Queer/error : gay media systems and processes of abjection

Gay community media functions as a system with three nodes, in which the flows of information and capital theoretically benefit all parties: the gay community gains a sense of cohesion and citizenship through media; the gay media outlets profit from advertisers��� capital; and advertisers recoup their investments in lucrative ���pink dollar��� revenue. But if a necessary corollary of all communication systems is error or noise, where���and what���are the errors in this system? In this paper we argue that the ���error��� in the gay media system is Queerness, and that the gay media system ejects (in a process of Kristevan abjection) these Queer identities in order to function successfully. We examine the ways in which Queer identities are excluded from representation in such media through a discourse and content analysis of The Sydney Star Observer (Australia���s largest gay and lesbian paper). First, we analyse the way Queer bodies are excluded from the discourses that construct and reinforce both the ideal gay male body and the notions of homosexual essence required for that body to be meaningful. We then argue that abject Queerness returns in the SSO���s discourses of public health through the conspicuous absence of the AIDS-inflicted body (which we read as the epitome of the abject Queer), since this absence paradoxically conjures up a trace of that which the system tries to expel. We conclude by arguing that because the ���Queer error��� is integral to the SSO, gay community media should practise a politics of Queer inclusion rather than exclusion.

Analysing queer student media using a combined queer theoretical and media studies approach

Australian queer (GLBTIQ) university student media is an important site of cultural and political self-representation. These groups exist within university student unions and the unions provide them with space, financial support and resources. Community media is a significant site for the development of queer identity, community and a key part of queer politics. This paper reviews my research into queer community media which is grounded in a Queer Theoretical perspective of identity performativity. Cover argues that Queer Theoretical approaches that study media products fail to consider the material contexts which contribute to their construction. I use an ethnographic approach combined with discourse analysis in order to reveal queer student activists��� media representations of queer, and the production contexts which shape them. My research contributes to queer media scholarship by using a methodology to address the gap that Cover identifies.

Pleasure Consuming Medicine : The Queer Politics of Drugs By Kane Race [Review]

The queer studies field works to deconstruct dominant western discourses which cast gay men as hedonistic partygoers. Concurrently it examines the real social ramifications for some gay men for whom partying, illegal drugs and casual sex is an everyday reality. Another reality of gay male culture is HIV/AIDS and the legal prescribed medicines which accompany these conditions. Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The Queer Politics of Drugs explores these realities and the discourses surrounding them. Exploring the embodiments of illegal and prescription drug users, this book problematises the binary between prescription medicine use, where drug use is configured as a matter of consumer choice, and 'illicit' drug use which is heavily policed and condemned. Returning to the gay community it reviews community approaches to safe sex and drug use, and individual practices, to demonstrate alternative approaches to condemning drug usage.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory edited by Giffney and O'Rourke [Review]

The Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory is a solid collection providing an overview of the past, present and future applications of queer theory. The Companion confidently lives up to its name as a research companion offering useful theories and methodologies for the reader to utilise queer theory in their own work.

Pleasure Consuming Medicine : The Queer Politics of Drugs By Kane Race [Review]

The queer studies field works to deconstruct dominant western discourses which cast gay men as hedonistic partygoers. Concurrently it examines the real social ramifications for some gay men for whom partying, illegal drugs and casual sex is an everyday reality. Another reality of gay male culture is HIV/AIDS and the legal prescribed medicines which accompany these conditions. Pleasure Consuming Medicine: The Queer Politics of Drugs explores these realities and the discourses surrounding them. Exploring the embodiments of illegal and prescription drug users, this book problematises the binary between prescription medicine use, where drug use is configured as a matter of consumer choice, and 'illicit' drug use which is heavily policed and condemned. Returning to the gay community it reviews community approaches to safe sex and drug use, and individual practices, to demonstrate alternative approaches to condemning drug usage.

The Proposal [Film Review]

The Proposal is a well-executed romantic comedy that easily meets its low ambitions. Director Anne Fletcher (Step Up, 27 Dresses) and newcomer writer Peter Chiarelli team up to deliver a lighthearted comedy termpered with heartwarming family values. The cute and lovable cast, headed by Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, enriches this simple tale...

