Celebrating the Undiscipline of Cultural Studies

Abstract

This article is based on an email exchange between media theorist and critic Geert Lovink and former Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Professor Graeme Turner. It explores the field of television studies internationally, focusing on the ‘nihilist turn’. In the Netherlands, right-wing populist websites and TV shows have been able to set the racist, anti-migration agenda, while in the United States and Australia, this agenda has been set by talkback radio. The issue of how we can distinguish between the popular and the populist is examined, and some more general cultural studies issues are discussed.