Meanings of Diversity in Media Culture: Circulation and Appropriation in the Context of Streaming Platforms

• Grant number: 24/10933-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Rosana de Lima Soares
• Grantee: Natalia Engler Prudencio
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Stemming from a discursive perspective, this research aims at investigating the meanings the notion of diversity acquires while circulating within media culture, through the articulation between how said notion is appropriated by global audiovisual platforms in their institutional materials and audiovisual productions and how it is (re)appropriated by the audience that consumes these materials and productions. For this purpose, institutional materials and productions by the streaming platforms Netflix and Disney+, as well as the consumption of these representations by viewers, constitute our empirical objects, insofar as the notion of diversity has been a theme in the context of demands for media visibility and recognition by groups that have been historically marginalized and made invisible; in addition, diversity has been increasingly used by audiovisual platforms to address a globalized audience. Drawing from a methodological approach based on British Cultural Studies (adapted, however, to the Brazilian context), the appropriation and circulation of the notion of diversity in media culture will be analyzed at the institutional, textual, and audience levels. The analysis will also be conducted from an intersectional perspective, seeking to identify and discuss the implications of interconnected axes of oppression that are relevant at each level.