Francesca Sobande – författare

How is morality understood in the marketplace? Why do brands speak out about certain issues of injustice and not others? And what is influencer culture’s role in social and political activism? Big Brands Are Watching You​ investigates corporate culture, from the branding of companies and nations to television portrayals of big business and the workplace. Francesca Sobande analyzes media, interviews, survey responses, and ephemera from the history of advertising as well as exhibitions in London, brand stores in Amsterdam, a music festival in Las Vegas, and archives in Washington, DC, to illuminate the world of branding.

How is morality understood in the marketplace? Why do brands speak out about certain issues of injustice and not others? And what is influencer culture’s role in social and political activism? Big Brands Are Watching You​ investigates corporate culture, from the branding of companies and nations to television portrayals of big business and the workplace. Francesca Sobande analyzes media, interviews, survey responses, and ephemera from the history of advertising as well as exhibitions in London, brand stores in Amsterdam, a music festival in Las Vegas, and archives in Washington, DC, to illuminate the world of branding.

This book brings together activists, artists and scholars of colour to show how Black feminism and Afrofeminism are being practiced in Europe today, exploring their differing social positions in various countries, and how they organise and mobilise to imagine a Black feminist Europe.Deeply aware that they are constructed as 'Others' living in a racialised and hierarchical continent, the contibutors explore gender, class, sexuality and legal status to show that they are both invisible - presumed to be absent from and irrelevant to European societies - and hyper-visible - assumed to be passive and sexualised, angry and irrational.Through imagining a future outside the neocolonial frames and practices of contemporary Europe, this book explores a variety of critical spaces including motherhood and the home, friendships and intimate relationships, activism and community, and literature, dance and film.

This book brings together activists, artists and scholars of colour to show how Black feminism and Afrofeminism are being practiced in Europe today, exploring their differing social positions in various countries, and how they organise and mobilise to imagine a Black feminist Europe.Deeply aware that they are constructed as 'Others' living in a racialised and hierarchical continent, the contibutors explore gender, class, sexuality and legal status to show that they are both invisible - presumed to be absent from and irrelevant to European societies - and hyper-visible - assumed to be passive and sexualised, angry and irrational.Through imagining a future outside the neocolonial frames and practices of contemporary Europe, this book explores a variety of critical spaces including motherhood and the home, friendships and intimate relationships, activism and community, and literature, dance and film.

How can we make media anti-racist?The rise of the far right, the impacts of Covid-19, and the mediated evidence of racist police violence have challenged the dominant complacency that racism was a thing of the past. We are now witnessing the renewed anti-racist commitment of social movements and the rising authoritarianism that seeks to suppress it. Rather than making media ‘less racist’, how can media systems be transformed in ways that actively challenge the production of racism? What should an anti-racist media look like?  Saha, Sobande and Titley address these timely questions to outline the essential steps for working towards an anti-racist media future. Revealing how the media are implicated in racism, the authors consider how systems, policies and practices can be transformed to confront and prevent it. Focusing on the problems of impartiality, the limits of diversity and representation, and the contradictions of digital culture, this manifesto illuminates key strategies and suggestions to move us closer to an anti-racist media future for everyone.

How can we make media anti-racist?The rise of the far right, the impacts of Covid-19, and the mediated evidence of racist police violence have challenged the dominant complacency that racism was a thing of the past. We are now witnessing the renewed anti-racist commitment of social movements and the rising authoritarianism that seeks to suppress it. Rather than making media ‘less racist’, how can media systems be transformed in ways that actively challenge the production of racism? What should an anti-racist media look like?  Saha, Sobande and Titley address these timely questions to outline the essential steps for working towards an anti-racist media future. Revealing how the media are implicated in racism, the authors consider how systems, policies and practices can be transformed to confront and prevent it. Focusing on the problems of impartiality, the limits of diversity and representation, and the contradictions of digital culture, this manifesto illuminates key strategies and suggestions to move us closer to an anti-racist media future for everyone.

Consuming Crisis is a crucial account of how consumer culture capitalized on Coronavirus (COVID-19). Sobande explores how brands claim to care while they encourage people to ‘keep calm and consume’. This critical analysis of the power and politics of marketing examines an eclectic mix of campaigns, content, and experiences. Such work outlines the societal significance of fast-fashion adverts, banana bread’s pandemic ‘moment’, university social media strategies, and how digital technology mediates memories and work. Based on the belief that brands cannot be activists, Sobande creatively considers how brands construct care, camaraderie, culture, and so-called ‘normal’ life during times of crisis.

Francesca Sobande is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Studies at Cardiff University

Consuming Crisis is a crucial account of how consumer culture capitalized on Coronavirus (COVID-19). Sobande explores how brands claim to care while they encourage people to ‘keep calm and consume’. This critical analysis of the power and politics of marketing examines an eclectic mix of campaigns, content, and experiences. Such work outlines the societal significance of fast-fashion adverts, banana bread’s pandemic ‘moment’, university social media strategies, and how digital technology mediates memories and work. Based on the belief that brands cannot be activists, Sobande creatively considers how brands construct care, camaraderie, culture, and so-called ‘normal’ life during times of crisis.

Francesca Sobande is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Studies at Cardiff University

What does it mean to be Black in Scotland today? How are notions of nationhood, Scottishness, and Britishness implicated in this? Why is it important to archive and understand Black Scottish history? Reflecting on the past to make sense of the present, Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill explore the history and contemporary lives of Black people in Scotland. Based on intergenerational interviews, survey responses, photography, and analysis of media and archived material, this book offers a unique snapshot of Black Scottish history and recent 21st century realities. Focusing on a wide range of experiences of education, work, activism, media, creativity, public life, and politics, Black Oot Here presents a vital account of Black lives in Scotland, while carefully considering the future that may lie ahead.

What does it mean to be Black in Scotland today? How are notions of nationhood, Scottishness, and Britishness implicated in this? Why is it important to archive and understand Black Scottish history? Reflecting on the past to make sense of the present, Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill explore the history and contemporary lives of Black people in Scotland. Based on intergenerational interviews, survey responses, photography, and analysis of media and archived material, this book offers a unique snapshot of Black Scottish history and recent 21st century realities. Focusing on a wide range of experiences of education, work, activism, media, creativity, public life, and politics, Black Oot Here presents a vital account of Black lives in Scotland, while carefully considering the future that may lie ahead.

What does the command “look, don’t touch” suggest about the (lack of) freedom to feel in society?layla-roxanne hill and Francesca Sobande reflect on society’s nurturing and obstructing of emotional expression, physical touch, and connectedness between different species and spaces.Through the music of feeling across genres from nu-metal to hip-hop, the spectacle of “self-help” social media content, and powerful pop culture portrayals of (im)mortality and “monsters”, Look, Don’t Touch moves beyond the language of “being okay”. It embraces tenderness, dreaming, love, solidarity, messiness, release, and ultimately, feeling.

Based on interviews and archival research, this book explores how media is implicated in Black women’s lives in Britain. From accounts of twentieth-century activism and television representations, to experiences of YouTube and Twitter, Sobande's analysis traverses tensions between digital culture’s communal, counter-cultural and commercial qualities.Chapters 2 and 4 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.