International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics - Volume 19, Issue 2-3, 2023

Spaces are central to identity-formation and public representation, and play key roles within narratives on queerness and self/other portrayal. In this study, focus is placed on popular culture with specific interests in the discography of Temmie Ovwasa, a self-outed queer-identifying non-binary Nigerian music artiste. I contend that Ovwasa’s songs represent a deconstruction of the homophobic and misogynist space that hip hop culture vaunts. Their discography further signals a disruption of heterosexual normativity within Nigeria’s contemporary popular music. Purposively selected songs are analysed with the application of the tenets of queer theory and critical discourse analysis. Close attention is paid to the thematic preoccupation of the songs as well as queer identity and agency. While there is a recognition of the limitations which a chronically homophobic milieu enforces on their agency, Ovwasa also acknowledges the redemptive role which their popularity and visibility through their discography enables in the politics of representation and conquering of hither-to disabling spaces.

What characterizes the administrators (or admins) of social media groups dedicated to social change and protest against institutional injustices? The article analyses the characteristics of such admins using the activism for justice for Roman Zadorov in Israel as a case study. The findings demonstrate a phenomenon of ‘ad-hoc activism’: The background of the admins is heterogeneous, with most having no history of activism before their involvement in the activism for justice for Zadorov. In addition, these admins have negligible involvement other activism causes – they gather ‘ad hoc’ only through justice for Zadorov activism. The socio-demographic and other characteristics of the admins are discussed. Implications regarding the character of contemporary online activism and of the people leading it are discussed.

The climate crisis era has seen an upsurge in popular cultural narratives that implicitly challenge principles of economic productivity, consumption and growth by deploring a so-called ‘world of too much’. This article discusses minimalism as examples of anti-consumer-oriented social practices and investigates how the notion of minimalism is represented in a large corpus of English language blogs. The research employs the corpus-linguistics approach of critical discourse analysis. The article argues that discourse of minimalism is paradoxical in that it resists yet at the same time promotes capitalist cultures of growth. In a broader perspective, it constitutes a niche and subversive phenomenon efficiently integrated into the market logic that is seemingly contested by minimalists. On the other hand, it cannot be discredited as a means towards redefining oneself and form of individual conversion. It can result in a new sensitivity to the challenges of late modernity.

The article presents the results of press discourse analysis on selected youth organizations in the context of the celebrations of the centenary of Poland’s independence in 2018. It focuses on two nationalist organizations: the All-Polish Youth (APY) and the National Radical Camp (NRC), which most often appeared in 2018 press materials in the context of Poland’s Independence Day. The analysis covers eight press titles: five dailies and three weeklies. The article tries to answer the following research questions: how are these organizations presented in press discourse; who are their members; what characteristics are attributed to them; how are they assessed and from what perspective analysed discourse is conducted? A qualitative research method was used together with an analysis of the discursive strategies: nomination, predication and perspectivization. The results show that press titles fight for symbolic power over the readers in the same way (using the same discursive strategies), having the same aim (defending the nation), but using different arguments. This battle for power is between the press that is favourable to the ruling party or hostile to it.

How do young members of disadvantaged communities in countries like Brazil, which have been affected by attacks from far-right populist politicians on women’s rights, make sense of messages on reproductive health in the misinformation age? Two focus groups were conducted in 2021 in collaboration with the Brazilian NGO Reprolatina to assess how disadvantaged women’s groups from Campinas, Sao Paulo, were making sense of messaging on reproductive health within a highly politically polarized local context. The findings revealed also how many women from lower income groups are exposed to a lack of information, as well as even ‘myths’, around fertility treatments and reproductive health matters in the mediated public sphere. The results showed how these groups of women from different age groups felt that there is need for better coverage of reproductive health, and of ‘scientific’ information on health matters more generally, in both the mainstream media and online. This study concludes in favour of improving health literacy approaches, as well as the overall communications on sexuality and reproductive health.