Comments on: Cultural Studies, TV Studies, & Empathy

By: Ron Becker

Ron Becker — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 13:36:08 +0000

Thanks for the responses and sorry for the long delay in responding. Evan, I think the distinction you draw between political and ethical is an interesting one. I would say, yes, I do think those interested in media/tv from a cultural studies perspective do need to engage more with questions of ethics. For me, I realize that the poststructural turn made me feel less comfortable with asserting opinions on ethics while allowing me to analyze the political. I have come to feel that it is dangerous to separate them–that cultural studies scholars need to assert ethical positions, even if acknowledging their contingency. I look forward to engaging with the work you mention.

Kyle, sadly, I have not developed these ideas much further than feeling that I need to do more. And I agree completely with you about the danger of falling into a narcissistic pluralism where inequality, power, and structure can too easily get marginalized. One assignment that has worked well for me: In a big Intro to Media lecture course, I give a lecture on taste cultures and hierarchies of taste. This provides concepts of social structure and power. Then I have them write a reflection paper in which they identify their guiltiest media pleasure. They have to analyze the source of their guilty (i.e., what taste culture and hierarchy of taste does their media text not conform to) and then analyze the source of their pleasure (what do they enjoy about the text despite of/in the face of such social sanctions). I encourage them to think about the various subcultural taste cultures they are part of. Then in break out sessions with 10-12 people, I have them share their guilty pleasures. I have found the discussions have consistently produced the kinds of conversations and engagements that open students to their positions within structures of power and they ways their peers might be operating within different contexts or power relationships. I then have them write a small reflection essay in which they reflect on the ways their guilty media pleasure experience was similar and different from 2 of their peers. This is a good start, but if anyone has ideas for other projects, I would love to hear about them.

One additional idea I might suggest here would be for cultural studies/TV studies scholars to think about writing different kinds of articles. Collaborating on pieces in ways that demonstrate the kind of empathy-focused conversations could provide springboards for students.

By: Kyle Conway

Kyle Conway — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 03:52:21 +0000

I agree about the need to encourage empathy, but I’m curious how you envision going about doing that. I teach in a communication program where many students see education in instrumental terms, a way to learn a set of technical skills to get a job doing PR, etc. They resist criticism and synthesis as approaches to media, and they frequently resist readings that deal in abstractions, as many cultural studies texts do. One approach I’ve taken to helping them through difficult texts has been to find concrete examples in their own lives of things scholars discuss, in the hope that they’ll make the leap from their concrete experience to others’ experience. I must remain vigilant, however, so the class doesn’t devolve into a discussion of how we *feel* about a critical text, rather than what it *says*. (Of course, not every student is like this — I have some who are sharp, empathetic, and genuinely exciting people. But they’re not the ones I’m trying to reach!)

I’m afraid that if I tried to put what you suggest into practice, instead of ending up at a point of empathy, we’d end up at a point where students adopt a free-floating, relativist position where 1) everyone’s “opinions” are “right” and 2) consequently, there’s no need to understand how someone else might experience the world. But I’m eager for suggestions and I hope you’ll follow up with another post.

By: Evan Elkins

Evan Elkins — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:28:00 +0000

Thanks so much for this thought-provoking piece, Ron. By invoking empathy and responsibility, it seems as if you’re suggesting that media scholarship and pedagogy should not *just* be political per se, but ethical as well. In that light, it reminds me of some strands of media scholarship produced in the last decade or so by scholars like Nick Couldry, Lilie Chouliaraki, and the late Roger Silverstone. Some of this work (and I’m thinking in particular of Silverstone’s final book, Media and Morality) focuses on the ways global media represent difference and otherness, and how media viewers, scholars, and practitioners might approach the media with eyes trained simultaneously toward cultural difference and common humanity. Similarly, I wonder how adopting an empathetic approach in our work requires engaging with the ethical or moral elements of the political goals that underly cultural studies.