Why it’s so hard to define the Creative Industries

When asked what the master Creative Industries is about, we always find ourselves looking for the right words. Because what are the creative industries exactly? And maybe “what’s the difference with cultural industries (if there is one)?” is an even more interesting question. How can we study a field that is still so hard to define?

Raúl Rodríguez-Ferrándiz argues in his article Culture Industries in a Postindustrial Age: Entertainment, Leisure, Creativity, Design (2014) that it is strange that we are still using the term cultural industries, a term that is almost 70 years old, while both our conceptions of culture as well as industries have changed. The term “is in need of an epistemological and critical reassessment that will bring it up to date” (Rodríguez-Ferrándiz 2014: 327). In this blog post we will look at some existing definitions of the creative industries, as well as try to find a new definition, perhaps one that Rodríguez-Ferrándiz is looking for: if that’s possible.

Different definitions

We are certainly not the first one to ask ourselves what the creative or cultural industries are, and there are multiple definitions and explanations going around in the academic as well as in the political world. In Core Course Creative Industries, we have read three books that each have defined the field in their own way. Introducing the Creative Industries (2013) spoke of three defining features that were shared in the creative industries:

..first, they all require some input of human creativity; second, they are vehicles for symbolic messages, that is, they are carriers of meaning; and third, they contain, at least potentially, some intellectual property that belongs to an individual or a group. (Davis & Sigthorsson 2013: 1)

Human creativity, meaning and intellectual property seem to be the key features of the creative industries in this definition. This means it is a rather broad term, which could be a product of the fading of the borders between culture and leisure. “The culture industries start being attracted and sucked in by the vicinity of other industries that are colonizing free time,” writes Rodríguez-Ferrándiz. The ‘entertainment industry’ or the notion of ‘leisure industry’ have started to represent the categories that bracket together the “dramatic arts, popular fiction, cinema, radio, television, and videogames, with the practicing of sports, betting, casinos, theme parks and tourism, toys and adult games, even with shopping, going to restaurants and the consumption of alcohol” (Rodríguez-Ferrándiz 2014: 332). The authors of Key Concepts in Creative Industries (2013) are more careful defining the creative industries and in doing so, even refuse to give a clear definition:

There is little agreement even on the definition of the creative industries. [..] there are important insights scattered across many domains, using different definitions, conceptual frameworks and methodologies for divergent instrumental purposes. This general rule applies also to the authors of this book. Each of us brings a different disciplinary perspective to bear on the terms we discuss [..] We do not start from a partisan stance. (Hartley et al. 2013: ix-x)

In their eagerness not to exclude any definitions or meanings, the authors fail to give a definition at all. This may be even more confusing for readers. In our final book, The Cultural Industries (2013), author David Hesmondhalgh has chosen to use the term ‘cultural industries’ rather than creative industries. He defines the latter as:

Used by many writers and policy makers as an alternative to cultural industries, as a policy concept this term tends to group a very wide range of activities together, including commercial and non-commercial industries. Researchers who prefer this term tend to favour a pragmatic approach to policy and power. (Hesmondhalgh 2013: 416)

This pragmatic approach that Hesmondhalgh ties to the term creative industries, is the idea that was introduced in politics that the cultural industries could be seen as a means of economic regeneration and employment creation. Later social goals also became a means to legislate the importance of the cultural industries, Hesmondhalgh argues. Although the economic and social effectiveness of local cultural policies oriented towards the cultural industries remained/remains controversial, the ideas gained in popularity (Hesmondhalgh 2013: 168-9).

Enter the policies

All of the definitions that we have picked out and explained earlier, have a surprisingly political component. The clearest definition perhaps, which we have cited from Introducing the Creative Industries, is based on a definition that was created by UNCTAD: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 2010. The political, if not more so, economic implications of this term are evident.The term ‘creative industries’ is of course around for much longer than 2010. Its first major use in policy stems from 1997 and was introduced by the British Labour government. There were significant precedents in other countries though, notably the “Australian Labour government’s Creative Nation initiative of 1994” (Hesmondhalgh 2013: 174). The ideas that the creative industries can have a serious effect on the economy and the social situation(s) was also born and put to practice in this time. In the Netherlands this is also evident through the Dutch Creative Council. This council, a spokesperson and mediator for the creative sector and the Dutch government, ultimately serves a very political and economic goal:

The Government appointed the Creative Industries in 2011 as one of nine top sectors which will innovate the Netherlands. Through companies and scholars the government is investing in this sector to strengthen it further. (Dutch Council 2014)

Creativity and innovation are key features that the Dutch Creative Council have highlighted throughout their website: innovation that will eventually lead to more economic gains. Their choice for ‘creative industries’ rather than ‘cultural industries’ seems logical in this light.

Towards a clear definition?

There are two points that have become evident: (1) there are various definitions of the creative industries that are being used and (2) it is impossible to speak of ‘the creative industries’ without mentioning the political dimensions and influences. And perhaps the latter is the more interesting point here. Is a creative industries possible without politics? We would suggest that the definition of creative (or cultural) industries is very closely linked to local policies. After all, our master program probably wouldn’t be around, if it weren’t for the government who’ve appointed the creative industries as important. This component tied to our field makes one definition impossible.

 

Davies, Rosamund and Sighorsson, Gauti. (2013) Introducing the Creative Industries – from theory to practice. London: Sage.

Hartley, John et al. (2013) Key Concepts in Creative Industries. Los Angeles [et al.]: Sage.

Hesmondhalgh, David. (2013) The Cultural Industries – 3rd edition. London: Sage.

Rodríguez-Ferrándiz, Raúl. (2014) ‘Culture Industries in a Postindustrial Age: Entertainment, Leisure, Creativity, Design’ in: Critical studies in Media Communication, vol. 31, no. 4.

http://www.creative-council.nl/de-creatieve-industrie

Ballads and bloodshed

There is no doubt that our exposure to content dealing with sex, violence and death has exponentially increased and become less restrictive with the development of new technologies and their ease of access. New forms of media are bringing us in contact with graphic images/texts every single day whether it is in the form of music, movies, video games, news and so on. However, one of the issues with violence and death in particular is the way that it is represented in the media: violence and death have been aestheticized in a way that often underlines their beauty but not necessarily their horror, for instance in movies by using slow motion, background music, camera compositions etc. Additionally, often times representations of violence are associated with sex, an association that can sometimes be harmful to women as they represent a masculine romantic portrayal of sex and sexuality that objectifies women and puts them in submissive positions, consequently constructing a cultural discourse.

Though being a non-visual medium, music is a good example of this aestheticization and even glamorization of violence and its association with sex and denigration of women. Although we cannot generalize, some musical genres such as gangster rap and narcocorridos are good illustrations of the aforementioned issues. However, more and more popular mainstream music seem to be following that path either through their lyrics or through the use of highly sexualized music videos.

