Opening up the media industries

In the past few months we have discussed the media industries and explained theoretical concepts concerning all sorts of aspects of the creative industries. We have used theories like media convergence, cultural democratisation, spreadability, transnationality, cultural imperialism, lieu d’imagination, active audiences and so on. The danger of analysing the media industries as a whole by using these rather abstract theoretical concepts is that it can lead towards a so-called helicopter view. The abstract scientific analysis then creates a gap between the analysis and the actual media industries and agents working in the media industries. To avoid this danger we have related the abstract concepts in the blogs to clear case studies like Lego world and Dove. This way we tried to make the several concepts more hands on and understandable. Nevertheless the fact that we tried to avoid the helicopter view we did not receive any followers on our blog and we are most probably not influenced the media industries whatsoever with our blogs. Although we have not contacted or notified the various companies that are addressed in our blogs, the company of Dove would probably not be interested in the way that they for instance incorporate the idea of drillability in their True Beauty Campaign. So are these analyses, in which the media industries are seen as texts that can be explained by using theory, only interesting for other scholars or cultural scientists? If this is the case, how is it possible to make research on the media industries more appealing for the media industries themselves and evoke curiosity for non-academically schooled neighbor?

One way for making research on the media industries more appealing is maybe not approaching the media industries as a text that needs to be analysed but instead working more bottom-up by solving problems that are addressed by the media industries themselves. So combine the theoretical part of the research with a practical touch: ask the media industries what they see as problems themselves, instead of only using earlier written texts about the media industries. When a scientist works together with companies to solve problems they can benefit from each other. Sharing knowledge and combine the theory with the practice is a good way to research the media industries. Because both theory and practice are combined, the scientist can give a more broad and realistic point of view. So by not only using theoretical concepts, the helicopter view can be avoided. This can narrow down the cap between the scientists and the agents working in the creative industries. Downside of this way of making research more appealing, can be that it can reduce the critical view of the scientist. Working together this closely could limit the distance between the scientist and the company. The scientist has to keep in mind that he should keep his scientific glasses on, and cannot get too much involved within the company. Because this could lead to research that is not objective and critical anymore.

The importance of a more appealing research in the media industries itself is based on the need to have the media being critiqued. By making the scientific research easier to understand by a wider audience, can generate more critique towards the media from all different segments of the audience. The diversity in the audience makes it possible to review and critique an idea from different points of view and different fields as well and hopefully offers the possibility to come to a nuanced and balanced conclusions. As stated by Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska, criticality can save us from being a “creative mania”, a desire-driven chase for originality that naively replicates the very structures and strictures of romantic creation.[1] Critiques enable making distinctions between states of being and encourage envisaging new and better states of being.[2] That is why, providing more approachable research in the media industries should be encouraged, for critique can act as a controlling variable that enables us to monitor both the media and the audience, thus, allowing a deeper understanding for future references. In the words of Isabel Lorey, critique has the potential to initiate a recomposition, the constitution that emerges and results from non-standardized heterogeneous practices, from practices that dare to invent something new.[3] With the emphasis on the heterogeneous practices here, we can once again see the importance of critiques that come from different kind of field and also the audience, for the sake of better improvement of future media industries itself.

It must have become clear by now that a critical attitude is very important, both in research, but towards the media industries in general as well. But we think that it is important that researchers are not only critical of the media industries but are engaged with them as well, in the sense that they know what problems are going on and that the research that they execute might actually contribute something to the media industries. This is of course a very thin line, since, as we said, it brings the danger of becoming too much involved in the media industries and eventually maybe even having an agenda in the media industries. The other side of how the scientific field should evolve according to us, is to be open to a bigger audience and trying to make the results of researches publicly available. Not only in the literal way of making articles openly accessible, but also by for example providing the audience with comprehensible summaries of the research article that are not filled with scientific language and jargon. The audience is then given more possibilities to realize what they are consuming and how those products were made. Knowing what is going on is an important tool to develop a critical attitude and to start critiquing the media industries if and where necessary.

References:

Literature:

– Kember, S. & and Zylinska, J. (2012).‘Remediating Creativity: Performance, Invention, Critique’, in: Life After New Media: Mediation as a Vital Process.Cambridge: The MIT Press

[1] Kember, S. & and Zylinska, J. (2012).‘Remediating Creativity: Performance, Invention, Critique’, in: Life After New Media: Mediation as a Vital Process.Cambridge: The MIT Press: 162

[2] Idem: 184

[3][3] Idem: 184

Violence in Commercials for Children

The nature of children’s playing habit has changed in the 21^st century and is influenced by the growing technology and the raise of the online gaming. Gaming now constitutes a bigger market than movies and it is still growing.[1] Easy access through the internet has weakened the boundaries between games for children and for adults. This lack of barriers, not to mention the popular media distributed nowadays, exposed young children with on-screen violence and sex. However, exposing children to violence and sex does not seem to be a problem here, instead it is considered to be an educational resource to teach children about moral education and metaphorically teaching about the “real” adult world.[2] The narrative of violence can be seen as far from children’s bedtime stories to superhero movies, from Hansel and Gretel, and Sleeping Beauty to Iron Man, Batman and Superman. Children are being accustomed to violence and sex since a very young age, contrary to the belief that children are vulnerable, innocent, and incapable of making informed decisions.[3] However, in games and toy commercials aimed for the children themselves, might still be some decency left. In this case, we will compare how commercials for children are being portrayed. Are they all seasoned with violence and sex, or is only a hint of violence and sex portrayed?

To discover whether sex and violence have infiltrated our whole society, an analysis is made of Dutch children’s commercials at the channel Nickelodeon. Commercials shown during breaks around 18:45 and 19:15 on the 3^rd of December 2014 and around 10:40, 11:20 and 11:40 on the 5th of December 2014 were analysed on the containment of or reference to sexuality and violence. In total 35 commercials were watched and analysed. These were commercials advertising new toys such as Mandalan Design of Ravensburg, Pokemon games for Nintendo, Risk, Littlest Pets, DreamLites, the cargo plane of Lego technic, Monopoly, Who is it? and Barbie. Besides the commercials advertising these toys, there are also commercials about the Nickelodeon app, the ‘groene piet game’ and new shows like de Club van Sinterklaas and Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn.

A few commercials referred to the use of violence. The commercial for Skylanders, which occurred in both the commercial breaks on the 3rd of December, did for instance show violence: a lot of fictional violence between the characters that are involved in the game.[4] The fights in this commercial were rather aggressive, but the impact that a certain hit would have had in real life was not represented realistically. Another commercial that contained violence was one for StarStable.[5] Again, the violence was being executed by fictional characters and seemed to be caused by magic weapons and some kinds of spells that were cast by the characters. An advertisement for a sword of the Power Rangers is about a full size toy sword which has secret effects. During this advertisement the Power Rangers hold the swords and they fight with them, but also a little boy is shown holding the sword. The boy poses with the sword but does not attack anyone. These images are accompanied by the voiceover screaming “Attack!”.[6] Besides these commercials which illustrate fights and show weapons, an advertisement for Hot Wheels depicts a rather dangerous riding track. In this riding track your toy cars can get eaten and bitten by a shark. When a car is grabbed by the shark, de voiceover says “ouch” and then the shark is “taught a lesson” by being rammed by another car.[7] It must also be noted that several commercials were shown that advertised Play Mobil sets and that in most of these commercials no violence or sex was visible, because the sets that were shown did not require that. In the commercial that showed a castle with knights, violence was present: children’s hands are being seen who launch a huge rock onto some Play Mobil dolls.[8] In total six commercials referred to the use of violence in one way or another. There were none commercial hinting at sex of suggesting a form of sexuality. The commercial for the Nickelodeon app did show SpongeBob in his underpants, but made no reference to sex whatsoever.[9]

During the 21st century technology, games and kids toys tremendously changed. Children of all ages are now regularly confronted with violence in games, on television or on the internet. For this short research we watched 35 advertisements on Nickelodeon, a television channel for children. Four out of 35 advertisements contained references to violence. Problematic is the fact that all the violence, that is seen, is fictional. This can give the children a very wrong idea about how much it might actually hurt when you hit or kick someone. We noticed that the violence in the commercials that we have watched is always taken place between characters of the game or television series. The kids themselves never perform violence, so they are not confronted with real pain and real reactions towards violence. It is good that kids are not confronted with real violence, but it is also problematic because this way they have no idea how much hitting someone can hurt. Besides this we have discovered no sexual suggestions in the analysed advertisements, which confirms the statement that was developed during class, that sex has more of a taboo than violence has.

