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Study Program of English Literature Faculty of Cultural Studies (FCS) Universitas Brawijaya (UB) held another biweekly discussion with “Media and Cultural Studies” as the topic on Friday (8/14/2020). The topic was delivered by Scarletina Vidyayani Eka, M.Hum., also known as Avid, who is a lecturer at Study Program of English Literature FCS UB.
The discussion began at 1 p.m. with Juliati, M.Hum., as the moderator. Avid started the discussion by explaining media as texts in cultural studies. She explained that culture is like language, that texts can be a tool to say something. Then, she continued explaining cultural studies that emphasized how cultural practice carries a certain meaning, as well as how in the era of technology, almost every reality of social-culture is mediated so that representation becomes unavoidable. Thus, media becomes important in cultural studies.
The discussion then moved on to the main topic “Cultural Studies and Media”. Avid said that nowadays, mass media supported by the facilities has become popular culture. Popular culture has become the new paradigm of literary texts which includes mass media, electronic media, or even social media. She also explained how media’s texts can be understood through a circuit of culture which tries to understand a cultural practice from the production, consumption, regulation, representation, which then becomes an identity.
Avid also gave a couple of media and cultural studies analysis examples which were conducted by lecturers as well as students. There are representations of the movie “Joker”, analysis of Korean halal food, analysis of Tess Daly YouTube channel, to the analysis of the Djakarta Warehouse Project (DWP). These examples showed how little things in everyday life carry a certain message or meaning that could be analyzed just like how a literary text is analyzed. This is possible because similar to the literary text, which is a tool to say something, little things in everyday life have also become a tool to say or represent something. As Avid puts it, “Small things in everyday life can also become an object of literary research”.
After the presentation, a question and answer session started. The question and answer session help participants to know more or ask about something unclear during the presentation. Besides giving new insights, this biweekly discussion also gave inspiration for both lecturers and students to start research on media applying the perspective of cultural studies. (DTS/MSH/PR FCS)[:]