A good example of this is the video on the song “Animals” by Maroon 5: the video has been highly criticised through social media and even in internet news channels for promoting sexual violence. The video in question depicts the frontman Adam Levine, portraying a butcher, stalking a woman and fantasizing of having sex with her while smeared in blood. The lyrics (“Baby I’m preying on you tonight/ Hunt you down eat you alive”) only reinforce the images. RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network) have argued that “The trivialisation of these serious crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry.”(Denham 2014)

However, the genre that deserves attention in the case of sex and violence is the emerging narcocorrido. This is a popular type of latin music styled after Hip Hop with highly detailed and violent lyrics such as “With an AK-47 and a bazooka behind my head, cross my path and I’ll chop your head off. I’m crazy and I like to kill my enemies,” by the group BuKnas de Culiacan. These narco (an abbreviation of ‘narcotics’) ballads regularly romanticize drug lords, trafficking and beheadings. The inspiration for the ballads are said to come from American hip hop, organized crime files and Hollywood with movies like Scarface. However, the resemblance to the current situation of drug cartels in Mexico is uncanny. In fact, these songs have become so popular that druglords themselves commission songs to be written about them and their cartels. The violence in the songs is often mirrored with real life violence where the artists themselves have been engaged in shootings, some even have been shot dead.

The government banned the narcocorridos in May 2011 as the music genre would promote the Mexican drug wars and a life of sex, bling and weapons. The content has changed since 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderon declared war against the drug cartels. ‘Twenty years ago, narcocorridos chronicled local smugglers and the products they grew. But since 2006 […] the ballads have shifted to the first person, with singers bragging of decapitating, dismembering and boiling enemies alive, as well as mowing down anyone perceived as a threat.’ (Hastings 2013) ‘It used to be that the corridos sang about famous men who were brave or who were real womanizers. Now they are about men who sell drugs and kill federales,’ according reporter Vollman on Mother Jones.Vollman 2009) Disturbingly, the popularity skyrocketed since the ban, getting millions of YouTube hits, celling hundreds of thousands CD’s, according the Daily News. (Hastings 2013) Also, the narcocorridos are represented on television series like Negro y Azul (‘black and blue’) and Breaking Bad. ‘Las Baladas Prohibitas’, or the Forbidden Ballads, were hot. In 2013 the Mexican President already decided to unban the songs.

However, one journalist argues that our fascination with the macabre in music is in no way new and is in no way limited to Latino culture as he mentions Johnny Cash and Woody Guthrie and the music of Sweeney Todd. Moreover, he argues that as consumers we demand authenticity, the “real thing” and this genre is just another response to that (see: W.n. (24 November 2013) ‘Are narcocorrido Mexican drug ballads really that bad?’http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/24/are-narcocorrido-mexican-drug-ballads-really-that-bad.html) Our desire for authenticity also explains the graphic images we are more and more exposed to. The question remains, what effects is this increasing explicitness having on our behavior or more importantly on the behavior of future generations?

The rise in popularity of the narcocorridos shows how politics and popular media influence each other and how violence is not to be censored. In his article Trend explains that violence has become practically unthinkable in contemporary media and therefore we should not try to censor it, we should try to educate people about violence and sex in the media and offer space for discussion. This is the only way we could properly handle the material in front of us, understand it fully. (Trend 2007: 23)

Denham, J. (2014) ‘Maroon 5 new videao ‘Animals’ criticised for promoting sexual violence’, on: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/maroon-5-animals-music-video-attacked-for-promoting-sexual-violence-against-women-9770094.html

Hastings, D. (17 december 2013) ‘Narcocorridos,the popular Latin music styled after Hip Hop, bring about bloodshed and Grammy wins’,  ‘http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/performers-narcocorridos-sell-arenas-u-s-mexico-generate-millions-sales-songs-romanticizing-drug-lords-beheadings-violent-drug-ballads-win-grammys-article-1.1536307

Trend (2007) ‘But we Can Understand It: Behind Polemics in the Media Violence Debate’, in: The Myth of Media Violence: A Critical Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell

Vollman, J. (August 2009) ‘Las Baladas Prohibitas’, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/las-baladas-prohibidas-william-vollmann

A Game of Cast and Crew

HBO’s successful take on the saga A song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin is without a doubt a great example of the media industries as a meaning making industry. The Game of Thrones (hereafter referred to as GOT) cast and crew bring to the screen what has long been entrenched in the imaginations of readers and TV show fans from the start (TV show fans since what’s not to like about sex, violence, politics, espionage and most of all DRAGONS and other fantastic beasts). Capturing the detailed story of countless characters and bringing them to life through talented cast members is no easy feat. It has in certain cases outraged fans of the book series and even some GOT fans. Miscasting or subtle plot differences rarely go unnoticed and HBO has to listen to the fans and to George R. R. Martin. Nonetheless, GOT is known for more than just the show or the books, or even introducing the world to (internationally) unknown actors, but also for its global network of fans. HBO, Martin and the cast and crew strive to connect to individuals as well as allowing them to connect with each other online, sometimes even exposing Martin’s plots (R+L=J for example is a wide known conspiracy theory among fans that Martin recently admitted might just be true -if you haven’t heard of this plot, look it up if you like, but be warned: there are spoilers on the way!). The cast and crew allow fans to see the show as a mirror and a window on their personal lives, reflecting the humanity and mundaneness of the stars lives. It also gives fans voyeuristic powers to look into the lives and behind the scenes of GOT, such as on Instagram, YouTube and on the HBO filming journal that looks at the sometimes routine, sometimes crazy happenings on set of this hit show. GOT has one of the largest casts for a television series (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast) as well as numerous directors and crew members. The show uses local people as extras so as to create jobs and create cinematic magic. Outsourcing for the show is not only limited to the extras but since filming takes place in various locations and post production as well as where the cast and crew are from makes the show extremely global in nature.

 Top-down vs Bottom-up The hierarchy of GOT is as follows: at the top is author G.R.R. who tells creators Benioff and Weiss what he wants for the show realistically (taking into account technology and costs). Benioff and Weiss tell directors what they want, who in turn tell the rest of the cast and crew what is needed to which the consumers react: this is a top-down representation of what basically happens. Bottom up however is when the audience’s reaction influences the production hierarchy. In the case of GOT, the audience for instance did not respond well to the actor portraying Daario Naharis as he did not fit the book’s description adequately, this led to the character being recast in the next season to whom the audience preferred. G. R. R. is very active on his website and social media often sharing audience members’ interpretations of his books and his characters. He even has decided to use some of these works in his new guide to GOT The World of Ice and Fire: he listens to what audiences want and tries to deliver. He recently held a competition in which an audience member would be picked to be a character that he would kill off in his newest book in the series. GOT is one of the best examples of bottom-up relations in television and in publishing as it covers many aspects of media. GOT is a clear example of the convergence of place and technology. GOT uses various media devices to connect to its audience. Not only on the set media meshing is common, the audience even uses meshing on a whole different layer. From watching the show on their laptops or smartphones, using the same devices to rate the episode they just watched on sites like IMDB, taking screenshots of the episode to share them on social media sites and to add their opinions. They use their devices to connect to the cast and crew and to create even more memes of the said screenshot (Jenkins: 2006).

