“Openness through Sound”: Dualcasting on Irish LGBT Radio

European Journal of Cultural Studies

Vanlee

2020

Self Cite

Public Service Broadcasting in Europe and its centrality to cultural diversity has been established in relation to race, multiculturalism and gender, but LGBT+ sexual identity remains relatively absent from research. This article aims to address this gap by fostering a historical approach to examine the ways in which LGBT+ identities emerged on Public Service Broadcasting within Western Europe, specifically in Ireland and Flanders during the 1950s–1990s. Through a small-scale comparative case study analysis between these two regions, this article contends that the emergence of LGBT+ visibility is intrinsically linked to Public Service Broadcasting in both landscapes. Specifically, the article argues that this emergence shares two distinct structural qualities in the emergence of this LGBT+ visibility. First, the comparison points to the ways in which Public Service Broadcasting production cultures incorporated external expertise regarding LGBT+ diversity, presenting itself as a practical operationalisation of the social responsibility of publicly funded media in both regions. Second, later parallels in the introduction of LGBT+ characters to television fiction series illustrate how Public Service Broadcasting responded to various forms of competition from international and commercial broadcasters, engendering particular implications for the visibility of same-sex desire. While contributing to historical treatments of LGBT+ visibility familiar within Queer Media Studies, this article goes against the Anglo-American dominance of the field by examining more local contexts outside the US/UK centric paradigm, diversifying the contexts in which Queer Media Studies research takes place.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public service broadcasting and the emergence of LGBT+ visibility: A comparative perspective on Ireland and Flanders

European Journal of Cultural Studies

Vanlee

2020

Self Cite

“…None of these terms presuppose the existence of a clear group or identity, but they refer to some widely used discourses and categorizations. LGBT is also used within this article to signal not only its common use as a term for sexual and gender minorities, but also as a reflection of the Irish media landscape, which is largely heteronormative in its makeup and offers very little in terms of queerness, either in terms of representation or production (see Kerrigan and O’ Brien, 2018). Although queer, queerness and queering have been used in broad ways (Cohen, 1997; De Lauretis, 1994; Giffney, 2009), the terms when used in this article refer to the disruption of dominant ideologies and practices within the Irish media industry by gay and lesbian workers.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article examines the ways in which gay and lesbian identities are incorporated, or not, into production roles and the everyday routines of production in the Irish film and television industries. To date, Queer Media Studies and queer media activism more broadly have been concerned primarily with matters of representation and how industry dynamics shape queer representations (Kerrigan, 2017, Kerrigan and O’ Brien, 2018). Himberg (2018) notes how gay activists have given little attention to labour issues among LGBT media workers and several other scholars, gesture towards further incorporating sexuality-based labour issues with representational ones (Martin, 2018b; Schiappa et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gay the right way? Roles and routines of Irish media production among gay and lesbian workers

O’Brien

European Journal of Communication

2020

Self Cite

This article explores how gay and lesbian identities are incorporated, or not, into the roles and routines of Irish film and television production. Data were gathered in 2018–2019 through semi-structured interviews with a purposive, snowball sample of 10 people who work in the Irish industries. The key findings are that for gay and lesbian workers their minority sexual identity impacts on the roles that they are likely to be included and excluded from. Sexuality also affects their promotion prospects and their career progression. Similarly, in terms of routines of production, gay and lesbian workers are associated with certain genres, based on stereotypical assumptions about their sexual identities by their hetero-managers and colleagues. In short, Irish gay and lesbian media workers articulated an overarching tension between the heteronormativity of the industry and the queerness of the gay and lesbian media worker. Some workers respond to that tension by adopting a homonormative approach to work while others attempt to forge a queer way of producing.

“…Minimal research has been carried out on media work performed by LGBTQs within Production Studies, with some exceptions. Kerrigan and O’Brien (2018) have examined media work in terms of LGBT radio in Ireland. Martin (2018b) examines casting gay characters on US television, examining the ways that casting functions as a practice that works within ‘best actor’ discourses that ‘insulate the television industry from charger of deliberately failing to cast gay actors in projects’ (p. 48).…”

Section: Lgbt Workers and Queer Production Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Camping it up and toning it down: gay and lesbian sexual identity in media work

Media, Culture & Society

O’Brien

2020

Self Cite

By its make-up, Irish screen production is heteronormative. This can be seen in terms of output, representation and production. Accordingly, this article argues that heteronormativity is a structuring dynamic in the identities of gay and lesbian media workers. Its impacts are two-fold and somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, it results in bias and discrimination towards many media labourers, while on the other hand, heteronormativity offers gay and lesbian workers some opportunities to overcome or challenge overbearing structures wrought by heteronorms within media industries. To demonstrate this argument, we maintain that disclosure and the formation of networks play a role in the maintenance of gay and lesbian identities in media work, whereas bias and discrimination serve to other and discipline gay and lesbian media workers for not meeting heteronormative expectations. The article concludes by exploring how gay and lesbian media workers can manage and co-opt their sexual minority identity in a way that can challenge heteronormative expectations, providing a common ground in media work. Furthermore, this article builds on the growing field of Queer Production Studies by contributing towards the field’s expanding set of empirical practices and diversifying the contexts in which Queer Production Studies research takes place.