Episode 4: Identity

Does the age of identity mean the end of community? In this episode, we find out about how media has shaped identities, created communities, and fractured and polarised societies in the past with Adrian Bingham. We discuss all things TikTok with Sophia Smith Galer and ask how the media can reinvent itself in a world of radical decentralisation. We talk to Leon Diop about their experience of identity and working to build community from the ground up.  

Adrian Bingham is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Sheffield and has written extensively on the popular press, gender and sexuality. His works include Gender, Modernity, and the Popular Press in Inter-War Britain (2004); Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life and the British Popular Press 1918-1978 (2009); and United KIngdom (2022).

Sophia Smith Galer is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and TikTok creator with over 130 million views. She is a Senior News Reporter for VICE World News, a Visiting Fellow at Brown University, and the author of Losing It: Sex Education for the 21st Century (2022). 

Leon Diop is the co-founder of Black and Irish, an organisation that highlights and celebrates the identity of black and mixed-race Irish people. They are working to tackle racism and build representation across education, business, politics, media, entertainment, and community. Black and Irish also have a successful RTÉ podcast.

Clips from the show 

This Is Marshall McLuhan - The Medium Is The Massage (1967)

https://youtu.be/cFwVCHkL-JU

RTÉ The Black & Irish Podcast

https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/series/33229-black-irish/

Sophia Smith Galer TikTok, “the suez sea shanty you all did not ask for” (2021)

https://www.tiktok.com/@sophiasmithgaler/video/6944316550128110854

The Schuler Democracy Forum podcast is co-created and co-hosted by Mark Little and Ellie Payne and produced by Patrick Haughey of Audiobrand. The Schuler Democracy Forum is an initiative of the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute, Trinity College Dublin. The Forum is generously supported by Dr Beate Schuler. For more information, see: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/Schuler-Democracy-Forum.php