A cultural studies project : exploring the perceptions of undergraduate media university students on the representations of black gay men in two of South Africa’s leading telenovelas, Uzalo and The Queen

Abstract

Even though the South African Constitution protects the rights of LGBTQ+ people and bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, gay people in this country are still victims of the most horrific homophobic abuse and vile discrimination. By venture of its vast reach, the media, television in particular, is an important tool to educate and inform people of the rights of gay people and teach about sexuality. Content creators are responsible for producing the programmes people are exposed to on television, therefore, they are tasked with creating representations of gay people. This study explores the perceptions of media undergraduate students on the representations of black gay people in television, specifically, SABC1’s Uzalo and Mzansi Magic’s The Queen. These two telenovelas have been chosen, because they have black gay characters and are among the most-watched shows on prime-time television. Uzalo has an average of approximately 10 million viewers and The Queen has roughly eight million viewers per episode. The research followed a Cultural Studies approach to explore the role of telenovelas and the active audience paradigm to examine the dynamics of power in the representations of LGBTQ+ on television in South Africa. The study also draws on feminism to highlight the discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community in the African continent. Representation Theory is used as a lead theory in this study, while Social Cognitive Theory is used as a second theory. Two focus groups were held with undergraduate media students from the Journalism Programme and Video Technology Department from the Faculty of Arts and Design in a South African university. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from these two focus groups. The study found the visibility of gay people on television has increased over the years. In addition, there are instances where the representation is positive and educational, however, the majority remains negative and relies on stereotypes. These findings indicate the media is a powerful tool that can be used to educate the wider public with regard to marginalised people. Going forward, educational implications of LGBTQ+ persons’ representations need to be considered when represented. Therefore, the study posits that representations on popular culture are important as these telenovelas are part of creating the reality that is lived by the minorities they represent. As such, television does not only represent the world, but it helps in its creation and the audience who watch these telenovelas are co-creators