Debra M. Clarke | Trent University (original) (raw)

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Books by Debra M. Clarke

Papers by Debra M. Clarke

Social Inequalities, Media, and Communication: Theory and Roots, Jan Servaes and Toks Oyedemi, eds., Rowman & Littlefield, 2016

Abstract: This chapter illustrates the extent and significance of class and gender inequalities ... more Abstract: This chapter illustrates the extent and significance of class and gender inequalities within political communication generally and, in particular, with respect to television journalism, which continues to be a primary vehicle of political communication. It calls upon original longitudinal data regarding the case of Canadian society as well as research conducted by communication scholars elsewhere. A central concern is to trace how these social inequalities are manifest in the dynamics of news production and news reception, and in such a way that television journalism, and political communication more generally, effectively contribute to the political exclusion of major social groups such as women and the working class.

Contemporary discussions of professional journalism almost invariably address one or more of its ... more Contemporary discussions of professional journalism almost invariably address one or more of its current "crises." There can be little question that the profession is presently under siege, although not by citizen journalism or user-generated content, nor by the decline in

This paper will discuss how and why Bourdieu's conceptualization of the " journalistic field " ca... more This paper will discuss how and why Bourdieu's conceptualization of the " journalistic field " can be usefully applied to the analysis of professional journalistic practices.

The popular music industry, as is well known, has been extremely vocal concerning what it claims ... more The popular music industry, as is well known, has been extremely vocal concerning what it claims are its declining sales. Through its trade group, the RIAA, the industry has for the last several years been publicly laying the blame for this decline almost entirely at the feet of individual music fans. These fans, it argues, are infringing upon the industry's monopoly control over the right to copy and distribute music (to which record labels hold title) by sharing music over the Internet. This, they argue, allows people to enjoy music without paying for it, which, the argument continues, is illegal and threatens the survival of the industry.

Some might be surprised to learn that Canada has become the second-largest exporter of television... more Some might be surprised to learn that Canada has become the second-largest exporter of television productions worldwide or even to learn that Vancouver has become the third-largest centre of American film and television production after Los Angeles and New York. In this book, Serra Tinic is concerned to examine the broader cultural repercussions of these developments, especially the disjuncture between culture as a global industry and culture as a source of collective identities rooted in local and regional spaces. Interviews with Vancouver-based television producers provide the rich fodder of the research on which the project is based. Producers are permitted to speak at length regarding the circumstances and conditions of their work, which enables rare insights into the ambiguities and constraints of the production process. As a case study of regionally-based television production, this in itself marks one of the greatest contributions of the book. A multiplicity of research questions are ambitiously posed at the outset, all of them worthy of pursuit although few can hope to receive adequate attention in a relatively short monograph. The declared " central " objective is to determine how these regional producers attempt to satisfy the economic and aesthetic requirements of a global industry together with the nationalist cultural mandates of Canadian broadcasting policy. The objective requires a consideration of political economy issues within what is essentially a cultural studies approach. In this respect, the analysis is to be commended for its capacity to move beyond restrictive theoretical divides in order to seek a comprehensive understanding of the multiple forces that underlie the frustrations of producers. At the same time, it would be difficult to overlook the economic forces which require, for example, that independent producers spend much of their time in service to American production projects underway within the province, the so-called " runaway " American productions which unquestionably provide useful opportunities for the employment and skill development of local production crews. There is a parallel between television production directed at international markets and the way in which the book itself is structured to meet the presumed needs of international readers. Once the parameters of the analysis are set forth in the first chapter, Chapter 2 proceeds to a much-abbreviated history of British Columbia and the strategic efforts of the provincial state to establish and promote Vancouver as a " global " site, equipped with the necessary infrastructure and geographic appeal to attract runaway American productions. The emergence of " Hollywood North " is seen to have offered a critical outlet to regional producers marginalized by the increasingly centralized funding and production practices of the CBC's primary English-language television network. The extent and impact of their marginalization is elaborated and illustrated in Chapter 3, which also considers the decline of local community television as a

pp. 165-186 in Converging Media, Diverging Politics: A Political Economy of News Media in the United States and Canada, David Skinner, James R. Compton, and Mike Gasher, eds., Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005

