Drawing on a previous project on media pedagogy, besides work by others, this paper discusses how popular cultural media texts from television and film can indeed be applied in teaching political science. While the examples used mostly relate to international relations, the discussion considering the potential and limitations of such texts is applicable to a wider set of social sciences.
The paper was first presented on the ECPR-conference in Oslo, September 6.-9, 2017. The abstract and presentation is posted below. It is currently under revision. Three Op-eds written for main Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, on Game of Thrones, the Black Panther and the films from 2018 on the 22/7 terror attacks also contain material to be included in the revised paper.
Presentation
Abstract
Traditionally, there has been skepticism among academics outside of the arts sciences and media sciences to incorporate artifacts from popular culture into their courses, or research. They might not only be irrelevant, but also destructive for intellectual capacities (Postman, 2006). As educators, should we then be worried about students being great consumers of popular culture, and at least keep it out of the classroom? Should we at least stick to the ideals of documentaries aiming to “educate”, rather than profiting by selling “escapism” (Nichols, 1991)?
Drawing on a previous project on media pedagogy (Kalnes, 2015), besides work by others (Dodds, 2008; Engert & Spencer, 2009; Gianos, 1999; Giglio, 2010; Gregg, 1998; Munster & Sylvest, 2015; Sealey, 2008; Swimelar, 2012; Webber, 2005; Weber, 2014; Weldes, 2003), this paper discusses how popular cultural media texts from television and film can indeed be applied in teaching political science. While the examples used mostly relate to international relations, the discussion considering the potential and limitations of such texts is applicable to a wider set of social sciences.
It is argued that the use of media texts from popular culture is relevant at two levels. Politics are in various ways (Haas, Christensen, & Haas, 2015) embedded in texts students already know well, or are likely to take an interest in, qua entertainment. Students can learn to discover and interpret the political narratives hidden in popular media texts, as well their relation with audiences and society. Furthermore, these types of texts can be used as tools to illustrate and/or stimulate interest in apparently abstract theories and concepts.
The paper therefore suggests a double approach, not only teaching politics through popular culture, but also teaching about politics embedded within media texts. Even the most apparently unrealistic artifacts of popular culture, consisting of pure fiction and ostensibly made for pure entertainment, may be perfectly suitable as pedagogical tools. An analysis of how film and TV series have been used to explore and teach the field of international relations indicates that the span of media texts is surprisingly large, and used by a wide and growing range of academics (Harry Potter Nexon & Neumann, 2006), Battlestar Galactica (Buzan, 2010; Kiersey & Neumann, 2013) and even zombie movies (Drezner, 2011).
To sort the different possible teaching purposes of film and TV series I introduce four categories of teaching purposes, derived from Engert and Spencer (Engert & Spencer, 2009). There is a main distinction between using them as "a window to the world", regarding events and themes (positivism) and to learn about the importance of different cultural or theoretical perspectives on the world (post-positivism).
The paper then discusses in depth four cases used in my own teaching that fits into these four categories: The Norwegian documentary My Daughter the Terrorist (Arnestad, 2007), the German satire Er ist Wieder da (Wnendt, 2015), a Turkish war film Valley of The Wolves – Iraq (Akar, 2006), and the American fantasy TV-series Game of Thrones (Benioff & Weiss, 2011.
