion’ of the message is built into the process of communication itself; it is not the result of a breakdown in the process. In contrast to this flawed model Hall seeks to develop a means of understanding the way audiences make meaning out of the images presented by producers. He argues that these meanings are produced in particular contexts, and they are consumed in specific contexts. So, while ‘media effects’ researchers seek to measure the cognitive and attitudinal effects a given media message might have on an audience, Hall’s work looks at the interactions between media producers, media content and media consumers. Rather than using instrumental or quantitative tools to gauge ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ media impact, cultural studies practitioners apply methodologies such as textual analysis (the methodology introduced in the McKee reading), ethnographic participant-observation, and qualitative interviews. Although Hall himself uses a number of methods, he is best known for his approach to textual analysis, which he explains as the process of ‘encoding/decoding’ (see Hall, http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/SH-Encoding-Decoding.pdf). Drawing on the work of philosopher Roland Barthes, Hall applies the linguistic field of semiotics (or semiology) to media. Hall proposes that we can only make sense of ‘real’ events when we are able to share a common understanding of them. He uses the example of the letters T R E E, which are understood by English speakers to represent both the real—material trees we might plant or burn—and the abstract idea of a ‘tree’. The same collection of letters does not have the same meaning to a French speaker, who will call that same material object by another name: ‘Arbre’.
- Without shared language (which can be made up of writing, speech, touch, symbols, sounds or visual images) there can be no shared understanding. For this reason, Hall proposes that representations do not distort ‘reality’ – they allow us to make sense of it. While each individual can make sense of real events in slightly different ways, we rely on shared understandings in order to communicate. Particular groups – national, cultural, religious or professional – have their own collective sense-making practices, also known as codes or discourses. These practices often seem commonsensical or ‘just the way things are’, but as Hall and many others have argued, they are often highly politicised and always culturally produced. Representation only makes sense in context – and since media representations can appear in a number of different contexts, they can be interpreted in a number of ways. To take a fairly neutral example, the colour red can mean different things according to the context in which it appears. The red in a red silk wedding dress symbolises something quite different to the red on a stop sign or a traffic light – but that does not mean that only one of them represents the ‘true’ meaning of red. As Hall explains in his DVD lecture on Media and Representation, media images are not simply faithful renditions (or distortions) of the real world. They are representations that re–present versions or impressions of reality, and these impressions are based on shared assumptions or understandings. In the process of encoding, media producers choose to include or exclude certain kinds of words or images in order to shape a meaning that fits a particular world view. This is not a neutral process; it is based on their assumptions about the ‘ideal’ values their audience will share, and often reflects and even supports the interests of their employer, or other powerful forces (such as governments).
- However, these messages must be decoded by audiences, who bring their own sets of experiences, values and attitudes to bear. This, again, is not a neutral process. According to Hall, there are three main ways an image may be decoded or read by an audience. The first is termed the dominant reading. In this case, the audience’s understanding of a media representation is shaped by the dominant assumptions in their culture. The second reading is the negotiated reading, where an audience accepts parts of the embedded codes, but accepts them selectively, according to their own understandings or experiences. The third is termed a resistant or oppositional reading. In this instance, audiences may reject the messages ‘encoded’ outright, because they conflict with the audience’s beliefs or understanding of the world. The encoding/decoding process is always subject to interpretation. Therefore, there is always a space to challenge ‘preferred’ or dominant encodings, and this offers space for critical thinking about what the media is, what it does, and how it can be adapted and changed in different contexts. Let us see how Hall explains this in his own words.
- Any cultural text or artifact needs to be understood in multiple contexts if it is to be properly studied. What social practices is it embedded in? What identities are formed in relation to it? How is it produced, and by whom? How, where, why is it consumed? How is it’s production & consumption regulated (and contested). HOW WOULD WE VIEW FACEBOOK VIA THE CIRCUIT OF CULTURE?
- From The Selfie Course: “critical social media pedagogy needs to consider texts, but also practices, networks and identities. Roughly, we think of these categories as questions. What actions are performed? How are connections operating? Which bodies are coming to matter, how, and why?
- How has social media changed the role of the audience? As we move from an environment where we are not only active audiences, but also media producers, how do we interpret the images we produce? How have smartphones changed your experience of sexuality and gender in media?
- In pairs: create and post a ‘dating profile picture’ on the instagram account (please only create images you are personally comfortable sharing publicly). We will use these images in class consider the ways that media ‘produsers’ negotiate culture, gender and sexuality through emerging cultures of media literacy.