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The Slippery Terrain of Offensive Television

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Provocative Screens

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Abstract

This chapter complicates offence as a term and presents conceptual and methodological approaches for this project on the reception of ‘offensive’ content. It sets the scene of the work in the UK and Germany, drawing instances from contemporary public discourse around offence and considers some of the key questions that underpin this book: what constitutes offensive media material? Why is offence felt so differently? To what ends is offence used or concerns about offensive material mobilised? How do people act both as individuals and as publics in their very affective responses to offensive content? Why do we assume offensive material can be categorised solely into tick-boxes for profanity, swear words, racism, overt discrimination or flash lighting? And how do audiences understand the role and responsibilities of producers and broadcasters?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Ranjana Das

  2. Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK

    Anne Graefer

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  1. Ranjana Das
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  2. Anne Graefer
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Correspondence to Ranjana Das .

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Das, R., Graefer, A. (2017). The Slippery Terrain of Offensive Television. In: Provocative Screens. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67907-5_1

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