Abstract
Streaming television has seemingly offered an alternative to legacy television texts that have abstracted religion and cultural identity to achieve mass appeal and appease advertisers. In theory, agnostic platforms offer the opportunity to distribute niche content that does not stereotype marginalized groups. Indeed, series like Hulu’s Ramy (2019–) include nuanced portrayals of second-generation lived experiences and depart from past problematic representations of Arab Muslims. However, the branding and industry rhetoric that circle the series continue long-standing discursive practices that distance media corporations from lived religion and cultural specificity. This case study highlights that the democratizing thrust of the Internet has hardly destabilized problematic legacy industry practices and illustrates how paratextual representations and corporate discourses are increasingly contradictory in a complex, conglomerated media environment.
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Johnson, P.A. (2021). Ambivalence and Contradiction in Digital Distribution: How Corporate Branding and Marketing Dilute the Lived Experiences in Ramy. In: Banjo, O.O. (eds) Immigrant Generations, Media Representations, and Audiences. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75311-5_7
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