Cultural industries in the digital age

The deregulation of former protected media markets has impacted GOT to some point as it is easier to share e-books as PDFs and to share episodes of the show. GOT has become the most pirated TV series of all time according to certain reports. The conglomeration of media companies has also played a part in GOT as HBO moves away from cable and towards a more Netflix type set up where audiences can stream shows. This could greatly impact the future of GOT in terms of globalization of forms and principles in the media industries change to more digital forms. Theorist Epstein created the Midas Formula, which can be considered the ‘golden formula’ for hit movies or TV shows these days. These criteria are slightly vague yet highly applicable to many movies and shows seen these days:

1) stories that are based on children’s stories, comic books, serials, cartoons, or, as in the case of Pirates of the Carribean, a theme-park ride; 

2) they feature a child or adolescent protagonist; 

3) they have a fairy-tale-like plot in which a weak or ineffectual youth is transformed into a powerful and purposeful hero;

4) they contain only chaste, if not strictly platonic, relationships between the sexes, with no suggestive nudity, sexual foreplay, provocative language, or even hints of consummated passion;

5) they feature bizarre-looking and eccentric supporting characters that are appropriate for toy and game licensing;

6) they depict conflict– though it may be dazzling, large-scale, and noisy– in ways that are sufficiently nonrealistic, and bloodless, for a rating no more restrictive than PG-13;

7) they end happily, with the hero prevailing over powerful villains and supernatural forces most of which remain available for potential sequels);

8) They use conventional or digital animation to artificially create action sequences, supernatural forces, and elaborate settings, and, last but not least:

9) they cast actors who are not ranking stars– at least in the sense that they do not command gross-revenue shares. (For his role in Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire, for example, though he was a well-established actor, received only $4 million and a share of only “net profits,” which do not divert from the revenues flowing into the studios’ clearinghouses).”

(http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/Midas.htm)  

For GOT this is also the case in most cases:

1. Based on a book series
2. Child and adolescent protagonists: Jon Snow, Bran Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Danny (Kahleesi) Targaryian
3. Fairy tale plot- GOT is full of magic: Bran Stark has Warg powers, Danny can resist fire (as she is the Mother of Dragons) and, ofcourse, the appearance of these dragons and the White Walkers
4. Less apparent in GOT, but due to the target market this is expected: if the sex and nudity was less explicit in the series, GOT would probably have a larger audience (yet less enthusiastic!)
5. Bizarre looking and eccentric supporting characters for toys: POP! collectibles of characters for each season.
6. Depict conflict, a whole lot of this is seen in GOT, for example the Battle of Blackwater Bay
7. Happy ending, this is still unknown to everyone except G. R. R. Martin, but it seems unlikely which is part of the appeal
8. CGI usuage for Dragons and Dire wolves etc
9. Lots of unknown actors and some big names that are known within theatre and fantasy genres (Sean Bean for example).

 GOT has diverged mostly on two points but still these are parts that do not dominate the show but only add to the appeal for pessimistic mature audiences.

The show is really very linear and liquid with a lot of twists and turns yet a flowing storyline (or multiple storylines even) happening simultaneously. It has a novelty and a difference in terms of that it is historic in appearance, yet a fantasy both seeming familiar. It is different because of the storylines that continue episode to episode to blow audiences away. GOT uses proven formulas to be so successful, yet as people try to understand the story and the confusion of the first few episodes it begins to change the public’s tastes. The show uses the various storylines to play with people’s attention spans keeping them on edge and hoping to know more of each storyline. Various sets and locations such as forests, deserts and cities appeal to audiences as it gives the show a glocal appeal, a feeling of familiarity but also a global perception, which has also boosted tourism to places like Malta and Ireland. GOT also uses local craftsmen to create the weapons and armour as well as clothing for the cast. Therefore GOT is really a multimillion dollar post-fordist business. It is clear that examining the ins and outs of GOT would be more suited to a thesis than a blog as it is excessively broad and intricate as a media industry. If the show and the books continue with their current success rate who knows what other developments and tastes this franchise could affect. As it goes fans and cast and crew are happy with the show overall and it will not slow down anytime soon. http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones#/

Media’s impact on the environment

Environmental issues and the media have not been associated with each other for a very long time. Only recently have scholars started to research the impact of the media on the environment. The common conception of the media as something fluid and virtual, suggests that it is a very environmentally friendly industry. The material origin and function of media technologies are easily forgotten. According to Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller, another important factor in understanding the lack of environmental research in regards to media is the phenomenon of the technological sublime.

Only recently have we started to understand the negative impacts of digital electronic equipment worldwide. Most of us, overwhelmed by the technological wonders that these devices are capable of, forget to ask ourselves “How have they been made?” “By whom?” “Where?” “Under what circumstances?” (CEREAL, as cited by Maxwell & Miller 2013: 1)

This ‘overwhelming’ effect of new media devices that is referred to in the citation, is called the technological sublime. It is “the enchantment with the seeming magic of iPhones, flat-screen HDTVs, wireless communication, 3-D IMAX  cinema, mobile computing, and so on.” (Maxwell & Miller 2013: 3) A green political-economic approach to media production, can severely disrupt the technological sublime. The “magic” is lost, when one knows about the mode of production, the environmental implications and the labour involved.

In this blogpost, we will look at some very material aspects of media production as well as some aspects of media consumption and waste. We will use the TV show Criminal Minds as a case study and we will trace its processes from production to consumption through media devices through the end of the cycle: as waste. Important questions that we will address during this analysis are: Why do the media industries have so much waste? What happens to the waste? And perhaps very ambitious: What could be the solution to reduce media waste?

Production of media content: Criminal Minds’ light bulbs

Filip Bolton is the assistant chief lighting technician of TV show Criminal Minds and his job is “the secret of why Criminal Minds looks so realistic” (Ariane Lange 2014). However, it is also a great example of the amounts of (material) energy that is used in the production of a TV show, a mode of production that consumers often forget about. As a light technician, Bolton is in charge of the lighting in every scene and that is a costly business:

Again, something that sounds so simple [managing the lights] is actually pretty complicated when you consider that each of the lights runs on 1200-1400 amps, which is around 60 to 90 times what your outlets at home are usually pumping out. (Ariane Lange 2014). Not only the materiality of the equipment (lights in this case) is easily forgotten by the viewers of Criminal Minds, but also the amount of crew members that work on set and the huge amount of electricity and other resources that are needed. For Criminal Minds the use of these light bulbs is legitimate since it enhances a sense of authenticity: “it’s incredibly important because without those bulbs, Criminal Minds would look terrible”, “[it’s] the secret reason “Criminal Minds” looks realistic” (Ariane Lange 2014).

Naturally, there are many more materials used in the production of Criminal Minds than just light bulbs. The lighting serves as a sort of example for the materiality and energy that is used in production: and its environmental footprint. In 2006, the motion picture industry was the biggest polluter in Los Angeles for example. Its toxic emissions from driving, flying, exploding, and electrifying reached the same level as the aerospace and semi-conductor industries. (Maxwell & Miller 2013: 7) Of course, labour is also a very material practice that shouldn’t be left unmentioned, but we will go into that in the next paragraph. 

