Pages 144-161
Chapter 6 begins by bringing up the widely understood fact that media texts have a considerable impact on audiences, but what’s less understood is what exactly that effect is, and how it happens. One theory that attempts to answer this is the ‘hypodermic model’, which essentially argues that the consumption of media is no different than the consumption of a drug, in the regard that both have a direct impact on the consumer. The hypodermic model was originally used as an explanation for the rise of fascism and right-wing politics in Europe in the first half of the 20th century, and it argued that popular culture and mass media were to blame. This resulted in a moral panic surrounding media texts, that continues even today in the form of blaming mass shooting and other tragedies on media texts like violent movies and video games, as opposed to addressing the real underlying issues like gun violence. The chapter then goes on to describe the censorship efforts that have resulted from this moral panic. It brings up how the ‘effects model’ is used by wealthier people to characterize certain groups of people like children or the working class as “vulnerable” and in need of protection, possibly as an excuse to impose censorship on any media text that goes against their strict conservative values. One such example it uses is the campaign by British media institutions to get the film Crash banned in the country for its promotion of “obscene” material. The chapter then goes on to describe the various problems with the hypodermic and effect models, by citing various examples of violent media texts not making people violent, mainly because audiences’ understanding of violence in media texts is far more sophisticated than they get credit for. The chapter then introduces a more dynamic model known as the ‘uses and gratifications model’ which argues that instead of audiences being “used” by the media they consume (which is comparable to what the hypodermic model argues), they instead “use” the media for various purposes like personal identification, information gathering, socialization, or entertainment. While not without its flaws, the uses and gratifications model allows us to look at how audiences consume media in a much more dynamic and realistic way, especially when compared to the previous models. Finally, the chapter offers an explanation of what entertainment is, and how it does more than just “entertain”, by providing audiences with a form of escapism that contrasts our real world problems (for example scarcity) with the utopian opposites (for example abundance). Pages 161-171 The chapter then describes how each of the elements of utopia are present in the show ER, those being energy, abundance, intensity, transparency, and community, and how the constant fulfillment of those elements may have contributed to the show’s massive success and viewership. Berger’s table then illustrates how various genres of entertainment can be used by audiences to fulfill the previously mentioned utopian desires, which brings us back to the Frankfurt school of thought. This argues that living in a capitalistic society has caused feelings of exploitation among the working class, and that entertainment serves as a sort of “antidote” to those feelings by portraying the utopian elements that the working class desires. Because of this, it can be argued that entertainment is what makes life worth living in a capitalistic society, and in turn that capitalism defines what entertainment is. Due to the undeniable link between entertainment and society through capitalism, this opens up the discussion of how factors like race and class affect entertainment, as well as the differences in entertainment consumed by various races and classes. Several issues with the uses and gratifications theory are then mentioned, which have to do with the general idea that it assumes people can be completely autonomous from the media they consume, which is largely unrealistic. Pages 173-179 This section describes the ethnographic approach, which rose to prominence as media theorists began to view audiences as people, as opposed to the statistics they were viewed as up to that point. The ethnographic approach argues that the researcher should partake in “participant observation” and join the audience they are studying to better understand how they interpret media texts. The social context that goes into how groups interpret media texts is explored, for example by highlighting the intense fandom of “Trekkies”, which is essentially a subculture for fans of Star Trek. The interpretation of media text is also greatly affected by elements like social class, occupation, subculture, and time period, which is what the ethnographic approach tries to take into consideration. While the ethnographic approach is generally better at understanding the cultural context surrounding how audiences interpret media texts than, say, the uses and gratifications method, it does have its flaws. For example, it is usually difficult for the researcher to remain objective, and the method also occupies this weird space between the mass audiences theories like uses and gratifications, and the more detail oriented, specific models. Another method was introduced to help bridge this gap, and it was called the model of audience-media text interaction, which argued that an audience is both activated and deactivated by media texts.
