MEDIA STUDIES Theoretical Concepts ETHNICITY & POSTCOLONIAL PAUL GILROY

ETHNICITY & POSTCOLONIAL WJEC: SPEC the idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era. the idea that civilisationism constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness. THEORIST Paul Gilroy Paul Gilroy is a British scholar of Cultural Studies and Black diasporic culture. He focuses on the politics of race, nation, and racism in the UK.

ETHNICITY & POSTCOLONIAL Gilroy’s theory explores the ideas that race and ethnicity continue to inform contemporary attitudes in the post-colonial era (modern world). He highlights that the Western ‘civilised’ world constructs racial hierarches and binary oppositions based on notions of otherness. 1.Us vs Them: Hierarchies and binaries are represented and perpetuated in the media and are therefore, despite living in a ‘post-colonial’ world which has overcome the explicitly violent aspects of its colonial past (most obviously slavery), non-white people are still oppressed, othered and discriminated against using colonial ideas which revolve around ‘us v them’. 2.Key Terms: IMPERIALISM: extending a country's power/influence through colonisation or military force. POST-COLONIAL: a theoretical approach in various disciplines that is concerned with the lasting impact of colonization in former colonies and their citizens. DIASPORA: the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland OTHERNESS: the quality or fact of being different.