The Performance of Cultural Citizenship: Audiences and the Politics of Multicultural Television Drama

TLDR: Morley et al. as discussed by the authors investigated how multicultural television drama may be used to build connections and strengthen civic culture in multicultural societies and found that emotional involvement in multicultural drama may lead to discussions of dilemmas surrounding the role of cultural difference in the everyday lives of viewers.

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 o...