Online Response #8

         If you want a successful product, you need a fan following. This is pretty much the accepted law in mainstream media. But in this situation I think "successful" is directly related to lucrative. So let's rephrase that: If you want a lucrative product, you need a fan following. This is what most large corporations think about now when coming up with new media. But what about the fan's side of things? Are they going to the book store thinking "I really want to contribute to J. K. Rowling's business venture." No, I think we are safe to say that this is not the case. Harry Potter became hugely popular because of the vast and creative environment that was created in the book. This environment was conducive to many other creative ideas. We Are Wizards showed several examples of bands, publications, and fan groups that were all inspired and brought together by a popular media. Yet corporations are able to calculate and produce media and merchandise that will hook the audiences and in essence create fans. The question that comes to my mind is: are these popular media, fan-based creative works positive influences in society, or are they simply feeding the large corporations who always intended to make you their fanboy?
       The reading suggests that there are indeed a great many reasons why media collectively created by fans of popular media can be a positive experience. Jenkins suggests that popular media can create an excitement that other "classic" media cannot. For example, my high school English class was not very excited about the thought of reading Moby Dick, especially when the several chapters that talked about nothing but the classification of whale came around. But image their reactions had the teacher announced we would be reading Harry Potter to the class. I guarantee there would be far less use of cliff notes and much more reading going on in that class. Why? Because it is much easier to get excited about reading something all of your friends are reading. Parents around the world would rejoice to hear their child come home and say, "Mom! can I do the dishes in an hour, I just really want to finish this chapter from the reading assignment."
        But the mothers would not be the only people rejoicing. Book publishers, merchandise makers, and film companies would also be jumping in their seats. This is exactly what they want to hear. Sure! Make our product a mandatory part of your curriculum! This is why I think it's important to bring up another point from Jenkins' article. Not only does popular media encourage consumption of media, but also the creation of it. We Are Wizards showed people who not only enjoyed the Harry Potter series, but also loved making their own media. The problem I had with We Are Wizards is that I was not particularly impressed with the quality of the created media. The majority of the bands that played I could hardly classify as music. This was not the case for all the presented artists, but by the end of the documentary I had a much lower opinion of fan-based media than I did before viewing it. Does this sort of popular media based creation encourage mediocracy? I thought about that family in the documentary who encouraged their children to make songs for their punk rock Harry Potter related band. The kids have little to no musical talent, and yet they have a large crowd cheering them on. Is this productive? Are they cheering the little boy on, or is it all for the love of Harry Potter. I couldn't see him drawing in a crowd if he wrote his own music (unrelated to Harry Potter) This may seem like a very critical and cynical thing to say, but one problem I saw in that documentary is people so completely obsessed with ideas that were not their own that it was stunting their own creative progression. Is this the positively influential work we discussed above, or that Jenkins wrote about? Or is this just the silly antics of fan boys and girls, who devoted years of their creativity to a fad that has come and gone, left them stunted, and given the corporations exactly what they wanted; your attention, energy, and money.
          Heather, the girl who started The Daily Prophet argued that she made a stand against Warner Bros. and won the battle, but in reality what really happened. WB initially wanted to stop these creative endeavors based off of their copyrighted material, but after seeing the power of fan groups they decided to let them go ahead and created. Who won then? The girl who was allowed to continue writing about Harry Potter, or the company that let her do so and is still reaping the rewards of that fan base? Are the positive influences coming out of fan-based media enough to justify the devotion we give to corporate monopolies? It's still up in the air for me.
         

Online Response #7

Most interesting to me in this reading was the idea of storytelling’s strange progression as part of the culture industry and then the revival of true storytelling again. As I watched Wonder Woman, the progression of the character of Wonder Woman was a beautiful example of storytellers tossed between the culture industry machine and people desiring a return to the old ways of folk tales.

            Zipes describes folk tales as oral storytelling of tales that united a community and gave it hope for a more utopian society. In other words, they were stories that were achievable and made the people want to be better. Unfortunately, many of the characters from these folk tales of old have been radically altered from their original motives and given more profitable images and motives. Wonder Woman was created with little preconceived motives in mind other than to have more representation of heroines in comic books. The creator was not trying to accomplish any political agenda by making Wonder Woman. Yet, as we follow the evolution of her character we see almost a revival of this folk tale mentality. Zipes remarks that the oral folk tales of old were property of the community as a whole. The story would be told and retold based on the needs of the people and the message the storyteller wanted to get across. In the same manner, girls and woman that viewed Wonder Woman material were inspired and sought after the unifying factor of storytelling once more.

