Advertising: Postcolonialism blog tasks

 MM75  (p28). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here -

1) Look at the first page. What is colonialism - also known as cultural imperialism? 

European countries effectively got into a race to see how many undiscovered lands they could conquer first, and by ‘undiscovered’ I mean, ‘countries where the indigenous population didn’t have good enough weapons to fight back’. Countries like France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Britain effectively turned into the seagulls from Finding Nemo, zipping around, shouting ‘MINE’ at every new piece of land they discovered.

2) Now look at the second page. What is postcolonialism? 

The process of decolonisation gathered speed in the 20th Century and with it, many of the attitudes associated with colonialism began to be challenged. Postcolonialism, like postmodernism, refers less to a time period and more to a critiquing of a school of thought that came before it.

3) How does Paul Gilroy suggest postcolonialism influences British culture?

Postcolonialism influences British views on migration and also expands on how Britain deprecate their past and how they may still be stuck in it .

4) What is 'othering'?

Othering is the phenomenon whereby we identify something as being different from, or alien to our social identity.

5) What examples of 'othering' are provided by the article?

. Love Thy Neighbour, the seventies sitcom about a Black family living next door to a white family with a bigot for a man of the house.

. Daily Express, who printed 179 anti-migrant stories between 2011 and 2016

6) What is 'double consciousness'? 

Double consciousness describes the feeling that you have more than one social identity, which makes it difficult to develop a sense of self.

7) What are 'racial hierarchies'?

A racial hierarchy is a system of stratification that is based on the belief that some racial groups are superior to other racial groups. 

8) What examples from recent media products challenge the idea of racial hierarchies? 

Social media , due to the ability for all races to be fair in speaking .