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Humor as an inroad to qualitative minority representation: The case of Taboe, a humorous human interest-program
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Humor as an inroad to qualitative minority representation: The case of Taboe, a humorous human interest-program

Anouk De Ridder, Hilde Van Den Bulck and Heidi Vandebosch
Communications, v 46(2)
25 Jun 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2019-0103
url
https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2019-0103View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Maybe Open Access (Publisher Bronze),  Open

Abstract

human interest humor minorities public service media qualitative research
One of the challenges Public Service Media institutions face today is how to translate normative values such as universality and diversity into measurable and tangible content in an attempt to realize their “public value”. This contribution shows how the communicative functions of humor can help create public value by introducing audiences to minorities. As a case in point, we analyzed , a humorous human-interest program about minorities including, amongst others, the visually impaired and the obese, broadcast by Flemish public broadcaster VRT in 2018. Based on in-depth interviews with program makers and participants and a qualitative content analysis of the program, the study found that humor provided the program with a positive, funny yet emotional tone of voice that attracted and kept the audience’s attention. By giving various minorities an active voice, introduced mainstream audiences to the their perspective, encouraging increased knowledge and understanding and, in turn, tolerance of, and acceptance towards, the minority groups represented.

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2 citations in Scopus

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Domestic collaboration
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Communication
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