MEDIA, CULTURE AND
DIVERSITY
Academiejaar 2020/2021
PROF: FREDERICK D’HAENENS
,SEMINAR 1: INTRODUCTION
16 February: Seminar 1
23 February: Seminar 2
2 March: Seminar 3
9 March: Seminar 4
16 March: Seminar 5 (feedback session, 13.00-18.30)
23 March: Seminar 6
30 March: Seminar 7
EASTER BREAK
20 April: Seminar 8
27 April: NO CLASS, use this time to prepare your assignment!
4 May: Seminar 9 (presentations, between 13.00-18.30)
11 May: Seminar 10 (presentations, between 13.00-18.30)
SEMINAR 3: ON GENDER AND POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
+ Miranda (any episode), Game Of Thrones (any episode), Euphoria (any episode)
+ Listen to “De Tijdloze Honderd” on Spotify (or via Studio Brussel)
SEMINAR 4: ON SEXUAL DIVERSITY AND POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
+ Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Céline Sciamma), The Children’s Hour (William Wyler)
+ Friends (The One With the Male Nanny), Glee (any episode), Skam (season 3, any episode)
SEMINAR 5: ON RACE, ETHNICITY AND POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
+ Listen to: Charlotte Adigéry, Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Solange, Nina Simone
+ Insecure (no episode in particular)
SEMINAR 8: ON SOCIAL CLASS AND POPULAR MEDIA CULTURE
+ The Condition of the Working Class (Deirdre O’Neill & Michael Wayne) (can be accessed via Vimeo)
+ Metropolis (Fritz Lang), Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica), All that Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
+ Treme (any episode)
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DISCLAIMER: normally, these cases will be discussed but there may be changes possible during the year
,THIS COURSE:
• How identity and diversity are dealt with, produced, represented, regulated, consumed and constructed in
and through popular media culture
• Discussing identity = personal
• Some rules:
– do not attack someone’s personal belief or opinions
– be respectful at all times
– do not feel ‘pressured’ to speak from a particular subject position but try to imagine what persons
may feel
• English-language course
• How does it relate to other courses? (International Communication, Cultural Media Studies)
MEANING TITLE OF THIS COURSE
Diversity refers to gender identity, etnicity, sexual identity, age… (it is very wide)
→ In this course we will try to understand how people make representations and how important these
representations are
People embody identities (even when not visible) → there are some rules you have to take into account while
talking about identity and diversity
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, ELECTION OF MISS BELGIUM 2018
This election in 2018 wasn’t like any other
The same: group of girls/woman that particated to become miss and the won that wins carries the title en
participated
Different: Angeline Flor Pua wons the election. The minute that it was announced there was a lot of fuzz. The
first place where we can hear a rumour is on social media. But it was also in print media. It was the first miss
Belgium that had a different background (Chinese, phillipino background). The backlash was the reason. On
twitter there were people that make comments etc.
“She does not look Belgian”
They implied that this miss Belgium implied that she wasn’t white, they link it to
the idea that someone who represents Belgium should be white. They were
degrading her, really problematic jokes that were homophobic, racist. BUT what
is Belgian??)
→ This happened through a process of:
– othering (= she did not look like a typical Belgian, she was
looked at as being different/ not part of a group)
– and degrading (= the were making problematic jokes that were
homophobic, transphobic, racist…)
RACISM AND DIGITAL MEDIA:
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