Production of media devices: consuming Criminal Minds

Fans of Criminal Minds can access their favorite show through all kinds of media devices. There are the (traditional) TVs, but also laptops, tablets or even mobile phones can be potential gateways to the show. These devices more often than not produced in low wage countries. One of the most famous factories that produce these devices is Foxconn Technology in Taiwan. It makes products for Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Sony. The working conditions are extremely poor, with extreme long working hours, low wages and even dangerous working practices; such as working with poisonous chemicals. Li Mingqi, former employee of Foxconn Technology, commented that “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost. Workers’ welfare has nothing to do with their interests.” (Duhigg & Barboza 2012)

Naturally the environmental dimension of production is also a big issue that needs to be addressed. The semi-conductor, the heart of all electronic equipment, has a production process that requires “millions of kilowatt hours of electrical power, half a trillion gallons of de-ionized water, hundreds of millions of cubic feet of bulk gases (much of it poisonous), and millions of pounds of acids and solvents”. (Maxwell & Miller 2013)

 

The afterlife of media: waste

So what happens with the media devices when they are thrown away? The disposal of electronic waste, e-waste, poses a big threat to the environment. One horrible example of how e-waste is dumped is in the case of the Maldives. In 2012 Simon Reeve visited the ‘garbage belts’ of the Maldives where e-waste was carelessly dumped on islands, that a mere twenty years ago had been idyllic untouched islands. (BBC 2012)

Another disturbing practice is disposing of e-waste by sending it to third world countries, where illegal dumping has become a lucrative business. People who dispose of e-waste by burning it are in serious risk of becoming sick because of the toxic chemicals that e-waste contains.Boys and young men smash devices to get to the metals, especially copper. Injuries, such as burns, untreated wounds, eye damage, lung and back problems, go hand in hand with chronic nausea, anorexia, debilitating headaches and respiratory problems. Most workers die from cancer in their 20s. (McElvaney 2014) What is even more crude is that the e-waste is often collected under the name of ‘recycling’. While the consumer might think that they are being very environmentally conscious by offering their old computers for recycling, the opposite is often the case.

The future

It is not hard to conclude that the road we are currently on is not beneficial to the environment or the labourers involved. The way we consume, buy, produce and dispose is an intrinsic part of the economy that we have created, argues Justin Lewis. As a result, “one of the key byproducts of our enormously productive economy is a series of gases that threaten to alter the life on Earth” (Lewis 2013: 2). Lewis blames consumerism that fails to deliver: “despite the promises of plenty, it no longer has the capacity to deliver the things we most value” (Lewis 2013: 5). In order to move beyond consumerism which is not doing us any more favours, we should rethink the way we pay and regulate our cultural environment, Lewis argues.

There are some recent positive developments though. In our environment we see a significant rise in consciousness about biological and ecological products. In the supermarkets, there is a big range of (expanding) biological products, in fashion H&M is one of the pioneers of ecological clothing and in the transport industry there are multiple examples of (partly) electronic cars. The image of environmental friendly products is changing. This cannot be said for the media industry yet, but if these developments continue in the direction they are now headed it will be a matter of time before it will influence and change the media as well. In order to change in an environmental friendly way, the change in common thought about the environment and its importance will be the key. If this changes, a revision on consumerism and the economy will follow. We need to consume less and place more value in non-materialistic things: like the environment.

Sources

Duhigg, Charles & Barboza, David. (25-1-2012) “In China, Human Costs are Built into an iPad” in The New York Times: Business. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (visited on 23-11-2014)

BBC. (19-5-2012) “ ‘Apocalyptic’ island of waste in the Maldives” in BBC News: Asia. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-18073917 (visited on 23-11-2014)

McElvaney, Kevin. (27-2-2014) “Agbogbloshie: the world’s largest e-waste dump – in pictures” in The Guardian: Environment. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2014/feb/27/agbogbloshie-worlds-largest-e-waste-dump-in-pictures (visited on 23-11-2014)

Deconstructing the constructed to create the uncreated

Last week an interesting collaboration occurred between Industrial Design students of the Technical University of Eindhoven and Creative Industries students of the Radboud Nijmegen. The task was abstract and open: we were going to explore traces of time in relation to affect, which would ultimately lead to a new object. While the Eindhoven students would create a new object out of our findings, the Nijmegen students were supposed to help their partners by substantiating the work with theoretical concepts.

Nostalgic tragedies While studying the affectuous notions that were evoked within us while watching pictures of objects, we noticed that three people of the group had chosen the same picture from different angles. A fireplace, the papers already turned to ash. It gave us a cold shiver, as the fireplace itself had probably turned to a cold material already. It provoked sad feelings of something that had ended. Yet at the same time the fire places still provoked warm feelings within us, the memory of a warm fire, which we associated with romance, family, warming up with hot chocolate when it was old outside. This contradiction of cold materials and objects provoking warm feelings, was our point of departure. The Eindhoven group experimented with different types of stones, heating them up and cooling them down. What first was intended to come out as a urn, resulted at last in a necklace: a big stone on a chain. This stone was both rough on the one side and slick and shiny on the other. As it was a token of love, the cold material had a warm, sentimental meaning. The process was a metaphor for nostalgia, in my opinion: like the stones, the memory changed over time. Also, the end product showed the roughness of the experience that happened, but became smooth just like how nostalgia smoothens out a memory, it leaves out the ugly and painful parts and only recalls the most cherished aspects of an experience. Also, the stone of the necklace, worn on the chest, got warm from the body, and thus changing one important characteristic of the material.

Elia was teamed up with another group of students from Eindhoven, and she (as well as her team members) were also struggling in the beginning as to how to approach the photos and objects. The discussions soon turned either too vague or too practical: it was hard to determine what the first thing was that you thought of. After deciding to take a (silent) minute to look at the object/photo and only think of what you ‘feel’ (the firstness if you may), it slowly starting heading into the right direction. We noticed that there were several connotations/feelings that kept resurfacing: positive ones and negative ones. After some discussion we made a list of them. First was memory, the second physicallity and the last one was emotions, which could be related to either the first or second, but could also stand on its own. Memory was important because when we have memories that are attached to an object, it makes that object more or less valuable and instills it with meaning. It changes our perception of the object, whether it’s negative or positive. Positive memories can be a trigger for nostalgia, an emotion that we’ve often used to describe our ‘firstness’ with an object or photo. Physicallity was also chosen, since some objects have a very physical character which can call for an immediate response from the user/viewer. High heels for example, might evoke a sense of pain, because the viewer remembers the physical (painful) aspect of wearing them. Finally, emotions can also be triggered in the ‘firstness’ phase. This can be related to the physical aspect or a memory, but also on itself. When looking at a wooden cabinet on a picture, many of us felt secure, warm, nostalgic or had a ‘homy’ feeling: while they have no memory of ever seeing this cabinet before.

Adventurous surprises This group went with the theme of “Adventurous”, which they felt after viewing images of an old flakey wall, a beaten up wakeboard and a delicate pullover that had a seam repaired. After exploring the “firstness”, “secondness” and “thirdness” and using what Marks calls Haptic Visuality or in Layman terms: touching with the eyes, our group tried to discover aspects of the various pictures by touching the objects with one’s eyes rather than the usual organs used for touch, such as skin (Marks, 2004: 80). Haptic Visuality is a type of criticism used normally for studying art, in this case it was used to study abstract images. Three pictures were chosen from the pile of close up objects, which ultimately lead to the creation of an object: a deteriorated wall, an old wakeboard and a vintage pullover. Both the sentimental object of the pull over as well as the image of the peeled wall evoked in us all an urge to peel away the old paint and reveal the soft looking layer underneath, or fumble the threads of the pullover. Feeling like raiders of a lost ark trying to get to past the outer layers to get to the prize beneath. The item of the old wakeboard was hard to discern without seeing the full image. It did however embody the spirit of adventure and how adventure can be dangerous and exhilarating because of the risks involved, this was evident in the traces left on the wakeboard, scratches and scuff marks all along the usually smooth edge The images discuss the personal story of the object, the traces and the firstness, secondness and thirdness of each. After a week of discussion with the Eindhoven students they created a product that captured the spirit of adventure. In fact the product that Jesse, Anouk and Sjors created was more of a packaging idea as well as a product. A new take on wrapping paper that either gets thrown away or recycled for another gift or almost like an adults version of a Kinder Surprise. Imagine this: the day that you and your loved one knew was bound to happen eventually… the proposal. You hand your loved one what looks like a brick with a crack on the side and a stick. You tell them to open it and after an adventurous struggle of breaching the brick open, a small round wooden box falls out of the brick, half in ruins, that make this usually unforgettable day that much more adventurous as it is the start to a joint adventure. The brick packaging is an abstract artwork that will remind you both not only of your engagement, but also maybe the day that you met each other in that small cafe at the train station. Thus the package that played on her curiosity, enticing her to be more adventurous will be a lasting reminder of your whole journey together, since the journey is often more exciting than the destination.