            Wonder Woman becoming the poster girl for feminism is, to me, an example of people fighting against the culture industry. Whether it is a conscious effort or a natural instinct, the groups that utilized Wonder Woman were taking back the communal part of storytelling and taking away the power of the culture industry. In the documentary Wonder Woman one of the women’s rights activists described her push against the commercialization of the character of Wonder Woman. When the company in charge of Wonder Woman decided to take away her powers, make her a shop owner, and basically strip the character of all her “wonder” this activist woman who wanted to use Wonder Woman as the poster girl for her movement constantly called, wrote, and protested the telling of Wonder Woman’s story. Eventually she won out and the writers decided to give back her powers and go back to the old way of telling the story.

            When I was reading Adorno’s essay on the culture industry I remember a distinct feeling of no hope. I felt there was nothing that could be done to fight the machine that is taking over the world, but this reading has revived my faith in change. People want to unite behind a cause, and storytelling is the grounds on which this battle takes place. The rise, fall, and recovery of Wonder Woman’s character is an example of hope that we can return to the days of folk tales and continue storytelling in a manner that promotes change and unity in our communities.    

Online Response #6

             Watching a huge international movement occur right in front of you could be a very exciting and scary thing. For example, if you were involved in a gay rights march or the occupation of Wall Street. I, never having directly participated in such activities, felt like I had never been involved in world social issues, but after reading and watching this weeks material I came to realize that the internet, television, and other forms of communication have made it much easier to become a part of a movement. It also means that the war zone of these global issues has just widened to include our homes.
             As I watched the news coverage of the political movements happening in A Death in Tehran I got a small glimpse into how scary, chaotic, and emotional such an event might have been. But as Castelles reminds us in his article Changing the World in the Network Society, these movements not only take place on the streets, but also on the media. In some ways this is a great opportunity for everyone to get involved, as was the case with the Kony 2012 project, but it also comes with its dangers. The promotional video about Kony's crimes in Uganda showed just how powerful the digital network can be in gathering people around a cause. Millions of Facebook users went from not even being aware to activists in their own little way. So how can this be a problem? Sounds like a great way to get the message out there and quickly find supporters. This is true, and it is also there reason why it scares me so much. In Castelles article he mentions that gatherings through the internet and media have no command center or main source because it is all part of the collective. Think of how easy it would be for the WRONG message to get put out there and to rally supporters for the wrong cause. In A Death in Tehran they talked about a small rumor that was started in the internet about the voting booths supplying pens with ink that would disappear after a few hours. Because of this small rumor thousands of people brought their own pens.
            That may be a insignificant and harmless example, but the same principle applies when a radio station broadcasts fictional stories about alien invasions and sends the entire city into a mass panic, or when TV news channels spread politically charged coverage of political news. When the media has all this power to rally a people together it becomes very important who and how it is controlled. In A Death in Tehran, the news reporter ended up leaving her job for the station because she knew that they were sending out false information about the polls. She decided to take steps to right the wrongs in the media. I think this is a great example to us. Because media has such convincing power we must be aware of life outside the net as well as in. Our responsibility as members of the world community has grown. We cannot take one source's opinion as truth. It is our duty to do our homework and study things out.        

Online Response #5

The opening credits of X-Men 2 gives a perfect intro to the ideas I want to discuss. Professor Xavier’s voice is heard giving a little background of the world now wrapped in mutant problems. He ends by saying, “Sharing the world has never been humanities defining attribute.”

                This phrase echoes some of the ideas found in Stuart Hall’s article The Whites of their Eyes. He talks about ideological “common sense” and certain racist ways of thinking becoming naturalized. The point Prof. Xavier was making is that the “common sense” of his world is that mutants are not to be trusted and therefore are counted as an enemy to the natural way of life. The example Hall gave was that of little boys and girls. Boys play rough games and like getting dirty while girls are made of sugar and spice. I love this example because it is such a normal part of our way of thinking. We automatically assume the girl will play with Barbie dolls and the boy will take the matchbox cars. This sexist way of thinking is hidden behind the guise of naturalization. In the same way racism can, and does, feel less offensive as the general population begins to accept it as common sense. Hall remarks:

“Ideologies tend to disappear from view into the taken-for-granted ‘naturalized’ world of common sense. Since (like gender) race appears to be ‘given’ by Nature, racism is one of the most profoundly ‘naturalized’ of existing ideologies.”

