Media Magazine archive. Go to page 66 and read Social Media and Black Identity.
1) List three theorists discussed in the article and what they believe regarding black identity.
- Aisha Harris: social media play a negative role in the construction of black identities. She argues that the rise of social media has created a culture wherein black people are often subject to a process of ‘memeification’, where their likeness becomes a decontextualised internet ‘meme’. An infamous example of this process was of ‘Sweet Brown’, an African-American woman, whose closing line in an interview ‘Ain’t nobody got time for that’ went viral on social media, becoming a catchphrase in the public consciousness, triggering a stream of user-generated content such as parodies and remixes that appropriated Brown’s likeness and her words, for the sake of ‘humour’. Harris believes that this process is an unconscious reflection of a deep-rooted desire to see black people perform and entertain, creating an environment where black identities are fixed, and dominant attitudes towards blackness are reinforced.
- Giddens: social media can be an arena for the construction of positive black identities. An example of this would be ‘The Blackout’, a campaign that originated on the social network ‘Tumblr’, and involved a systematic ‘re-imagining’ and celebration of blackness. It involved black people posting pictures of themselves and sharing pictures of others, commenting and attaching positive hashtags, such as ‘#Goddess’, ‘#Queen’, ‘#Melanin’ and ‘#BlackExcellence’. This, seems to suggest that black people have used social media as a tool to inspire, and to construct an image of black identity that is often misrepresented (if represented at all) by the mass media.
- Lauren Jackson: social media do afford black people opportunities to construct positive, idealised versions of themselves, it is important to remember that they also afford non-black individuals the same freedom, often to the detriment of black people. She refers to so-called ‘Digital Blackface’, a phenomenon whereby non-black people exploit the anonymity of social media to masquerade as black. One example of this is the Twitter account @ItsLaQueeta, which features an image of an overweight black women, under the name ‘LaQueeta’. Twitter accounts like this one often use excessive (and incorrect) African American Vernacular English (such as the racist trope prefix ‘La-’) and make reference to racist stereotypes. Jackson makes the argument that non-black people exploit social media to create racist caricatures of black identities, and that this act of ‘online minstrelsy’ explicitly dehumanises black people, and reinforces negative representations of black identity, constructed by dominant, white supremacist groups, to subjugate black people.
2) In your opinion, is social media a positive or negative force when it comes to issues of black identity?
I feel that it is both negative and positive. I agree with both Giddens and Jackson to some extent. Social media does provide a platform for Black people to empower themselves and take advantage of potential opportunities but often this platform is taken advantage instead. However, ultimately I feel social media is negative due to misinformation and overwhelming content that leads to misinterpretation of representation.
3) How could you apply the post-colonial theories we have learned in class to the issue of social media and black identity?
In the media, and according to Aisha Harris, black people are represented in a comical way for our entertainment. Alvarado's key race representations for humorous which is highly applicable in this case. Moreover, in the media we often see an 'idealised' version of black people and often this is as result of putting on a "white mask", as proposed by Fanon.
Page 6 - read A Hustle for Life: Refugees in the Media
1) What examples of different representations of refugees in the media are offered in the article?
A remarkable example of a more searching and humane approach to the issue is Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, a three-part BBC series broadcast in the summer of 2016. The title ‘Exodus’ refers to the biblical story of Moses leading the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. In this case, the refugees were not Jewish, but from Syria (fleeing civil war), Afghanistan (fleeing the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban) and Gambia (escaping the poverty of sub-Saharan Africa). The makers of the programme, Keo films, wanted to illustrate what is actually involved in these dangerous journeys across thousands of miles, and to help us to relate to refugees as individuals, rather than nameless members of a huge mass. Near the start of their journey, the producers gave smartphones with extra cards to 12 refugees, and asked them to film their experiences. The final film was edited from the video logs of seven of them.
In the British press, a great deal of the language and the imagery has been hostile. Refugees are often labelled as migrants, to create the impression that they are travelling by choice, rather than fleeing a genuine disaster. A quick Google Images search of newspaper headlines reveals a shocking montage of misrepresentation, in which refugees are described as a swarm, horde or tide, marauding and invading their way across the world. They are held responsible for their own condition, even – or especially – when the West itself has contributed to it.
2) In your opinion, is the documentary genre more or less biased than the news media? What examples can you provide from the article to support your view?
The news is far more screwed in comparison to documentaries. The news editorialises their content and pick stories most likely to evoke compassion and views or hatred and disgust. In contrast, documentaries portray a more realistic depiction. Documentaries will include undesirable and heartfelt aspects of refugees instead of just seeking sympathy from viewers such as violence, riots and looting that goes on in camps as well as coverage of the event people are fleeing from. An example from news media is from Katie Hopkins, who has notoriously compared refugees to ‘cockroaches’, labelled them ‘feral’ and called for gunships to be sent to blow them out of the water. Her perspective on refugees is radically negative - evoking a reaction and the only reason it has become so widespread is due to the bias within it.
3) How could you apply the post-colonial theories we have learned in class to the representation of refugees in the media?
Said's idea of "them and us" is relevant to the representation of refugees. They are often represented as uncivil and opportunist rather than victims. However, Alvarado's idea of minority groups being labelled as pitied is also relevant as significant amounts of news coverage represents them as weak and deprived.