References:

Literature:

– Trend, D. (2007).  ‘But We Can Understand It: Beyond Polemics in the Media Violence Debate’, in: The Myth of Media Violence: A Critical Introduction. Malden, Oxford & Carlton: Blackwell Publishing.

[1] Trend, D. (2007).  ‘But We Can Understand It: Beyond Polemics in the Media Violence Debate’, in: The Myth of Media Violence: A Critical Introduction. Malden, Oxford & Carlton: Blackwell Publishing: 112.

[2] Idem: 109.

[3] Idem: 109.

[4] Commercial Skylanders. (3 December 2014, 18:45 o’clock) Nickelodeon.

[5] Commercial Starstable. (3 December 2014, 18:45 o’clock). Nickelodeon.

[6] Commercial Power Ranger sword. (5 December 2014, 10:40 o’clock). Nickelodeon junior.

[7] Commercial Hot Wheels. (5 December 2014, 10:40 o’clock). Nickelodeon junior.

[8] Commercial Play Mobil. (3 December, 19:15 o’clock). Nickelodeon.

[9] Commercial Nickelodeon app. (3 December, 18:45 o’clock). Nickelodeon.

A new way to work

With the rise of the creative industries, creativity has nowadays become a new focus in everyday work life. The demands of a new and revolutionized working industry shifted the working class into a new model of industry, in which acts are a countertrend. Adam Mills detected a countertrend in this time of cold-blooded utilitarianism.[1] During the Renaissance, where the value of creative and craft labour is emphasized, this countertrend can already be seen in the work of Leonardo Da Vinci who focused on craftsmanship rather than mass-produced industrial works.[2] When, in the nineteenth century, intellectuals and workers reacted against the appalling conditions faced by industrial workers, many of them drew on this countertrend.[3] This trend emerges to counteract the capitalist view of labour, which creates a detachment of workers from their work in a way that signals the birth of a new freedom and of new forms of collectivism.[4] This kind of detachment creates a sense of unity between workers in the same area, factory, and even in the same jobs category. It also creates an estranged connection between societies and products of their labour.

High demands and rising competitions have created working industries with a seemingly endless routine. Long working hours, high levels of stress and anxiety are common conditions of much modern working life.[5] However, there are several new working industries who are trying to make a change in order to stimulate the creativity of their workers and yet still incorporate a humanist approach in their new standard operational procedure.

A very good example for this case is Valve. Valve is a major gaming company, which produces series of famous games like Counter Strike and Half-Life, and creates an important platform for pc gamers, through which they can buy and play games.[6] Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, two former Microsoft employees, founded valve in 1996. The difference between Valve and any other companies can be seen through its policy in which they claimed to have no boss.[7] The organization has a flat structure, meaning there are no managers or management teams.

The company Valve believes that “when you give smart talented people the freedom to create without fear or failure, amazing things happen”.[8] And apparently that strategy has been working. What is most important for Valve is that their employees are able to create good games and to be innovative. They believe that telling these “innovators” what exactly they need to do, is not effective for the creative process of making games.[9] Another reason why Valve does not want to have a hierarchical structure in its company is because they feel that in time, a hierarchical structure will start to fulfil its own needs instead of that of the employees.[10] It must be noted that it is still possible that in certain project groups a leader might come up naturally.

Employees working for Valve do not have definite job titles, neither do they have “limitations on the scope of their responsibility”.[11] They do have certain descriptions of what they are doing, mainly in order to keep communication with the outside world easier. These descriptions can change, for example when a project is over.

In 2012, Valve released its handbook for new employees that surprised other companies,: “A fearless adventure in knowing what to do when no one’s there telling you what to do”.[12]  In this handbook, new employees will read that they can themselves choose what to work on and with whom to work and when to work on it.[13]  In order to be able to work together with anyone they want, the desks have wheels underneath them, which makes it very easy to move them around. Valve realizes that this can cause confusion when trying to find someone and has therefore set up a system that can find people’s computers.[14]

Another important way in which Valve seems to try to stimulate creativity is to facilitate their employees with everything they might need. In their handbook they claim that there are massage rooms and fresh fruit available at the office, for everyone to use.[15] Moreover, Valve stresses that a balance between work and private life is very important and is something that the employees should always keep in mind.[16] Valve even takes all its employees on a holiday trip once every year. Thus, Valve attached value to a well-rested and balanced employee, because they believe that this will make them more productive and creative.

The fact that Valve employees have no limited set of work responsibilities also means that all employees are responsible for the hiring of new people. In the Handbook for New Employees it is even stated that the hiring of new people is “the most important role” within Valve.[17] However, a hiring process is a process that takes up a lot of time and that is time taken from all the employees, even the ones that are skilled in perhaps drawing or programming, causing them to not be able to spend all their time on their product and the creative process.

Hesmondhalgh and Baker state in their chapter that changes in the world of work have meant a new centrality for creative labour.[18] Within Valve it is indeed the case that creativity is valued highly and is something that the company tries to stimulate in several ways, for example by mixing the employees with each other, by giving them tons of freedom and by making sure that they are happy. This creativity is important for Valve, because the creation of their products depends for an important part on creativity. While their flat structure at first hand seems to stimulate creativity and seems to fit the creative product that they make, it also causes the core creative workers to keep themselves busy with tasks that are not creative at all, losing time that otherwise could have been used to create products. Despite that, the way in which Valve works and is organized is a very new way, that values creativity, innovation and freedom.

References:

Literature:

• Baker, S., & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2011). The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Valve. (2012). Handbook for New Employees. Valve Press.

Websites:

• Valve. (2014). ‘Welcome to Valve’, in: Valve Software, http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/ (28-11-2014).
• Valve. (2014). ‘Our people’, in: Valve Software http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/people.html (29-11-2014).

[1] Baker, S., Hesmondhalgh, D. (2011). The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd: 383.

[2] Idem.

[3] Idem

[4] Idem

[5] Idem: 384.

[6] Valve. (2014). ‘Welcome to Valve’, in: Valve Software, http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/ (28-11-2014).

[7] Valve. (2014). ‘Our people’, in: Valve Software, http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/people.html (29-11-2014).

[8] Valve. (2014). ‘Welcome to Valve’, in: Valve Software, http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/ (28-11-2014).

[9] Valve. (2012) Handbook for New Employees. Valve Press: 4.

[10] Idem: 17.

[11] Idem:16.

[12] Idem: iii.

[13] Idem: 15.

[14] Idem:  6.

[15] Idem: 19.

[16] Idem: 17.

[17] Idem: 42.

[18] Baker, S., Hesmondhalgh, D. (2011). The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd: 387.

Can we change the world?

