1. Media, culture and identity: A review
of concepts covered in lecture 4
SOWK 1105

2. What is culture?
 Despite of confusion and complexity, one point is
clear: culture is no longer merely elite, intellectual
and artistic; it is now everywhere.
 Culture does not only refer to the general
human development, but also to any particular
way of life.
 Culture is ordinary!
 Culture is both material and symbolic.
 Cultural materialism (Raymond Williams, E.P.
Thompson, Richard Hoggart)

3. The Circuit of Culture (Du Gay et al., 1997)
 Meanings are produced at several different sites and
circulated through several different processes or
practices: How a cultural artifact is represented, what
social identities are associated with it, how it is
produced and consumed, and what mechanisms
regulate its distribution and use.
 Marxist assumptions
 Culture as mass deception (Adorno & Horkheimer,
1979)

4. The Circuit of Culture (Du Gay et al., 1997)
 Representation: Production of the meaning of concepts in our minds
through language. We give things meaning by how we represent them –
the words we use about them, the stories we tell about them, the images
of them we produce, the emotions we associate with them, the ways we
classify and conceptualize them, the values we place on them.
 Identity: Meaning gives us a sense of identity, of who we are and with
whom we “belong” to – how culture is used to mark out and maintain
identity within and difference between groups.
 Production: Meaning is constantly produced and exchanged in every
personal and social interaction in which we take part. It is also produced in
a variety of different media, these days, in the modern mass media in a
global scale which circulate meanings between different cultures on a scale
and with a speed hitherto unknown in history.
 Consumption: Meaning is produced whenever we express ourselves in,
make use of, consume or appropriate cultural “things”.
 Regulation: Meanings regulate and organize our conduct and practices –
they help to set the rules, norms and conventions by which social life is
ordered and governed.

5. Questions
 Who is now in control of the media? Increasing
concentration of economic capitals in a few capitalists or
a diverse ownership of capitals through the invention of
joint stock companies?
 Does popular culture show homogeneity? Or, does it
carry multiple and even conflicting representations
(discourses) – with some being dominant and others
being opposing or alternative?
 Are people really so passive vis-a-vis mass culture that
they are simply manipulated by it?
 How do culture industries turn people into commodities?
 How people turn the products of industry into their
popular culture serving their interests”?

6. Identity (as Grace Lee, as post-80s)
 Self identity: The conception we hold of ourselves.
Meaning gives us a sense of identity, of who we are and
with whom we “belong” to – how culture is used to
mark out and maintain identity within and difference
between groups.
 Social identity: Social expectations, normative rights
and obligations ascribed to individuals form our social
identity. The notion of what it is to be an individual is
social in character and identity is formed from social and
cultural resources, notably language.

7. Identity projects
 Identity projects – the ongoing creation of narratives of self-
identity relating to our perceptions of the past, present and hoped
for future. Giddens (1991) suggests that self-identity is constituted
by the ability to sustain a narrative about the self, thereby, building
up a consistent feeling of biographical continuity. Identity is
something we create, something always in process.
 Identity as temporary fixations: Identity is a temporary
stabilization of meaning, a becoming rather than a fixed entity. The
suturing or stitching together of the discursive “outside” with
“internal” processes of subjectivity. Points of temporary attachment
to the subject positions which discursive practices construct for us.
 Identifications: Contingent and temporary points of attachment
or emotional investment which, through fantasy partially suture or
stitch together discourses and psychic forces.

8. Subjectivity
 Subjectivity: The conditions of being a person and the
processes by which we become a person, that is, how we
are constituted as subjects. As subjects, that is as
persons, we are “subject to” social processes which
bring us into being as “subjects for” ourselves and
others.
 The de-centred or post-modern subject: Persons
are composed of not one but several, sometimes,
contradictory, identities, pulling in different directions, so
that our identifications are continually being shifted
about. (Hall, 1992)
 Axes of identity: class, age, gender, ethnicity, disability,
sexuality, education, urban/rural, cultural background,

9. Identity theories
 Essentialism vs. social constructionism debate
 Essentialism - assumes that descriptions of ourselves
reflect an essential underlying identity
 Anti-essentialism – identity is plastic. Identities are
discursive constructions which change their meanings
according to time, place and usage.
 Social constructionism – identity are socially
constituted or socially constructed.
 We should develop a more sophisticated mindset, for
understanding the complexity of people, culture and society:
undo prejudices, problematize ‘common-sense’

10. Theories of culture
 Think about these oppositions:
black vs. white; East vs. West; HongKongers vs.
Mainlanders; Christians vs. Muslims vs. Buddhist;
homosexuality vs. heterosexuality…
 How essential these differences are?
 Are they inborn? Fixed? Unchangeable? Always
significant for every daily action and decision of
ours?
 Where do these differences come from? Are they
just natural? Or man-made? Are they essential?
Or constructed?

