Research shows that older people tend to not only be underrepresented on television (TV), but also to be represented within a number of fixed types. These correspond to cultural myths about ageing, ...which emphasise vulnerability and decline but also increasingly stress the individual's responsibility for successful ageing. This paper analyses the representation of older people on Flemish public TV, using qualitative content analysis to identify patterns of representation in a sample of 44 programmes broadcast in 2019 and 2020, including the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. To complement our own analysis, we also interviewed eight experts on ageing. Our research shows that representations of older people on Flemish public TV tend to gravitate towards two types related to different age groups: vulnerable and passive old-old people (over 80 years old), particularly those in nursing homes who feature prominently in reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic; and dynamic and active young-old people (65–80 years old), connected to the ideals of successful ageing. The two predominant types correspond to cultural myths about ageing and are also connected to recurrent themes: sexual intimacy, loneliness and death. Our research highlights the need for a more diverse representation, reflecting the variety of individual life conditions and the functional age of older people.
This paper explores sexual and ethnic-cultural identifications among first- and second-generation gay migrants in Belgium. Based on a theoretical framework highlighting the multiple, fluid and ...intersectional nature of identifications, 29 in-depth interviews are used to study self-identifications and connections to different communities. Drawing on a diverse sample, three clusters of participants can be distinguished: second-generation migrants, who were born in Belgium; sexual refugees, who escaped to Belgium; and voluntary migrants, who chose to move to Belgium. Ethnic-cultural and sexual identifications interact and vary between these groups of participants, but also within them as they intersect with other social positionings such as class, gender and race.
•Bourdieusian field theory continues to provide a useful framework to analyze TV as a cultural field of production.•Flemish and Israeli critics and creators discourses stress the artistic character ...of quality TV.•Flemish and Israeli creators’ discourse also stresses practical and economic aspects.•More than the Flemish ones, Israeli critics’ discourse stresses social and political subversion.•Both Flemish and Israeli creators and critic's discourses are similar to the Anglo-American discourse on “quality television”.
This article discusses the properties of ‘quality television’ as constructed within the field of television production. It does so by analyzing the discourse of television creators and critics in two countries, Israel and Flanders, taking a theoretical approach based in part on Bourdieusian theory. Most academic work about ‘quality television’ concentrates on Anglo-American television drama series. In this paper we offer a different perspective by focusing on two small but prosperous television markets outside of the Anglo-American world. Our findings suggest that the quality discourse in both countries contains autonomous-artistic alongside heteronomous-capitalist ideological elements, apparently under the influence of the Anglo-American discourse of quality. Our findings also suggest that both ideological elements contribute to the cultural legitimation of the television drama series in both countries, though the capitalist discourse plays a more evident role among creators than among critics. Finally, we also discuss the differences between the Flemish and the Israeli discourses of ‘quality television.’
Waarvoor zijn we in de stemming vanavond? De Loose, Esther; Dhoest, Alexander
Tijdschrift voor communicatiewetenschap,
03/2023, Letnik:
51, Številka:
1
Journal Article
“Real men eat meat.” While this idea is on the one hand widespread throughout time and cultures, it has also been criticized as being too stereotypical, not applicable to all men alike, and being ...dependent on group level cultural beliefs about gender norms. Increasingly some men question male norms and male privileges, and value authenticity, domesticity and holistic self-awareness. They identify themselves with ‘new’ forms of masculinity. This study investigates on an individual level if attachment to these newer forms of masculinity can predict differences in meat consumption, willingness to reduce meat, and attitudes towards vegetarians among men. A total of N = 309 male meat-eating participants were surveyed about their self-identification with new forms of masculinity, their attachment to meat, willingness to reduce their meat intake, and attitudes towards vegetarians. Results show that, as was predicted, men who identify more strongly with new forms of masculinity consume less meat, have a weaker attachment to meat, have a greater tendency to reduce their meat intake, and have more positive attitudes towards vegetarians. In sum this study carefully suggests to not only take biological sex differences, but socially and culturally determined gender differences into account when studying or promoting the (non-)consumption of meat.
