Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2017

In this article, we point to the peculiar conjuncture between the increased emancipation of gay men and lesbian women in late 1990s’ Belgium, and the noted impact of the contemporaneous Dutroux affair on the construction of sexual diversity in the country. Approaching the case as a moral panic, we conducted a discourse analysis of the associated coverage in four mainstream Flemish newspapers, focusing on the articulation of homosexuality with child abuse. In doing so, we show how the folk devil is an a posteriori construct, operating as an empty signifier rather than a defined character, rendering it open to recuperation by other discourses. Hence, we illustrate how the conspiratorial construction of the folk devil in the Dutroux affair provided a space to articulate homosexuality with while still refraining from engaging in an explicitly homophobic rhetoric. Finally, we point to how historical contingencies inhibited the presence of moral entrepreneurs, pointing to moral opportunists as discursive agents instead.

In recent years the Spanish media have highlighted numerous homicides of gay men committed by their partners or ex-partners. These homicides are classified by the term intragender violence, or violence committed in the context of a relationship between people of the same sex. Reports of these crimes have led to public debate on how society and its institutions should respond to these homicides, which several commentators have likened to partner violence against women (PVAW), the victims of which receive legal protection from government institutions. In this article we analyse the discourse that is used to refer to this issue by the two main agents involved in the construction of collective problems – social organizations and the media. By examining analytical journalistic documents (reports and opinion articles), we analyse the approaches of the LGBTQI associations cited in those documents and media discourse to identify and reconstruct the arguments used and establish similarities and differences between the stakeholders in the organizational and media spheres. Our results show that while associations and journalistic stakeholders agree that violence in same-sex couples should be considered a social problem, they disagree as to whether or not such violence should be categorized as male-based violence, similar to PVAW.

This article focuses on the gender politics of the news broadcast on the Russian state-controlled TV channels – Channel One (Pervyj kanal), Russia-1 (Rossiya-1), Russia-24 (Rossiya-24), NTV and RT (formerly Russia Today) – from January to September 2015, a period when the TV news closely followed the conflict in Ukraine and the growing tensions between Russia and Europe. The study shows that the news on the state-controlled TV channels interpret the state politics in only one possible way – ascribing the most traditional and essentialist characteristics to the country, prioritizing male actors and military activities and suggesting no alternatives to ‘(re)masculinization’ of the image of Russia in the situation of the conflict on the territory of another state, despite the alleged disengagement of the country in it. The article concludes that the state-controlled TV channels use essentialist gendering as a part of nation-branding and nation-building strategies, with an aim to construct the gendered and intersectionalized ideology of the ‘Russian world’ that would target both internal and external audiences and go beyond the borders of the Russian Federation.

Throughout her artistic career, Madonna has been notorious for her provocative gender displays. Academic literature has highlighted the ambivalence of many of her performances in this regard: although she occupies masculine spaces and roles, she often adopts positions that are in line with a traditional kind of femininity or with representation patterns that are part of and reinforce patriarchal discourse. Our analysis of Madonna’s music videos reveals the transformation that takes place in the artist’s gender displays. In this analysis we pay special attention to postfeminist features such as self-sexualization and the use of violence. Through three of the artist’s videos that employ the bullfighting metaphor, we see how the representation of femininity embodied by Madonna is transformed – within the framework of a sexual and affective relationship – from her position as a victim and passive female to that of aggressor.

This study explores whether recent technological changes in journalism have confirmed traditional gender segregation or created new gender divides. Our first research question focuses on the representation of male and female journalists in online and cross-media journalism that has emerged in the increasingly converged media landscape. Our second question looks at digital tools and explores whether social media are used differently by male and female journalists. In five-year intervals, we conducted a longitudinal survey (2003, 2008, 2013) in which all active journalists in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium were invited to participate. The response rate was 45% in 2003 (1026 journalists), 31% in 2008 (682 journalists) and 33% in 2013 (751 journalists). Our findings show that women are underrepresented in online and cross-media journalism: female journalists work for fewer websites compared to male journalists and produce less content for different media sectors. The traditional forms of gender segregation were reflected in online journalism. Female journalists also used fewer microblogs, such as Twitter, to disseminate information.

This article examines the construction of the choni (chavette) character through ironic and popular beauty tutorials created by Spanish vloggers and their connection with the economic recession in Spain. Our main objective is to discover the use of gender, cultural and class markers in this process and their relation to the dynamics of self-construction and self-differentiation existent on YouTube. In order to identify these characteristics, we are going to use a semiotic and Foucauldian discourse analysis based on the cultural approach to the chav phenomenon in the United Kingdom. The findings from our research illustrate how the figure of the choni is defined by the process of racialization and sexualization and by a lack of cultural competence.

This article takes a discourse analysis frame to understand how young people’s norms and moral evaluations of their practices on digital media are culturally negotiated between their own and their peers’ experiences, parental concerns, awareness programmes and media representations. It draws on focus groups and interviews with 171 participants aged 13–16 from nine European countries, analysing how young people position themselves towards online experiences, particularly bullying, sexual communication and contact. While teenagers can sympathize with victims of bullying, especially if they perceive them as vulnerable, they can blame older teenagers, girls or parents for initiating or being co-responsible for risks young victims are involved in. They are judged as in failing, when they choose to not comply with self-protection and self-vigilance (Giddens 1991, Dobson and Ringrose 2015, Gill and Scharf 2011), which can be detected in young people’s moral discourses as a successful way of being and behaving online.

The aim of this work is to analyse a possible association of feminist engagement, young women and media activism through observing the public school occupations (PSO) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2015. This issue has implications for education, gender and media policies, and citizenship. Cultural Studies was the main theory approach used, especially the concept of bedroom culture. The research design of this study was qualitative and exploratory with focus group data analysis. In the results we observe that gender had a specific relationship with the PSO due to the central role of females in the movement, which was highlighted by the six girls who participated in the focus group. The online and offline involvement with this movement helped increase gender awareness among the youth, enabling the development of a political posture for the confrontation of the oppression and domination of women, especially for girls who had never had contact with feminism out of their bedrooms.

This article focuses on a critical analysis of alternative representations of femininities on Instagram through a case study of the @effyourbeautystandards account. This body-positive account aims to promote self-love and questions beauty ideals by sharing self-representations of ‘ordinary’ women (i.e. non-models or celebrities) who feel that they do not live up to the current beauty standards. We focus on the political potential of these diverse self-representations in terms of ‘everyday activism’. @effyourbeautystandards is recognized as having an overtly political stance, adopting an intersectional approach and employing strategies of ‘empowering exhibitionism’. Yet, the article questions this more optimistic view by critically addressing the postfeminist sensibilities underlying the account, namely, its emphasis on fashion and beauty. Moreover, Instagram’s role in reproducing traditional gender norms is explored. The article analyses Instagram’s technological and sociocultural affordances, such as its Terms of Use, and the ‘editorial power’ of the users’ likes, comments and reports.