The iPhone 6 just entered the market. iPhone states that this version of the iPhone is not just bigger, but also better, thinner, more powerful and even energy-efficient.[1] Misled by commercials and the technological advances, one is tempted to replace one’s older phone by this iPhone 6. But what about the e-waste and environmental damage that dangerously increases by this phenomenon of constantly wanting new stuff? It can no longer be denied that the current way of consuming is taking its toll on the earth and her natural resources. Lewis frames it as follows: “the way we live now is, for all its abundance, full of empty promises.”[2] Part of the problem, Lewis says, lies with the consumer capitalism, that promotes endless growth, although this “endless growth and environmental degradation” can also exist without consumer capitalism: “consumer capitalism seems more likely to push us passed the “tipping point””.[3] What Lewis finds worrying, is the “built-in obsolescence” that we are used to these days.[4] The industries seem to be constantly innovating and coming up with new products that the consumer feels he or she needs, because it is (they find it?) more valuable than the already existing and owned products. Even though Lewis argues that “the mainstream public sphere finds it so difficult to acknowledge these contradictions, let alone address them”,[5] it is clear that something needs to be done in order to not exhaust the earth and all the resources it has to offer, which is why in this blog, we will discuss what power consumers have and where they can help in working towards a solution.

From DIY to DIT One way of using the power of consumers, and neglecting the notion ‘built-in obsolescence’ is DIY. DIY is an abbreviation of Do It Yourself.[6] This is a method where something is built, reused and repaired without the help of professionals and specialized companies.[7] Wolf & McQuitty state that this is a behavior where “individuals engage raw and semi-raw materials and component parts to produce, transform, or reconstruct material possessions, including those drawn from the natural environment (e.g. landscaping).”[8] Examples of DIY are: DIY fashion, DIY jewelry, DIY home improvement, self-publishing books et cetera. These days a lot of products can be repaired, customized or handmade with old and wasted materials. People have several reasons to DIY: it is cost-saving, so there are economic and financial benefits because materials are being reused. It is a way to express creativity and to customize objects, but also to add quality for example. Because of DIY there is a rise visible in craftsmanship and empowerment. Through empowerment people want to control their consumerist behaviour. They become more aware of the environmental degradation due to mass-production. Because of this awareness there is a shift visible from DIY to DIT: doing it together. Simply for the reason that DIY is not enough to fight the issue. By Doing It Together more people are reached, more materials are reused and we can work towards less material waste. DIT is gaining interest, but there is a long way ahead.

Changing Production Nevertheless all the changes that the consumers can make concerning their contribution to the volume of environmentally threatening e-waste, it is relevant to note that only 15% of the waste is created by consumers, leaving the other 85% to be created by the industries.[9]

Media production, information, and communication technology (ICT), and consumer electronics (CE) are major sources of toxic waste, pollution, and labour injustice – this is their legacy and, for now their future.

The production of the media industries is outsourced to cheap-labour countries. Young women and sometimes even children take part in the supply chains that lead to the technological gadgets that we in the western world carry on.[11] The workers make many hours a day under terrible working conditions where toxic materials and substances are often all around. Even worse, suicides are not uncommon in the factories like Foxconn, who provides our iPhones and iPads.[12] Besides the injustice in labour-conditions, the toxic production of all the smartphones and their depreciation leading them to end up on the dumping ground, causes immense ecological problems. To stop this pollution, all the factories involved in the supply chain have to become environmentally friendly.

First, to eventually accomplish this, we, as consumers, have to become conscious of the problems, issues and dangers that accompany the media production. This will be a rather difficult task because, according to Maxwell and Miller “[b]y the time the finished electronic products reach above-the-line producers and consumers, the evidence of the supply chain’s toxic history has disappeared into the technological sublime”.[13] Maxwell and Miller define the technological sublime as the “enchantment with the seeming magic”[14] of the devices and relate this to the idea of Karl Marx of fetishism and lust that is connected to products, which makes them “independent beings”.[15] We all have to break through the notion of the technological sublime by ending the fetishism of products and highlight the injustice material media production which is being fuelled by our own quest of the ever better and more modern products.

So both DIY and DIT can be seen in the light of consumerist power. Building and repairing with reused materials is one solution to reduce the waste of materials. But it is also important to keep in mind that DIY and DIT happens without the help of experts or professionals, so it is also an uprising against the ‘built of obsolescence’. Nevertheless, by introducing DIY and DIT the big worldwide ecological problem concerning e-waste cannot be solved, because 85% of the waste is produced by the (media) industries themselves. Through the whole supply chain which leads to all the technological gadgets, toxic materials and substances are released into our environment. To make the factories change their way of producing so that the ecological problems can be solved, we have to make an end to the technological sublime, which makes consumers constantly desire more modern and advanced products. Maxwell and Miller state that the technological sublime can be disrupted by a “green political-economic approach to media production.”[16] They want this approach to be incorporated in the media production studies. It is nevertheless regrettable if the consciousness of the materiality of media production will only be present in the academic world. The technological sublime should thus according to us also be defeated in the cultural public domain. Getting rid of the fetishism of products and thereby making everyone notice the issues of the material production underlying the technological products in the cultural public domain, can maybe force changes in the consumer behaviour and the environmentally friendliness of the media industries.

References: Literature: – Lewis, Justin. (2013). ‘The Dead-End of Consumerism: The Role of the Media and Cultural Industries’, in: The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies. – Maxwell, R. & Miller, T. (2013). ‘Neglected Elements: Production, Labor and the Environment’, in: Vicki Mayer (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume II: Media Production. Blackwell Publishing. – Wolf, M. & McQuitty, S. (2011). Understanding the Do-It-Yourself Consumer: DIY Motivation and Outcomes. Academy of Marketing Science Review. Website: – Ratcliff, D. ( 2013). ‘From DIY to DIT: a mirco History and possible future for the Dallas art scene’, in: Glasstire. http://glasstire.com/2013/06/21/from-diy-to-dit-a-micro-history-and-possible-future-for-the-dallas-art-scene/ (22-11-2014). Oral Source: – Seminar Media Industries. 17 November 2014. Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. [1] Apple. (2016). ‘iPhone 6’, in: iPhone 6. http://store.apple.com/nl/buy-iphone/iphone6 (21-11-2014).  [2] Lewis, Justin. (2013). ‘The Dead-End of Consumerism: The Role of the Media and Cultural Industries’, in: The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies: 2. [3] Idem: 4. [4] Idem: 8. [5] Idem: 2. [6] Wolf, M. & McQuitty, S. (2011). Understanding the Do-It-Yourself Consumer: DIY Motivation and Outcomes. Academy of Marketing Science Review. [7] Idem. [8] Idem. [9] Seminar Media Industries. 17 November 2014. Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. [11] Seminar Media Industries. 17 November 2014. Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.  [12] Seminar Media Industries. 17 November 2014. Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit. E [13] Maxwell, R. & Miller, T. (2013). ‘Neglected Elements: Production, Labor and the Environment’, in: Vicki Mayer (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume II: Media Production. Blackwell Publishing: 7. [14] Idem: 3. [15] Idem: 4. [16] Idem: 4.

Creating A Cultural Product : A Collaboration with TU Eindhoven

Until now we discussed working processes, changes and overall notions related to the creative industries. In this blog we will zoom in. In Objects and Infrastructures: Opening the Pathways of Cultural Circulation David Beer points out that to understand culture we have to take a look at the cultural objects and their contexts.[1] The fact that objects have an important place in our live and culture, is suggested by Sherry Turkle. She explains that “evocative objects” can be seen as “companions to our emotional lives or as provocations of thought.”[2] Objects can thus evoke emotions, feelings and memories. Moreover, objects actually have a material biography.[3] Their biography is formed by traces of use that change the physical appearance of the objects and inscribe their  history. These traces of history can be formed by sun damage, damage by use or for instance natural aging.[4] This material biography enhances the personal story related to the object and is therefore related to the personal meaning and feelings appointed to the object by the person engaging with it.[5] To examine these feelings, emotions, thoughts and meanings addressed to objects the affective-analysis from Laura Marks can be used. With this model of analysing effect in mind we have researched, in collaboration with students of the design academy of the TU in Eindhoven, the feelings, thoughts and notions that objects evoke and how this can be placed  in a wider cultural context. In this blog we will review the results of this research.

