COLONIALISM: The practice of mainly western cultures occupying lands of other cultures, like Africa and Asia, mainly for the land’s resources and labour. To support these occupations, western imperialists would claim that their culture is superior to the peoples they were subjugating. These are ideas that, despite colonialism being almost non-existent today, have influence on modern western culture.
POST COLONIALISM: The Observation that, despite almost all colonial occupation ceasing, colonial values like the supposed superiority of Western values and culture and the tendency of western cultures to ignore the complexity of other cultures and values and dismiss them as primitive or deviant are still influential in western culture.
DIASPORA: A diaspora is an ethnic group that has members in varying areas of the globe due to being scattered, either voluntarily through immigration or involuntarily like slavery or genocide. As a result of being a diaspora, these ethnic groups are minorities among the populations they live in, and as such most media from these societies will represent these ethnic groups through the lens of the majority of the population of these societies.
BAME: “Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic” – A term used by the government to refer to the collective minority population.
DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY): Double Consciousness refers to the internal conflict minority ethnic groups face when living in a nation whose majority ethnic group is different to theirs. For example, black British people have a double consciousness between their black identities and culture and the predominantly white society they live in.
CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM: Essentialism refers to a lay belief in the existence of underlying natures that constitute and differentiate social categories. In terms of race and culture, this refers to, for example, the observation that dominant cultural groups use racial or cultural essentialism to justify existing racist social hierarchies and supposed racial inequality.
CULTURAL SYNCRETISM: Cultural syncretism refers to how aspects of different cultures can blend to create something new and unique.
ORIENTALISM (SAID): A book by Edward Said which describes how western cultures have defined eastern cultures in ways that justify colonial ideas of exploitation, showing how colonial ideas are still influential in modern western culture.
APPROPRIATION: The use of other cultures by people of different cultures (often more dominant ones) outside their original cultural contexts. This is an example of how dominant cultures often use aspects of disadvantaged cultures without appreciation for those cultures (an aspect of colonial ideas – appropriation’s presence in modern society shows how colonial ideas are still influential in a post-colonial world).
CULTURAL HEGEMONY: The rule of one culture group over others. The ideas of the dominant culture group are often influential over the others.
THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS): The public sphere refers to the idea of the development of the ease of communication of non-ruling classes throughout history from which they can discuss social issues. The public sphere becomes more available to people of differing social classes.
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS: Public service broadcasting’s role is to represent minority groups fairly and similarly to dominant cultural groups. The consequence of not representing minorities fairly can lead to many people of dominant cultural groups to not understand the views and experiences of minorities properly which can lead to misrepresentation and appropriation, even just out of ignorance and not malice.
