Week 6: The New International Division of Cultural Labour

The exploitation of Hollywood cultural labour

‘One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it... The division of labour […] occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour.’ – Adam Smith, Of the Division of Labour

Work in the media industries can be perceived from different sides, such as from the perspective of political economy, sociology or Marxism. This blogpost will illustrate not so much what the work in the media industries contains, but more how the cultural labour is divided. An interesting concept within this framework is the New International Division of Cultural Labour (NICL), developed by the scholar Toby Miller. Especially in the case of Hollywood this new division of cultural labour is interesting, because the key roles for media production and work relations have shifted under the influence of conglomeration, liberalization, globalization and new digital technologies (Mayer 2013: 9). These shifts accompany the struggles in media industries in relation to labour, as the case studies Mickey Mouse goes to Haiti and the intro of The Simpsons by Banksy demonstrate. These cultural products show that even though cultural production is understood as deriving from the expressive individual artist, it is often based on a complex division of labour (Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011: 392) that includes the exploitation of this labour.

The New International Division of Cultural Labour

With the global stage, new forms of labour were institutionalised in empire. Nowadays, life-cycle models of international products suggest that they are first made and consumed in the centre, in a major industrial economy, then exported to the periphery, and finally produced and consumed ‘out there’, once technology is standardised and savings can be made on the labour front (Miller 2001: 113). Hollywood is one of these major industrial economies that relocate a great amount of their production to the periphery. Through runaway productions and outsourcing this film industry aims to keep the costs as low as possible, therefore increasing the profits.

This restructuration of cultural labour is what scholar Toby Miller calls the New International Division of Cultural Labour. He derives this idea from the New International Division of Labour (NIDL), a term that describes the spatial shift of manufacturing industries from advanced capitalist countries to developing countries, as a result of globalisation. Miller states that the same has happened within cultural production, which has led to new work relations within Hollywood (Miller 2001). The core of cultural labour in the NICL can be presented as following:

This figure shows that Hollywood makes a distinction between work involved in the production above-the-line, and work in the production below-the-line (Miller 2001: 119) The former lies within the key sector of budgets, and includes supposedly ‘proactive’ workers (such as writers, producers, stars and directors), while the latter covers ‘reactive’ workers. The first segment sees leading talent transplanted back to the core, while the second is more likely to provide contingent runaway employment under the NICL (Miller 2001: 119). Miller states that the consequence of this NICL is that “work may be subject to the local, national, regional and international fetishisation of each component, matching the way that the labour undertaken is itself largely fetishised away from the final text (Miller 2001: 114).” Therefore, you could say that it is within this distinction that a part of the media work becomes alienated.

Alienation is a concept that Karl Marx developed while he was creating his claim against capitalism. He stated that in the capitalist system the workers have become detached and relatively independent of their work, but not in a good way (Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011: 383). He describes alienation as ‘the state in which people and societies become estranged from the products of their labour, from the process of production and from their own nature as humans’ (Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011: 383). A good example of this alienation in relation to the NICL of Hollywood is the documentary Mickey Mouse goes to Haiti.

 

Mickey Mouse goes to Haiti (part 1)

This is a documentary that is made by the National Labor Committee about Haitians that create merchandise products for Disney. It documents the harsh conditions in which this merchandise is manufactured in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western world. Portraits of workers are included describing how they are being intimidated and threatened to be fired if they try to unionize in order to demand a fair living wage. The most striking is that these workers produce merchandise that they are not able to afford themselves. This is exactly what Marx means with alienation. Even though alienation is an old term, and the capitalist work system has undergone many changes, as is also described in Toward a Political Economy of Labor in the Media Industries by Hesmondhalgh and Baker, and Making Media Production Visible by Vicki Mayer, this documentary shows that the exploitation of cultural labour is still present nowadays. It may not happen within the core activities of the work in Hollywood, but through outsourcing their productions Hollywood aims to keep their costs as low as possible and increase their profits.

Intro The Simpsons by Banksy

The intro that Banksy made for The Simpsons makes this exploitation of cultural labour visible as well. The video illustrates the (exaggerated) reality behind The Simpsons: the dehumanizing repetitive work in the factories, combined with child labor, the toxicity of the used materials that leads to pollution, and the mistreatment of (extinct) animals. Both this fragment and the documentary Mickey Mouse goes to Haiti are examples of how the media work relations are becoming more transparent. To explain the notion of transparency, it is useful to first look into the opposite side of transparency: the invisibility of media production. Vicky Mayer claims in her text Making Media Production Visible that media production is the most invisible part of the entire media industries, and that consumers rarely consider where the media messages came from, who made them and what kind of work is put into them (Mayer 2013: 1). This coincides with a much older notion: commodity fetishism by Karl Marx. Both scholars show how we tend to forget or conceal the (cruel) human experience behind the production of a commodity (Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011: 384). Production becomes ‘a hidden abode’: it denies the fact that we, as part of the capitalist system, are dependent on the work of others (Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011: 384).

However, the examples I mentioned above, make the reality behind the productions clearly visible, by demonstrating the exploitation of cultural labour that is happening in the production of Disney merchandise or The Simpsons. They show the downside of the New International Division of Cultural Labour without covering up the facts; by breaking through the idea that media production is ‘a hidden abode’. The documentary and the intro are examples of activism that want to expose the atrocities going on in media production, thus pushing organisations like Hollywood to become more transparent and ethical. They imply the ethical importance of raising awareness of the suffering going on in the production below-the-line, and of collective action to alleviate it.

This blogpost first explained how the process of globalisation influenced the New International Division of Cultural Labour, and how the distinction between production above-the-line and below-the-line reinforced the alienation of work in the media industries. Especially in the case of the production of Disney merchandise in Haiti and in the intro of The Simpsons this exploitation of cultural labour is made clearly visible. These examples take on an activistic attitude to bring the atrocities of media production to light. If anything, this blog post shows that the concerns over the division of labour and exploitation need to become more transparent, in order to better understand the conditions of the workers, but also to formulate strategies for action.

AH - SH - MS - GV - MW

Thesis: Is it time for a Renewed International Division of Cultural Labour?

Sources:

- David Hesmondhalgh & Sarah Baker (2011), ‘Toward a Political Economy of Labor in the Media Industries’, in: Janet Wasko, Gragham Murdock & Helena Sousa (eds.), The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Blackwell Publishing, pp. 381-400.

- Vicki Mayer (2013), ‘Making Media Production Visible’, in: Vicki Mayer (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume II: Media Production. Blackwell Publishing, 2013.

- Mark Deuze (2006) ‘The International Division of Cultural Labor’, Deuzeblog http://deuze.blogspot.nl/2006/11/international-division-of-cultural.html (accessed on October 10th, 2015).

- Mark Deuze (2007), ‘Creative Industries, Convergence Culture and Media Work’, in: Media Work. Cambridge & Malden: polity, pp. 45-83.

- Toby Miller (2001), ‘The New International Division of Cultural Labour’, in: Global Hollywood. British Film Institute: pp 111-172.

- Lecture by Toby Miller (2007) at the University of California: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9LoveanwC8 (accessed on October 10th, 2015).



- Mickey Mouse goes to Haiti. Documentary by the National Labor Committee (1996) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_OXhtgHBxk (part 1) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8zcwniS3Es (part 2)

- The Simpsons by Banksy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK-1zT1gBXk

Week 5: The new bill on public television in the Netherlands

No more Boer Zoekt Vrouw, Ranking the Stars and Bananasplit!? How the public broadcast channels in the Netherlands need to adapt to future regulations

Many television personalities and broadcasters like VPRO and NCRV were outraged after secretary Sander Dekker of the department for Education, Culture and Science, announced his new bill on public broadcasting channels (the NPO). The bill is supposed to be in place on January 1st 2016, and states that that the public broadcasters are no longer allowed to make programs solely for the purpose of entertainment. The main aim of the bill is to create more diversity within the Dutch television market by forcing the public broadcasting channels to differentiate themselves from the commercial broadcasters. Another key point Dekker tries to encourage through this new bill is to open up the monopoly of the public broadcast channels by offering creative talents, but also social and cultural institutions, a chance to present their programs.

Creative talents that see opportunities with the new bill (in Dutch)

Whereas before the bill the public broadcasters had a monopoly on making the programs that were aired, after January 1st there must be a whopping 50% of content made by private producers. This is supposed to create competition amongst producers and therefore increase the quality of the programs. The bill tries to establish an ideal market situation, that of diverse competition. Diverse competition is described as a market structure where numerous sellers offer various products from which consumers can choose; in this case, television programs (Croteau & Hoynes 2006: 20). This is supposed to create innovation in and increase the quality of the television programming.

In short the bill is supposed to produce more diversity through state regulation, and at the same time promote more competition by abolishing privileges of monopoly and promoting a free market environment. In their essay Media, markets and the public sphere, Croteau and Hoynes juxtapose these two approaches using the terms ‘market model’ and ‘public sphere model’. The first model promotes exchange based on the dynamics of supply and demand with little regulation. The consumers, instead of the government, will ultimately force companies to behave in a way that best serves the public. The advocates of this model argue that markets promote efficiency, responsiveness (through supply and demand), flexibility and innovation. The main condition to have a healthy market is to have robust competition. (Croteau & Hoynes 2006)

Croteau and Hoynes place the public sphere model on the other side of the spectrum. This model strongly denies the democracy of ‘free’ markets, because markets tend to reproduce the inequality that exists in a society. They also address the amorality of a market and the fact that it doesn’t necessarily meet social or democratic needs. This ties in with the principle of stewardship that Curtin introduces in his article Global Media Capital and Local Media Policy (2011). This principle presumes that markets will provide limited diversity and therefore seek to protect resources and render them productive in ways that the market cannot imagine. He emphasizes the public purpose of modern media, which like parks, libraries, and childcare centres are resources that make places worth living. Interesting is that she sees the public media as an ecosystem, characterized by tension and antagonism, interdependence and symbiosis (Curtin 2011: 555). How does tie in with the NPO?

The NPO is in fact an ecosystem. It still represents, though not as strongly as in the past, the pillars of the Dutch society. A striking example of this old notion of pilarisation that is still present in contemporary dutch television is the EO or the KRO. The tensions and symbioses that characterize this ecosystem can be found in the merging broadcasters, like AVRO-TROS. The bill will change this traditional system. However, the public media should be ‘protean institutions that change over time but nevertheless are guided by a long-term ambition to foster a diversity of cultural resources at a variety of spatial scales, as Curtin so eloquently pointed out.’ (Curtin 2011: 555) In other words: change may not be such a bad thing in the case of the Dutch public television. This makes us wonder, does the bill apply only for the first type of programs or is the existing infotainment also too entertaining in Dekkers opinion?

Much like secretary Dekker, Croteau and Hoynes stress that the media are resources for citizens with important informational, educational and integrative functions. These functions should be highlighted through the regulation of content. Croteau and Hoynes argue that the media industries are not like any other industries, and therefore blindly using the market model would be inappropriate (Croteau and Hoynes 2006: 26-27). According to the public sphere model, media should promote diversity and avoid homogeneity by artificially regulating the content that is broadcasted. The government should play a useful and necessary role in ensuring that the media meet the need of citizens, not just of the consumers. This should offer citizens a wide range of options in content and format. This is exactly what the bill is attempting to realise. By obliging the broadcasters to only transmit shows that are in some way linked to education, information or culture, the state is keeping tabs on the ‘free market’ which might promote mostly commercial amusement. By making a clear distinction between the public broadcasting channels, who now have to produce either educational, informational or cultural programs, and the commercial broadcasting channels who mainly produce amusement, the state is forcing the Dutch television to have a more diversified programming. However, when we examine the current programs that are aired on the public broadcast channels, we find that they broadcast much more infotainment as opposed to entertainment. Programs such as Ranking the Stars and Bananasplit (the programs Dekker had the most difficulty with) are a mere exception amongst the more popular ‘informative’ programs like De Wereld Draait Door, Tussen Kunst en Kitsch and Brandpunt.

Finally we can ask ourselves whether or not the juxtaposition Croteau and Hoynes create in their argument is in fact a juxtaposition at all. Their plea that the public sphere model is preferred over the market model suggests that the two are irreconcilably different, but when we take a close look at the new Dutch bill this proves to be untrue. The bill carries both sides of the argument: on the one hand it creates diversity through regulation, on the other hand it also promotes more competition and is anti-monopolistic. Does the bill have the best of both worlds or does this ambiguous character only create more pitfalls? Only the future will tell. That is, IF the bill ever gets approved.

Besides television presenters and broadcasters, politicians have obviously taken an interest in this new proposal and they are not positive at all (of course not, they are politicians). Multiple members of parliament have reacted cynically, stating that it is likely that nothing will change after the passing of the bill. They argue that, given the right argumentation, everything can be labelled to be informative, educational or cultural. Indeed, forms of media that we classify as entertainment can play an important role in public life through the stories that they circulate, as Croteau and Hoynes so eloquently pointed out. Another possible downside of regulation is the constant luring of elitism. Who will decide where to draw the line between what is interesting enough to be labelled educational and what not? Who will decide what is culture and what is not? And most importantly, will this mean that there will be no more Boer Zoekt Vrouw on the Dutch television? Let’s all pray that it won’t get that far.

AH - SH - MS - GV - MW

Thesis: Do the public broadcast channels also (like most commercial channels) respond to their advertisers or do they mainly focus on their public (as citizens)?

Bibliography
Croteau, D.R. & Hoynes, W.D. (2006) Media/Society: Industries, Images and Audiences. 3rd Edition. Routledge. Curtin, M (2011) The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Global media capital and local media policy. Blackwell publishing Ltd.

Digital sources
Nu.NL: 
http://www.nu.nl/politiek/3936453/cruciale-opdracht-publieke-omroep-bedreigd.html (Consulted 04-10-15)
Rijksoverheid: 
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/media-en-publieke-omroep/inhoud/publieke-omroep (Consulted 04-10-15)
Televisier: 
http://www.televizier.nl/nieuws/amusement/jan-slagter-woest-door-kabinetsplannen.4342090.lynkx (Consulted 04-10-15)
http://www.televizier.nl/nieuws/actualiteiten/worden-ranking-the-stars-en-bananasplit-geschrapt.4341653.lynkx (Consulted 04-10-15)

Week 4: Overcoming a Beautiful Liar

“Bee on say, Bee-on-SAY! Sha kee ra, Sha-ki-RA!” You might be familiar with these opening words to the catchy song Beautiful Liar, which helpfully introduce the listener to the artists performing it. This song, a marriage of musical styles like R&B and flamenco, was released in 2007 and became quite popular. It can be studied in many ways, but our focus will be on a feminist reading of the song itself and the music video made to accompany it, and on the oriental influences present in both. The latter has been a trend in the last years, loosening itself of a‘world music’ label and becoming part of a transnational remix culture (McGee 2012: 220).

The song Beautiful Liar by Beyoncé, featuring Shakira, opens with Arabic sounding flute (kind of sounding like it wants a snake to emerge from its pot) and the moaning sound of a woman singing “Ay”. The song has a conventional R&B beat, enriched by the sounds of a Spanish guitar and flamenco-like hand clapping. Other elements that stand out are the horns blasting the theme and the Arabic flute that started it all. This ensemble of sounds is culturally rich and resembles the well-known musical styles of both pop stars. The narrative of the song is sung by its two protagonists, two women who are friends and have both been cheated on by the same man. In the beginning the affair is revealed, after which the women seem to be a bit hostile towards each other. Which is understandable, after all the guy promised that one of them was “worth it, his one desire”.  As the song progresses their attitude towards each other changes: “Can’t we laugh about it (ha ha ha)/It’s not worth our time/We can live without him/Just a beautiful liar”. The women unite, realizing it was the man who wronged them and should be blamed. They start objectifying him to being nothing more than beautiful and a liar. Their resilience (James 2013: 78) is empowering, Beyoncé and Shakira stand up to their oppressor.  

Well, there you have it, a song about female empowerment. Commence the music video! Smoke mysteriously hides the faces of Beyoncé and Shakira, slowly revealing more of their features. The ladies are dancing in water, with clouds as their backdrop. They both wear ankle long black dresses which are wet and cling to their bodies, revealing and accentuating their famous female shapes. As seen from afar, one could think to be seeing one woman dancing in different dresses and on different locations. Actually, the video keeps alternating between shots of Beyoncé and of Shakira who are basically looking the same and are making basically the same movements. Their resemblence could be a symbol for the male gaze, which is indifferent to the individual identities of women as it seeks to objectify them. They are not filmed in the same shot until the bridge of the song, when they forgive each other and dance perfectly synchronized to symbolize this achievement. The dancing in the music video Beautiful Liar is inspired by oriental movements such as the twisting of arms and hands, the turning hips, and belly dancing, a style Shakira is particularly known for. Combined with the Arabic looking scribbling on the wall, waving drapes and the night sky, the video has a sensual feeling to it. In this case, the mystic sensual feeling that can be associated with the orient. While they make these movements, the ladies stare into the camera, seducing the viewer with their flirty and sexual looks as if they were trying to please a man. The male gaze assumed by the camera is even more obvious when the viewer gets to see the fragmented bodies of Shakira and Beyoncé, waving their hips in a close-up (James 2013: 96).

So what happened here with our song and music video? A song about two women overcoming a scandal imposed upon them by a scumbag of a man received an added layer of sensuality (or even: sexuality) through the creation of an accompanying music video. The overload of sexual aspects has not gone unnoticed and was satirically reviewed by Anna Pickard for The Guardian (Pickard, 2007). She comically exaggerates the objectification both women suffer from because of the way they are protrayed in the video. So why does a song from two powerful women about overcoming a man feel a bit off? Precisely because of the latter, according to Robin James. Beyoncé and Shakira's music video fits into her "Look, I Overcame" (LIO) narrative. She explains this “Look, I Overcame” to be a way of performing resilience over an oppressive (male) force which demands it to be explicit, legibly, and spectacular (James 2013: 88). She states that “Looking is a necessary element in resilience narratives: it’s not just that you must overcome, but that your performance is seen, public, and available for consumption by others.” (James 2013: 106). It is obvious that this is what happens in Beautiful Liar - Bey and Shakira perform their resilience and do so by staring their oppressor/the camera right in the eye. Their gaze can be seen as nothing less than grabbing the camera by its balls. The LIO narrative, like the one performed by the two pop stars, is problematic according to James because its performer needs to be damaged first. This not only accomodates oppressive male behaviour, but also justifies it as a need, as a standard (James 2013: 89). Even though Beyoncé and Shakira's actions in the music video seem like an empowering example for women, the fact that they needed to overcome a man to begin with affirms society still needs feminism today. 

Feminism and female pop celebrities can be a touchy and complicated subject, their behavior is analyzed constantly within the discourse of a patriarchal society. Beyoncé, who identifies as being a feminist, is not afraid to act out this feminism. Roxane Gay elaborates on a bizarre situation in her amazing Ted talk about “bad feminism”. At the 2014 MTV VMA’s Beyoncé performed in front of the word ‘Feminism’. She could not have undertaken a more direct approach to displaying her alliance to feminism. This did not lead to a celebration of it, but made cultural critics question and rate the level of Beyoncé’s feminism  rather than taking her word for it. We have a long way to go before society has a neutral starting point from which to create and judge creative texts and the artists behind them.

AH – SH – MS – GV – MW

Thesis: The work of established female pop stars is often analysed and then criticised (often by females, as being too sexual) within a patriarchal discourse. Is there a way to escape this?

Bibliography

McGee, K. A. (2012). Orientalism and Erotic Multiculturalism in Popular Culture: From Princess Rajah to the Pussycat Dolls. Music, Sound and the Moving Image, 6: 2(Autumn). Pp 209 - 238.

Robin James. (2013). "Look, I Overcame!" in Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism, Zero Books: pp 78 - 124.

Pickard, Anne. (2007). ‘Beyonce f Shakira – Beautiful Liar’ in The Guardian. (accessed on 27-9-2015).

Week 3: The influence of digital convergence on Comics

Comics are a valuable form of expression and gained an undeniable position in the popular culture of recent centuries. However, writers and illustrators have tried to take a different path from the traditional in­dustry by giving more individual and poetic treatments to their narratives. In this case, the digital media embody an important context, creating new spaces for discussion and dissemination of these materials. This blog post analyzes the influence of digital convergence on Comics and elaborates on how this form of communication has been shaped by the market in the last decades.


Comics, Technology and New Media

The Comics industry experienced a huge boom in the mid-80s due to considerable scale production of titles and its consequent impact on the market. However, the constant repetition of narrative formulas, the adoption of misleading editorial policies and the constant strained relations between publishers and authors brought a deep retraction period led by a sharp fall in the profits in the early 1990s.

According to Roberto Elísio dos Santos (2009), as the crisis in the print medium continued, the personal computer (PC) became more popular and the manipulation of graphics software more friendly and attractive. This development eventually led artists to consider the digital medium as an alternative to produce something that differs from the already saturated market, which was dominated by a few publishers.

Despite the initiative of independent authors and smaller companies, the first successful experiences departed from large brands like DC and Marvel Comics: Iron Man - Crash (with script and art by Mike Saens and produced by William Bates) and Batman - Digital Justice (written and produced by Pepe Moreno). On the other hand, the novelties presented in relation to these new forms of  interaction were mere adaptations of the traditional language with commands to move forward and they performed no major changes in the way of perceiving this art form (McCould, 2006).

  

Batman - Digital Justice

After considerable experiences that lasted about ten years, major American and European publishers have decreased their investments in interactive media, releasing few works after 2000. The rare initiatives from that date were restricted to short runs of independent publishers, signaling the unwillingness of the public to consume this kind of product.

The traditional Comics diffused over the internet were more successful, though, largely because of its increasing accessibility. Since the 1980s French Minitel, a huge list of websites were related to comics. They were categorized among portals, publishing sites, fan sites, sites of cartoonists and Comics made specifically for this medium. It can be said that the latter category only began to exist from the moment in which artists and editors had a greater concern to adapt their stories to the computer screen dimensions and other standards such as color and resolution.

Concerning the mediatization of the Comics, or their growing reliance on media commucation and technologies, Roberto Elísio dos Santos (2009, p. 14) states that “the computer screen requires different layouts in comparison of a magazine or comic book, encouraging artists to innovate the way of presenting or organizing their sequential narratives. Similarly, the stories start to incorporate features of the digital media (sound, movement and effects) and lead authors to create a hybrid product that mixes the language of Comics with the animation and games.”

This new context also offers the potential to dig deeper in the narrative by encouraging the authors to produce more texts related to the universe they created (drillability). Also, it invites readers to take paratexts and creative interpratations into their own hands and circulate them across their social network via fanzines (spreadability). For Moacy Cirne (2002, p. 159), the barrier separating the Comics and the digital spectrum has been already broken: "To Think about Comics today means thinking about their placement in the new media field."

Authorship and Digital Broadcasting: A Powerful Combination

Although some authors defend the idea that the establishment of creative processes in the digital environment means a growing threat to major publishers and studios, what is often observed is a change in business approach. As Edgar Franco says in his book HQTrônicas (2008, p. 257), the internet "has even contributed to the emergence of new titles in print media, making the other way that we could predict." Thus, the internet is not only a space for hybrid experiments of languages but carries with it a revolutionary embryo which is gradually changing the guidance of the industry.

However, the main novelty of this scenario is the equivalent or even exceeding aesthetic quality of the artists’ production if compared with the publishing industry. This is caused mainly by the lack of interest of young and talented authors regarding the restrictive policies adopted by the editors in the traditional market. That being said, unknown artists and their alternative titles start to regard the internet as a possible solution, not only to overcome the high costs of printing and distribution, but also to solve the issue of accessibility for potential readers.

Traditional environment

According to Edgar Franco, [...] “the web started to function as a democratic space where cartoonists and editors can advertise and promote the sale of their titles, breaking through the major logistical problem of the independent publishers. [...] Before the internet, the editors were often forced to make a huge number of copies if they wanted to see their work distributed, which precluded many editorial projects aimed to smaller segments of the public”.

Thus, the importance of the internet is shaped not only by a broader diffusion and a aesthetic renewal of Comics but it also contributes to the formation of a new audience and the creation of an essential space for discussion and evaluation of Comics as an artistic expression. Traditionally, these places consist of environments dominated by fanatical geeks, where women, children and people with limited income are excluded (Santos, 2009).

New media also changed the game for authors who cannot access the mainstream flows and use the online platform as the only space available for their works. Fanzines have revealed artists that luckily find space in the market, reaffirming that the internet can help publishers to produce a greater diversity of titles from the prior recognition of an author in the digital world.

By breaking the barriers of the traditional industry another problem concerning the producion is solved: progression and constancy of work. With almost no financial impediments, artists can produce new Comics continuously and take them to the public, and by doing so, more loyal readers are formed as the overall artwork is improved.

Therefore, it becomes clear that the digital production and broadcast promotes an increase in the quality of comic books in many ways. The technical quality improves by increased information exchange that takes into account the existence of a critical, active and connected public (rather than a passive market with presumed satisfaction). The same goes for the artistic quality, due to a greater possibility of authorial expression.

Nevertheless, the most significant change can be found in the way of doing business, since practically all the fundamental principles of trade are attached to the printed graphic product so-called comic book. From a market point of view, the digital convergence opens up new perspectives to the print media given the fact that artists can be more successful and well-known using the online platform. So even facing crises of an economic nature, the traditional industry can benefit from this new image-sharing digital culture.

AH - SH - MS - GV - MW

Thesis: The new digital culture on comics opens up possibilities for creators and their audiences to shape worlds together.

Works Cited

 SANTOS, Roberto Elísio. Comics And Editorial Production On The 21th Century (Curitiba, 2009).

McCLOUD, Scott. Comics: The Invisible Art (São Paulo, 2000).

McCLOUD, Scott. Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form (São Paulo, 2006).

CIRNE, Moacy. Comics and New Media (São Paulo, 2002).

FRANCO, Edgar Silveira. HQTrônicas: From Paper To The Internet (São Paulo, 2008).

Week 2: Cultural Flows: From Margins to Center

Are We Simply Recycling or Creating New Meaning with Existing Texts?

“Our culture may not be actually evolving, but rather merely recycling”

Wasko 1994 qtd in. Vaughan 2011.

Many argue that the film industry has lost its creativity and its ability to produce original content, these thoughts are coming from a generation that has seen the proliferation of several marvel reboots and countless American remakes of Japanese horror films, and Swedish thrillers. Alongside this discussion is that of a cultural homogenization through the proliferation of western cultural symbols. It is true we are currently immersed in a sea of recycled themes and franchises as Vaughan points out in his text “Maximizing Value: Economic and Cultural Synergies (176).” However, this is not because the industry has lost its creativity. On the contrary, the decentralization of the creative industries has been creative enough to turn the intensive production of cultural products into an extensive production as proposed by Wasko (qtd in. Vaughan). The exploitation of an extensive production in order to cater a changing market and audience is what creates this feeling of homogenization.

            A proper case study that can start to refute this notion about recycling cultural products as hindering to cultural evolution is Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2. Departing from Michael Latzer’s essay on “Media Convergence,” which sees convergence as a form of breaking uniformity by changing structures and systems of communication, we can argue that this film illustrates the different levels and implications of convergence within popular culture. Tarantino’s rhetorical convergence of sampling and mixing traits of different genres to create a new one illustrates how recycling is not hindering cultural evolution. On the contrary, Kill Bill is a text that brings e.g. Japanese manga and anime from the cultural margins to the center, see figure 2 & 3. Tarantino’s Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2 can be considered a pastiche of recycled material, from traits of different genres to the misé en scene of specific film shots, see figure 1. It breaks genre and style structures so unabashedly by alluding to film icons, with intertextuality so specific that only connoisseurs of the genres involved would be able to fully understand and appreciate. In other words, it brings what Jenkins calls the ‘fragrance’ of foreign cultures to a mainstream audience.

Figure 1 Yellow suit worn by
Bruce Lee in Game of Death
Uma Thurman in Kill Bill

The globalization and convergence of media in contemporary society enable a transnational cultural flow that gives rise to niche markets and a new type of consumer-producer relationship. One could examine how the popularity and cult status of Kill Bill signals the pop cosmopolitanism Jenkins addresses in his text. “Pop Cosmopolitanism: mapping cultural flows in an Age of Media Convergence. Latzer’s rhetorical convergence and Jenkins’ global convergence, which allows us to “embrace cultural differences...[and] enter a broader cultural experience,”(155) are the driving forces behind the success of a cultural product that has been produced in a global context. As Jenkins explains “corporate hybridity depends on consumers with the kinds of cultural competencies that could only originate in the context of global convergence” (169). In this case, the consumer of Tarantino’s Kill Bill is one that is familiarized with the different genres involved such as Japanese and Chinese martial arts films and the American/spaghetti western. Therefore they comprehend and appreciate what the film is alluding to. These cosmopolitans have dived into other cultures and genres and can now act as connoisseurs that drive the popularity of such a film by opening a dialogue with those who are coming from the mainstream into this new conceptual world and Tarantino genre.

Figure 3 Showdown in the snow. O-ren Ishii and The Bride

Figure 2 Lady Snowblood manga/film

Today Kill Bill is acknowledged as a cult film of the early twenty-first century. Even those who have not had the opportunity to watch it, are well aware of the storyline, which involves a female victim/assassin, martial arts, an iconic yellow suit, a pussy wagon and like every single Tarantino film: a lot of bloody action. Our understanding of these traits derives from the socio-cultural convergence Latzer mentions in his text, in which traits of this new genre and story are adapted and appropriated within different media platforms. Therefore, our awareness of this cultural product is increased by the numerous times these elements have been referenced, reproduced and or adapted in other cultural products. An example of its latest employment has to be Iggy Azelea’s music video for the single Black Widow, which alludes to Tarantino’s kick ass victim & vengeful female assassin as seen in figure 4. This is an example of how culture is traveling from margins to center.

Figure 4 Iggy Azelea in Black Widow music video

Wasko could be on to something when she addresses her concerns on how this extensive production of cultural products might “limit the expression of society’s ideas, values, and general original creativity.”(177) However, this way of thinking perceives audiences as being passive recipients of culture and does not take into account how globalization, digital technology, and media convergence have turned what used to be passive audiences into active ones. Contemporary media has a networked nature, which enables a two-way complex communication proffered by globalization. This has greatly affected not only the transnational cultural transfer, but also the cultural production and consumption in contemporary societies. We are no longer surrounded by our own culture; instead we are constantly exposed to various other cultures through cultural products, which we actively decontextualize and recontextualize to fit our local culture.

The decentralization at the hands of the changing structures in society has changed the role of the consumer. This entails that we are not only active recipients of culture, we are also active producers. Jenkins perceives this as grassroots convergence, in which “consumers are central to the production, distribution and reception of media content (155).” This results in a heightened transnational cultural flow that allows different audiences to share experiences and knowledge with each other; instead of limiting the cultural flow of a society it opens it and acknowledges the multiculturalism that is present. The critique posed at the beginning demonstrates how globalization and the perpetual flux of information has increased our awareness in regards to other cultural products, and how these are often carefully selected, adapted, and appropriated by what some call ‘dominant’ cultures. However, adaptations and reboots are not something specific of this generation. On the contrary, they have been going on for a long time. The only difference is that today we have an array of platforms that allow us to experiment with these texts. Therefore, recycling of cultural products should not be seen as hindering to creativity. It should be perceived as the materialization of the interconnectedness that comes with globalization and media convergence.

AH – SH – MS – GV – MW

Thesis: The Americanization of entertainment is leading the western media to a homogenized based convergence.

Works Cited

Jenkins, Henry. ‘Pop Cosmopolitanism: Mapping Cultural Flows in an Age of Media Convergence’, in: Fans, Bloggers and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York & London: New York University Press, pp. 152-172.

Latzer, Michael. ‘Media convergence’, in: Ruth Towse & Christian Handke (eds.), Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy. Cheltenham & Northampton: Edward Elgar, pp.123-133.

Vaughan, Nathan. ‘Maximizing Value: Economic and Cultural Synergies’, in: Janet Wasko, Gragham Murdock & Helena Sousa (eds.) The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell, pp. 169-184.

Week 1: An iconic image

Aylan Kurdi: once a little boy, now an iconic photograph

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is an expression that is often used. It may sound cliché, but think about how you perceive the situation in Syria or the refugee crisis: is it through photos or through written articles? Especially in a humanitarian crisis or in a war you know what is happening ‘over there’ through photos. Of course there are written words, but those news articles are always strengthened by images. Those images give extra meaning to the words. However, and that is where the media studies perspective comes in, those images are always a representation of the world: it is never actually reality that you are seeing there. In this blog post we would like to discuss how the media influences the way we perceive the world around us by using the case study of the little Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a beach in his attempt to reach Greece. An image that immediately got described as an iconic photograph that might change history.

So, what is actually the functioning of the media? They communicate towards a broad audience. But what do they communicate? They communicate the world. The media are forms of meaning-making through representation: they represent the world in a way that is specific for that medium, and by doing so they give meaning to the world, or let you give meaning to the world. Natalie Fenton states in her article ‘Bridging the Mythical Divide: Political Economy and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of the Media’ that ‘the process of making sense of the world and taking meaning from the things that surround us is one of the main reasons why people are fascinated with the role of the media in society’.

However, and that is an important question you should ask yourself while perceiving photos like the one of the drowned Syrian boy: Do the media give meaning to this photo or does it allow you, the audience, to give meaning? In other words, you can wonder if the meaning behind the photos is ‘pregiven’. This Bourdian perspective on media makes you wonder if you, as an audience, just accept the pregiven meaning that is constructed by the media, instead of constructing a meaning of your own. Think about the Syrian boy: it is immediately connected to the refugee crisis; and receives the status of an iconic photograph. Furthermore, the media add an emotional value by elaborating on the story of the father who tried to save his family but failed in his attempt. Would you have been able to get all of this from the picture? Probably not, but through the meaning that the media has given to this photo, it all became part of much larger story: the story that now it is really the time to undertake action in this refugee crisis.

            This makes us wonder: what do media images mean for the way you interpret and evaluate the world? The French sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard noticed that through mass media and mass communication the ‘real’ behind the images (and the signs they stand for) has disappeared. All that is left is representation, or simulation as Baudrillard calls it. This means that the media have gained a lot more power, because it is only in the images that the media represent that you can actually see “the real world”. Media industries therefore have also a lot to do with the notion of power. From a critical media industry studies perspective power can be seen as ‘productive’, in the sense that it produces specific ways of conceptualizing audiences, text and economics. Furthermore, power is a form of leadership constructed through discourse that privileges specific ways of understanding the media and their place in people’s lives. It is through their mediation that you perceive the world around you; and that the process of meaning-giving is possible.

            The power of the image should not be underestimated. However, the discursivation of culture did indeed lead to the misjudging of this epistemic power of the image. Sybille Krämer and Horst Bredekamp explain this in their article ‘Culture, Technology, Cultural Techniques – Moving Beyond Text’: ‘the hierarchy between language and image […] has become indirectly proportional to the facility with which images of all kinds […]  have usurped our everyday world’. Nevertheless, they feel that the textualization of culture has reached its limits. One of these signs of erosion is the epistemological dimension of imagery: visuality has become the irreducible center for research and context of the sciences.

            Does this mean that the media are central to social processes? Krämer and Bredekamp state that these innovations in the media, caused by changing cultural techniques, are located in a reciprocity of print and image, sound and number, which in turn opens up new exploratory spaces for perception, communication and cognition. Therefore, the picture of the Syrian boy can be iconic; it’s representation through the media opens up new possibilities for meaning-making and meaning-giving. So, the power of the media is clearer now, but what is the power of this photo in particular?

            Aylan Kurdi, the victim in the photograph, is lying face down in an unnatural way. The position of the body (twisted and horizontal – a rarity as people are typically represented vertically) refers to the confusion and panic that the refugees must have experienced as they were trying to reach their destinations. The face of the little boy is unrecognizable. This anonymity creates a wider interest: he could be anyone or anyone’s son. Everything is implicit, which makes it even more shocking. There is just pathos, no logos. A feel of powerlessness strikes the viewer, because a sense of human degradation is shown by the media, but the public essentially cannot stop it. At the same time, it creates a feeling of guilt: if we opened our borders sooner, this might not have happened. The photo grasps you, and it is hard to let go of.

The photograph of the Syrian boy is powerful in itself, but it is through the representation in the media that it has become iconic already. The fact that this picture might change history makes you wonder what the reach of the power of the media can be. Aylan Kurdi suddenly made the refugee crisis a lot more personal. Could this be the beginning of a change in the history of this humanitarian crisis? We shall see…

AH – SH – MS – GV – MW

Thesis: The consumption and interpretation of iconic images is swayed by the media’s power over how information is contextualised and disseminated

Bibliography:

          -            Baudrillard, J. (1981) Simulcra and Simulation. Éditions Galilée.

          -            Bourdieu, P., J. Chamboredon & J. Passeron (1991) The Craft of Sociology: Epistemological Preliminaries. R. Nice (tr.) New York: Walter de Gruyter.

          -            Fenton, N. (2007) ‘Bridging the Mythical Divide: Political Economy and Cultural Studies Approaches to the Analysis of the Media', in: Eoin Devereux (ed.), Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates. London: SAGE, pp. 7-31.

          -            Havens, T. A. D. Lotz & S. Tinic (2009) ‘Critical Media Industry Studies: A Research Approach’, in: Communication, Culture & Critique 2, pp. 234-253.

          -            Jong, de, L. (2015) ‘Waarom raken de foto’s van het Syrische jongetje ons zo?’, in: De Volkskrant, 3 September 2015. http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/waarom-raken-de-foto-s-van-het-syrische-jongetje-ons-zo~a4135050/ (accessed on 6 September 2015).

          -            Krämer, S. & H. Bredekamp (2013) ‘Culture, Technology, Cultural Techniques – Moving Beyond Text’, in: Theory, Culture & Society 30 (6), pp. 20-29.

          -            Shalby, C. (2015) ‘Why a photo of a dead Syrian boy touched a nerve on an enduring crisis’, in: PBSNewshour. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/photo-dead-syrian-refugee-boy-puts-face-crisis-rooted-numbers/ (accessed on 6 September 2015).

          -            Smith, H. (2015) ‘Shocking images of drowned Syrian boy show tragic plight of refugees’, in: The Guardian, 3 September 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image-of-drowned-syrian-boy-shows-tragic-plight-of-refugees (accessed on 6 September 2015).

          -            Sterne, J. (2014) ‘There Is No Music Industry’, in: Media Industries Journal 1 (1), pp. 50-55.