This affective analysis consisted of trying to describe the firstness, secondness and thirdness of an object, where firstness is the world as is it, which can be described as the effect or feeling that, in this case, a material or object can give its perceiver. The secondness then is the unconscious reflection on this first impression, the percept that is associated with both feeling and thinking. The thirdness finally is the interpretation or understanding of the object or material through abstract concepts and symbols, thus the concept that is associated with thinking.[6] Working with these steps of affective analysis proved to be very hard, since describing the firstness and even the secondness often resulted in actually describing the thirdness. Eventually, it helped to think of the bodily reaction that a material or object caused in its perceiver and to think of that reaction as the firstness. The secondness would then be the realization why you would for example shiver or smile while seeing an object and then connect a concept to that, which is the thirdness.

It was very interesting to see why we associate certain concepts with certain objects, since it is very common in cultural studies to work with concepts. Instead of applying these concepts to case studies, we took back some steps, which was very refreshing. As was working with industrial design students, since that made us, as cultural studies students, get a little peek into how products come into being instead of analysing them when they are long finished and have probably already found their place in society.

During the week we had to give three TU students feedback. Svetlana Mironcika, Qiying Cheng and Marjolein Kors worked with the idea that materials (natural or man-made) age. They tried to translate the aging of natural materials (in this case fruits: changes in color, wrinkles et cetera) into long-lasting man-made materials. They asked us to comment on their idea. It was very interesting to be involved in the thinking process. We helped them to make their idea more concrete by talking about the notion that nowadays a lot of people want to look young. With all the plastic surgery and the anti-aging products, there is kind of taboo on aging. By showing the aging of long-lasting products they oppose all the products that have the aim to keep people young. This made us think about the notion of ‘becoming’. For the course Things we read the book Understanding Material Culture by Ian Woodward. Here is stated that things are constantly in a state of becoming: a thing is not created and final, but it is constantly in a transitory state.[7] So this fits the notion that materials age. We also told them that they have to keep in mind that not all man-made products are long-lasting, and that there are also natural products such as wood for example that are long-lasting. So we advised them to be careful with describing their idea. They were very pleased with our feedback and we were very glad that we could help them to improve their idea. On friday we had to go to Eindhoven to watch their presentation and product. They came up with the idea of preventable Vs. unpreventable aging. They said that people can control the aging process of natural materials. Often natural materials are aging faster than durable materials. To capture the aging process they made a set of acrylic rings. This is a symbol of beauty, and reflects the notion of wanting to look young. Each of the rings contain real fruits in different states of degradation. But there are also scratches applied to the rings, to show the aging of man-made durable products. So aging is unpreventable and man-made products can only slow down the aging process which is very interesting to work with.

Through several products that have been created during the process mentioned above, we realize that these products have a very personal meaning which creates a certain attachment for the owner, thus they have more emotional value, which can be passed on from generation on generation. This kind of product lasts longer and has more sustainability as it ages, like Davis Beer pointed out that objects can evoke emotions, feelings and memories. Moreover, objects actually have a material biography.[8] Understanding the process of how to create cultural products that have a personal attachment to its owner can lead us to a more sustainable goods in the future.

References:

Literature:

– Beer, David. 2014. Object and Infrastructure: Opening Pathways of Cultural Circulation. Palgrave Macmillan

– Woodward, I. (2007). Sage Publications Ltd: London.

– Woodward, I. (2007). Understanding Material Culture. Sage Publications Ltd: London.

Oral source:
– Stevens, M. Seminar media industries. (10 November 2014). Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.

[1] Beer, David. 2014. Object and Infrastructure: Opening Pathways of Cultural Circulation. Palgrave Macmillan: 13.

[2] Idem: 16.

[3] Idem: 17.

[4] Idem: 17,18.

[5] Idem: 17.

[6] Stevens, M. Seminar Media Industries: Time and Materiality in Context. (10 November 2011). Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.

[7] Woodward, I. (2007). Understanding Material Culture. Sage Publications Ltd.: London.

[8] Beer, David. 2014. Object and Infrastructure: Opening Pathways of Cultural Circulation. Palgrave Macmillan: 17.

An audience getting famous

Becoming famous is nowadays much easier than twenty years ago. Upload a nice video or a great photo on Facebook, or on Youtube and the ‘likes’ or followers will confirm your popularity. Everyone can become a weblebrity through the internet and obtain their “fifteen minutes of fame”.[1] All this new media provide the former audience with simple ways to become producers of cultural content.[2] Shayla Thiel-Stern discusses the “New Media Audiences” in her text Beyond the Active Audience. She states that: “the new media have almost fully collapsed the differences between audience and producer.”[3] The audience is not anymore a passive receiver of information but also, as said, a producer and besides that the audience is aware of its own audience as well.[4] In this blog we want to focus on the case-study of Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg who has become popular on Youtube under the name PewDiePie. He started commenting games on Youtube in 2010 and now he has a whole, so-called, Bro-Army of fans.[5] We want to see how PewDiePie’s career can be related to the notions of audience and producer. This phenomenon has already been researched within the field of new media audience scholarship and besides that Thiel-Stern states: “we must question not only the interactive media audience’s dual role- as producer and audience- but also what it means that this audience is constantly aware of its new role and of its creative potential”.[6] So in this blog we will not only examine how PewDiePie is related to the ideas of producer and audience, but we will also discuss the way in which PewDiePie interacts with and uses his Bro-Army.

With the growing of the Internet, the audience changed alongside with it. As stated by Shayla Thiel-Stern, that new media, in this case the Internet, is a new space in which to find an audience, albeit a relatively small one.[7] But as we can see from the case of PewDiePie, the audience that he has gained is not particularly a small one. PewDiePie has gained more than 31 million subscribers in Youtube not to mention people who watched his video without subscribing to his channel. PewDiePie started as an audience himself to the game company by reviewing new released games. As his popularity increased, he started to gain an audience of his own and created a community-based audience by calling his audience his ‘bros’ or brothers, suggesting some sort of closeness between performers, and audience. He actively and frequently posts new videos and interacts with his subscribers in different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Omegle.

His subscribers can interact with him directly and indirectly by posting comments and suggestions. The Internet users were able, at least to some extent, to respond directly to the gatekeepers who produced content and to other audience members.[8] Through this platform to interact with each other, some users find the benefit to advertise their own means in order to gain audience from PewDiePie’s audience, although the number will be much smaller, still, some benefit can be drawn in the effort to gain own audience from other audiences. PewDiePie did disable the opportunity for his YouTube subscribers to place comments on his videos, because he felt like he was reading only clutter and spam of people who are self-advertising or provoking. That caused PewDiePie to not be able to connect with his followers, or bros as he calls them, which he thinks is a shame. In his video he promised to be active on other media, like Twitter and Facebook, in order to be able to get in touch with his audience, which is apparently very important to PewDiePie.[9] He even says that this close contact with his fans is what makes his show so different from others and thus so successful.[10]

Whenever PewDiePie plays a game, chances are that the sales of this game will go up, which happens for games like Slender, Flappy Birds, McPixel, Goat Simulator, Surgeon Simulator et cetera.  PewDiePie admits that thanks to him playing Slender, the developer of this game was able to create a full version of it.[11] He even receives copies from game developers to review in the hope that sales of that particular game will indeed increase, before the other members of the audience are able to play these games. PewDiePie has thus become a marketing tool for game developers.[12] Not only is not every audience member happy with that, other game reviewers are also very critical of this, because they think that it is important that game journalists stay independent and should not become marketing machines of game developers.[13]

Everyone can become a web-lebrity nowadays. The only thing you have to do is upload a funny video for example and get a lot of ‘likes’. According to Thiel-Stern, this way the audience can become a producer themselves. In this blog we discussed PewDiePie and how he relates to the idea that an audience can become a producer and in which way he interacts with his own audience, the Bro-Army. PewDiePie gained a huge audience through the years with his comments in videos on games, but we cannot forget that he was first part of the audience in the game community himself. He is thus a perfect example of someone from the audience, that became a producer himself. PewDiePie keeps up with his popularity by updating new videos and by keeping in touch with his audience. The audience can comment with posts on his videos. Such a post can become popular and the writer can gain an audience of his own. So it is like a circle. But because of this self-advertising of the audience, also a lot of spam and negative reactions aroused and PewDiePie lost his connection with those followers. Which he thinks is a disadvantage of  the audience trying to get an audience of their own. So PewDiePie is a very interesting case when you talk about audiences. For further research it is interesting to elaborate more on the fact that the audience of PewDiePie speaks up to him because he became a sort of marketing tool and can play games before the audiences can even play them.

