Abstract

The image of innocence and the defence of moral values that Disney company sells make any attempt of a critical analysis of products such as Disney cartoon movies quite difficult. However, Disney culture fills up our lives aiming not only at entertaining but also educating us in some clearly conservative values. In this paper, stereotypes and values transmitted by these media products are reviewed and a specific proposal of analysis to work on at schools is presented.

Abstract

Does the public expression and performance of shock, distress, anger, frustration and ideological disapproval of particular sorts of politics constitute a form of collective political expression from which individuals can learn about being citizens? When it comes to the expression of feelings of racial and other types of prejudice, has political correctness led to a deepening of entrenched racist beliefs with no channel for discussion? This article engages with such questions through a case study of YouTube responses to «My Tram Experience» a commuter-uploaded mobile-phone video of a racist diatribe on a tram in the UK. Using qualitative content analysis, and thematic analysis, it describes how these performed, networked and distributed moments of citizen angst demonstrate a limited but interesting range of civic engagements with and positionings towards racism, immigration, class and nationalism. For one reason or another these are not allowed to occur in other public for a such as the mainstream media or schools. The article argues that these vlogs are both a wide-ranging potentially therapeutic resource for those needing validation for their racist or anti-racist views, or for those who wish to express and garner solidarity for discomfort and pain caused by racism; they are also a significant though currently uncurated resource for citizenship education both formal and informal because of their engagements with technology, social context, emotional context and political rhetoric.

Abstract

This paper aims to address the problem of hate on the Internet. It is opened with a definition of hate speech. Then it discusses hate speech prior to the Internet, during the Internet’s early days and at present time. The paper explains some of the ways that hate groups utilise the Internet and their purposes in doing so, examining the content and the functions of hate sites as well as the agenda of hate mongers. Under examination are the issues of propaganda, targeting children and youth, incitement and blood libels. The article is based in the main on a close study of dozens of hate websites.