The Media's Role in Social Inclusion and Exclusion

Abstract

Definitions of social inclusion and exclusion are fluid, and researchers and policy-makers have not agreed upon an all-encompassing definition. For wider society, social inclusion requires the transformation of these emerging definitions into ‘lived experience’ and actions. For the media, reporting on social inclusion is complicated by the confusion about what social inclusion is and to whom it is intended to apply, and by the gap between the ideal and the slower pace of societal change. Until recently, media studies researchers have focused largely on the issue of social exclusion and the media. The goal of this themed issue of MIA is to address some of the gaps in scholarly knowledge about the media's role in social inclusion and exclusion, and the context of that role within the wider social and political discourses. Our aim is to move beyond existing understandings of the media's role in social exclusion to look at spaces and places where there have been attempts to provide inclusion and whether they have worked, but also what issues and problems might have beset them.