References:

Literature:
– Thiel-Stern, S. (2013). ‘Beyond the active audience: Exploring new media audiences and the limits of cultural production’, in: Radhika Parameswaran (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume IV: Audience and Interpretation. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell.

Websites:
– Crecente, B. 17 Jun. 2014. “PewDiePie isn’t just a popular Let’s Play YouTuber, he’s the $4M-a-year king of YouTube”, in: Polygon. http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/17/5817118/how-much-does-pewdiepie-make (5-11-2014).
– Lee, J. (2013). ‘Many fans gather at Social Star Awards for YouTube stars, not music superstars’, in: The straits times.  http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/social-media-awards/story/many-fans-gather-social-star-awards-youtube-stars-not-music- (04-1102014).
– Lindholm, M. (N.d). “The most powerful Swede in the world”, in: Icon. http://iconmagazine.se/artiklar/stories-in-english/powerful-swede-world-2/ (5-11-2014).
– OP: Dr. Killswitch. 23 Feb. 2014. “why does pewdiepie get the game early?”, in: Steam, South Park: The Stick of Truth. http://steamcommunity.com/app/213670/discussions/0/558748822429638658/ (5-11-2014).
– TotalBiscuit. 19 Aug. 2014. “What the hell just happened?”, in: TwitLonger. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s4nmr1 (5-11-2014).
– Webb, S. (2014). ‘Did Andy Warhol get his 15 minutes of fame by ripping off someone else’s saying?’, in: mailonline. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2601226/Did-Andy-Warhol-15-minutes-fame-ripping-elses-saying.html (04-11-2014).

[1] Webb, S. (2014). ‘Did Andy Warhol get his 15 minutes of fame by ripping off someone else’s saying?’, in: mailonline. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2601226/Did-Andy-Warhol-15-minutes-fame-ripping-elses-saying.html (04-11-2014).
[2] Thiel-Stern, S. (2013). ‘Beyond the active audience: Exploring new media audiences and the limits of cultural production’, in: Radhika Parameswaran (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume IV: Audience and Interpretation. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell: 7.
[3] Idem: 1.
[4] Idem: 2.
[5] Lee, J. (2013). ‘Many fans gather at Social Star Awards for YouTube stars, not music superstars’, in: The straits times.  http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/social-media-awards/story/many-fans-gather-social-star-awards-youtube-stars-not-music- (04-1102014).
[6] Thiel-Stern, S. (2013). ‘Beyond the active audience: Exploring new media audiences and the limits of cultural production’, in: Radhika Parameswaran (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume IV: Audience and Interpretation. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell: 9, 15.
[7] Thiel-Stern, S. (2013). ‘Beyond the active audience: Exploring new media audiences and the limits of cultural production’, in: Radhika Parameswaran (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume IV: Audience and Interpretation. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell: 4.
[8] Thiel-Stern, S. (2013). ‘Beyond the active audience: Exploring new media audiences and the limits of cultural production’, in: Radhika Parameswaran (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume IV: Audience and Interpretation. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell: 4.
[9] PewDiePie. 29 Aug. 2014. “Goodbye Forever Comments”, in :YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_hHKlEZ9Go (5-11-2014).
[10] Crecente, B. 17 Jun. 2014. “PewDiePie isn’t just a popular Let’s Play YouTuber, he’s the $4M-a-year king of YouTube”, in: Polygon. http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/17/5817118/how-much-does-pewdiepie-make (5-11-2014).
[11] Lindholm, M. (N.d). “The most powerful Swede in the world”, in: Icon. http://iconmagazine.se/artiklar/stories-in-english/powerful-swede-world-2/ (5-11-2014).
[12] OP: Dr. Killswitch. 23 Feb. 2014. “why does pewdiepie get the game early?”, in: Steam, South Park: The Stick of Truth. http://steamcommunity.com/app/213670/discussions/0/558748822429638658/ (5-11-2014).
[13] TotalBiscuit. 19 Aug. 2014. “What the hell just happened?”, in: TwitLonger. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s4nmr1 (5-11-2014).

Legoland as a space of memories

In his article Places of the imagination Reijnders speaks about media pilgrimage, the visiting of places that are featured in the media.[1] Media pilgrimage, he says, is about crossing the boundaries between what is inside and outside the media. In order to be able to study this media pilgrimage, Reijnders comes up with a new concept, lieux d’imagination, which he bases on the more well-known concept of lieux de mémoire.[2] Reijnders quotes Nora, who says that: “lieux de mémoire have an important role in [today’s rich culture of memorialisation], as places which can function as symbolic moorings in a turbulent world”.[3] Another concept that must be mentioned here is that of milieux de mémoire, non-official places of memory, that are personal.[4] What Reijnders feels is so important about Nora’s theory, is the fact that it emphasizes that memory is constructed and that institutions have the power to decide what a society recollects and remember. Moreover, Nora recognizes people’s need for physical locations “to give form to their memory”.[5] It is exactly this spatial dimension that Reijnders deems so important and incorporates in his concept of lieux d’imagination. Reijnders actually emphasizes with this concept that we can have memories of events that never really took place.[6] With that said, in this blog, we want to investigate whether Legoland, the theme park that celebrates a toy, can be seen as a milieux de mémoire.

In 1968 the first Legoland theme park was opened in Billund, Denmark.[7] First the park only existed out of a miniature world built up with Lego. The Lego bricks are invented by Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932.[8] It became a huge success and a very popular kids’ toy. Christiansen decided to create a place where people could visit and see the creations built out of Lego. There were Lego trains, cars, well known buildings, animals et cetera.[9] Nowadays Legoland has six theme parks around the world and they are opening three new parks in 2015. Legoland exists not only out of a miniature world build out of Lego bricks, but there are nowadays also attractions and hotels.[10] Legoland became a whole experience for kids but also for their parents.

Because Lego exists for more than eighty years now, also the current parents who have played with Lego during their childhood may visit the park with their children. So Legoland is not only an experience for children but also for their parents. It can be seen as a ride back to memory lane for parents and as a place where new memories occur for the children. So as said in the introduction, people need a physical location for giving form to their memories. Legoland is such a physical location. Because of Legoland, there is a physical place where memories about the experiences with Lego can be relived. So it can be said that memories are constructed. Despite being only a toy manufacturer, Lego manages to create a deeper connection with its customers. For example, seeing a Lego set in a toy store will make people who played with them as a kid, remember their childhood. They will most likely buy the same product for their own children, hoping that their children will also have a good time with the toys as much as they did.

