Ethnic Minority Radio: Interactions and Identity
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ETHNIC MINORITY RADIO: INTERACTIONS AND IDENTITY ELEANOR SHEMBER-CRITCHLEY A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Information and Communications Manchester Metropolitan University May 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been researched and written without the valued supervision of Professor Seamus Simpson and Dr John Cawood. Additional thanks go to Professor Dick Hartley and Dr Magda Bober. Great thanks to the participants of the research who gave up valuable time and personal insights for this thesis. Without the endless support, listening ear, patience and encouragement of my parents and, most of all, my husband this thesis would not have happened at all. Thank you. ABSTRACT The past thirty years has seen a growth of ethnic minority radio stations. They occupy spaces in the public, commercial, community and pirate broadcasting sectors and are seen to provide valuable services for marginalised listeners. Yet, little is known about the practices of broadcasting within these stations and the role staff and their programmes play within their communities. This doctoral thesis is the first analysis of the development and continuing existence of a set of case study ethnic minority radio stations and how they employ the concepts of ethnicity and identity. To achieve this, it puts the daily interactions and practices that go on within the radio stations at the heart of the analysis. The paucity of research in this area demanded the synthesis of different theoretical ideas to fully explore the meaning of these interactions. The study utilises a modified structuration theory (Giddens, 1984; Stones, 2005) to blend the separate areas of ethnicity, identity (Karner, 2007) and radio in everyday life (Scannell, 1996). Structuration theory comes with few instructions for use. A major contribution to theoretical knowledge is the presentation of a theoretical, methodological and coding framework. The qualitative, case study approach and a blended strategy enable the valuable use of structuration theory for studies of the media and everyday life. This thesis argues that the structures of ethnicity, identity, and the station are the medium and outcome of agent action and that agent action is orientated by the structures of the station, broadcasting, ethnicity and identity. Contingent to this analysis are the life narratives of the staff and the ‘cultural competences’ they bring to the stations. The theoretical framework illuminates the processes of ethnicity, highlighting the importance of both a reified and a fluid identity, broadcast as part of the programmes, to understand how these stations and their communities are so tightly bound. CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS.................................................................1 1.1 ABOUT THE RESEARCH .......................................................................................1 1.2 WHY ETHNIC MINORITY RADIO AND IDENTITY ?..............................................1 1.3 CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE .......................................................................2 1.3.1 Ethnic minority radio.........................................................................................2 1.3.2 A new conceptual framework ...........................................................................3 1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................4 1.4.1 Aims...................................................................................................................4 1.4.2 Objectives ..........................................................................................................4 1.5 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS .....................................................................................4 1.6 THE RESEARCH CONTEXT ..................................................................................4 1.7 RELEVANT STUDIES .............................................................................................6 1.7.1 Studies of ethnic minority radio stations...........................................................6 1.7.2 Media audiences and migration studies ............................................................8 1.7.3 Studies employing structuration and the media................................................9 1.8 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................11 2 STRUCTURATION THEORY FOR THE STUDY OF RADIO & ETHNICITY.........................................................................................................12 2.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................12 2.2 THE CENTRAL CONCEPTS OF STRUCTURATION .............................................15 2.2.1 The agent..........................................................................................................16 2.2.2 Time-space and positioning.............................................................................18 2.2.2.1 Criticism number one: time..........................................................................21 2.2.3 Structure...........................................................................................................22 2.2.4 Power ...............................................................................................................24 2.2.5 Allocative and authoritative resources............................................................26 2.2.5.1 Criticism number two: rules, rules, rules .....................................................27 2.2.5.2 Criticism number three: what happened to community?.............................29 2.3 STRONG STRUCTURATION THEORY (SST)......................................................30 2.3.1 Position-practice ..............................................................................................30 2.3.2 The Quadripartite nature of structuration........................................................32 2.4 A MODEL FIT FOR RESEARCH ...........................................................................34 2.5 THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ETHNIC MINORITY RADIO AND IDENTITY ............................................................................................................36 2.6 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................37 3 ETHNICITY AND IDENTITY .........................................................................39 3.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................39 3.2 IDENTITY , RADIO AND SHARED NARRATIVES .................................................39 3.3 RACE ...................................................................................................................42 3.4 ETHNICITY .........................................................................................................43 3.4.1 Baumann’s issues with reification...................................................................44 3.4.2 Ethnic minority media and identity.................................................................48 3.5 EVERYDAY LIFE .................................................................................................49 3.5.1 Ethnicity, group identity and everyday life.....................................................49 3.5.2 Structures of seeing, feeling and action ..........................................................52 3.6 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................55 4 RADIO AND EVERYDAY LIFE .....................................................................56 4.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................56 4.1 DAILINESS AND ROUTINE ..................................................................................56 4.2 EVENTFULNESS ..................................................................................................59 4.3 INTENTIONALITY ...............................................................................................61 4.4 SOCIABILITY ......................................................................................................63 4.5 SINCERITY ..........................................................................................................66 4.6 AUTHENTICITY ..................................................................................................67 4.7 IDENTITY ............................................................................................................69 4.7.1 Station identity.................................................................................................69 4.7.2 Music and identity ...........................................................................................71 4.7.3 Identity and communities ................................................................................73 4.8 AND FINALLY …CONCLUDING RADIO ..............................................................75 4.9 VISUALISING THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................77 5 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN ...........................................80 5.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................80 5.2