Elia’s Eindhoven group chose ‘The Silent Witness’ as their final project. They created a clock which left traces of use with the passing of the time. Normally, a clock shows no signs of wear or time passing whatsoever, so we were very enthusiastic about the idea. On Friday they presented their final piece: a clock with a small mechanism inside where a needle scratched a pattern into a layer(s) of paint. This pattern was the ‘trace’ and by looking at the pattern one could find out how long the clock was in use: the more different painting layers were visible, the more time has passed. The clock in itself, as we’ve also discussed in our e-mail contact, is particurarily interesting as it now doesn’t only show the passing of time literary but also symbolically. Time itself is of course an abstract concept, but for most of us it is represented in a clock.

Haptic Visuality, Collaborations and Lessons The project revealed the social life of things, as Appadurai would say (Appadurai: 1988). As the ‘Module Materiality, time and context’ (as the Eindhoven students’ module is called) was about the traces of time, interaction, heaviness and affectuous notions attached to the object, we saw that an object changes over time, not just in form but also in meaning and context. The project also showed how difficult (and impossible really) it is to describe the firstness of the object. The firstness is the first real affect you feel looking at something, it is untranslated and unconceptualized. Looking at the fireplace, for example you want to poke into the crumbled paper and ashes. Yet, we almost immediately move on to our memories and ideas associated by the object (Marks, 2004: 79). This shows us, and especially for the Creative Industry students I guess, how we are drilled to interpret things immediately and how difficult it is to name your first instinct and reflex. I believe this might be the greater lesson of the exchange. We learned to look at an object closely, imagining to touch and feel it, dissolving the boundaries between the viewer and the viewed. In Marks’s words, ‘it invites a kind of identification between […] object and subject, where looking is not about power but about yielding; or even that the object takes on more power than the subject’(Marks, 2004: 81). To be honest at first we were all a bit confused as to the purpose of this exchange especially after the Monday session, the readings were not very clear either. However after Friday’s experience and all of it being put into context it all made more sense. Deconstructing material objects in order to create something new, yet related to a certain aspect of the original idea was key to this amazing exchange. It allowed two groups of very different thought processes to interact and work together in order to create something tangible on one hand while exploring the intangible on the other. Both of which bring out a flow of possible emotions. Combining the expertise of the Industrial Designers and the theoretical frameworks of the Creative Industries students has truly lead to some nice perspectives and lessons. We could, although briefly, have a look behind the stage and the Eindhoven students were taught how to push their designs to a higher level. The exchange is a great initiative with lots of potential for the future. The Nijmegen students would all prefer to be able to help the Eindhoven students with their creations on a more hands on/practical way. Thank you to Martijn and Simone for this awesome collaboration.

Appadurai, A. (1988) The Social Life of Things, commodities in cultural perspective, Cambridge University Press Marks, L. (2004) ’Haptic Visuality: touching with the Eyes’, in: Innovation and Space, Framework, Vol. 2: p. 79-82  

The Audience: who? what?

A number of theories have been developed about audiences over the years in the field of media studies, especially concerning audience engagement and agency. There have been two opposing theories of communication: the Hypodermic Needle theory and the Uses and Gratification theory. The Hypodermic Needle theory is a top-down theory that assumes a passive and homogenous audience, meaning that they do not engage with the text or question its message but simply accept it in the way the media producer intended. On the other hand, the Uses and Gratification theory is a more bottom-up approach that assumes an active audience that engages with and questions the text. According to this theory the audience develops its own interpretation of a media text based on particular experiences and culture. Both theories are limited in their contribution of agency either to the audience (Hypodermic Needle) or the media producer (Uses and Gratification). In fact, there isn’t only one way of interpreting a text or only one possible way of reacting to it. Audiences have moved beyond “masses” or “publics” to receptive, meaning making individuals.

 

However, Jack Bratich argues that in this new digital era we have reached a crisis in audience studies where “the old is dying and the new cannot yet be born” (2013: 1). According to him the audience has disappeared with the decline of mass broadcast media and at the “end” of the audience is the end of audience studies. This new mutated monster of past audiences is still unpredictable and external powers have yet to find a way to harness its collective potential. Yet, if we turn to the texts by Thiel-Stern (2013) and Darling-Wolf (2013), these scholars still talk of an audience, albeit a new kind of audience. Thiel-Stern states that in fact “it is not an audience in the sense which we, as media scholars, have traditionally considered the audience” (2013: 2). New media in the digital era poses a problem for the one-way paradigms of media that have not always allowed a space for audience interactions. In that sense “the audience today is not an audience […] the audience is now also a producer and gatekeeper. Second, the audience is now its own audience (and, perhaps even more crucially, that audience is aware that it has an audience)” (idem). As a result, it may be that the point is not to speak of the “end” of the audience but the end of the traditional definition of audience, and therefore rethink the way we think of and also study audiences. The new has been born with the development of new media and its users are still an audience, only with changing characteristics: they are hyper-aware, producers, mediators and active consumers; and they have found through the digital environment a way to establish their agency.

 

“Ceci n’est pas un public” – this is not a public – and indeed the audience is no longer a public in the way Bratich has defined it. Even the receptive audience theory (Stuart Hall 1973) has to be changed to understand this new super-audience. As new media produces new audiences and vice versa, the audience becomes consumer (decoder) and producer (encoder) and is also engaged in meaning making. Furthermore the encoding and decoding process happens simultaneously through social media. As media is constantly changing so is the audience. Nowadays, the web environment provides outlets for discussion such as on social media websites through the act of commenting. The audience becomes an active participant in productions: they criticize, praise and even “troll” through YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. In turn, this invites media producers like celebrities new ways of engaging with their audience. For instance, James Blunt’s snarky replies to his twitter followers who actively engage him or how Drake Bell criticizes Justin Bieber to enrage his devoted fans. By bridging the gap between the producers and consumers of media the audience has also found a way of becoming a performer: for instance through fan fiction, (viral) youtube videos, remixes of artists, blogging and even the use of hashtags on social media websites. Traditional producers also sometimes incorporate these performances in their product, for example the show Supernatural pays a great deal of attention to its fanfiction and regularly integrates those narratives into their episodes (see The French Mistake 6:15 or The Real Ghostbusters 5:9) or also South Park which regularly uses memes, viral videos and open internet debates as part of their narrative. Consequently, today’s audience is one with an audience with an audience… and the producers have also become an audience to their audience (say whaaa?).

 

In the confusing chaos that is new media, privacy has also been broken down, where the audience sees itself as a performer and contributor and puts less value on divulging personal information. Furthermore, as daily life is glamorized and exposed, reality television has increased exponentially in popularity. Real people become the center of attention of millions and yet, as we leave the realm of safe, controlled and contained television, predictability is thrown out the window and the dark sides of real life are also exposed. For instance, TLC recently canceled Here Comes Honey Boo Boo after news that one cast member was dating a registered sex offender (see http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/how-hillbilly-reality-tv-got-way-too-real). The media producers are then giving in to the new tendencies of this new audience, endeavors that incite strong reactions and often implode. For instance the controversial Rolling Stones cover of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reminiscent of a young Jim Morrison (was this a reaction to the many online threads on how handsome we was believed to be?).

