Media, Margins and Civic Agency

Heather Savigny, Einar Thorsen, Daniel Jackson, Jenny Alexander, Heather Savigny, Einar Thorsen, Daniel Jackson, Jenny Alexander

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781137512635
• eBook ISBN: 9781137512642
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Social Sciences

This collection brings together new research on contemporary media, politics and power. It explores ways and means through which media can and do empower or dis-empower citizens at the margins that is, how they act as vehicles of, or obstacles to, civic agency and social change.

Part I

Citizen Voices

1

Alternative Voices, Alternative Spaces: Counterhegemonic Discourse in the Blogosphere

Deborah Gabriel

In 21st-century Britain, racial inequality remains deeply embedded in the fabric of society (Institute for Public Policy Research, 2010) and the media is a key site for ongoing struggles against hegemony (Bailey et al., 2008; Cammaerts, 2008; Downing, 2001). Women and people of colour remain at the margins of the mainstream media that often perpetuate inequalities through misrepresentation or exclusion. Black women are frequently constructed through the dominant discourse of ‘the angry Black woman’ (Isokariari, 2013) and measured by European standards of beauty (Collins, 1990) that render them invisible. Black men continue to be associated with criminality and are rarely represented beyond the stereotype of sporting hero (Ferber, 2007). This chapter examines how blogs are used by African Caribbean people as an assertive strategy, tool of resistance against racial oppression, and resistance to misrepresentation and exclusion in the mainstream media. It reveals how the motivation and gratification of African Caribbean bloggers are driven by a complex set of factors linked to issues of race and representation that stem from feeling voiceless, invisible and marginalised within UK society. While hailed as a revolutionary, democratic space, the blogosphere maintains raced and gendered inequalities that exist offline and reproduces unequal power relations (Cammaerts, 2008; Kellner, 2000; Papacharissi, 2002; Schradie, 2012). However, as this chapter reveals, African Caribbeans still appropriate the blogosphere as a medium for self-representation to cultivate symbolic power through their own constructions of Black identity. While there is a growing body of research on the blogosphere, the use of blogs by people of colour in the UK is an underdeveloped area of inquiry. This chapter expands the current literature by highlighting how Black Britons engage with blogs in ways that differ from the White majority population.

Methodology

The research on which this chapter is based is approached through the theoretical frameworks of alternative media and critical race theory (CRT), and the conceptual framework of uses and gratifications theory. Alternative media practice can be defined as non-mainstream, radical and participatory (Atton, 2001; Hamilton, 2000), while a key purpose of CRT is centring the Black voice and the Black experience (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001; Hylton, 2012). In this study this is achieved through the constructed narratives of the bloggers in their in-depth interviews, which allows them ‘to speak in a culturally authentic, socially meaningful and politically powerful voice’ (Aldridge, 2000: 103). As Milner (2007: 391) argues, ‘From critical race theory perspectives, knowledge can and should be generated through the narratives and counter-narratives that emerge from and with people of colour.’ Uses and gratification theory aims to explain why people use certain types of media and the psychological needs that motivate their media use (Chung and Kim, 2008), although it is not without limitations. There is a tendency to assume the existence of a universal mass media with common values, rather than acknowledge the diversity of media audiences in terms of class, race, gender and other factors (Morley, 1992).

This chapter is based on a study involving in-depth interviews with 30 African Caribbean bloggers based in the UK, of which 26 are women and 4 are men, sourced through accidental and random sampling. The interviews were conducted in 2012 both face to face at the British Library and via telephone. Thematic data analysis was used as an inductive approach to identify key themes emerging from the data which will be discussed in this chapter.

Motivation

Previous studies have found that bloggers are motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors (Nardi et al., 2004), and that motivation for blogging is strongly linked to the gratification from writing blogs (Liu et al., 2007). The findings of this study confirm that bloggers are motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. While consistent with other studies, the uniqueness of the findings lie in motivations linked to identity and life experiences as a racialised minority group in UK society. These have been conceptualised within the emerging themes of voice, visibility and empowerment.

Voice and visibility

For some of the bloggers, the desire to have a voice in the public domain is an intrinsic motivation linked to a love of writing and sharing views, perspectives and experiences with an audience. However, for some of the participants, the motivation to blog is driven by a complex set of extrinsic factors linked to issues of race and representation that fuel a desire to be seen and heard in the public domain through their own constructions of identity. Isaac, a 35-year-old sports blogger explains his frustrations with the media as a major motivation for starting a blog:

The media wants to cover what they want to cover about a certain race, portray a race as dumb or stupid or ignorant or illiterate or incapable of putting two words together or just complete criminals.

