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Introduction to Media and the Politics of Offence

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Book cover Media and the Politics of Offence

Abstract

This Introduction aims to provide an overview of the diverse traditions and approaches through which offence has been theorized and analysed. It highlights the slippery nature of offence as a subject that resists clear definitions, arguing that it is precisely this ‘affective messiness’ which makes offence such a fascinating site of exploration. The Introduction illustrates further how this book will unfold. Even though contributors draw on different schools of thought and use different methodologies, they all share a concern about the complex and ambiguous nature of offence as well as the different ways in which offence comes to matter in our everyday and socio-political lives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Paradoxically, political correctness becomes here precisely what offends those who argue that ‘generation snowflake’ is too easily offended—the claimed ‘victims’ of political correctness.

  2. 2.

    It is important to note here that the company’s use of censorship has long been under critique. Many have pointed out that content of breastfeeding mothers or period stains (famously in the work of artist Rupi Kaur) is banned for violating community standards (inappropriate content), while some extreme and white nationalist content was—until very recently—deemed an acceptable form of expression and therefore not censored or removed (BBC News, 2019).

  3. 3.

    Sharon Lockyer and Michael Pickering (2008) make a similar argument of the right to offend and hierarchies in the context of humour.

  4. 4.

    Actively taking offence means here to file some sort of formal complaint. Thus, while we often do not have a choice or consciously decide to take offence, ‘actively taking offence’, i.e. filing a complaint, requires decision-making.

  5. 5.

    Judith Butler’s blog post was written in the context of Milo Yiannapoulos’ planned lecture at UC Berkeley in February 2017. Butler refers here to a previous lecture of Yiannopoulos at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where the writer had posted a photo of Adelaide Kramer, a trans student of the University, on the backdrop screen of his lecture and then not only jeered at her, but encouraged others to do the same.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK

    Anne Graefer

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  1. Anne Graefer
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Correspondence to Anne Graefer .

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  1. Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK

    Anne Graefer

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Graefer, A. (2019). Introduction to Media and the Politics of Offence. In: Graefer, A. (eds) Media and the Politics of Offence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17574-0_1

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