Diversity in action : minority group media and social change

This audio magazine, written by Melissa Giles, features three Brisbane-based media organisations: Radio 4RPH, Queensland Pride and 98.9FM. [#1 - INTRODUCTION - read by Sara Cowling]----- [#2 - RADIO 4RPH: SHARING THE WORD - read by Ellen-Maree Elliot (and Sara Cowling)]----- [#3 - QUEENSLAND PRIDE: OUT IN THE STREET - read by Dominique Wiehahn (and Sara Cowling)]----- [#4 - 98.9FM: BREAKING THE MOULD - read by Paige Ross (and Sara Cowling)]----- [#5 - CONCLUSION - read by Sara Cowling]

Franchise nations : theorising diaspora from outside In(dia)

Research on diaspora has long been dominated by approaches that centre on displacement, relocation, mixed identities, cultural hybridity, loss, yearning and disaffection. In this paper, I outline a fresh conceptual framework, franchise nation, which approaches the study of diaspora from the perspective of the state. What this framework allows is the study of the processes that states employ to woo, nurture and engage their diasporas so as to extend their sovereignty extra-territorially, ie. statecraft. The franchise nation concept draws on the notion of cultural expediency and complements two approaches that dominate the study of statecraft today: soft power and nation branding. However, the point of this is not, to borrow Gayatri Spivak���s words, to be either pro or anti-sovereign but rather to stay awake to how sovereignty is ���invoked, extended, deterritorialised, aggregated, [and] abrogated��� (2007). Far from suggesting the imminent arrival of a post-national period, the intention with the franchise nation concept is to explicate and better understand the complexities that inhabit the terrain between diaspora, home and host nation that allow and accompany the exercise of sovereignty from afar.

Is journalism best located in the creative arts or as a communication discipline?

This paper considers the implications of journalism research being located within the Field of Research associated with the creative arts and writing in the recent Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluations. While noting that this classification does capture a significant trajectory in Australian journalism research, it also points to some anomalous implications of understanding journalism as an arts discipline, given its historical co-location in universities with communications disciplines, and the mutually reinforcing relationships between the two fields.

Indigenous Voice : a work-integrated learning case study in journalism education

The continuing stereotypical coverage of Inigenous affairs in the Australian media suggests that journalists are still finding it difficult to come to terms with more effective ways ofm reporting such issues. The many hundreds of students who graduate from journalism programs across Australia represent an opportunity to at least challenge the predominant methods and strategies. But how prepared are journalism graduates for working with Indigenous issues? This paper explores the processas involved in an intensive reporting practices course held at the University of Queensland mid-2009. The course aimed to raise journalism student's awareness of some of the issues involved as well as enabling them to interact and work with personnel from the Brisbane Indigenous Media Community, 98.9 fm, the National Indigenous Radio Service, SBS and the ABC. The findings suggest that such structured programs have a significant impact on changing student's perceptions of, and approaches to, their role and journalists.

The media and parliament

For decades, indeed centuries, the Scottish media have been a source of national pride. Alongside the education system, the Church of Scotland and the legal apparatus the media have been rightly viewed as a distinctive Scottish cultural institution, a key part of what makes Scotland a nation rather than a region. Scotland has long sustained, per capita, one of the richest and most diverse media systems in the world, encapsulating a heady mix of local newspapers such as the West Highland Free Press, national [i.e., Scotland-wide] newspapers and broadcast outlets such as BBC Scotland and the Scotsman, and UK-based media with Scottish editions such as the Sun and the Mail. These media have reflected and fuelled what is in turn a distinctive Scottish political identity separate from, though connected with that of the United Kingdom as a whole. There has, for example, been no major paper with a pro-Tory editorial line north of the border for longer than most of us can remember, reflecting (and perhaps contributing to) the Conservative Party���s poor showing in successive Scottish elections.

Journalism's screen test

I���ve been researching, teaching and writing about journalism for more than two decades. Throughout that time I���ve used feature films to illustrate howthe journalist is represented in popular culture.

The Scottish media and politics

This chapter will explore the performance of the Scottish media in post-devolution political life, before turning its attention to the specific coverage of the 2007 election.

Diversity in action : minority group media and social change (text-only version)

This magazine, written by Melissa Giles, features three Brisbane-based media organisations: Radio 4RPH, Queensland Pride and 98.9FM. The PDF file on this website contains a text-only version of the magazine. Contact the author if you would like a copy of the text-only EPUB file or a copy of the full digital magazine with images. An audio version of the magazine is available at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/41729/

���Queer��� ��� does not have a uniform : articulations of queer identity in Australian queer student activist media

This article explores articulations of queer identity in recent Australian queer student media. Print media is of particular importance to queer communities because, as Cover argues, it provides a crucial grounding for community development and a model of queer to guide the positioning of identity and activism. This article uses discourse analysis of queer student activists��� media representations of diversity and inclusiveness to investigate the articulations of queer identity in one specific context: metropolitan Australian universities. This reveals real-life appropriations of this contentious term and contributes to a genealogy of sexuality, documenting one visible moment in history.