gender in media

I've been to the Gender in media-conference today. I was looking forward to hearing David Gauntlett talk about "New approaches to exploring media, gender and identity". From reading his books and exploring his web-sites and project, you get an impression of him as very vivid and funny. He is. His talk was ok, but quite what I expected after reading his Media, gender and idenitity and having studied some of his rather interesting research methods.

So, the short version of his lecture: First part was very basic: In post-traditional societies the self is reflexively constructed (Giddens), and mass media are one of several sources of models and ideas in these never-ending processes. Our modern society experiences a decline of traditions (hence post-traditional societies, see also e.g. Ulrich Beck right?), which makes the construction of identity a project for the individual. We construct narratives of the self in order to give order to our complex lives. Gauntlett eloquently synthesises theories of the identity in (late) modern societies. What perhaps is more interesting is how he uses this theoretical foundation in his analysis of men's magazines. This is where I find him fresh, as he deals with popular culture not from a top-down perspective. Today's magazines for men are all about the social construction of masculinity, that is their subject matter. Countless idealised women in bikini don't change that. You can find all this and more in Media, gender and idenitity, which is a good introduction to these issues.

What clearly is of interest to me is Gauntlett's approach to research methods. He's a professor in media and audience, and his suggestions to new ways of exploring how people actually understand mass media products are valuable. Apparently with success, he has used creative and artistic activities as research tools. This is to avoid the problem that people don't necessarily find it easy to reflect and depict in language their experiences. The works are then interpreted in dialogue with the informants. They explain what they have done, and they are involved in the research project in a comprehensive way. Especially if dealing with kids and young people, this seems to be a good alternative or at least a good supplement to doing traditional interviews. See Artlab for interesting project using creative research methods.