•New masculinity ideologies question popular beliefs like “real men eat meat”.•The more men identify with new masculinity, the less they eat meat.•This is mediated by men's meat attachment, which is weaker for new masculine men.•New masculinity also correlates positively with attitudes towards vegetarians.•Studies about meat and vegetarianism should consider within-gender differences.
While subscription of video-on-demand (SVOD) services has become increasingly popular across the world in recent years, the arrival of Netflix to the Arab world was transformational. As it stepped up ...to produce original Arabic series, Netflix-modelled services from the region proliferated,
promising to challenge the existing Arabic series' (musalsalat) routines in content and form. Since the Arab World is scarcely mentioned in the growing scholarly literature on SVODs, this article attempts to understand how the Arabic TV drama industry is recalibrating to this
new transnational co-production context, particularly when it comes to developing series ideas and screenplays. Our aim is to analyse the creative interplay in which these ideas and screenplays are evaluated and developed. To this effect, we draw on original interviews with screenwriters,
development producers and creative executives who have worked with Netflix on original Arabic series, as well as those who have worked with Shahid VIP, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab SVOD platform. Informed by the 'Screen Idea System' framework that suggests an understanding of the dynamics
between the shaping elements of any new idea made for the screen, we explore whether the current business model results in certain cultural narratives and how this affects the perceptions of quality and success of the produced series. Our findings show that transnationalism is instigated by
the writers' perception of a transnational target audience, and is reflected strongly on the levels of production and creative decision-making. Moreover, the systems in which the series of both platforms are developed are in constant negotiations with the musalsalat conventions,
while aiming to prompt novelty based on a Western perception of the idea of quality.
Drawing on theory from entertainment experiences and (narrative) persuasion research, this study investigates destigmatizing responses to a genre-hybrid (human-interest and stand-up comedy) ...nonfiction television program about minority groups. Using an online between-subjects experiment with 417 participants, we found that the combination of human-interest and stand-up comedy can simultaneously stimulate hedonic and eudaimonic experiences, and that this combination reduces trivialization, but not counterarguing responses compared to its separate genre components. Results also show that combining stand-up comedy with human-interest led to higher perceptions of self-efficacy regarding future intergroup contact with minorities, and that this relation was mediated via counterarguing and trivialization. This study is the first to show the potential and unique workings of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences to reduce resistance to persuasion to achieve destigmatizing outcomes.
Most research on diasporic media use in Flanders (Belgium) focuses on second-generation adolescents belonging to the two largest non-European groups of migrants, Moroccans and Turks. This leads to a ...limited knowledge of the broader diasporic population and makes it difficult to ascertain how media use is related to age and generation (both in terms of migration and in terms of digital media access), independent of belonging to a specific ethnic-cultural group. To explore these issues, 30 adolescents from 16 national backgrounds and their parents were interviewed. Despite their diverse cultural backgrounds, clear generational differences were found, the younger participants demonstrating shared media uses and preferences (e.g. focusing more on entertainment and less on the country of origin). Although ethnic roots are important, age and generation are primary factors for understanding media uses and preferences among diasporic audiences, which cautions against an exclusive focus on ethnic-cultural identity in research.
For more than a decade now the very status of television as a medium has been one of the predominant themes in television studies. The tone is mixed – both jubilant, welcoming all the exciting ...innovations which make television so much more than it was before, and fearful, for it is not clear whether television as we know it will survive all these changes. The sense of an end is looming, both in conferences (e.g. Ends of Television in Amsterdam, 2009) and in book titles (e.g. THE END OF TELEVISION?, TELEVISION AFTER TV, and BEYOND THE BOX). While the discipline as such is quite young – not so long ago we were wondering ‘What is the television of television studies?’ – and has not yet established its disciplinary boundaries it is already questioned, as are many classical fields of communication and media research in the era of digitisation and convergence. Convergence, in this context, refers to ‘the new textual practices, branding and marketing strategies, industrial arrangements, technological synergies, and audience behaviours enabled and propelled by the emergence of digital media’.
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