 

This super-audience has found the digital environment to be conducive to the unruly nature of collective power and can be seen as a vehicle for the return of the “crowd” (Bratich 2013: 7-8). Where in the past the masses were turned from active to controlled media subjects, it can be argued that audiences are reverting and hierarchies of old media are now being broken down. The audience has agency, it is also meaning-making, it is also a producer and has found through the internet a way to make the media producers listen. It now has the power to criticize and even dictate. However, the isolated individual still exists, it has only found a channel of communication to other isolated individuals only virtually creating a collectivity. If we apply here the theory of Marcuse, we can argue that the constitutive powers have found a way of controlling this new audience through the encapsulation of rebellion by integrating their criticism into new media in order to “mobilize and immobilize through controlled panics” (Bratich 2013:25) and consequently disarm the seditious.

Space bound: TV shows & movies, the final frontier

Fez: It’s my damn latin pride.

Red Forman: So you’re latin.

Fez: No, just my pride is.

(That 70’s Show 7:19)

The origin of the character Fez has been wrapped in mystery since the beginning of That 70s Show and has raised a huge debate on internet. Where is Fez (an abbreviation of Foreign Exchange Student- even his name can’t give us a clue) from? During the show multiple hints and suggestions are raised, and little questions have been answered. Fez’s ‘Jamaican spirit’ turned out to be the name of his cologne, he comes from an island 10.000 kilometers from Wisconsin, his country was never in a war, but they ‘won the war’ against Britain, Fez explains in another episode. The mystery surrounding Fez is one key element of the series. But why? How is it that we seem so obsessed with place?

One’s emphasis on place is underlined in Pierre Nora’s theory on lieux d’imagination and milieux de mémoire and. According to Nora, western society is obsessed by the past and places can function as symbolic moorings (Reijnders: 2010: 39). Nora’s ‘places of memory’ could be either physical places or metaphorical places, like songs. He stated that people have the need to declare places holy and have physical points of reference in order to remember a phenomenon that’s essence is non-physical (2010: 40). People need to make the intangible tangible. We relate our memories to a specific place, which can be collective and official and have a recognized meaning (a lieux de mémoire) or these places can embody a more unofficial memory, a personal experience (a milieu).

Cultural Anthropologist John Caughey builds on Nora’s theory and states that people live in two different worlds: the ‘real’ and empirically measurable world, and the world of the imagination, ones desires and stories. According to Caughey, when both worlds collide the quotidian becomes unusual and the strange is made usual. (Reijnders: 40). This moment is magical, and it is exactly what most people (especially tourists) are looking for. In fact, it is relatable to what Eduard Saïd called ‘geographical imaginations’: as tourists we shape an image of a specific destination through stories, the media and so on (Said: ). While visiting this place, the tourists are searching for a confirmation of these imaginations: to put it in other words, they are wearing colored glasses while experiencing the destination.

As Nora and Caughey declared, we relate memory to metaphorical and physical spaces. We actively look for material references to reinforce their notions of ‘imagination’ and ‘reality’ (2010: 48). A typical example is the case of Springfield, the town where The Simpsons live, which shows our need to shape physical places of reference. The actual geographical location of the town is never revealed in the series, but apparently the need for a specific spot was so urgent that the creators of the Universal Studios in Orlando created the Simpsons Theme Park (see: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2013/08/23/universal-studios-florida-the-simpsons-orlando-springfield-attraction/2690581/). Here, you can eat actual Krusty Burgers and walk around in the houses and diners of Springfield. The creators tap into our desire to make something intangible like TV shows tangible through TV tours and theme parks. In the tourist experience, Reijnders points out, the character, the plot and the landscape are inextricably connected to one another, which creates a moment of reminiscence (2010: 48). Being there, living the life of the people of Springfield shapes new memories. To put in Nora’s words, the official  lieux de mémoire, the park, constructs our milieux de mémoire, a personal memory, by walking around and eating the things that Springfield citizens might eat and experience the adventures of the characters in the show.

Springfield is a classic example of creating another dimension of the world of The Simpson, perhaps even a simulacrum, from a top-down position. Matt Groening the creator of The Simpsons said in an interview:

“Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show “Father Knows Best” took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown. When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, “This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield.” And they do” (www.smithsonianmag.com). Therefore Springfield can be wherever you want it to be.

The curious case of Fez however, is quite different. Here, it is not really about creating a physical place in order to make the series more tangible, this is about the desire to create an imaginary space within the series. In the case of Fez, the viewers of That 70s Show feel that they need to know his background in order to fully grasp him. Psychologically humans by nature always tend to think in categories. Knowing one’s origin, and being able to place someone in front of a certain background, is necessary to complete our image of that person. If Fez is Mexican, Indian, from the Falkland Islands or Indonesia (sites which are all suggested during the show and on fan sites) will change one’s profile of the boy. The image of someone changes therefore his ‘placement’ changes. Through the mystery of Fez, That 70s Show taps into our desire to create and know places. By constantly questioning the background of Fez, the series uses soft power through debating cultural stereotypes. Timothy Clarke builds on this assumption in his book Thinking Through Memoryscapes  and continues to say that ‘relationships with places are like relationships with humans’ (Clarke: ).  In this sense, can we say that knowing the ‘original placement’ of Fez makes him more human in our eyes?

All in all we might state that categorizing and concretizing is a human urge to make the world around them more comprehendible. That 70s Show underlines this desire and uses Fez to make us aware of our stereotyping nature. Where TV Tourists are looking for a way to connect our real and imaginative worlds together, ‘living their story on holiday’,  the fans and writers of the fan sites of That 70s Show are searching for a way to consummate their imaginative world more thoroughly. TV Shows and movies are thus required in some form to allow fans the right to hav
e a tangible form to identify with, such as an actual location or the origins of a character. The mystery of Fez’s origins and the true location of Springfield will never be known but only questioned and argued over. Our need to know these types of facts are part of the appeal of these shows and sometimes markets can form from these in an effort to appease, at least partially, our need to know and categorize. We also enjoy the mysteries as they allow us to try figure it out for ourselves. Places with a fixed location and characters with a concrete background leave less to the imagination than those that don’t. South Park is based in Colorado at the foot of the Rockies and therefore has to maintain its stereotypes of a small, “red-neck town” in the middle of nowhere. This leaves South Park less flexibility than Springfield. South Park, Colorado is also the name of a real town that wanted nothing to do with the hit show and sued the creators instead of capitalising on the opportunity to make their town the lieux for the show.

Therefore the need for a lieux and to move things further than a milieux is a need that could be capitalized upon. Either because we as people need a tangible version of our beloved milieuxs that we have created for ourselves through basic human need and emotion by forming a bond with favourite TV shows and movies. 

• Stijn Reijnders (2010), ’Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour’, in: Cultural Geographies 17 (1), pp. 37-52.
• • David Croteau & William Hoynes (2006), ‘Media, markets and the public sphere’, in: The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, pp. 15-40.