11. Essentialism
 Essentialism – a system of fixed values and beliefs,
functioning as a timeless truth about people and things,
regardless of any social, historical and political realities. It is
assumed that there is a universal essence, homogeneity and
unity in a particular culture.
 A non-essentialist view of culture focuses on the complexity
of culture as a fluid, creative social force which binds
different groupings and aspects of behaviour in different
ways
 What is the problem of an obsessive emphasis on the
“uniqueness” and “difference” of cultures?
 What is the problem of holding a static notion of culture
founded on ethnicity, race or nationality?

12. Culturism – essentialising culture(s)
 Culturism takes an essentialist perspective on
culture, regarding culture as a fixed system of
belief and practice, regardless of socio-
historical context.
 Culturism is often used to explain differences of
behaviors and thoughts between different
communities.
 When culturism is pushed to its extreme…
- religious fundamentalism
- colonialism
- terrorism

13. Culture/Identity is fluid and changing
 “Culture(s)” refers not necessarily to a national or
ethnic essence; but simply to any cohesive social
grouping.
 There is not a culture born or predetermined to be
dominant; neither is one essentially marginal or
subordinate.
 We cannot “explain away” all the observations in an
essentialist manner, but seeks to interpret the
dynamics and the emergence of behaviors in the
individual or the social grouping.
 People from different cultures and communities are not
passive. Being active, they both influence and are
influenced by the social reality.

14. What is being gay identity?
 Are people born heterosexual or homosexual, or does
sexual orientation develop as they grow?
 Gay/woman/Chinese is born or made?
 Organic defeat, hormonal disturbance, early children
experiences? Genetic predisposition?
 Homosexual taboo, homophobia and heterosexism?
 The concept of long-term monogamous heterosexual
coupledom? Clear and rigid gender roles? A belief system
equates morality with sexuality?
 A label? A means to stand out?
 What are the dominant representations of sexual
minorities (e.g., gay men and Lesbians) in the media?

15. Essentialist arguments (mainly scientists and
psychiatrists)
 They viewed sex as an instinctual drive and considered
sexual identities as a cognitive realisation of genetic
predisposition.
 Key question: What makes a person homosexual?
 They studied “homosexuals” initially as “perverted”, then
as “sick” and finally as “different” persons. For them,
someone “is” a homosexual.
 They sought for the origin of homosexual: organic defeat,
hormonal disturbance, early children experiences, etc.
Researches usually had strong clinical implications, with or
without sympathy, c.f. Ellis (1920); Krafft-Ebbing (1965); Bieber
(1962); Socarides (1978); Kinsey et al (1948); Hooker (1958);
Westwood (1960); Bell and Weinberg (1978).

16. Social constructionist arguments (mainly sociologists, e.g. Simon
& Gagnon, 1967; McIntosh, 1968; Plummer, 1981)
 They stressed the fact that sexuality and sexual identities
are social constructions that belongs less to biology but
to the world of culture and meaning.
 They focused on the inconsistency and insufficiency of
cause-and-effect relationship between homosexuality and
genetic make-up or early socialisation, and pointed to the
political implications in the regulation of homosexuality
and thus shifted the question to the formation of
homosexual taboo, homophobia and heterosexism.
 Key question: Why homosexuality should be devalued, be
invested with so many fears, hostility and rage?

17. The making of a gay identity
 Dominant ideology: Compulsory heterosexuality
 Homophobia: A deep antipathy, disgust, or dislike of
homosexuals
 Heterosexism: Heterosexuality as the ideal form of
sexuality in which heterosexist practices are
accompanied by a whole conglomerate of linked
institutions such as the family, the school, the religion,
the workplace, and even “love”.
 Finally, constructionists move us out of the realm of
ontology (what the homosexual is) and into the realm of
social and discursive formations (how the homosexual
identity is produced).

18. The Queer turn (90s-)
 The traditional term “gay and lesbian” apparently
assumes a polarised binary between hetero-and homo-
sexuality.
 Queer embraces the multiplicity of sexualities by adding
other “non-conventional” sexualities like bisexual,
transvestite, pre-and post-op transsexual and includes
other outcast positions along racial, ethnic and class lines.
 Queer includes “deviants” and “perverts” who may
subvert hetero/homo divisions and exceed conventional
delineation of sexual identity as well as other non-sexual
normative practices.

19. What is traditional Chinese culture?
 China covers a large geographical region in eastern Asia
with customs and traditions varying greatly between
towns, cities and provinces.
 There are 56 distinct ethnic groups in China.
 In terms of numbers, however, the pre-eminent ethnic
group is the Han Chinese.
 Many within the Han identity have maintained distinct
linguistic and regional cultural traditions.
 What is Chinese society? Chinese culture? Chinese
tradition? What is traditional Chinese culture?
 What is the origin? Is history linear?

