Papers by Alexander Dhoest
Media, cultuur, identiteit: actueel onderzoek naar media en maatschappij
... Items By Author: Inleiding. Dhoest, Alexander; Bulck, Van den, Hilde (in: Publieke televisie ... more ... Items By Author: Inleiding. Dhoest, Alexander; Bulck, Van den, Hilde (in: Publieke televisie in Vlaanderen: een geschiedenis; 2007). Inleiding. Bulck, Van den, Hilde; Dhoest, Alexander (in: Media, cultuur, identiteit: actueel onderzoek naar media en maatschappij; 2008). ...
Intersectional Challenges: How (Not) to Study and Support LGBTQs with a Migration Background
Sexuality Research and Social Policy
International Journal of Communication, 2013
This article analyzes how the press in Belgium and in Spain reports on Catalonia and Flanders, re... more This article analyzes how the press in Belgium and in Spain reports on Catalonia and Flanders, respectively. Grounding our arguments in the theories of national identities and the domestication of the news, we propose the concept of the mirror effect to explain the logics of comparison of two different contexts. Combining a content analysis of eight major newspapers with a qualitative discourse approach, the article shows that reporting on political conflicts such as the ones analyzed tends to use “the other’s case” as a model to learn from that may or may not be followed. The results also indicate considerable differences between the Belgian and Spanish cases, the latter being more politicized and focused on the other’s national conflict.
Images de la nation: les débuts de la fiction télévisée en Flandre
KULeuven. ...
This chapter investigates the historical permutations of those areas that come closest to qualify... more This chapter investigates the historical permutations of those areas that come closest to qualifying as lesbian and gay neighborhoods in Antwerp, the largest city in Flanders (the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). Although Antwerp has come to be represented as the “gay capital” of Flanders, it never developed a full-fledged gay neighborhood in the Anglo-American tradition of the concept. The clustering of sexual minorities in the city has been limited largely to the economic, social, and cultural business of (nightlife) entertainment, with lesbian and gay meeting places historically concentrating in particular neighborhoods that, moreover, have shifted over time and dissipated again. The chapter’s fine-grained analysis intends to reveal geographic, social, and cultural specificities for which a more detailed understanding of both the Antwerp and the Belgian contexts is necessary. Its tripartite structure is shaped by the specific heuristic conditions set by it. Because the ...
The Nation on Screen: Discourses of the National on Global Television
This article aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on homonationalism by exploring ... more This article aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on homonationalism by exploring a European region that has not been discussed so far, Flanders (Belgium), focusing on media discourses. Homonationalism refers to the way LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) rights are increasingly incorporated in (mostly Western) conceptions of nationhood, at the expense of ethnic and religious “Others” (most prominently Muslims) who are considered inimical to the LGBT-friendly nation. Using discourse analysis to analyze three months of Flemish newspaper reporting on homosexuality in relation to Muslims, this article inquires into which nations LGBT rights are incorporated and by whom, and how homonationalist discourses relate to broader discourses on Muslims and homosexuality. The analysis finds examples of explicit homonationalist discourse, originating with nationalist politicians, but also implicit homonationalist discourse that only refers to Muslims, as well as counterd...
Zichem versus Brideshead : the construction of national identity in Flemish en British period drama
KULeuven. ...
Peasants in clogs: - imagining Flanders in television fiction
KULeuven. ...
Vlaamse identiteit in televisiefictie
KULeuven. ...
Wat als Bert en Ernie meer dan vrienden waren?
Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap
What if Bert and Ernie were more than friends? Flemish parents on homosexuality in children’s pro... more What if Bert and Ernie were more than friends? Flemish parents on homosexuality in children’s programmes This article examines Flemish parents’ opinion on the depiction of homosexual characters in children’s television. Based on twenty interviews, three categories were composed in relation to different gradations of acceptance. The first category consists of parents who found it necessary to represent homosexuality on television, so that children learn from a young age that this minority group exists. The second category experienced feelings of aversion when two people of the same sex had physical contact with each other. This was considered unnecessary or inappropriate, particularly for young children. The third category includes parents who criticized the amount of homosexual characters on contemporary television, calling it ‘positive discrimination’. In sum, Flemish parents approve the depiction of homosexual characters on children’s television, yet opinions vary on how televisio...