Spirited Away: Meaning in the West and the East

Spirited Away, the animation film from 2002, was the first Japanese feature to win both an Oscar and a Golden Bear Award from the Berlin Film Festival. The film is centered around Chihiro, a ten-year old girl who loses her parents and accidentally enters a world of mythical creatures. To survive, she needs to work in a bath house run by an old witch called Yobaba. The various gods and spirits come here to bath and rest and Chihiro is employed under her new name: Sen. The film follows the heroine as she tries to escape and find her parents, with the help of other workers and her mysterious new friend Haku.

Ghibli, the studio which has created the movie, has distributed its films long before Spirited Away, but never before has one of their films been so popular abroad. As a company, Ghibli studios’ strategy overlaps the most with the definition of an international strategy. The films that Ghibli produces are created for the Japanese domestic market, but are subsequently sold abroad. The knowledge and skills remain in Japan however, which is made possible by the easy digital reproduction that is inherent to film. By selling the copyrights to other corporations, such as Disney, international distribution is made possible with little interference from Ghibli. One could even say, that when producing a new movie, Ghibli is already assuming it will be watched abroad too. (Disney is just one of the major western companies seeking to make a profit out of Japanese products. Disney bought the American rights to Hayao Miyazaki’s films (such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke), so as to be able to dub these films with the voices of American actors as well as to distribute these films more widely, especially in the west.)

Hidden meaning

At first glance, Spirited Away has no political dimension, as is expected of most animation films for children: it might be viewed as a form of uncritical populism as formulated by McGuigan. However, at second glance, this assumption is not correct. One very popular theory among fans is that the story of Spirited Away is actually an analogy of the sex industry. “The entire movie is a metaphor for prostitution” is written on FanTheoriesWiki[1], a claim which is supposedly supported by the director of the film, Hayao Miyazaki: “I think the most appropriate way to symbolize the modern world is the sex industry. Hasn’t Japanese society become like the sex industry?”.[2]

The clues for this ‘hidden story’ are subtle but evident. During the Edo period in Japan, bath houses were basically brothels. The women who worked here were known as ‘yuna’, which is also the description for Chihiro’s job in the movie. The brothel madams in those days were referred to as Yubaba, which is also the name of the evil witch in the motion picture. Furthermore, Chihiro gets a new name from Yubaba before she goes to work, which is Sen. It was common for prostitutes to adopt a different name while working, so this too seems too precise to be a coincidence.[3] If true, this form of criticism might fall under McGuigan’s notion of a critical intervention, even though it might be too subtle for that. It is interesting that even though a lot of viewers of Spirited Away are not familiar with Japanese history or context, there is still an audience who actively reads and participates in the debates regarding meaning. Does this mean that the meaning is no longer bound to the Japanese market? Or is it still perceived slightly differently abroad?

The West

When we think of giving meaning to the film Spirited Away, and the difference in giving meaning between its ‘homeland’ Japan and other countries, it is imporant to adress the notion of the otaku. “Otaku” is a Japanese term that makes fun of fans that have become obsessive consumers of popular culture and thus have lost touch with reality and those people in their personal lives. Basically die-hard comic-con type fans that live and breathe popular culture. A lot of fans of Japanese contemporary culture outside of Japan have playfully adapted the term to refer to themselves. Otaku can either be what Hannerz argues: “individuals pick from other cultures only those pieces that suit himself”. However, “the cosmopolitan does not make distinctions among the particular elements of the alien culture in order to admit some of them into his repertoire and refuses others, the cosmopolitan does not negotiate with the other culture but accepts it as a package deal”. Cosmopolitianism is at best an escape from narrow-mindedness (paroachialism) and isolationism. It offers us an awareness and an alternative vantage point.[5] This changes the way we look at the film.

Thanks to these ‘otakus’ perhaps, Japanese culture has found its entry into the West since the 80s. As an effect, there is a considerable amount of people in the Netherlands, for example, who recognize and know symbols or characteristics of Japanese (contemporary) culture. This kind of knowledge changes the way meaning is given to the film: a more hybrid form of meaning giving perhaps, a marriage between the western point of view and the Japanese point of view.

Another suggested reading

Spirited Away in itself is a clash between the ‘new’ and the ‘traditional’ of the ‘east’ and the ‘west’. Chihiro is the embodiment of the modern or the west battling the traditional and elements of the east. Her parents are seen driving a very detailed Audi and she is seen being a snotty gadget loving girl from the big city. Thus the movie creates a boundary between globalised and Americanised culture and the traditional over the top Japanese culture. The new is seen as being technological, consumerist Japan (also evident in the consumption expressed by one of the greedy characters in the film)/ McKay (1997) says that technology has “come to dominate our iconography of (American) modernity”.

As Chihiro becomes Sen it is evident that she has had to abandon her western ways in order to find back the things that are most important to her (her freedom and her parents). This could be a play on society in Japan needing to abandon aspects of the west, gaining back its traditional self so as to find back the things that are most important to Japanese culture, tradition [4].

Spirited Away can be seen as a Japanese approach to many of today’s modern problems despite the fact that it is set in a very traditional Japanese setting. Globalisation, the sex trade, our need to fit into society and striving to find the truth or those things that truly matter to us are all aspects that the movie goes into. Japanese films and series do have a way of making us, as westerners, get “Spirited Away”.

[1] http://fantheories.wikia.com/wiki/Spirited_Away

[2] http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/09/25/there-s-an-incredible-hidden-message-in-spirited-away-and-it-will-shock-you-2297900?lt_source=external,manual

[3] http://kurisushi.tumblr.com/post/7222106306/spirited-away-and-back-story

[4] https://illogicalzen.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/does-anime-promote-an-orientalist-view-of-japan-or-a-case-of-lost-in-cultural-translation-part-2/

[5] http://convergenceculture.org/newsletters/2007/03/march_30_2007.php

District 9: a case study of the politics of transnational media and the use of “soft power”

Berghahn & Sternberg, “Locating Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe”

Huat, “East Asian Pop Culture”

Thussu, “Cultural Practices and Media Production: the Case of Bollywood”

Pop culture in general has, in the past, often been held in a lower esteem and dismissed as commercial and lacking depth in contrast to “high culture”. However, the rapid expansion of the creative industries and in particular the globalization of the media landscape has brought attention from governments and scholars as possible redefined spaces for the practice and analysis of “soft power”. Entertainment has always been inherently political in nature, yet, the transnationalization of media means that there is an expansion of the cultural public sphere where ideologies and values can be discussed and debated. However, this internationalization of the media apparatus means that there has been internationalization in the software of culture and media as well. Such examples of internationalization and possible homogenization can easily be seen when studying media flows from South to West, for instance the global rise of Bollywood cinema or the development of Asian pop culture.

 

Governments have seen the potential of media as a instruments of “soft power”, which can be defined as “the use of different cultural resources […] to project a positive image of a nation in order to influence the perceptions and views of others of the nation and to generate goodwill in international relations and trade for the nation” (Huat, 2011: 241). Consequently, the interest of governments in the production of media is not simply economic but also highly ideological, it is a way of appropriating a culture, of branding a nation, of situating it within a larger global framework… therefore the consumption of mass entertainment “has acquired a new layer of political significance and consequence” (Huat 2011: 243). However, the danger of such developments is the creation of a new form of hegemony as is the case with Bollywood: it is now seen not only as a creative enterprise but a “global brand” that is “increasingly shaped by a Hollywoodized sensibility and aesthetics” (Thussu, 2012: 132) embodied by movies such as Slumdog Millionaire. In cases like these, only a particular side of a culture is being promoted. Could this in turn be forcing upon us a way of seeing the world? And could it be potentially distracting us from other issues that require more attention? We would like to analyze further the politics of transnational media, soft power and the role of media in the cultural public sphere through a case study of the 2009 film District 9.