The theme park consists of attractions, water park, shopping area, and dining area. There is also a double layer within the buildings that are rebuilt with Lego. Legoland recreates well known buildings, areas and places for example the White House, the Hollywood sign et cetera.[11] Those recreations can as well recall memories by people who visited the real White House for example. There can thus be some kind of double layer within the recreations. These recreations can functions as ‘symbolic moorings’.[12]

By building Legoland, a physical place is created which can enhance the connection of Lego with the customers. People start to go to Legoland to remember their childhood, making Legoland their personal milieux de memoire. Even though there are a lot of people visiting the theme park, the reasons to visit the park are based on personal memories and experiences. This can be seen in the Legoland review:

“My trip to Legoland back in ’95 was one of my best childhood memories i have, i was only 7 at the time, travelling with my 2 older brother, mum and dad. My dad unfortunately was ill with cancer and died a year later. at the point of our visit he was in a wheelchair….,  …. i would like to say thank you for making such a happy memory for me in what was shortly after going to be a big loss for me when my dad lost his battle with cancer. i always have the photos and memories of this trip to look back on.”[13] – Dan B. (Legoland visitor)

Besides the idea of Legoland as a space creating personal memories, Legoland can also be viewed as modern day media strategy to create spaces of memories based on popular culture such as movie, TV series, and in this case, Lego.[14] It is clear that nowadays, spaces of memories can be use as a new way to reinvent a business model not only to create more profit, but also to create a stronger connection between the brand and customer to secure the brand’s future against new competitors.[15]

For some people Legoland is just another theme park with nice attractions or maybe good restaurants, but we can conclude that for other people the park is about so much more. Because the park is not an official place for memory it cannot be seen as a lieux de mémoire. The theme park can have people recall personal memories about the adventures an adult had when playing with Lego during his or her childhood. From this point of view the theme park could be a milieux de mémoire in a more personal sense. Besides the memories of the childhood, the theme park could also recall personal memories that are connected to the famous buildings that are recreated in the park.

References:

Literature:
– Reijnders, S. (2010). ‘Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour’, in: Cultural Geographies

Oral source:
– Stevens, M. Seminar media industries. (27 October 2014). Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.

Websites:
– Legogroup. (2014). ‘About LEGOLAND’, in: LEGOLAND California Resort. http://california.legoland.com/en/about_us/About_LEGOLAND1/ (01-11-2014).
– Z.n. (2014). ‘LEGOLAND Florida Photo: The White House’, in: Tripadvisor. http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g34746-d2322446-i38572324-LEGOLAND_Florida-Winter_Haven_Florida.html#38572321 (01-11-2014).
– Dan B. (2014). “AMAZING Childhood Memory!!”, in: Tripadvisor. http://www.tripadvisor.nl/ShowUserReviews-g189531-d232298-r215861948-Legoland_Billund-Billund_Billund_Municipality_South_Jutland_Jutland.html (01-11-2014)
[1] Reijnders, S. (2010). ‘Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour’, in: Cultural Geographies, 17, nr 1: 38
[2] Idem: 39.
[3] Idem: 40.
[4] Stevens, M. Seminar media industries. (27 October 2014). Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.
[5] Reijnders, S. (2010). ‘Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour’, in: Cultural Geographies, 17, nr 1: 40.
[6] Idem: 41.
[7] Legogroup. (2014). ‘About LEGOLAND’, in: LEGOLAND California Resort. http://california.legoland.com/en/about_us/About_LEGOLAND1/ (01-11-2014).
[8] Idem.
[9] Idem.
[10] Idem.
[11] Z.n. (2014). ‘LEGOLAND Florida Photo: The White House’, in: Tripadvisor. http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g34746-d2322446-i38572324-LEGOLAND_Florida-Winter_Haven_Florida.html#38572321 (01-11-2014).
[12] Reijnders, S. (2010). ‘Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour’, in: Cultural Geographies, 17, nr 1: 40.
[13] Dan B. (2014). “AMAZING Childhood Memory!!”, in: Tripadvisor. http://www.tripadvisor.nl/ShowUserReviews-g189531-d232298-r215861948-Legoland_Billund-Billund_Billund_Municipality_South_Jutland_Jutland.html (01-11-2014).
[14] Stevens, Martijn. Media Industries class 27 October 2014.
[15] Stevens, Martijn. Media Industries class 27 October 2014.

Home Box Office as cultural imperialism?

The thesis of cultural imperialism, which states that (often Western) media such as television programs, movies, music et cetera show dominance over (often non-Western) countries, is still very relevant, even despite the recent growth of counterflow cultures like the Korean Wave and Japanese manga and animation. The influences of the United States and Western world have never decreased; instead they have rapidly increased, through a new transnational guise and amidst market liberalization in several Asian countries.[1] This cultural imperialism is not only showing dominance in the media industries, but in other sectors as well. Wasko (2008) argues that imperialism involves an extension of power or authority over others, with a view to dominate, and it results in political, military, or economic dominance of one country over another.[2] Thus, this phenomenon creates a long-term effect on the less developed countries. Nonetheless, keeping the dominance over the industries in the developing countries is not without any challenge. Namely in Asian countries, the challenge is increasing because of the different languages, economic and political situations.[3] There are also three main aspects, which create obstacles to the dominant: the development of local cultural industries, peripheral vision and active audiences.[4] So there is a contraflow against the dominant industries, and yet nowadays, western media industries are continuously finding new methods and strategies to keep the loyalty of their non-western customers. To visualize these ideas, we will take a closer look on the strategies of the worldwide cable TV corporations of  HBO, which is one of the companies which succeeded to stay in the top of the business across nations and continents notwithstanding the local countermovements.

When a company decides to extend their distribution to foreign countries there are several models that could be used to attain this goal.[5] The first of these models is the international strategy, where one product is created for the domestic market and then from the headquarters distributed across other countries. Another option is the multinational strategy, which makes use of the difference between countries and is about adapting the products, the strategies and management practices to these countries. The third option is the global strategy, which is funded on the belief that there is not too much difference in taste all over the world and thus creates products that ought to be fit for the whole world. The final strategy is the transnational strategy, which is somewhere in the middle of the previous strategies, wanting to both be global and adapt to local circumstances as well. The companies working with this last strategy relate horizontally to each other so that they can adapt to local markets and distribute on a large-scale.

HBO is a channel that broadcast all kinds of movies and several popular television series. This channel is one of the “operating divisions” of TimeWarner.[6] TimeWarner states about these divisions: “they each foster a culture that encourages and embraces constructive collaboration.”[7] HBO expends their horizon and finds ways to continue building on new innovations to distribute their content over the whole world by making it for instance available on iPhones, iPads and smartphones.[8] On their website, HBO claims that their “services are available in more than 50 countries and reach over 35 million subscribers.”[9] They continue to give a list of all countries where people can make use of HBO services and in what way the audience can do this. This does not only show that people from a wide variety can watch HBO series, from China to Brazil and from Brunei to Serbia, but also that HBO choses to create products and make these specific products available all over the world. So they seem to be using either the international or global strategy. Their statement “building on its strong position in the US, Home Box Office has become a major player in the expanding international media arena”[10] does seem to suggest that this is more an international strategy than a global one, since HBO first created shows and films for the domestic, American, market, but after these proved themselves to be very successful, they became available outside the USA as well, but not in an adapted version.[11] The fact that HBO mentions New York and Los Angeles as answer on the question: “Where are the HBO offices?”[12], emphasizes the idea that HBO works with an top-down international strategy which is linked to a the idea of a domestic dominant headquarter.

The influence of the  media in the United States on different countries has never decreased. The dominance of the US media industries on other countries can be called cultural imperialism. In this paper Home Box Office is discussed. HBO has a dominance over other countries with the programs it produces. As mentioned there are several models for distributing to other countries. HBO uses the so-called international strategy. HBO creates programs for the American domestic market but they distribute the programs through their headquarter in the US across the whole world. Showing the same programs in other countries does not mean that people interpret the programs in the same way. It is possible that people in Brazil have a different way of enjoying and interpreting HBO shows than people in The Netherlands do for example. But this might be interesting for further research about cultural imperialism. So the fact that HBO shows the same programs all over the world, is definitely a sign that might lead one to conclude that cultural imperialism is very lively these days. There is talk of a contraflow against dominant industries who distribute to other countries, but HBO is keeping its power through innovation of strategies and they are constantly building on their strong position. So HBO seems to confirm the notion of cultural imperialism with the ongoing power they have on foreign countries.

References:

Literature:
– Dal Yong Jin. (2013). ‘A Critical Analysis of Cultural Imperialism: From the Asian Frontlines’, in: Vicki Mayer (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume II: Media Production. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell.