He turned to the blogosphere as an alternative space to challenge what he perceives as negative representations of African Caribbean people: ‘I’ll create my own audience and I’ll create my own sort of media and through that I’ll build up supporters along the way. That’s how I got inspired, by being marginalised.’ For Isaac, people with racialised identities are subject to negative stereotyping in the media, and there is little interest among journalists in reporting the positive activities of ordinary Black men who do not fit a particular stereotype: ‘Unless I’m a gangster or some sort of superstar they’re … not interested in what the man on the street has to say.’ In using his blog as a medium to develop his own audience whom he cultivates as ‘supporters’, he adopts an approach that is radical in orientation; centred on challenging negative stereotypes of Black identity; and is a process of self-representation that denotes a ‘new politics of representation’ (Gabriel, 1998: 17). In this regard, blogs can be viewed as a tool of resistance against racial oppression.

The perception of being excluded from the public domain is articulated by some of the female participants, for whom voice and visibility are powerful motivations for blogging. Nancy, a 33-year-old career and lifestyle blogger explains:

I was really fed up with what I thought was the misrepresentation of Black people in the mainstream. I just felt as a mum of three … where are all the positive role models; where is the inspiration, where is the voice really?

For Nancy, the exclusion of Black mothers as positive role models and her perception of ‘misrepresentation’ in the mainstream media lead to a sense of invisibility and voicelessness. These feelings motivated her to start a blog: ‘My initial aim was to inspire, to show that Black people do more than what the mainstream likes to present.’ Similar sentiments are expressed by Chioma, a 48-year-old woman who writes about race, gender and politics:

I’m a UK African woman. I felt very invisible and a sense of voicelessness … voiceless in a society that doesn’t hear me. I guess that having the blog was part of me using my voice. That’s the reason I wanted to go with it really, to have that UK African womanist presence on the web.

It is important to note the self-identification in demographic, ethnic, cultural and social terms. African womanism is an African-centred strand of feminist ideology that rejects Black feminism as an offshoot of (White) feminism and which does not regard Black men as adversaries but subject to the same oppression as Black women (Hudson-Weems, 2004). Chioma’s reference to being voiceless and invisible therefore relates to her self-defined identity as an African womanist in the UK. Her extrinsic motivation is self-representation, and her blog allows her to negotiate and reconfigure her identity. The invisibility of Black women has been raised by many feminist writers, including Collins (1990) and hooks (2000), articulating the marginalisation of Black women. More recently, the term ‘intersectional invisibility’ has been discussed in relation to Black women as individuals with multiple subordinate identities not regarded as being emblematic of women (a status reserved for White women), or of Black people, a status conferred upon Black men (Espinosa, 1994).

Black women are also rendered invisible in the mainstream media by being excluded from everyday representations of women. Nadine, a 31-year-old wedding and bridal blogger, as a bride to be felt that Black women were absent as brides both in print magazines and on the web, and this invisibility was her main motivation for starting a blog: ‘I don’t think I saw one Black model in the magazines … I would flick through pages and pages and not see one Black bride to be.’ The exclusion of particular groups within the public sphere has been conceptualised as ‘symbolic annihilation’ (Gerbner, 1972). Tuchman (1978) argues that symbolic annihilation of women occurs through the media’s constant exclusion, trivialising and devaluing of women, diminishing their status in society. More recently, Coleman and Yochim (2008) have explored the ‘symbolic annihilation of race’. The symbolic annihilation of Black women in the mainstream media as a consequence of intersectional invisibility is not necessarily remedied in the blogosphere as gender inequalities in the blogosphere do exist (Chen, 2011; Gregg, 2006; Harp and Tremayne, 2006; Herring et al., 2004; Pedersen, 2008). However, by utilising blogs as a strategy for voicing, Black women are able to experience discursive power on the internet.

Extrinsic motivations for blogging linked to issues of race and representation demonstrate how blogs are used as a socially interactive medium through which racialised and gendered identities are contested, reconfigured and renegotiated. The concept of voice and visibility in terms of the motivations of these participants represents a desire to harness the discursive power of the internet to facilitate self-representation and participation within the public sphere.