The paper addresses various methodological challenges associated with contemporary ethnographic a... more The paper addresses various methodological challenges associated with contemporary ethnographic audience research. To date, Canadian communication scholars have largely neglected to pursue any comprehensive ethnographic studies of television or other media audiences. In sharp contrast, more than two decades of such research by European and other media scholars has produced a range of fascinating insights into the dynamics of the process of media reception. Much of their research has focused directly upon the experience of television viewing and the ways in which television audiences actively and critically assess what is viewed. The body of literature produced by these ethnographic studies has effectively shattered long-held assumptions about the passivity of audiences and their vulnerability to the ideological output of television and other media. The contemporary research has also revealed a full range of factors operative in the reception process, such as age, class, gender, household type, and the interactional dynamics at work in the diverse social settings in which media consumption is experienced and/or discussed. Alongside these revelations have emerged the multiple complexities of the ethnographic method as it is utilized to unravel the broader relationship between media production and ideological reproduction. These methodological difficulties include, amongst others: the recruitment of research subjects; the " halo effect " which occurs as informants may be inclined to respond defensively about their television viewing habits; the need to encourage informants to make explicit what is often a private and tacit process of negotiation with media material; the need for simultaneous questioning of individual informants and observation of the mediations of family members during the reception experience; the need for repeated contact with informants under different circumstances and in different settings; the impact of differences in the social characteristics of the researchers and the researched; and, not least of all, the inevitably limited sample sizes and the accompanying loss of generalizability. Together, the many challenges of this research help to explain why, as a number of critics have noted, few such audience studies have fully satisfied the normative standards of ethnography proper. While any effort to implement more sophisticated approaches in the analysis of Canadian audiences will undoubtedly present its own unique set of additional challenges, a serious examination of the remarkably voracious media consumers found within Canadian society is very long overdue.

The paper addresses the extensive methodological challenges associated with audience research, ou... more The paper addresses the extensive methodological challenges associated with audience research, outlines the advantages of a variety of data collection methods, and presents some of the preliminary results of a Canadian project which utilizes structured questionnaires, semi-structured news diaries, as well as unstructured interviews with research subjects in a variety of discursive settings. Audience research completed by European and other communication scholars has disclosed a range of insights into the dynamics of the process of media reception while our empirical knowledge of the reception experiences of Canadian audiences remains paltry in comparison. Their research has also revealed a full range of factors operative in the reception process, such as age, class, gender, household type, and the interactional dynamics at work in the diverse social settings in which media consumption is experienced and/or discussed. Alongside these revelations have emerged the multiple complexities of the (also problematically termed) " ethnographic " method as it is called upon to unravel the broader relationship between media production and ideological reproduction. These methodological difficulties include, among others: (1) the recruitment of research subjects, (2) the halo effect which occurs as informants may be inclined to respond defensively about their media consumption habits, (3) the need to encourage informants to make explicit what is often a private and tacit process of negotiation with media material, (4) the impact of differences in the social characteristics of the researchers and the researched, and (5) not least of all, the inevitably limited sample sizes with their accompanying loss of generalizability. Nonetheless, the means to formulate and conduct a project unhampered by these constraints is not only realizable yet able to finally yield results that pertain to the specificities of Canadian experiences with television and other information media. The theoretical and methodological parameters of the project are set forth in the paper together

Published in the 25th anniversary special millennium issue of the Canadian Journal of Communicati... more Published in the 25th anniversary special millennium issue of the Canadian Journal of Communication 25:1 2000 Abstract: This article reviews the contemporary shift to active audience research among European and other media scholars, following the influential work of those such as Ien Ang and David Morley. It proceeds to examine the comparatively underdeveloped state of Canadian research about media audiences, and the variety of incentives to develop such research here. The distance between academic and industry research in Canada is discussed, and possible explanations of the gap in our academic knowledge of Canadian audiences are offered. Finally, the article considers possible means to approach the meaningful study of the media reception process within Canadian households. In the end, it is argued that the work of Ang, Morley, and others offers fruitful prospects for the understanding of media interpretation here.

Social Inequalities, Media, and Communication: Theory and Roots, Jan Servaes and Toks Oyedemi, eds., Rowman & Littlefield, 2016