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Fashion Friendly Table of Contents Image (Taken by me)
Douma, Zachary. Fashion Friendly Image (Table of Contents). 13 Oct. 2020. Fashion Friendly Magazine Cover Image (Taken by me) Douma, Zachary. Fashion Friendly Magazine Cover. 27 Aug. 2020. Tyler, The Creator Image (Table of Contents) & Source Nicholson, Rebecca, and Photographed by Paul Farrell. “Tyler, the Creator: 'Theresa May's Gone, so I'm Back in the UK'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 Oct. 2019, www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/05/tyler-the-creator-back-after-uk-ban-funk-reinvention-homophobia-accusations. Tyler, The Creator Image (Double Page Spread) & Source Kofi, Casper. “Tyler, The Creator Image (Double Page Spread).” Tyler, The Provocateur , GQ Magazine, 19 Nov. 2019, www.gq.com/story/tyler-the-creator-provocateur-of-the-year-2019. Diversity and Cultural Citizenship
Because of the extensive commercialization done by mainstream media networks on the video sharing platform in recent years, it’s easy to forget that Youtube was first created as a place where regular people could just share their videos with other regular people. Despite this charmingly simple concept, Youtube has proven to be a monumental force in the world of media in the fairly short amount of time it has been around. One of the largest and arguably most important impacts of Youtube on the media world is that it gave diverse groups of people a safe place to use their voices, as many of them didn’t have one before. This has proven particularly beneficial to minority groups like women, religious minorities, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ people. By giving them a place to share their individualistic lives, experiences and cultures, Youtube has helped these minorities connect with one another and form communities, which for many, has changed the way we define our cultural citizenship. Essentially, the individualistic/personalized experience that Youtube offers has in turn allowed people to connect with those similar to them, whether that be through identification with a specific religion, culture, or sexuality, or even something as simple as a shared hobby. Nowadays people can define their cultural citizenship through almost any characteristic, and with Youtube’s personalized algorithms bringing people with similar characteristics together, it enables almost anyone to experience a shared sense of collectivism regarding their cultural identity, which is beneficial to them. There is still more to be said regarding the diversity that Youtube enables by encouraging anyone and everyone to express themselves on the video sharing site. By doing so, Youtube has allowed a diverse array of ideas, opinions, and cultures to enter the wider public discourse, and it exposes many people to new ones for the first time. This has many positive impacts, for example it has enabled healthy discussion regarding political and social issues on an unprecedented scale, and has also helped previously taboo topics enter the mainstream of civil discourse. However, due to the plethora of ideas being presented on the website, it is often the most radical and controversial ones that gain the most attention. This has led to a radicalization in the opinions of many Youtube creators, as they are rewarded for these opinions through views and engagement, which can in turn rub-off on the Youtuber’s audiences. If left unchecked this can have dangerous repercussions, and perhaps Youtube needs to rethink its approach regarding its encouragement of radicalism and controversy. Regardless though, the countless positive impacts that Youtube has on encouraging diversity and influencing/transforming cultural citizenship cannot be ignored. Globalisation and Localisation When used accordingly, Youtube has the potential to aid globalisation and the subsequent interaction of different cultures, countries, and peoples in a truly unprecedented way. The globally reaching website can dissolve national borders, allowing the interaction and fusion of different people in a way not possible until recently. For example, while silly, the “Gangnam Style” dance that went viral on Youtube about a decade ago managed to peak many Americans’ interest in Asian culture by giving them their first taste of it, and a lot of American content has proven to be popular overseas as well. This globalisation and cultural fusion was much more normal in the early days of the website, however, due to Youtube’s recent efforts to provide a personalized/localized experience for its users, as well as pressure to appease foreign governments that are hesitant to adopt the American website, the site is not living up to its true potential as a tool for globalisation. To elaborate, Youtube has utilized a lot of localized geo-filters to give foreign users an experience that is tailored to their specific country. Youtube’s implementation of this feature is very understandable, as a user is more likely to watch and enjoy content that features their specific language and culture. There are definitely positive effects to the use of geo-filters, however, problems arise when they prove to be a hindrance to the globalized potential of Youtube to its users. This is because the geo-filters often lock users in localized “filter bubbles”, in which they are only shown content from their specific country/area. Similarly, Youtube has been known to block/censor videos to appease the governments of countries with more strict censorship laws. This vastly limits the globalised potential of Youtube as a tool for the spread of information and interaction of different countries on a global scale, and Youtube needs to be held accountable when it chooses to do such things, because as of now the company is not required to provide any explanation for its censorship actions. Youtube as Cultural Archive One of the many unintended impacts of Youtube is that it has come to serve as a very important cultural archive for contemporary history. Amateur archivists have worked tirelessly to recover and restore decades-old footage, and make it available for anyone to easily watch on the platform. This has had many positive impacts, for example older people being able to relive the nostalgia of their youth by watching footage they thought had been lost forever with time. Similarly, because Youtube has been around for the vast majority of the 21st century, it has come to serve as an immensely important cultural archive that documents pop culture and historical events over recent years. Also, the nature of Youtube provides for a unique mix of historical footage that is from a more broad perspective (i.e. historical footage uploaded by archivists), and a more personal one (i.e. footage uploaded by regular people like home videos or vlogs). It is worth noting that the creators of Youtube never intended for or expected their video sharing platform to become the valuable cultural archive that it is. This raises the question of whether or not Youtube has the moral responsibility to honor its place as a cultural archive, regardless of whether the videos on the platform go against the company’s personal interests. To elaborate, Youtube has been known to take down videos of archive footage because other companies that originally owned the footage claim those videos are copyright infringements. Youtube also tends to remove videos of historical current events if they contain sensitive or violent subject matter. While this is a reasonable response for a company, it can be argued that at this point Youtube is more than just a company, as its importance as a cultural archive has already been established. Because of all this, the answer to whether or not Youtube has a moral responsibility to serve as a cultural archive is less clear, and it also opens up the question of why we’ve become so reliant on a simple video sharing website for archiving our culture and history. Attached below is the link to my Creative Critical Reflection Presentation video, as it was too large of a file to upload directly to this blog. I also included images of the actual presentation below that for convenience.
