Thinking about...Hollywoodisation and Asianisation

Thinking about...Hollywoodisation and Asianisation 

“Capitalism’s world-historical tendency to break down national barriers, obliterate national distinctions and to assimilate nations is a tendency which manifests itself more powerfully with every passing decade…” (Lenin, V, 1924).

This powerful quote is particularly relevant to understanding the concept of ‘Hollywoodisation’, and how transnational entertainment industries have fallen under this paradigm. Wasser (1995) describes the process by which America now gains financial support for entertainment industries from purely domestic sources, not cross-culturally, as a form of Hollywood domination. Wasser (1995) believes by “…concentrating on the financing of American films the history of Hollywood trans-nationalization can be isolated”.

Japanese anime is particularly significant in describing both the process of Hollywoodisation and Asianisation, and how they have transformed the Western entertainment industry. The breakthrough of anime was particularly prominent in the 1980s, and consisted of metaphysical, horror or science fiction type themes (Sexton, J, Mathijs, E, 2011). What is particularly interesting about anime is that there was not necessarily always a ‘good triumphs over evil’ solution in their movies or shows, which challenged audiences to view the world with ‘unclouded eyes’ (Sexton, J, Mathijs, E, 2011). 

Females in anime are often sexualised

Shows such as ‘Astro Boy’ are a particular nostalgic highlight for the baby-boomer generation. Drawing on this example, we can see how there has been a Hollywood adaption in order to appeal to a Western audience. Action in anime typically takes a long time to unfold in order to heighten the anticipated suspense of a scene, and includes many moments with no dialogue at all. American versions of anime shows such as Kiki’s Delivery Service have been edited to include further dialogue and sounds in order to fill silent gaps (Poitras, G, 2001). Further, violence in anime presents instances where people do get hurt, comparatively to American cartoons in which the protagonist may fall off a cliff, land on the pavement, then brush themselves off and continue to fight crime (Poitras, G, 2001). Traditionally themes have also been edited to emphasis romance, heroism and the triumph of good over evil.  

Hollywood has constrained and manipulated anime productions to push common American ideologies and mould them into traditional Western storylines. They have transformed anime into a censored product targeted at children, rather than the violent, over sexualised, traditional nature anime productions.    

Sources:

Poitras, G, 2001, Anime Essentials: Everything a Fan Needs to Know, Stone Bridge Press, U.S.

Sexton, J, Mathijs, E, 2011, Cult Cinema, Blackwell Publishing, UK  

Wasser, F, 1995, ‘Is Hollywood America? The Trans-nationalization of the American Film Industry’ Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Vol 12, pp423-437

Thinking about...The Specular Economy

Thinking about...The Specular Economy

With the introduction of new social media forms, words such as ‘voyeurism’ and ‘scopophilia’ that were traditionally associated with Alfred Hitchcock movies are simply adjectives for the nature of active internet users. Our love of looking, watching or intimately ‘spying’ on other people’s lives is now downplayed with accessibility through Facebook, Twitter, Instgram, Snapchat and other similar mediums.

David Marshall (2010) asserts that with these new media platforms greater portions of the populace are now constructing online public personas. He describes the term ‘specular’ as a two-way mirror projection on to the screen and the circulation of and interaction with those images and texts into the wider world. Indeed, our Facebook profile is an entirely constructed space to project a sense of who we want to be perceived as, not necessarily who we actually are. My profile pictures, for example, are chosen due to how incredibly amazing they make me look (add a bit of a filter, maybe crop out my arm because it looks a little fat…). If my Facebook pictures truly reflected my daily appearance, I highly doubt I’d have 100 likes on those photos.

Marshall (2010) perceives our modern world as a well-developed specular economy whose foundations are derived from the much longer tradition of celebrity culture and whose repercussions relate to an emerging comfortability with a society of surveillance. As much as it may seem surreal, privacy is not as valued as it has previously been. We have become accustomed to broadcasting our intimate lives and becoming involved in trivial matters in other peoples (Bentley, P, 2011). Who we’re having coffee with, where we go to the gym, and who we are in a relationship with. No longer can we call our friend crying with “Bring me chocolate! I just got dumped”. Before you can pull out that litre tub of ice-cream from the freezer I’m sure she’ll be calling you, saying “Babe, saw your status! Are you ok? What happened? Do I need a shovel?”

In agreement with Marshall (2010), I do believe this replicates the notion of celebrity culture. The life of a celebrity is one lived under surveillance, and is broadcasted based on entertainment value. This is replicated via our own social media usage. When you meet Josh Thomas at Myer, you put a photo on Instagram. When you win an athletics state championship, up goes a status (with the expectation of 1000 likes and “BOO YAH” comments). And your followers are just as interested as they might be in Beyoncé’s breakfast. And these could be people you hardly know. Creepy.

Sources:

Marshal, P.D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 498-502

Bentley, P, 2011, ‘Celebrity culture 'is making educated women dim-witted'’, Mail Online, 16 June, retrieved September 11 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004072/Celebrity-culture-making-educated-women-dim-witted.html

Thinking about...Facebook

Thinking about...Facebook! 

Can you imagine a world without Facebook? I do. I call it…childhood. However, in our modern technologized media culture, Facebook has become a core competent of our participation in both our online worlds and our external environment.

Raessens (2005) describes two key terms that are useful in allowing us to understand the cultural shifts that were initiated by the Facebook phenomenon. In reference to computer games, he describes virtuality as the possibility to stimulate virtual worlds a gamer can explore. Michael Heim described virtual reality as “an event or entity that is real in effect but not in fact” (Raessens, J, 2005).

Ultimately, this is what Facebook is about. Creating a world in which we can both escape and keep in tuned with our external reality. The fact that we can choose to alter our identity depending on the photos we post, status’ we write and people we connect with essentially creates a virtual world designed by the individual. A world where we have the freedom to be who we want to be. A world where we can chat with our friends and ignore conversation from others. A world where we are free to “Like” that girl’s photo of her new  Tony Bianco’s, when in reality we’d probably pretend not to see her if she walked past us on the street…and it’s not (that) weird!

Raessens (2005) also describes the process of interactivity through the example of Andrew Cameron who believes interactivity means “the ability to intervene in a meaningful way within the representation itself”. Our experience every time we log in to Facebook is dependent on what we want to do. We control what activities we engage in, what we post and who we stalk which ultimately constructs our Facebook experience. It allows us to connect with our friends, and broadcast what we’re up to in our lives with the expectation that we will gauge response and interaction from other users. The absence of a Facebook profile can surely lead to a feeling of isolation from your circle of friends (Johanson, I, 2013).  How will you know what they ate for lunch without it?

However, with interactivity and virtuality comes precautions. Being too engaged in a virtual world can lead to misinterpretations, and false expectations. Think about the last time you got that call from your best friend…”HOW DARE my boyfriend add Tiffany Robertson on Facebook! And tagged in a photo with her and 18 other people? Did you see that? And he didn’t reply to my last message in like 24 minutes. Oh my god…he must be cheating on me!”

Sources:

Raessens, J. 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388

Johanson, I, 2013, ‘Antisocial Networking’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18^th of August, retrieved September 3^rd 2013, http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/antisocial-networking-20130815-2rxfk.html