20. Post-80’s/ ( 八十後反高鐵青年 )
 They are being spoiled, self-centered, aloof and
rebellious.
 A troubled generation, brought up in a mixed
atmosphere where hot competition coexisted with
unprecedented physical comforts. Fully exposed to
commercialized society, they are materialistic!
 With social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter,
they can discuss and exchange views with others. They
are not afraid to express them out in public, even on
issues that may or may not directly affect them e.g. the
Express Rail, economy and demand for universal suffrage.
 政府的計時炸彈

21. Media
Medium: 'middle' (in Latin)
Media: more than one medium
Broad sense: an intermediate agency that enables communication to take
place, or to mediate between the reality and the idea. Examples: speech,
writing, gestures, facial expression, dress, acting, dancing, etc.
Narrow sense: a technological development that extends the channels, range
or speed of communication. Can refer to means of communication (e.g.
print media, broadcast media); or to technical forms by which these means
are actualised (e.g. radio, television, newspapers, books, photographs, films,
records)
Mass media: more than one source of information designed to reach out to
many people (a mass audience) through a technological means of
communication
Mass communication: the practice and product of providing leisure
entertainment and information to an unknown audience by means of
corporately financed, industrially produced, state regulated, high
technology, privately consumed commodities in the modern print, screen,
audio and broadcast media.

22. Media power vs. audience power (Gauntlett,
2002)
 Within limits, the mass media is a force for change.
 The traditional view of a woman as a housewife has been
shaken by successful “girl power” icons (e.g. Marie
Claire)
 The masculine ideals of toughness, stubborn self-reliance
and emtoional silence have been shaken by a new
emphasis on men’s emotions, need for advice and the
problem of masculinity.
 Alternative ideals and images have created space for a
greater diversity of identities.
 Modern media has little respect for tradition.
 Popular media fosters the desire to create new modes of
life (within the context of capitalism)

23. New media
 New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence
of digital, computerized, or networked information and
communication technologies in the later part of 20th C.
 Until the 1980s media relied primarily upon print and art
analog broadcast models, such as those of television and radio.
The last twenty-five years have seen the rapid transformation
into media which are predicated upon the use of digital
computers, such as the Internet and computer games.
 The use of digital computers has transformed the remaining
'old' media, as suggested by the advent of digital television and
online publications. Even traditional media forms such as the
printing press have been transformed through the application
of image manipulation software and desktop publishing tools.

24. Public vs. private
 W. Russell Neuman (1991): "We are witnessing the
evolution of a universal interconnected network of audio,
video, and electronic text communications that will blur
the distinction between interpersonal and mass
communication and between public and private
communication.”
 The new media alters the meaning of geographic distance,
allow for an increase in the volume of communication. It
provides the possibility of increasing the speed of
communication, opportunities for interactive
communication, the potential for a democratic
postmodern public sphere, in which citizens can
participate in well informed, non-hierarchical debate.

25. Globalisation
 Manovich (2001) and Castells (1995) have argued that
whereas mass media 'corresponded to the logic of
industrial mass society, which values conformity over
individuality,’ new media follows the logic of the
postindustrial or globalized society whereby “every
citizen can construct her own custom lifestyle and
select her ideology from a large number of choices.
Rather than pushing the same objects to a mass
audience, marketing now tries to target each
individual separately.” (Manovich 2001:42).

26. Interactivity & new media
 User-to-user interactivity
 Interactivity between user and information
 “One-to-many" model of traditional mass
communication to the possibility of a "many-to-many"
web of communication
 New Media changes continuously due to the fact that it is
constantly modified and redefined by the interaction
between the creative use of the masses, emerging
technology, cultural changes, etc.

27. Gay/queer politics
 A shift from a perverted sad personage to a new
cultural cosmopolitan subject:
 tongzhi/tungzi (Cant.)
 Gay/gei (Cant.), gay/gay lo (Cant.),, ‘member/memba
(Cant.)’, jat zai/ling zai (Cant.), gamgong Barbie (Cant.)
 lesi, pure, T B, TBG
 The queer world:
 Self-fashioned notion of cultural citizenship
 Heavy undertone of middle-class or bourgeois individualism,
intricately related to conspicuous consumption
 Creates a hierarchy of queer citizens that privileges certain
bodies but advantages others along the line of class, gender
performance, age, race and ethnicity, and so forth

28. Examples
 Fridae.com (Stuart Koe)
 RTHK Gay Lover (2006)
 Nutong Xueshe (2007) In/Out: Hong Kong Tongzhi
Art
 Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival
 Other popular cultures that touch on LGBT issues:
 Novel, e.g., Julian Lee 李志超 , Jimmy Ngai 魏紹恩 , Barry Yip 葉志偉
 Film critics, e.g., Jimmy Ngai 魏紹恩 , Maike 邁克 , Yau Ching 游靜 ,
Anson Mak 麥海珊
 Theatre, e.g., Edward Lam 林奕華 , Wong Chi-Lung 黄智龍
 Pop music, e.g., Anthony Wong 黃耀明 , Chet Lam 林一峰
 Radio, e.g., Wallace Kwok 郭啟華 , Brian Leung 梁兆輝