Culture and media
Taking our cue from Raymond Williams’ ‘culture is ordinary’, we explore how politics works through old and new media, books, film, stage and screen, music and sport.
We cover a breadth of themes, from representations of class, race and gender in the arts, to progressive and reactionary uses of nostalgia, to the grassroots voices democratising the channels of communication.
Taking our cue from Raymond Williams’ ‘culture is ordinary’, we explore how politics works through old and new media, books, film, stage and screen, music and sport.
We cover a breadth of themes, from representations of class, race and gender in the arts, to progressive and reactionary uses of nostalgia, to the grassroots voices democratising the channels of communication.
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Beyond Berlusconi
Populist, authoritarian, xenophobic and sustained in office by a corrupt electoral system – but Silvio Berlusconi’s government isn’t the only one in Europe that can be described this way
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Making music matter
Organisers claimed it a huge success, but the BNP won a seat on the London Assembly days later. Lena De Casparis and Alex Nunns explore the impact of the Love Music Hate Racism carnival – and the future for such events
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Porn can be good for you
Peter Tatchell says pornography doesn’t have to be oppressive. It can be liberating and fulfilling
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The medium is the message
The alternative media are more than a source of news; they help keep the democratic process alive writes Gary Younge
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The Politics of Bob Dylan
The protest songs for which Bob Dylan is most famous were written in a 20-month burst in the early 1960s. Within a year Dylan had turned his back on them – not in renunciation of politics, argues Mike Marqusee, but to pursue a deeper kind of radicalism