Oral source:
– Stevens, M. Seminar media industries. (13 October 2014). Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.

Websites:
– HBO. (n.d.). ‘HBO International’, in: About HBO. http://www.hbo.com/#/about/faqs/international.html (25-10-214).
– Time Warner. (2014). About Us. http://www.timewarner.com/company/about-us (25-10-2014).
– Time Warner. (2014). Home Box Office.  http://www.timewarner.com/company/operating-divisions/home-box-office (25-10-2014).

[1] Dal Yong Jin. (2013). ‘A Critical Analysis of Cultural Imperialism: From the Asian Frontlines’, in: Vicki Mayer (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, Volume II: Media Production. Malden & Chichester: Whiley-Blackwell: 2.
[2]Idem: 2.
[3] Idem: 2.
[4] Idem: 3.
[5] Stevens, M. Seminar media industries. (13 October 2014). Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.
[6] Time Warner. (2014). About Us. http://www.timewarner.com/company/about-us (25-10-2014).
[7] Idem.
[8] Time Warner. (2014). Home Box Office.  http://www.timewarner.com/company/operating-divisions/home-box-office (25-10-2014).
[9] HBO. (n.d.). ‘HBO International’, in: About HBO. http://www.hbo.com/#/about/faqs/international.html (25-10-214).
[10] Idem.
[11] HBO. (n.d.). ‘HBO International’, in: About HBO. http://www.hbo.com/#/about/faqs/international.html (25-10-214).

A Transnational Industry: An Analysis of Slumdog Millionaire as a Transnational Phenomenon

The global media landscape has been transformed because of deregulation and privatization of the telecommunication and broadcasting.[1] This adaptation of new technologies had a huge impact on the communication sector. Not only the United States but India as well has become very important in the circulation of cultural goods. Bollywood is the largest film factory in terms of production and viewership.[2] Many more films are released in India than in Hollywood, but their influence is mostly confined to the Indian subcontinent and among the south Asian diaspora. Though cross-over films have begun to change this. Because of changes in the global broadcasting environment, digital television and the internet, the content of  Bollywood is now available to international audiences.[3] So there is a growing southern presence in the global media marketplace. According to Daya Kishan Thussu, “[…] in the second decade of the twenty-first century the world of global media and communication offers exciting challenges and possibilities of rethinking intercultural exchanges at a transnational level”.[4] To explain this we have chosen Slumdog millionaire as a case study. This is a film by Danny Boyle, an English director.[5] Interestingly, it is often considered as a Bollywood film. In this blog we are going to study how transnational Slumdog Millionaire is.

Thussu argues that Bollywood is visible outside India in the sense that it serves as an inspiration for Western filmmakers, which Slumdog Millionaire shows.^[6] Slumdog Millionaire is not only inspired by Indian culture, but is a cooperation between filmmakers in both England and India: the screenplay is written by an English screenwriter, but inspired by a novel by the Indian writer Vikas Swarup. Englishman Danny Boyle is the director of the movie, but had help from the Indian co-director Loveleen Tandan in India. The cast of Slumdog Millionaire is mostly Indian, but the main character is portrayed by an actor who was born in England, but does have an Indian appearance.^[7] The teams of producers, soundman, cameraman etcetera are all a mix of both English, or Western, and Indian people, led by English managers. An exception is the art department, responsible for the visual sphere of the movie, which consisted of only Indian people.^[8] A possible solution could be that the film needed to have an Indian feeling, which could best be done by Indian workers. However, in general, there was a mix of cultures of all levels.

This all shows that globalization must not be understood as a flow from one area to the other, but more as a process that makes the relation between areas, people, technologies more complex and maybe even more diverse. Berghahn and Sternberg quote Arjun Appadurai who argues that thanks to the increasing transnational linking that the media do between producers and audiences and these audience will start talking to others who move, more and more diaspora public spaces will come into existence, which is exactly what seems to be the case for Slumdog Millionaire. ^[9]

These transnational connections throughout the production process of Slumdog Millionaire coincide with the elements of World Cinema. According to the definition given by Chaudhuri, Thomas, Elsaesser and other academics World Cinema implies transnational connections on the level of film production, financing, distribution and reception and the use of a foreign-language.^[10] Slumdog Millionaire could be seen as World Cinema because besides the different nationalities of the crew,  the film is distributed in inter alia the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and the film is released in English, Hindi and French.^[11]

“World Cinema is a category that refers to non-Western cultural products and practices ‘as viewed from the West”.^[12] The concept of World Cinema could thus be seen as a western ‘quality label’ or brand, created and controlled by awarding prizes and screenings on international festivals and “privileges films that resonate with Western aesthetic sensibilities and certain preconceptions about the ‘other’.”^[13] To be accepted as World Cinema a combination of the display of otherness and the use of western elements is thus needed. In Slumdog Millionaire, this mix of the otherness of Bollywood and western sensibilities can be clearly seen, causing the movie to attract viewers from all over the world and winning several awards.

Thus, globalization is a process that makes the relation between areas, people, technologies etcetera more complex and maybe even more diverse. Bollywood is a good example of a contraflow against western domination in the entertainment world and has actually become somewhat like a brand. From the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, we can see how is India being portrayed in the western world. Although the movie contains Indian stars, and an Indian cultural theme, it is not without some changes and adaptations which make that the movie could be seen as ‘World Cinema’. This concept can make international movies more visible in the global market, though there is a danger that they might lose their cultural distinctiveness in the process of fitting in into the ‘World Cinema’ concept, which raises the important question what this cultural distinctiveness exactly is and whether it is still a relevant concept.

Literature:
– Berghahn, Daniela & Sternberg Claudia.(2010). ‘Locating Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe’, in: Daniela Berghahn & Claudia Sternberg (eds.), European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 12-49.
– Thussu, Daya Kishan. (2012). ‘Cultural Practices and Media Production: The Case of Bollywood’, in: Isabelle Rigoni & Eugénie Saitta (eds.) Mediating Cultural Diversity in a Globalised Public Space. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 119-134.

Websites:
– IMDB. (2014). ‘Company credits’, in: Slumdog Millionaire (2008). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm (02-10-2014).
– IMDB. (2014). ‘Full Cast & Crew’, in: Slumdog Millionaire.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm (08-10-2014)
– IMDB. (2014). Dev Patel. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2353862/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t1 (08-10-2014)(2014). Slumdog Millionaire. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/ (07-10-2014).

[1]  Thussu, Daya Kishan. (2012). ‘Cultural Practices and Media Production: The Case of Bollywood’, in: Isabelle Rigoni & Eugénie Saitta (eds.) Mediating Cultural Diversity in a Globalised Public Space. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 119.
[2] Idem: 123.
[3] Idem: 124.
[4] Idem: 120.
[5] IMDB. (2014). Slumdog Millionaire. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/ (07-10-2014).
^[6]  Thussu, Daya Kishan. (2012). ‘Cultural Practices and Media Production: The Case of Bollywood’, in: Isabelle Rigoni & Eugénie Saitta (eds.) Mediating Cultural Diversity in a Globalised Public Space. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 124
^7] IMDB. (2014). Dev Patel. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2353862/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t1 (08-10-2014).
^[8] IMDB. (2014). ‘Full Cast & Crew’, in: Slumdog Millionaire. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm (08-10-2014).
^[9] Berghahn, Daniela & Sternberg Claudia. (2010). ‘Locating Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe’, in: Daniela Berghahn & Claudia Sternberg (eds.), European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 12-49.
^[10] Berghahn, Daniela & Sternberg Claudia. (2010). ‘Locating Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe’, in: D. Berghahn & C. Sternberg (eds.), European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 38.
^[11] IMDB. (2014). ‘Company credits’, in: Slumdog Millionaire (2008).  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm (02-10-2014).
^[12] Berghahn, Daniela & Sternberg Claudia. (2010). ‘Locating Migrant and Diasporic Cinema in Contemporary Europe’, in: D. Berghahn & C. Sternberg (eds.), European Cinema in Motion: Migrant and Diasporic Film in Contemporary Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan: 39.
^[13] Idem: 39.