Original Double Page SpreadCurrent, Revised Double Page SpreadAs you can see, I kept the revisions to my double page spread very minimal. The only significant change made was on the first page (page 17), in which I edited the article to make it easier to read by changing the font/layout of the text, which I did based on feedback from my teacher. This also removed a lot of the empty space on the page, which my teacher also advised me to do. No changes were made on page 2 (page 18) as I was pleased with how it looked, and received positive feedback on it from my teacher. The revised table of contents is also what I submitted as my finalized version, as are the revised table of contents and revised magazine cover.
Discuss the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences by international or global institutions (#6 from the table below)
Media area: Film Since the passing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed for the virtually unchecked acquisition of competitors by large media conglomerates, the film industry has become more monopolized than ever. For reference, out of the roughly 50 companies that dominated the film and entertainment industry at the time of the bill’s passage, only a handful remain independent today, as the others were absorbed or bought out by these companies. This has caused the few remaining media conglomerates, which are often referred to as “the big six”, to be met with the extremely difficult task of attempting to appeal to and target global institutions and audiences. To elaborate, in order to make their media as profitable as possible, these companies specifically tailor their films to be as globally appealing as possible, often by prioritizing large foreign markets. This raises all sorts of issues in the media world, for example the increased homogeneity/lack of creativity in mainstream film production. However, I believe the most pressing issue that the targeting of national audiences on a global scale has created is the erosion of morality and ethics among the production companies that partake in it. To begin, I believe the monopolization of the film industry on a global scale has caused media conglomerates to prioritize financial success over a maintenance of morality. The member of the big six most guilty of this is probably the Walt Disney Company, which has gained a reputation in recent years for buying out/absorbing competing production companies. Few media conglomerates have the reach over mainstream film/entertainment that Disney does, which has caused the company to ditch many of the core values it preaches in its own films. For example, Disney in particular is infamous for ignoring racial or political issues in order to appeal more to the Chinese market. From a business standpoint this makes sense, after all the Chinese box office accounted for an astounding $9.8 billion in 2019, but issues arise when Disney chooses to disregard ethics to do this. See, Disney has received backlash in the past for editing out or shrinking specifically black characters from the Chinese versions of their movie posters. For example, in the Chinese poster for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, the character of Finn (who is played by black actor John Boyega), was significantly smaller when compared to the American poster, despite him being a main character in the film. Also, while the American version of the “Black Panther” poster featured the titular character mask-less and showing the face of black actor Chadwick Boseman, the Chinese version had a mask photoshopped over him, very clearly done in an effort to hide the face of the African American actor from Chinese audiences. The most recent and perhaps worst example of Disney disregarding ethics for the sake of profit is related to production of the recent live-action remake of “Mulan”. Disney chose to shoot certain parts of the movie in China, as that’s where the film takes place. A large part of that filming took place in the very same province where the Chinese government has been forcibly relocating Uighur Muslims into what can only be described as internment camps. In all honesty I don’t fully understand the situation, but I do know that many critics have compared the Chinese government’s actions to ethnic cleansing, and criticize Disney for still choosing to support the government by filming there, as well as refusing to condemn them, which was likely done in an effort to get the film shown in China. Disney is hardly the only large media conglomerate that partakes in immoral actions for the sake of appealing to a global market, however it provides one of the most relevant examples of the issues raised by the targeting of national audiences by global institutions. In sharp contrast with large media conglomerates, I believe smaller, independent film production companies often avoid many of these aforementioned issues. Yes, while indie film companies don’t have nearly the reach or funding that major media conglomerates do, I believe that that’s what allows them to remain ethically sound. An excellent example of this that I found in my research is the independent, British-based production company known as “Environment Films”. Environment Films was founded on a basis of maintaining ethics, has shot films for a wide variety of charities, campaigns, and causes, and has made a name for itself as one of the UK’s most ethical film production companies. Also, whenever they are producing and shooting movies, Environment Films abides by a strict set of social and environmental criteria. One example of such practices is refusing to work with/for any company that promotes what they view as unethical practices, which it seems major media conglomerates like Disney could learn a lot from. Sources: http://www.environmentfilms.org https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/09/disney-mulan-controversy-issues https://variety.com/2015/film/news/star-wars-china-poster-controversy-john-boyega-1201653494/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yFjW5I2O28 Original Table of ContentsCurrent, Revised Table of ContentsObviously I kept the revisions to my table of contents fairly minimal. I made the appropriate changes, like switching the edition from "November 2020" to "February 2021", because even though it is currently March I was aiming to be consistent with my recently revised magazine cover. I also edited the layout of my table of contents, for example by removing the image split in half that previously filled the upper right and lower left corners of my design, in favor of the same image in a more traditional layout. Although I liked the idea of the split image, I found it to be a bit strange in execution, and making the change also gave me the room to include an image of Tyler, The Creator, who is the subject of my double page spread biography. On the topic of that, I tweaked the article names to include my double page spread article. I also included photography credits for both the images, and added a black border to them to be more consistent with the actual table of contents design. Also, it is worth noting that I used that particular picture of Tyler, The Creator because I felt the earthy colors of it matched the rest of the page well.
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