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- Gustafsson, Jessica, 1980-
(författare)
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Voicing the Slum : Youth, Community Media and Social Change in Nairobi
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since late 2006, several small media projects have emerged in the slums of Nairobi with the aim to counterbalance the ignorance from mainstream media, provide the slums residents with news, information and an opportunity to voice their needs and discuss relevant issues. These media are best labelled community media, since their main concern is to serve the interests of the community, in this context the slums. The aim of this project is to assess the potential impact community media have on the community in which they operate. Moreover, it considers the role community media play in promoting community development and democracy, especially in relation to young people living in the slums of Nairobi. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Nairobi (January 2007 to April 2010) including interviews with producers and audience, the study not only maps the establishment of the community media landscape in the slums of Nairobi but the advent of community broadcasting. The study reveals that community media and community radio in particular play an import role in the local youth’s identity construction. By promoting a “slum identity” and ascribing to it positive connotations they help the youth strengthening a sense of pride in who they are and where they come from. Moreover, community media and especially community broadcasting provide the audience with information and a platform for debate where the community can interact directly or indirectly with civil society group, local power holders and experts whether in health, law and finance. This can improve the living situations of the audience but also their engagement as citizens. On a macro level, community media’s biggest contribution to social change is their proactive work to combat tribalism by encouraging their audiences to perceive themselves as Kenyans rather than clinging on to identities based on tribal belonging, which is further reflected in their use of Swahili. The political economy of community media is the biggest challenge that prevents the media projects from fully fulfilling their objectives and being a progressive force for social change. The weak financial situation not only affects their output negatively, it makes them dependent on external funding and (mis)use youth as unpaid labour.
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| 2. |
- Ericson, Staffan
(författare)
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Två drömspel : från Strindbergs modernism till Potters television
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis studies the relations between modernism, mass culture and visual media. Using the dramatic form of the ”dream play” as focal point, it compares the drama of August Strindberg with the television series of Dennis Potter, and the theories of Walter Benjamin with those of Raymond Williams. The purpose is to elucidate how categories of high and low operate within different cultural fields (avant-garde theatre and quality television), and different strands of cultural theory (the Frankfurt school and Cultural Studies).Strindberg’s dreamplays, in particular To Damascus (1898) and A Dreamplay (1901), are introduced by using models from the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu. The genesis and reception of the dreamplays are thus related to oppositions between commercial and independent production in the Swedish cultural field, and how these tensions are refracted in the form and themes of the plays. Attention then turns to Benjamin’s and Williams’ early work on drama. Benjamin’s analysis of allegory is related to his conception of mass culture as dream world. William’s analysis of naturalism to his conception of television as technology and cultural form. Their allusions to Strindberg’s dreamplays are used to raise specific questions about the media: how does modern art anticipate new technologies? How has 20th century cultural theory been affected by film and television?Potter’s work, in particular The Singing Detective (1986), is finally considered in the light of these themes. The characteristics of Potter’s drama (non-naturalism, interior drama) are compared to Strindberg’s, and to analytical concepts developed by Williams (flow, the enclosed room). Benjamin’s interpretations of allegory and mass culture are compared to Potter’s use of popular songs and detective conventions. Potter’s position in relation to the opposition between commercial and public service television, and the conception of high and low in Potter’s texts, are related to the logic of cultural fields.
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