Press and Cole's work extends bravely into several realms of analysis within sociology and beyond... more Press and Cole's work extends bravely into several realms of analysis within sociology and beyond, from the politico-ideological struggles which surround abortion, to the complex ways in which women formulate their own individual postures within the abortion debate, to yet more broadly interdisciplinary questions about how audiences negotiate their interpretations of media output. In view of their ultimate focus upon the ways in which non-activist women of different class and racial groups connect abortion to the exercise of power over women's lives and to their overall political consciousness, illustrated by women's responses to televisual portrayals of abortion, the book should be of great appeal not only to those specifically interested in the abortion debate, yet also to anyone generally interested in class relations, feminism and gender studies, and/or the relationship between media production and ideological reproduction. The authors call upon their respective experiences in communication studies, psychology, and women's studies to produce a most exceptionally multi-dimensional, richly textured, and remarkably well-integrated analysis which offers rare insights into a variety of questions. Indeed, the abortion issue could be crudely seen as almost incidental to the analysis: it so happens that women's discussions of abortion serve to very effectively expose their awareness of the linkages between public and private spheres. As Press and Cole discovered early in their research, " the issue is a prism through which general discussions of power and authority in our society ... are refracted both in media representations and among those who receive them " (19). By means of focus group interviews conducted with American women throughout the period 1989-1993, the authors ambitiously explore the intersections between class, gender, and race in the responses of their subjects to depictions of the abortion issue in three selected prime-time television dramas. Press and Cole argue that televisual representations of abortion are powerfully class-based, such that television characters who seek abortions are predominantly working class or extremely poor. Yet another opportunity to expose and explain differences in women's general ideological perspectives thereby arises, and it is thoroughly pursued. The focus groups are differentiated according to their pro-choice or pro-life positions, and further subdivided according to their class locations, specific occupations, religious affiliations, and race. Television is understood to be one medium through which personal and group identities are constructed, through which political and moral values are formulated, and but one of a vast array of continuous discourses through which beliefs and opinions are developed. Media scholars will likely also be delighted to see that oppositional and resistant readings of the television programmes are anticipated from the outset; in fact, expectations of active and critical viewership are intrinsic to the parameters of the project and form the basis of the methodological strategy. These expectations follow from Press's earlier work, Women Watching Television: Gender, Class, and Generation in the American Television Experience (1991). Pro-life women, for example, are found to habitually watch, and often enjoy, television entertainment which regularly contradicts their most fundamental values. These women expressed commonalities in both their views about abortion and their general responses to the television programmes, commonalities which even cut across class lines. Their views about abortion related to a deeply entrenched resistance to the assumptions of the secular mainstream media in the contemporary

The purpose of the course is to examine theoretical and substantive issues in the sociological an... more The purpose of the course is to examine theoretical and substantive issues in the sociological analysis of families and households. With emphasis upon the contemporary diversity of family forms and household types, students will be introduced to a range of topics addressed by family sociologists, such as mate selection and couple formation, cohabitation, marriage, voluntary and involuntary singlehood, same-sex couplehood, the division of household labour, family stress and family violence, divorce, widowhood, and remarriage. Three principal objects of analysis can be identified in the general social science literature regarding families and households: (1) the patterns of activity among those who share a household and interact with each other in the provision of daily needs; (2) intimate couple relationships within which sexuality is a significant component; and (3) children, the development of children, and parent-child relationships. The third object of analysis falls chiefly within the domain of psychology (see, for example, PSYC 2500H, 3510H, and 3560H), and therefore it is addressed only to a limited extent in this course, which focuses upon the contributions of sociology to the multidisciplinary family studies literature. Family phenomena can be analyzed at three different levels: (1) the ways in which individuals experience family processes; (2) the dynamics internal to families as small groups; and (3) the ways in which broader societal forces shape processes within households. A central task of family sociology is to establish the connections between these three levels of analysis. Towards that end, we will briefly examine a variety of theoretical frameworks that can shed light upon these linkages. At the same time, we will pursue many of the substantive sociological questions that surround family and household formations as well as family dynamics.

Course Description: The course introduces television studies as a realm of research inquiry withi... more Course Description: The course introduces television studies as a realm of research inquiry within communication studies, cultural studies, and the social sciences generally. While we will be necessarily attentive to and informed by the international research literature regarding television, our primary focus will be the development, the operation, and the significance of television broadcasting within Canadian society. In pursuit of that objective, we will examine the history of television from its introduction in the 1950s to its contemporary digital and multi-screen availability and its continuing prominence within the Canadian mediascape. We will proceed to consider the underlying dynamics of television production, including the economics of television broadcasting in Canada and the constraints intrinsic to the production process. In order to appreciate not only the historical context of television broadcasting but also its important location within the social structure of Canadian society, we will also examine how television is utilized by different social groups in the reception process. We will critically assess the significance of a number of specific television program genres, such as reality programs, situation comedies or sitcoms, news and current affairs programs, and news parodies. Ultimately, we will tackle the grand and perpetually difficult questions associated with the cultural, political, and ideological significance of the medium – questions that have become all the more compelling in recent years as some scholars argue that television has finally been freed of the stigma that historically condemned it as a principally feminine and working-class medium. We will consider and debate, therefore, the argument that television has acquired a new legitimacy that moves beyond class and gender biases as well as popular mythologies regarding television audiences to render television all the more potent as a dominant vehicle of communication. Course Prerequisites: 4.0 university credits including 1.0 CAST or CUST credit at the 1000-level or permission of instructor