Big Bird versus Pino

The emergence of television in the 1950s has opened a new era of information and entertainment. TV producers are competing against each other to attract viewers and increase their ratings. TV formats, a television program that is being adopted outside its country of origin[1], have become a worldwide phenomenon and business. While travelling across countries and continents, a format is being adapted to suit the local culture and preferences. These changes and adaptations are usually not noticed by the audience.[2] It is important to note that these differences might also have a political motivation. Thus, a format is a show that can generate a distinctive narrative and is licensed outside its country of origin in order to be adapted to local audiences.[3] A good example of a TV format is Sesame Street.  This program has been distributed to 120 countries and consists of more than 20 international versions.[4] It is an educational television program designed for children. Sesame Street aired for the first time in 1969, and is still one of the most famous and successful formats. In our blog we are going to discuss the American muppet Big Bird and the Dutch version of Big Bird called Pino. We will answer the following question: what are the local differences between Pino and Big Bird and are there any differences in the way the two muppets are used to send out political messages?

Big Bird is a six-year-old yellow bird who lives in a large nest in Sesame Street.[5] He is curious and asks questions all the time. Pino is based on this original American version of Big Bird. In the Dutch version Pino is three years old.[6] Pino is a little younger than Big Bird, because the character of Big Bird does not suits a Dutch six-year-old. In the Netherlands, kids are going to preschool at a younger age and language deficiency is less common. This is why Sesamstraat focuses less on the alphabet and numbers and more on social emotional development.[7] One very obvious difference is that Big Bird is yellow, and Pino is blue. But this has nothing to do with local differences, but it was a requirement imposed by Sesame Street.[8] Big Bird does not show up in Sesamstraat episodes, but he does in merchandising for example. This confused the kids, so now Big Bird is Pino’s cousin, called Neef Jan.[9] Pino and Big Bird have similar personalities. Pino asks questions all the time, just as Big Bird, and the other residents have to explain a lot to him, but in this way the kids who are watching are learning together with Pino. So this Pino is eager to learn, but he is also sensitive, very friendly and can easily make new friends. Important to state here is that Big Bird has just one very clear character feature, while Pino has a few more. The Dutch muppet are therefore more like real children.[10]

Both Big Bird and Pino are not just muppets with an educational aim, they are also mentioned in political campaigns and actions. Big Birds political debut was in 2012 when politician Mitt Romney announced cuts in the government funding of public broadcasting which could lead to the end of the broadcasting station PBS.[11] Romney said the following:

I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.[12]

According to James Poniewozik it is actually not Romney who dragged Big Bird into the politician debate, but it’s the defenders of public money who bring up Big Bird and the other characters of Sesame Street to connect the budget cuts to the educational television for their children.[13] After this statement of Romney and the online reactions portraying Romney a bird-killer, Obama launched an advertisement which “depicted Romney as more concerned with cracking down on Big Bird than on white-collar criminals such as Bernie Madoff and Ken Lay.”[14] The Sesame Workshop wanted their characters to be removed from the political campaigns and stated: “Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns.”[15] Poniewozik interestingly notices that even with the budget cuts it’s not Sesame Street that would suffer, but some local PBS stations. [16]

Pino was in 2005 physically present in Den Haag to demonstrate against the media policy of the former government. This policy formed a treat towards the Dutch Publieke Omroep, because the intention was to abolish the NPS.[17] Pino defended the NPS by saying that he did not want to pack all his stuffed animals.[18] The fact that Pino is the only full-body muppet of Sesamstaat might explain why Pino and not Tommie or Inimini was there to demonstrate.

It has become clear that the characters of Big Bird and Pino are very similar when it comes to the personality treat of being very curious and wanting to know everything. On the other hand, there are differences as well, which is interesting since the USA and the Netherlands are both very Western countries. The most striking difference is that Pino has a richer character than Big Bird has, which has to do at least partly with the fact that the USA and the Netherlands have different education systems. In terms of political differences it is very interesting to see that both Pino and Big Bird are used to symbolize public broadcasting and in the Netherlands Pino is actually used to defend public broadcasting outside of the television series. The difference between the political use of Big Bird/Pino is that in America Sesame Street reacted to the use of their character, while in the Netherlands such an expression of disapproval of Pino’s presence at the demonstration in Den Haag was not found from Sesamstraat.

Literature:
– Chalaby, Jean. (2011). ‘The making of an entertainment revolution: How the TV format trade became a global industry’, in: European Journal of Communication, 26, nr.4: 293-309.

Websites:
– Muppet Wiki. (2014). Big Bird. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
– Muppet Wiki. (2014). Pino. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Pino (02-10-2014).
– Muppet Wiki. (2014). Sesame Street. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street (01-10-2014).
– Poniewozik, J. (2012). ‘Why Is Mitt Romney Picking a Fight with Big Bird?’, in: Time. http://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/05/why-is-mitt-romney-picking-a-fight-with-big-bird/ (02-10-2014).
– Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Amerikaanse poppen’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/amerikaansepoppen.html (02-10-2014).
– Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Leerdoel’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/vroegerennu/leerdoel.html (02-10-2014)
– Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Pino’, in: Achter de schermen van Sesamstraat. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/pino.html (02-10-2014).
– Stegeman, L. (z.j.). ‘Pino protesteert’, in: Sevendays. http://www.sevendays.nl/artikel/135606#.VCwRd9McSP8 (02-10-2014).
– Z.n. (2014). ‘Big Bird’, in: Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
– Z.n. (z.j.). ‘Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads’, in: The Sesame Workshop Blog. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/our-blog/2012/10/09/sesame-workshop-response-to-campaign-ads/ (02-10-2014).

[1] Chalaby, Jean. (2011). The Making of an Entertainment Revolution: How the TV Format Trade Became a Global Industry. SAGE.: 295.
[2] Chalaby, Jean. (2011). The Making of an Entertainment Revolution: How the TV Format Trade Became a Global Industry. SAGE.: 293.
[3] Chalaby, Jean. (2011). The Making of an Entertainment Revolution: How the TV Format Trade Became a Global Industry. SAGE:296.
[4] Muppet Wiki. (2014), Sesame Street. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street (1-10-2014).
[5] Muppet Wiki. (2014). Big Bird. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
[6] Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Pino’, in: Achter de schermen van Sesamstraat. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/pino.html (02-10-2014).
[7] Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Leerdoel’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/vroegerennu/leerdoel.html (02-10-2014)
[8] Muppet Wiki. (2014). Pino. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Pino (02-10-2014).
[9] Idem.
[10] Sesamstraat. (2014). ‘Amerikaanse poppen’, in: Sesamstraat achter de schermen. http://sesamstraat.ntr.nl/achterdeschermen/poppen/amerikaansepoppen.html (02-10-2014).
[11] Poniewozik, J. (2012). ‘Why Is Mitt Romney Picking a Fight with Big Bird?’, in: Time. http://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/05/why-is-mitt-romney-picking-a-fight-with-big-bird/ (02-10-2014).
[12] Idem.
[13] Idem.
[14] Z.n. (2014). ‘Big Bird’, in: Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bird (02-10-2014).
[15]  Z.n. (z.j.). ‘Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads’, in: The Sesame Workshop Blog. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/our-blog/2012/10/09/sesame-workshop-response-to-campaign-ads/ (02-10-2014).
[16] Poniewozik, J. (2012). ‘Why Is Mitt Romney Picking a Fight with Big Bird?’, in: Time. http://entertainment.time.com/2012/10/05/why-is-mitt-romney-picking-a-fight-with-big-bird/ (02-10-2014).
[17] Stegeman, L. (z.j.). ‘Pino protesteert’, in: Sevendays. http://www.sevendays.nl/artikel/135606#.VCwRd9McSP8 (02-10-2014).
[18] Idem.