Playing at Politics? Popular Culture as Political Engagement

Street, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9650-063X, Inthorn, S. and Scott, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6744-443X (2012) Playing at Politics? Popular Culture as Political Engagement. Parliamentary Affairs, 65 (2). pp. 338-358. ISSN 0031-2290

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Abstract

While the importance of news media to politics is widely acknowledged, it is only relatively recently that entertainment media have received similar recognition. There is now a substantial body of research on the impact of popular culture on various aspects of the political process, from political knowledge to political engagement. This article is intended as a further contribution to this literature. It reports on a study into how young people in the UK use forms of media entertainment (television, music and video games) to reflect upon the wider world of politics and their role within it. It reveals that, while popular culture does act as a source of political knowledge and does serve to motivate feelings about the conduct of politics, it does not do so straightforwardly, but rather by way of the aesthetic and other judgements made by young people of the ‘authenticity’ and ‘realism’ of the sources of their cultural pleasure. This has policy implications for the attempt to re-engage young people in politics by means of popular culture and ‘celebrity politics’.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Political, Social and International Studies (former - to 2014) Faculty of Social Sciences > School of International Development Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Cultural Politics, Communications & Media Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Policy & Politics Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Film, Television and Media Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > The State, Governance and Conflict
Depositing User:	John Street
Date Deposited:	10 Nov 2011 08:42
Last Modified:	21 Jul 2023 12:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/35390
DOI:	10.1093/pa/gsr037

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