Event Details - Media&Film Studies Lecture - Adrienne Shaw, Guest Speaker

Representation Matters: Reframing Arguments for Diversity in Digital Game

Most media studies arguments for the representation of marginalized groups have focused on exploring why more diversity in cultural texts is important. Points that have been made encompass everything from claims of direct media effects to analyzing how trends in representation reinforce hegemonic norms. Because of this, we tend to only see diversity as being possible when a strong “good business sense” case can be made. In contrast, by treating diversity, rather than pluralism, as the expected norm, we can begin to think more creatively about representation beyond niche marketing and simplistic assumptions about what “good” and “bad” representations are. 

Bio: Adrienne Shaw is an Assistant Professor in Temple University’s Department of Media Studies and Production, a member of the School of Media and Communication graduate faculty. Her book Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture (University of Minnesota, 2014) won the 2016 Outstanding Book Award from the Popular Communication Division of the International Communication Association. She also recently co-edited a special issue of Critical Studies in Media Communication with Katherine Sender and an edited collection, Queer Game Studies (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) with Bonne Ruberg.