                

             A humorous but poignant example of this is the scene in X2 where Bobby Drake (Iceman) must finally tell his family that he is a mutant. Instead of being accepting of his differences or even wanting to talk about it more, his mother says, “Have you ever tried not being a mutant?” We all laughed as we watched it because of the absurdity of her question. We all recognize that his mutant powers are not something he can choose to have or not have. But if we take that idea into the question of racism or sexism in our society does it not operate in the same way? I recently watched a spectacular documentary called The Slanted Screen. This film showed how Japanese actors have historically been treated unfairly in their parts on Hollywood films. One of the main points was that in order to make a film that would be well accepted by the audiences, the characters had to be less Japanese and more American. Is this not the absurd question “Have you ever tried not being Japanese?”

                Especially in mainstream media, the ideologies of our nation have become so hidden behind “common sense” that the viewers most often don’t even recognize what they are being fed.  That being said, Hall and X2 attempt to show the difficult and worthy task of correcting this problem. Hall defines an ideology as the collective frame a society creates in order to make sense of their surroundings. The recreation of these ideologies is the intricate and hard process of dis-articulating and re-articulating the elements of the ideology. If an ideology is not the product of one person, but a product of the collective, then is makes sense that the vehicle for change must be a wide reaching mechanism. X2 presents two of these mechanism. First is the political arena. Prof. Xavier and the X-men struggle to promote acceptance in the government. Second is represented by Xavier’s machine “Cerebrum” which is a device that allows him to enter the mind of anyone in the world. I would like to suggest that this machine can easily be compared to mainstream media.

                Hall remarks several times how complex the racial problems are in our society and that an over simplified view of good vs. evil many not be the most honest way of seeing things. In reality, not all mainstream media is try to say something about racism, but just as X2 shows us, having a machine with such far reaching powers requires well-educated and regulated use.

Annotated Bibliography

The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film and Television. Films On Demand. Films Media Group, 2006. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. <http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=18783&xtid=41296>.

This documentary discusses the history of Asian roles in Hollywood and the stereotypes that emerged. In particular it focuses on male leading roles and the significant lack in American mainstream media. Although the documentary points out many aspects in which Hollywood has wronged the Asian male image, it also recognizes that steps have been made to correct it and hope is on the horizon. I feel this is the perfect historical backdrop I have been looking for in my research. Knowing what has come before will help me make sense of the current issues.

Levi, Antonia. The Sweet Smell Of Japan: Anime, Manga, And Japan In North America. Journal Of Asian Pacific Communication (John Benjamins Publishing Co.) 23.1 (2013): 3-18. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

            In this article the author takes a deep look at anime and manga as it has become more popular in the United States. He writes about his initial confusion as to why these so-called manga fans had little to no interest in Japanese language or culture after becoming obsessed with the shows. He talks about the “odorless” media in America, or media that has been so Americanized that it has lost its national identity. I feel this adds to many of the other pieces I have found. I am interested in seeing how this type of media furthers or battles against modern stereotypes. I feel manga and anime are Japan’s strongest influences in America today. What messages are those genres sending?

Donovan, Barna William. The Asian Influence on Hollywood Action Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2008. Print.

            With Bruce Lee as an obvious center, this book takes a look at the influence of Asian action films in America. Not only in style and form, but the use of special effects and powerful fight sequences. I am particularly interested in this because I want to not only see the negative side of things, but also the ways Asian culture has been successful in America.

Ogawa, Dennis. From Jap to Japanese: The Evolution of Japanese-American Stereotypes. N.p.: Mccutchan Pub, 1971. Print.

            This book shows the positive outcome of the stereotypes that came to existence during the WWII era. It uses major historical events in America, such as the war encampments, to illustrate how certain stereotypes came to be and then how they eventually faded away into acceptance. I am interested in this evolution and what role the media might play in that evolution.  

Sue, Derald Wing. Overcoming Our Racism: The Journey to Liberation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003. Print.

            This book is not targeted specifically at the Japanese (or Asian) and American connection, but in racism in general. It is a guide to help people realize the stereotypes they are inadvertently perpetuating. I think it will be important for me to gather information that will help me formulate my own ideas in remedying the racial problems I am exploring.