District 9 is a science fiction film that takes place in present day Johannesburg, South Africa where 20 years earlier an alien ship crashed with it onboard 1 million starving, weak insect-like aliens. The aliens are housed in a refugee-like camp in the city called District 9 but because of their encroachment on local communities a plan is set in place to relocate them to the outskirts of the city. The film is reminiscent of actual events that happened in apartheid South Africa when an area of Cape Town was designated as “whites only” and the 60 000 non-white inhabitants of District 6 were forcibly relocated to a township complex outside the city limits. The film, although considered independent, was born out of collaboration between Hollywood producer Peter Jackson and South African director Niell Blomkamp. It is no doubt a product of the transnationalization of media, yet can it be considered to be World Cinema? It resonates with Western aesthetics; in fact, it is primarily Western aesthetics with the South African local flavor. The film could have taken place in any backdrop without compromising its integrity. However, the political sub-narrative would have been a lot less obvious. The film is shot in a documentary style, which gives is it an eerie feeling of reality and authenticity, and so the viewer feels like this is indeed happening in real life although being science fiction. Using the PESTEL model of analysis the plot deals with segregation with a parallel made with apartheid and present day refugees (political), poverty and conditions of life in slums and temporary camps (economic) as the scenes are shot in an actual emptied shantytown, xenophobia and racism through the use of speciesism (social), the fear of modern technology embodied in the mutation that takes place while misusing alien technology (technology), the pollution caused by inadequate housing (environmental), and the government’s role in forced relocations and removals and the rights of minorities (legislative). However, it may also be relevant to expand it to the STEEPLED model incorporating ethics and demographics into our analysis. The problems the movie addresses are universal such as immigration, poverty, social cohesion, and crime. These problems are everyday occurrences in South Africa yet they also occur all over the world, which adds to the movies global appeal.

The film definitely confirms the use of soft power as it contains a highly political message and was a successful box office hit. However, the movie also fits into the migrant and diasporic cinema narrative despite taking a more supra-level approach: In District 9 the aliens are the migrant population, only out of necessity settling in Johannesburg. Their displacement is not only physical, as they are from a different world, but also on a politico-juridical base as they are being discriminated. The narrative is also in line with Homi Bhabha’s concept of a “Third Space” as a contact zone, a social space where disparate cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination’. The world in District 9 is like this Third Space. But it could also be argued that the film itself creates a third space or at least a contact zone where it is possible to negotiate these issues. It is in a way a collaborative work between the colonizer and the colonized (or the West and the South): it challenges the national through the use of western aesthetics and its global appeal yet remains of local concern. Can we speak here of “Glocalization”?

Nonetheless, there is an interesting tension in the movie: on the one hand, the blacks (who used to be discriminated) become the center, the discriminators. On the other hand, by making this movie, it functions as a redemption of the marginalized, the ‘truth is revealed’. Yet, it could also be argued that the film employs the widely used Hollywood “white savior narrative”, similar to that of Avatar, where a story of segregation is turned into the story of a man from the majority perspective. The enthrallment of science fiction is its ability to break away from the familiar and be radically new, and despite being a good example of soft power and the creation of a space where ethics, ideologies and values can be discussed, District 9 fails at breaking away from the hegemony of Hollywood in global media production.

The Flawed Friends Format

The series Friends (1994-2004) was widely regarded as one of the most popular TV shows of the last decades. Although Cheers (1982-1993) may be considered the first to use the specific format, Friends became an international success, providing confidence and security for new adaptations. Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place (1998- 2001), That 70s Show (1998-2006), How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014), The Big Bang Theory (2007-), and perhaps even South park (1997-), are based on the same concept and have been thriving. So what is it that makes Friends & Co so popular?

The engine of ‘The Flawed Friends Format’, as we dubbed it, is a group of misfits who live together in a family-like manner. Although Friends usually is described as ‘a couple of friends hanging out in a coffee place’, there is much more behind this TV show. The characters, all flawed in some way (Rachel is a spoiled rich kid, Monica is neurotic, Chandler has trouble with the ladies and Joey isn’t very bright), have found a family like relationship within their group of friends. Their relations with their actual families, however, are often disrupted. In this sense, the ‘Flawed Friends Format’ is a product of Western individualism. First, the nuclear family used to be the cornerstone of Western society, but in the last decades it is normal that children are moving out, to live in ‘the big city’. This has eroded the relationships with the parents and friendships have taken its place.

Eventually, most viewers can identify with the characters and their problems: even though the characters have specific traits that makes  them a certain ‘type’, they are complex and growing as their journey continues. The series secures their viewers that, even though they might have weird flaws or have had a troubled youth,  it is possible to become part of a great group of friends and be appreciated for being yourself. This way the show teaches social conventions, it instructs audiences. Viewers learn how to deal with a break up, with fights between best friends but also what to think of foreigners, homosexuality or monogamy.

As Friends was a product of the 1990s, it is good to question how other more recent formats have dealt with these social conventions. Friends, and also Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place, have,  in Tasha Orens terms, adopted a Martha Steward approach: they are very implicit or nuanced in pronouncing their critiques, jokes or sexual anecdotes (Oren: 2103). For example, they only depict references to nudity in the show and the most explicit sexual joke probably might just be ‘That’s what you get for licking my muffin’-when Monica is teasing Chandler for not being able to make a joke with his mouth full and referring to the act of Chandler actually licking Monica’s blueberry muffin. How I met Your Mother is in that case a much more explicit version. Instead of drinking coffee they drink beers, they use more explicit language and have a more radical way of living, but they still don’t show actual nudity and when they are smoking pot they are shown eating sandwiches. That 70s Show, which is more about youngsters in a decade where drugs, sex and conservatism lived side by side, has a more cynical and provocative tone, but Southpark has taken it to a whole different level. Here, they resemble Orens term of ‘the darker theatre of sado masochism’(Oren: 2013). As we can see, entertainment is highly political and The Flawed Friends format in general mostly wanders between uncritical populism and subversion. Southpark on the other hand, can be considered as radical subversion, using the Flawed Friend Format, with their terrible family encounters, as a basis for postmodern critique.

In the Netherlands Friends still circulates on TV every year. This raises several questions. Why does the Flawed Friends Format seem to fit so well in Dutch society, but haven’t we adapted the format here? Why do we use the American TV shows? Is it a sense of authenticity, the idea to watch the original version of the show, or do the Dutch channels try to reach a specific audience? And, would Friends work in other countries where the Western concept of individualism is not as prominent? How would they adapt it? Theoretics talk a lot about talk shows and reality television, but why don’t we take a look at these television series, as they have such a great impact in our social lives and attitudes.

Chalaby, J.K. (2011), ‘The making of an entertainment revolution: How the TV format trade became a global industry’, in: European Journal of Communication 26 (4), 2011, pp. 293-308.

Oren, T.  ‘On the Line: Format, Cooking and Competition as Television Values’, in: Critical Studies in Television 8 (2), pp. 20-35.

Meizel, K.  (2010), ‘The United Nations of Pop: Global Franchise and Geopolitics’, in: Idolized: Music, Media, and Identity in American Idol. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 192-219.