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Abstract
Popular culture has been suggested as an important resource for the performance of cultural citizenship (Hermes, 2005; Morley, 2006). In this paper, we address this suggestion by investigating how multicultural television drama may be used to build connections and strengthen civic culture in multicultural societies. We base our argument on a large study of audience reactions to the provocative Dutch multicultural reality show WestSide (AT5, 2006) that was explicitly designed to foster intercultural understandings and tolerance. Results showed that most viewers deployed a limited set of repertoires to make sense of the show. In so doing, however, they sometimes touched on political issues. Within specific circumstances, this led to the performance of cultural citizenship. Our analysis suggests that emotional involvement in multicultural drama may lead to discussions of dilemmas surrounding the role of cultural difference in the everyday lives of viewers. Based on these findings, we define the performance of cultural citizenship as an “insurgent” practice which requires further mediation into other spheres of private and public life by policies or civic action to produce critical societal impact. Furthermore, we suggest that care must be taken not to conflate the “active viewer” with the “active citizen”—even though the two may be related in some circumstances.
Notes
1. We are using the terminology of Liebes and Katz here but are aware of other authors who have come to similar conclusions in their own studies using slightly different terms such as “inferential,” and “attributional” (Worth & Gross, 1974, cited in Michelle, Citation2007), “analytical” and “interpretive” (Neuman, 1982, cited in Michelle, Citation2007), or “official,” and “personal” (Dahlgren, 1988, cited in Michelle, Citation2007). We recognize the commonalities in these various approaches and decided to use the terminology of Liebes and Katz because they fit most with the data and are arguably the most well known.
2. MaxQDA is a qualitative data analysis software package. It allows for multi-level coding of documents. It is particularly suited to techniques of constant comparison (Boeije, Citation2002; Seale, Citation1999). Using MaxQDA, all statements in the interview material could be systematically compared with one another to ensure comprehensive data treatment, and testing emerging theories by seeking out deviant cases in the data.
3. Where names are part of web postings they have not been changed. This material, after all, was already present in the public domain prior to our research. Otherwise names and references to persons have been omitted.