Wilson, Clint C., Félix Gutiérrez, Lena M. Chao, and Clint C. Wilson. Racism, Sexism, and the Media: The Rise of Class Communication in Multicultural America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003. Print.

            Many people wonder just how much the media affects our opinions of other minorities. This book attempts to address that points and also talks about the origins of stereotypes in the media. I am very interested in how the mass media plays a role in racism in America, especially the portrayal of minorities in the news. These topics are discussed in this book.

Rothenberg, Paula S. Racism and Sexism: An Integrated Study. New York: St Martin's, 1988. Print.

This book attempts to give the reader a deeper understanding of racism by providing them with many examples from different classes of society. As the title suggests, it aims to show the many different forms of racism and sexism prevalent in our society. I am particularly interested in the chapter "Stereotypes: Conceptual and Normative Considerations" which will shed some light on the different ways stereotypes find their way into society.

Thomas Nakayama, "'Model Minority' and the Media: Discourse on Asian America" Journal of Communication Inquiry 1988 12:65. http://jci.sagepub.com/content/12/1/65.full.pdf 

I am very interested in the points of this article because it focuses not on the Japanese Americans, but on the mainstream American perspective of other minorities. At the heart of this discussion is the idea of “model minorities.” I want to look more into how these portrayals of model minorities many appear like fair treatment at first glance, but in actuality are solidifying the stereotypes they have been placed in.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1979. Print.
            This interesting book introduces the topic of “Orientalism.” From what I understand, this concept is basically the superiority complex that some super power countries have talking about the “Orient.” The book gives historical background to this way of thinking and talks about the danger of using “orientalism” as a way of dominating another people. This domination takes place not in battle, but in texts and scholarly works and in schools where they are taught. I am interested in seeing this type of scholarly media’s role in our Western way of thinking.  


INTRODUCTION
          As I read and watched the above research material I found quickly a growing interest in stereotypes and the role media has and now plays in either perpetuating or creating those views in the minds of those that are participating in that media. At first I felt that the word “media” was referring mostly to the film industry, but upon further research I realized that “media” reaches out to printed material, music, and even scholarly text books, as discussed in Orientalsim.

                I thought about who I should focus on, and the possibility of covering modern racism in general, but the more I thought about it the vaguer the idea became. Thus in order to keep the ideas closer to my own experience and knowledge I have decided to focus on the Japanese-American racial issue, but I strongly feel that the ideas I uncover will easily translate over to other minorities. Model Minority seems to carry that same message, that is, our treatment of one minority in the media is often reflected in many other minority groups.

                Perhaps one of the most guiding resources I found was the documentary, The Slanted Screen. It was exactly what I was looking for. There were so many examples of unfair treatment of Asian Hollywood actors throughout the years that I could almost feel the progression of the stereotypes as I watched. Just as I had suspected prior to researching the topic, the unfair portrayal of Asians in film has gone from straight out mean to a much more subtle form of demeaning. One of the many arguments made in the documentary is that there is a substantial lack of Asians in mainstream media and that the few that do make it on the screen end up falling into stereotypical roles. I want to further explore more recent examples of Asians in American films and see how the treatment has changed in the last couple years. I have a feel that much improvement has taken place, yet there is much we can do to create more honest character portrayals.

                After taking an introductory look at my research I feel that the general direction I would like to take is to find the most popular evidences of Japanese culture in mainstream American culture and find out if the media is having a good effect on modern racial stereotypes (or if it has any effect at all.) I know there is much less out-right racial abrasiveness in the media as compared to politically rough times before, but have we completely overcome all racial discriminations? I think the better question to ask is will we ever overcome them? I hope to uncover the source of modern racism in mainstream media, not so I can show it to the world and slap their hand, but in order to ready myself to be a creator of honest and fair portrayals of minorities in the future. 

Online Response #4

In our class discussions it has become blatantly clear that a common problem with many activist media, with all their wonderful intentions, merely defeat themselves by showing the content they are fighting against. Mean Girls, I feel, falls into this category of great intensions but in the end only perpetuating the problem.

