ERMeCC has received a NWO-grant within the context of the PhD in the Humanities competition for a study on the authority of cultural critics.
Who determines nowadays what constitutes valuable culture?
The Erasmus Centre of Media, Communication and Culture (ERMeCC) has received a NWO-grant within the context of the PhD in the Humanities competition for a study on the authority of cultural critics. For the next five years, under supervision of prof. dr. Susanne Janssen and dr. Marc Verboord, Rian Koreman will be working on her PhD-project Constructing Cultural Authority. The online and offline evaluation of pop music and fiction books.
About Rian Koreman
Rian Koreman obtained her MSc degree in 2013 from the Research Master's Programme in the Sociology of Culture, Media and the Arts, after graduating Cum Laude from the Master's in Media Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is currently working as a junior lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication at Erasmus. Her Research Master"s thesis revolved around the legitimation of specific genres of Dutch pop music (volksmuziek, dance music and hip-hop/rap music) in Dutch elite newspapers and has recently been accepted for publication by the international peer-reviewed journal Cultural Sociology.
Constructing Cultural Authority. The online and offline evaluation of pop music and fiction books.
Traditionally, critics from traditional media had a central function as "gatekeepers of taste": they determined which cultural products received attention and how these were valued. The audience trusted them to have the experience and expertise to make well-founded choices. However, with the advent of the Web 2.0, audiences themselves can now produce, share and discuss their opinion of cultural products online in comments, ratings and reviews, which provide an alternative for professional reviews, particularly among young audiences. In addition, nowadays audiences increasingly combine preferences for traditionally "highbrow" and popular culture, and less often follow the judgements of professional critics.
These developments have prompted some debate on the authority and future of the institutionally embedded critic. Who do we nowadays trust to determine which books and pop music albums are worth devoting our time to? What roles do institutional embedment and taste agreement play in these choices? How does the authority of an online amateur critic relate to the legitimacy of a professional critic who works for a newspaper? By means of a survey, analyses of both literature and pop music reviews and interviews with critics and different audience groups, this study aims to answer these questions and shed light on who we grant authority nowadays and why and on what bases we do this. Who is nowadays considered to be an expert in the cultural field.
PhD in the Humanities funding scheme
The aim of NWO's PhDs in the Humanities funding instrument is to increase the number of young talented researchers in the humanities, and to facilitate their progression on the academic career ladder. PhDs in the Humanities offers talented researchers a paid PhD position. A total of 15fte PhD positions are granted each year. Rian Koreman is the fourth PhD-candidate at ERMeCC who received this prestigious grant. Emy Koopman, Boross Balázs, and Julian Schaap were awarded the grant in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively.