Media Experiment 6

In the box-office and critical successful film Avatar, directed by James Cameron, the characters embark on a journey, but only a mental one as they plug into a machine that connects their minds to an avatar where they can roam on a different planet in an alien body. While this film is definitely fiction, it is not too far from reality as nowadays more and more people are living their lives through virtual worlds. Additionally, lead character Jake Sully notably acts different when his body is present versus when it is mediated.

Sam Worthington in 'Avatar'

The first technology that I examined was my relationship with friends on the social networking site Facebook versus my relationships with friends when my body is present. I came to realize that for me personally, I spend the majority of my time on Facebook complimenting others. There is a “like” button but not a dislike button available so we are constantly liking each other’s pictures and statuses letting one another know that we approve of what we are seeing or reading. When commenting a picture, the majority of the time I am giving the other user a compliment about the way they look. In comparison, in person I find myself to be much more critical. If someone says something that I don’t approve of I will always let him or her know and if they ask how they look I sometimes am honest with them even if the truth is not what they are looking for. I think the biggest reason for this is because Facebook is such a public website, nothing is private and you wouldn’t want others to see you being cruel to another user. Also, like McLuhan discusses how we are more in touch with one another because of this media but we are less physically in touch. I think that is important because I can tell someone in person that I do not like the shirt they are wearing but make sure the tone of my voice is non-threatening so they are not so easily offended. In the virtual world, there is no real tone or intonation so it is difficult to give any kind of constructive criticism without the person immediately being offended which is probably why I am essentially a nicer person on Facebook.

Snapshot of my Facebook profile

The next technology that I examined was electronic mail, or e-mail. I realized that my communication through e-mail is much more professional than when my body is actually present. Even when I am e-mailing my own mother I find myself to use proper formatting, punctuation, and spelling in my messages. This is probably due to me constantly using e-mail as a source of communication with potential and current employers, and professors, so it this has impacted my communication with all individuals on e-mail. Whereas in person even when talking to an employer of mine I am much more informal and casual because I do not want to sound too stoic and professional in a conversation. I feel that e-mail is a good tool to communicate quickly and effectively but it is by no means a true representation of their character because I am so much different in person.

Snapshot of my Electronic E-mail

Going back to the film Avatar, lead character Jake Sully experiences something somewhat similar as his personality in the virtual world strays far from when his body is actually present, although the worlds do eventually collide. Even more noticeable are the advantages that Jake Sully gets from this virtual world because of his inability to walk in the real world. Mirzeoff says it best when he discusses that these virtual worlds can be particularly liberating for those with a disability. So while some may believe that these virtual worlds are no place for individuals to be living, someone like Jake Sully will wholeheartedly disagree because of the advantage it gave him physically.

This experiment has helped me realize something very important. Where is authenticity? This is a question that many authors have posed in readings and we have discussed this in class numerous times. While it can easily be argued that based on my experiments there is clearly no authenticity in the media, I would actually argue the opposite by using Goffman’s arguments from past discussions on the “presentation of self.” I believe that even though my communication in e-mails and Facebook may not seem like my actual personality, when combined with my physical personality they all make up a part of who I really am. I say this because I agree with Goffman that life is a stage and everything we do, when the body is present or when it is not, is a performance and all of it is authentic and part of our personalities

Media Experiment 5

In the last year, many teen suicides related to homosexual bullying have been covered heavily on news outlets. Now more than ever there seems to be an overwhelming sympathy and awareness of just how prevalent homosexuals have become in our society. It even seems like now almost every television show out there has at least one gay character. Some find these characters to be pigeonholed into certain stereotypes/tropes and therefore not a realistic representation of the LGBT community as a whole but I quite frankly disagree. Just like the famous saying, ‘there is no such thing as bad press,’ I believe just having the presence of a gay character in a television show is a success considering it was so taboo not too many years ago.

In the article “Popular Culture and Queer Representation” it states that, “situation comedies – however realistic they might be – do not claim, like dramas, to be offering us “real life.” That lack of seriousness may allow these programs to play with themes under cover of humor where those themes be too volatile or even too didactic for another sort of audience” (Raymond, 101). This brings up a great point because there are numerous comedies out there with prominent gay characters that deal with it a comical manner therefore it never makes the audience too uncomfortable. Shows like ‘Will & Grace’ and the recent ‘Modern Family’ have leading and supporting gay characters but because the subject matter never delves too deep into the true emotions of being gay it is more accepted by viewers.

On drama television series there is less of a display of homosexuality. For instance, on the widely popular Fox television show ‘The O.C.’ leadcharacter Marissa Cooper (portrayed by Mischa Barton) began having feelings for another girl Alex (portrayed by Olivia Wilde) in the middle of the second season. Unfortunately, this relationship was ended after a few short episodes and the character Alex who had been around for a long time before that left the show along with this storyline. It soon was revealed that the head creator of the show Josh Schwartz intended for Alex to become a main character so the show could develop her bi-sexuality but the network (Fox) said no to this and made him write her character off in fear of having a lead character apart of the LGBT community. For me personally this was a serious disappointment for many reasons. The O.C. had an extremely large homosexual fan base and yet other than the short fling between Alex and Marissa there was never really a storyline dedicated to this. Additionally, Alex was one of the few characters on television to represent the bi-sexual community, which we discussed in class is due to bi-sexual characters having too much fluidity for many audiences.

Mischa Barton and Olivia Wilde in 'The OC'

Another important factor to homosexual representation in the media is the specific depictions of LGBT people. As evidenced in the Raymond article, “those rare depictions of glbt people tended both to dichotomize anyone glbt as victim or villain and to reinforce demeaning stereotypes and caricatures: gay men as effeminate and lesbians as unattractive man-haters” (Raymond, 101). This was reinforced with the screening of ‘The Celluloid Closet’ in class discussion. Specifically in many earlier films there was the gay trope of the ‘sissy’ character who was extremely effeminate and never really had much development except for being comic relief for the audience. Similarly, in many films homosexual men are either portrayed as being a victim of gay-bashing or AIDS (Philadelphia), or being villains. Take for instance the very trendy show ‘Glee.’ One of the main characters Kurt (portrayed by Chris Colfer) finds himself a victim of gay bullying this season by the school villain Karofsky. However, it is later revealed that Karofsky himself is a homosexual when he kisses Kurt in the locker room. Therefore, in one episode alone ‘Glee’ managed to show homosexuals as a victim and a villain.

Chris Colfer in 'Glee'

Overall, after reading “Popular Culture and Queer Representation” as well as the screening of ‘The Celluloid Closet’ I have definitely started to look more closely at the media and notice the structured representations of homosexuality. This has definitely had a strong impact on my own life as well because of the limited representations that we get. I have come across many individuals who truly believe AIDS is still a gay disease and that heterosexuals are not at that high of a risk. Clearly this is false and while I don’t entirely blame the media for this cliché I do find it to be a strong correlation. Additionally, I think a lot of people view homosexuals as being two things, either being an effeminate bitchy funny man or being a homophobic villain. This is very obviously in relation to the representations made by the media. While I still love any homosexual presence on a television or film nowadays, because like I said there is no such thing as bad press, I have begun to wish there would be a more rounded depiction of the LGBT community, and hopefully in the future we will.

Media Experiment 4

Rodney King’s videotaped beating in March of 1991 was an extremely controversial topic of that year, and still talked about today. In the reading “Televisual Politics: Negotiating Race in the L.A. Rebellion” King is heavily focus on throughout. In the readings it describes an event that was known as the L.A. Rebellion where riots broke out by mostly black individuals in uproar over the less-than-harsh court ruling in King’s attack. Unfortunately, these riots would increase the negative reflection of black individuals solely because of what the article calls, ‘white male information control.’There are two specific roles that black people are represented as in the media according to this article, the first one is explained on page 328 when it states that, “The L.A. rebellion provided drama’s essential fuel: dangerous antagonists (the people of color coming at “us” from out there) and innocent victims (the white, disoriented characters and audience at home)” (Caldwell, 328). So essentially, black people are being represented as the “other.” This has become a crucial part of media history as even in the last decade you can spot instances of blacks being portrayed as an antagonizing “other.” For instance, following the devastating Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans that left so many people helpless without proper shelter, clothing, or food, there still was ‘white man’s information control’ in the coverage of it. Take for instance these two photographs:

Both appear to be very similar, but the captions are strikingly different. The first image’s caption reads: Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery. The second caption reads: A young man walks through chest deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans. Possibly at a first glance you wouldn’t pick up on this but these images harnessed a lot of controversy over its usage of certain words. The non-black couple are helpless residents who fought through the terrible climate and found food in order to survive. The second image doesn’t describe the black individual as a resident of the area, just a man, and he has looted instead of just finding it. While many immediately were outraged and attacked The Associated Press for this, I have a different opinion on the matter. I actually believe that whoever captioned these photos did not intentionally portray the black man as a thief but instead because of the media that we have been raised in (specifically during events like the L.A. rebellion riots), many of us have a pre-disposed notion that the black man is an antagonistic “other.” Therefore, it is hard to really put blame for this on one specific person as this goes back much further.

Earlier, I mentioned that were two specific roles for black people in the media. The first was an “antagonizing other” and the second is explained on page 331, “television slotted people of color into a very different, but much more spectacular, role. Rodney King emerged as the latest in Hollywood’s long line of tragic, suffering, and sacrificial victims of color (Caldwell 331). This made me think of two very specific media examples. The first is the film we watched in class ‘Bamboozled’ and the scene I am referring to is near the climax when Savion Glover’s Mantan is being videotaped and broadcasted on television as he is kidnapped, beaten, and eventually murdered. Another example I thought of was the similarly satirical ‘Scream 2’, which pokes fun at horror films (particularly sequels) even though it happens to be a horror sequel itself. The scene that I am referring to is the opening when a black couple, Maureen Evans and Phil Stevens (portrayed by Jada Pinket and Omar Epps respectively) go to a pre-screening of a horror film. While walking into the theatre, Maureen complains to Phil about the genre choice because the horror industry reflects a poor representation of the black community with few leading characters ever being black and any black characters almost always die first. Because the ‘Scream’ films are known for poking fun at these clichés, Maureen and Phil are killed first in this very opening scene. Later, another black character Joel explains, “Brothers don’t last long in situations like this!” and although Joel is a cliché in that he is comic relief, ‘Scream’ turns this on its toes in end when Joel surprisingly survives the murder spree to live another day. Unfortunately, the Scream series is known specifically for taking clichés and breaking them so this is actually more proof that in films, specifically violent ones, the black characters usually die first and will almost never make it to the end.

Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett in 'Scream 2'

Overall, both the reading “Televisual Politics: Negotiation Race in the L.A. Rebellion” as well as the screening of Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled’ I have definitely started to look more closely at the media and notice the structured representations. In the past black individuals used to only be provided as buffoons and comic relief, and while this is still true in certain media examples, the more recent staples for black characters are either the ‘antagonistic other’ like the man in the Hurricane Katrina image or the rioters in the L.A. Rebellion, or the ‘brutalized victim’ like the opening victims of ‘Scream 2’ or Rodney King himself.