Empowerment

Empowerment refers to ‘a multi-dimensional social process’ that ‘fosters power in people for use in their own lives, their communities and in their society by acting on issues they define as important’ (Page and Czuba, 1999). As a motivational construct, empowerment can emanate from a sense of powerlessness, ‘an intrinsic need for self-determination’ (Conger and Kanungo, 1988: 473) or self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977). Blogs can act as a medium for self-representation and a mechanism for constructing an assertive voice, generating visibility and engendering empowerment through enhanced self-efficacy. Psychological empowerment through blogging can emerge from feeling part of a community that has a strong collective voice leading to increased confidence and assertiveness (Stavrositu, 2007). Women can gain psychological empowerment via blogging through a sense of community and a sense of agency, defined as the perception of a ‘competent, confident and assertive voice’ (Stavrositu and Sundar, 2012: 371). Previous studies suggest that African women use the blogosphere to promote women’s equality and empowerment through personal expression and social interaction (Somolu, 2007), and that the internet functions as a discursive space where marginalised groups can gain a sense of empowerment by developing successful voicing strategies (Mitra and Watts, 2002). A small number of female participants use blogs as a medium for promoting business and enterprise. Jennifer, a 28-year-old business blogger, runs a marketing agency and was motivated to start a blog ‘to constantly have that voice’ and ‘to connect with other people’. The desire to have an assertive voice can be seen as a tool for generating a sense of authority and credibility as a business woman in a competitive marketplace.

A small number of female participants express a clear motivation for empowering others. Nadine devotes part of her blog to promoting small businesses, and, though not exclusively owned by Black proprietors, the majority featured mostly serve Black communities: ‘It’s giving them a voice, free promotion and one of my most popular posts is where I’ve listed loads of African Caribbean wedding caterers.’ The desire to showcase Black businesses denotes a motivation to empower others and self.

Gratification

Previous research suggests that gratification from writing blogs is linked to factors such as emotion management, life documenting and discussion within overall themes of process, content and social gratification (Sepp et al., 2007). Other studies have linked self-expression as a major gratification and social interaction to a lesser degree (Papacharissi, 2007). The findings of this study reveal that voice, knowledge-sharing, knowledge acquisition and social interaction are the primary gratifications from blogging.

Voice

For some of the participants, gratification is linked to complex forms of cultural expression. For example, Grace, a 35-year-old creative writing blogger, confirms that what she most enjoys about blogging is

Definitely getting my voice across, whoever cares, but I think I’ve got an opinion on something that I feel should be shared. It’s kind of educating through humour; it’s kind of getting points across with a bit of tongue-in-cheek.

Voice is explicitly expressed here, but also implicit in the above statement is self-expression – giving her opinion on issues, and educating readers. Later in the discussion she reveals that her sense of gratification is directly linked to the nature of the content she posts, described as

Our experiences in Britain and being Black people. I think there are things we need to know about our history and culture and instead of beating people over the head with it, which sometimes I feel like I do, letting people laugh along with it as well as learning something.

The sense of gratification is further increased through receiving positive feedback, either through comments directly on the blog or where the article is shared on social media platforms as articulated through her narrative: ‘What I relish most is when posts get a reaction and people start talking and take it off on their own. I think that’s the best reward, then it’s doing what it’s meant to do.’

These examples demonstrate the interconnectedness between motivation and gratification in relation to voice as the primary factor. Although not explicit in their narratives, it is evident that positive affirmation of the blogger’s efforts to represent the interests of African Caribbean people within the blogosphere leads to increased self-efficacy. This is particularly the case when the content is centred on issues around being Black in UK society. Increasingly, citizen engagement is directed more towards issues that affect the everyday lives of individuals and less influenced by formal political processes (Breindl, 2010). Consequently, the African Caribbean bloggers in this study engage in political thought and action through the pursuit of personal interests and lifestyle choices rather than through traditional political structures.

Knowledge-sharing

Knowledge-sharing has been subdivided into three distinct areas: experiential knowledge, professional knowledge and ‘Black knowledge’, defined here as the dissemination of information that highlights the contribution of African Caribbean people to the knowledge economy. The term ‘experiential knowledge’ is used here in relation to experiential learning theory, defined as ‘the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience’ (Kolb, 1984: 41). A dimension of experiential knowl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• Part I: Citizen Voices
• Part II: Mediating Margins
• Part III: Protests and Power
• Afterword
• Index