G325 Sec B: Contemporary Media Issues

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks) 

 

Today we are introduced to an overview of what we are setting out to study, to provide context for our study day at the BFI on Wednesday. 

 

We study Ae Fond Kiss (Ken Loach, 2004) 
Tahara:“I'm a Glaswegian Muslim woman of Pakistani descent who supports Glasgow Rangers in a Catholic school. I'm a dazzling mixture & I'm proud of it.”

We have chosen to look at how British Asians are represented as a collective identity on TV, film, radio, the internet and the press, as well as how British Asians represent themselves.

‘British Asian’ is a collective term that encompasses a huge range of ethnicities, with different cultural practices and religious beliefs. It equally can be used to refer to people of first, second, third and later generation immigrants.Therefore there is no one single 'collective' identity.(Sathnan Sangheera, Tahara)

All representations are mediated, even those that individuals or collective groups make of themselves, and we should remember this when considering issues about 'reality' of representation and whether media reflects or affects representations: 

• Cultural Imperialism is an issue with minorities and sub-cultures particularly when ethnicity is part of the equation (evidence of pre-1990s texts) 
• British Asians are now active contributors and participants on media platforms such as films, TV, newspapers and radio (Gurinder Chadha, Ayub Kan Din, Meera Syall 
• British Asians may see themselves as BrAsians- hybrid identities- whose family life is a site of conflict because of differing approaches to cultural practices (children in Bend It, East Is East, Anita And Me) 
• Along with film representations that British Asians make themselves, we now have Web 2.0 which offers every individual the chance to create their own representations. For Michael Wesch, this is the future and I can see that this will continue: look at the popularity of Diary Of A Badman (nearly 4 million views) in which a British Asian Muslim presents a comic video diary. 
• Media representations can only ever be just that: individual stories, not stereotypes anchored in 'truth'. Khan Din rejects George Khan is 'typical' Muslim father. 
• Media representations sanitize or sensationalize representations becuase of genre conventions: romcom sweeps issues under the carpet (Bend It) or generates conflict, problematizing collective identity (Make Bradford British) 
• Individuals rather than institutions also shape representations thanks to Web 2.0: all of us chose how we present ourselves, for eg on FaceBook, online, photos, private language (LOL, WTF)