Download - Re-thinking media and sexuality education
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Re-thinking Media and Sexuality Education
A/Prof Kath Albury
School of Arts and Media
University of New South Wales
Twitter: @KathAlbury
These workshop materials can be re-used for non-commercial purposes, with attribution.
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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).
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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)
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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?
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Media, cultural studies and textual analysis: some key
ideas
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• 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?’
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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
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The active audience
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• 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.
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• 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.
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Stuart Hall 1932-2014
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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
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• 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.
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TREE ARBRE
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• 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.
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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.
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The Circuit of Culture (du Gay et al.
1997/2012)
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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)
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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?
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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).
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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.
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Producing sexuality and gender
online• Which look gets the most Tinder matches?
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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.
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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?
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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:
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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)
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• Evaluation
• Final Q & A
• Many thanks!
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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,
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