Imagining Ourselves Beyond the Nation? Exploring Cosmopolitanism in Relation to Media Coverage of Distant Suffering

Abstract

Major humanitarian crises and disasters broadcasted around the world are often accompanied by an upsurge of global reactions and outpouring of aid pledges. As such, they become symbolic of a 'global community' and 'cosmopolitan solidarity'. The present paper examines this kind of cosmopolitanism and the role of the media in its construction, providing an empirical dimension to a hitherto largely theoretical discussion. Drawing upon focus group discussions with audience members in Greece, the paper will explore how media disasters are being experienced by audiences and the ways this experience is implicated in their perceptions of the world and their place in it. Focusing on the constant interplay between cosmopolitan and national discourses in participants' responses, it will be argued that cosmopolitanism and nationalism cannot be sharply juxtaposed, but cosmopolitanism is often framed through the national.

Moulding Cultural Capital into Cosmopolitan Capital

“…A growing body of research has delivered empirically informed critique and nuance to notions that media audiences develop cosmopolitan sympathies when consuming various media, and emphasised that different groups in society relate to the global potentials of the media in different ways (see e.g. Kyriakidou 2009;Lindell 2014;Ong 2015;Scott 2013;von Engelhardt & Jansz 2014). We seek to expand upon this strand of research by studying cosmopolitanism as a resource in "the struggle for privileged positions in trans-national arenas" (Weenink 2008(Weenink : 1103 that may, or may not, be identified and exploited by audiences and users via various media practices (an open-ended concept dealing with all that which "people do/say/think that are oriented to the media" [Couldry 2004: 124]).…”

The Cosmopolitan Imagination in the Cold War Context: Finnish Fashion Models and National Fantasies of International Success

“…Beck and Sznaider (2011) and Delanty (2011). About the recent debates over cosmopolitanism and media, see Calhoun (2007), Kyriakidou (2009), Mihelj et al (2011, and Robertson (2010). 5.…”

Cosmopolitanized Nations: Re-imagining Collectivity in World Risk Society

“…These projects have yielded a wide array of results ranging from claims that this global iconography of 'distant suffering' (Boltanski 1999;Wilkinson 2012) has generated significant attention (Höijer 2006;Kyriakidou 2009), produced awareness to the misery of others (Chouliararki 2006;Tester 2001) as well as reverse claims about 'compassion fatigue' (Moeller 1999). Regardless of how we evaluate these findings, they share a number of presuppositions.…”