I felt the main message was easily understood, (spreading rumors, back-biting, and seeking popularity by hurting others is wrong) yet the use of gorgeous actresses and glamourizing them, even in this comedic and satirical fashion, ends up leaving its mark on impressionable young people. In Mulvey’s article, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, she introduces the “male gaze.” She talks about this need for the male audience to be sexually satisfied in their movie going experience and thus film makers will add scenes that in no way further the plot or even character development but simply showcase a female’s body. I saw many scenes in Mean Girls that could have very well been done without. When the girls are all hanging out together they begin examining their bodies in the mirror and finding faults with themselves. This was meant to show how silly they are for thinking that way. They obviously have gorgeous bodies, but I wonder how a young and insecure pre-teen girl would react to this scene. Will she now compare herself to these superstar actresses when she looks in the mirror?

This brings us to another point brought up in McRobbie’s article Postfeminism and Popular Culture. She makes a valid argument when she discusses the dismantling of feminism. In her article she give a perfect example of how media is being used against woman in a very subtle way. She explains on old billboard for Wonderbra that was seen in the UK years ago. It featured a woman admiring her own cleavage. For men traveling down the highway that glance up at the board they might think (using McRobbie’s words) “Thank goodness it is permissible, once again, to enjoy looking at the bodies of beautiful women.” I feel that mirror scene and many others in Mean Girls have the same effect. Not only do the men viewers get there “male gaze” moment, but the woman who find it offensive can be shrugged off saying that the movies motives were the opposite. In the Wonderbra billboard’s case, the advertising company honestly wanted feminist ridicule. Why? Because in fame was good fame in their line of work. The same rules apply in the film business. I highly controversial film will make just as much, if not more, income as an uplifting and well-loved film. Birth of a Nation is a perfect case in point.

                I know that this movie had good motives and an excellent message, but in the end it is still trying to make business. The moral may have made it to the audience, I certainly understood what it was trying to say, but the question is which message was stronger; the main moral or the underlying messages about woman? There is no definite answer, it will vary with the viewer and their ability it analyze the movie, but I feel it is a problem when the movie’s moral message has an equally damaging underlying message accompanying it. In this way Mean Girls both shows girls how to be more model citizens and perpetuates the enticing nature of being under the “male gaze.” Two contradictory and confusing messages. 

Online Response #3

         As I watched Hunger Games this time around, I was much more drawn to the dialogue concerning the ridiculousness of the games themselves. I found many intersections with the conversations we have been having in class together. I was not, however, thinking about the portrayal of feminism in the film as I watched. I was expecting the readings to be about governmental abuse of media as a means of propaganda or brainwashing a nation's people. Afterwards I began to draw connections between those two ideas. Particularly McRobbie's article on Post Feminism pointed me in that direction. She noted that there is a growing distance between young woman and feminism. It has become a feared word, and an unpopular status in society. She offered one reason why the media has had a strong hand in this distancing that I found prevalent in Hunger Games and that is the idea of individualization. It is, essentially, the whole theme behind the game itself. Every man for himself and may the best man (and I should say woman as well) win!

McRobbie says:
"success which seems to be based on the invitation to young women by various governments that they might now consider themselves free to compete in education and in work as privileged subjects of the new meritocracy. Is this then the new deal for, in the UK, New Labour's "modern" young women, female
individualisation and the new meritocracy at the expense of feminist politics?"

        This is a reflection of Katniss' experience in the games. She was part of an outcast group, but given special permission to perform and rise in rank within the given boundaries. She then leaves behind the ideals of feminism and sacrifices it for the ideals of personal achievement.
        Both articles talked about women being "objects of the viewers gaze." Braudy went so far as to say that in many cases the female in films has little if anything to do with the story's progression and is merely a side show or pit-stop for the viewers and the story is temporarily put on hold. A perfect example of this was in McRobbie's article. She explained the 1990's "Wonderbra" billboard ads that depicted a woman in the bra with a look of surprise at her cleavage. The words read "Hello Boys." She called this tactic the self aware sexist ad. People who see it laugh because they understand the history behind sexism and see it as a blatant disregard of that history and in turn ridicule the people who are offended by the image and dismiss that moral standard as a thing of the past. I recently watched a documentary about the history and theory behind graffiti called Bomb It. It bought up some similar issues. One heavily argued topic was about the idea of public property and who was entitled to put up images in those places. Some people hated the graffiti and saw it as intruding and defacing property. They complained that they didn't like that style of art, so why should they have to look at it. The graffiti artists then used that same argument to justify their work. They asked why only those in power and money had the right to throw images in our faces with billboards, posters, commercials, and even architecture? They bring up a powerful point. People with money and power are in a position to perpetuate the idea of women as "subjects of the gaze."