International Communication Gazette
Jasbir Puar introduced the notion of ‘homonationalism’ to describe the increasing acceptance of s... more Jasbir Puar introduced the notion of ‘homonationalism’ to describe the increasing acceptance of sexual minorities in Western nations, leading to their incorporation in the national in-group which is increasingly opposed to homophobic ‘others’. While Muslims constitute the main out-group, other groups and nations are also targeted, in particular Russia and related countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Such discourses create a binary opposition between two homogenized parties, the uniformly LGBTQ-friendly in-group versus the uniformly homophobic ‘other’. While the literature on homonationalism mostly discusses politics in the U.S. and a number of other nation-states, this article explores homonationalism in a smaller sub-national region in Western Europe, Flanders, focusing on the press as a tool for spreading homonationalist discourse. Exploring three months of Flemish newspapers, this article identifies some instances of explicit homonationalism but more implicit homonationalism ...
Media Industries Journal
This article studies the practices and motivations of media producers to engage their audience in... more This article studies the practices and motivations of media producers to engage their audience in an audience community. Many media producers experience difficulties in engaging audiences, and community building seems to be a fruitful way to deal with this. Most empirical studies focus on the commercial value of communities, but this contribution studies the Flemish public service media program Vranckx as a case in point, using in-depth interviews, observations, and content analysis to assess the value of audience communities for Public Service Media (PSM). Results show that producers encourage different types of audience engagement, including immersive, interactive, and para-active engagement, to build and maintain an audience community. To do this, they integrate journalistic roles as observer, developer, facilitator, and curator within the community. Even though production practices show many similarities with commercial brand communities, PSM goals constitute central motivations, namely to decrease polarization and include different perspectives through dialogue in the audience community.
Engaging the Audience in a Digitised Television Production Process
Published in: Journalism Practice, 1–17 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1343093 Thi... more Published in: Journalism Practice, 1–17 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1343093 This article discusses producer practices and the reasons why they engage their audience in the pro- duction process. In a digitised media context, audiences have become more visible, mainly through social media, and have more means to participate. Our research deconstructs the production process of a particular television programme by means of the “hierarchy of influences” model, which separates micro and macro levels that influence production. It draws on in-depth interviews with all editors of Flemish current affairs programme De Afspraak (The Appointment) and on a three-month participatory observation. We conclude that immersive ways of engaging the audi- ence are applied in our specific case. More broadly, we argue that although practices change, pre-existing norms and values about the television audience remain central to how producers engage their audience through digital and social ...
Negotiating national unity and diversity in public broadcasting: A comparative study on South Africa and Flanders
Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies, 2016
In the context of globalization, national unity or identity are problematic and even contested co... more In the context of globalization, national unity or identity are problematic and even contested concepts. The inherent diversity of most nations, furthermore, complicates the notion of a national unity or identity. Within this struggle to define the nation, mass media are generally regarded as playing an important role in ideas around nationhood. This article explores contemporary struggles to define ‘the nation’ as unified by comparing the diverse realities of South Africa and Flanders (Dutchlanguage northern Belgium) with specific focus on Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). Thus, by systematically exploring how diversity is dealt with in two separate national contexts, focusing in particular on PSB, we aim to come to a better understanding of how generic concepts like the nation, unity and diversity function in unique and specific contexts.
This article reflects on the heritage of reception research, considering its continued relevance ... more This article reflects on the heritage of reception research, considering its continued relevance today. After a brief retrospective overview of early reception research, a project about diasporic LGBTQ media uses is used to explore to what degree early reception research continues to be useful. Continuities and changes are discussed, focusing in particular on their methodological implications. Considering a specific group allows us to discuss the ways in which media connect to the multidimensional social contexts of everyday life and on their significance in relation to issues of identity formation at the intersection of race and ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. Despite some necessary adjustments in the context of media multiplicity, it proves useful to revive the ‘ethnographic’ drive in reception research, aiming for a holistic understanding of media experiences. At the same time, the project at hand questions models of audience activity, freedom and resistance as expressed ...
Kosmopolitische verbeeldingen in het Nederlandse buitenlandprogramma Metropolis, een productieanalyse" Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap, 44(1) 2016
Deze bijdrage onderzoekt hoe, en met welke intenties en motivaties makers van het televisieprogra... more Deze bijdrage onderzoekt hoe, en met welke intenties en motivaties makers van het televisieprogramma Metropolis omgaan met verschillende makersperspectieven tijdens de productie. Het programma wordt gemaakt door meer dan zeventig lokale correspondenten wereldwijd met als doel die stemmen te laten horen. Hoewel de makers wel de intentie hebben deze lokale stemmen te laten horen, worden vooral dominant westerse perspectieven bevestigd.
The prevalence, context and perceptions of sexting among non-heterosexual men from various generations in Belgium
Computers in Human Behavior
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Papers by Alexander Dhoest