Chose any one of this questions to begin your discussion: Chose one and write 2 paragraph. Choose a TV shows/movies and provide your brief interpretation based on dominant, negotiated, and opposition

Chose any one of this questions to begin your discussion: Chose one and write 2 paragraph. Choose a TV shows/movies and provide your brief interpretation based on dominant, negotiated, and opposition
Sorrells, Intercultural Communication, Instructor Resources Chapter 6 Jamming Media and Popular Culture: Analyzing Messages about Diverse Cultures Lecture Notes: Chapter Overview, Objectives and Outline Chapter Overview The title of this chapter, “jamming media and popular culture,” is used to connote the improvisational and emergent nature of intercultural communication in the technologically advanced, global age—the rapid absorption, adaptation, appropriation and fusion of verbal and nonverbal languages, and visual and musical codes—that characterizes the mediated popular culture scene as well as new social movements in the context of globalization. We begin by defining media and popular culture and discussing their impact on intercultural communication in the context of globalization. Media and popular culture facilitate communication across cultural and national boundaries escalating the flow of information and images interculturally. Media also frame global issues and normalize particular cultural ideologies. The global distribution of Euro-American and particularly U.S. media and popular culture—embedded with cultural values, beliefs and norms—disrupts and fragments national and cultural identities, leading to resistance, opposition and conflict. Yet, the global distribution of media and popular culture also forges hybrid transnational cultural identities in the global context. Following a discussion of global and regional media circuits, the process of encoding and decoding media messages is outlined. Dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings are illustrated to reveal the ways prevailing ideologies are represented and reinforced through popular culture and to bring awareness to alternative interpretations based on differing positionalities. The links between power and hegemony in mediated intercultural communication and the representation of non-dominant groups is explored. Stereotypical and negative representations of non-dominant groups serve to maintain the supremacy of dominant groups in terms of race, culture, class, gender, sexuality and other forms of socially constructed difference. The chapter concludes with steps to heighten our awareness and skills for consuming media and popular culture messages, strategies to resist mainstream corporate messages and ways to actively produce media messages such as alternative and citizen media that are emerging in the global context. Chapter Objectives To understand the impact of media and popular culture on intercultural communication in the context of globalization. To examine how global and regional flows of media and popular culture influence intercultural communication and cultural identities. To understand the role of power and hegemony in mediated intercultural communication and the representation of non-dominant groups. To gain skills and strategies to critically consume, resist and produce media messages in the global context. Key Terms *indicated in bold and italicized letters below Media Fragmegration Network media Telenovela Cultural forms Encoding/Decoding Popular culture Dominant reading Folk culture Negotiated reading Culture industry Oppositional reading Cultural corruption Alternative or independent media Cultural homogenization Citizen or participatory media Cultural imperialism Culture jamming Introduction Globalization is shaped by the advances in communication technologies, global media, and the spread of popular culture. Media and popular culture play pivotal roles in how we make sense of and construct our own cultures and identities. Much of what we understand about other cultures comes from media and popular culture forms such as movies, television programs and celebrities. Media and popular culture shape intercultural communication: Media and pop culture facilitate communication across cultures. Media frame global issues and normalize particular cultural ideologies. Mass media and popular culture fragments and disrupts national and cultural identities. Media and popular culture forge hybrid transnational cultural identities. The title of this chapter is used to connote the improvisational and emergent nature of intercultural communication in the technologically advanced, global age. Media, Popular Culture and Globalization Defining Media The word “media” refers to the modes, means or channels through which messages are communicated. Network media: Media such as the World Wide Web, which connects multiple points to multiple points in addition to serving interpersonal and mass media functions. Three elements of the media Technology Social relationships or institutions (i.e. broadcasting organizations, music and film companies). Cultural forms: The products’ format (news casts, sitcoms, action dramas, or thrillers), structures, languages and narrative styles. Media bring together technologies, institutions and cultural forms to create and convey meaning-making products that reflect, construct and reinforce cultural ideologies. Example: Movie Titanic Defining Popular Culture Popular culture: Systems and artifacts that the general populous or broad masses within a society share or about which most people have some understanding. Three characteristics help define popular culture: Popular culture is central and pervasive in advanced capitalist systems Popular culture is produced by culture industries Popular culture serves social functions. Folk culture: Localized cultural practices that are enacted for the sole purpose of people within a particular place. Culture industry: Industries that mass produce standardized cultural goods such as the Disney Corporation, Time-Warner Corporation and Viacom. Critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1972) initially coined the term in the middle of the twentieth century. They were concerned that culture industries could easily manipulate the masses into docile and passive consumers. The A.C. Nielson Company reports that the average U.S. household takes in 8 hours and 18 minutes of television per day in 2008. Functions of popular culture: To generate profit. To establish social norms, constitute social identities and maintain social boundaries, create meaning through shared rituals of consumption. To provide a platform for discussion or as an initiating force for social change. In advanced capitalist cultures, the consumption of popular culture serves as shorthand for sets of values, practices and goals, for individual and group identities, and for inclusion and exclusion in social groups. Textbox: Cultural/Self-Expression through Fashion and Pop Culture The textbox discusses how Somali women in Minnesota express their cultural identity through fashion. Popular Culture, Intercultural Communication and Globalization Globalization is shaped by contradictory forces of global cultural integration and resistance to integration. Cultural corruption: The perceived and experienced alteration of a culture in negative or detrimental ways through the influence of other cultures. Cultural homogenization: The convergence towards common cultural values and practices as a result of global integration Cultural imperialism: The domination of one culture over others through cultural forms such as popular culture, media, and cultural products. Fragmegration: The dual and simultaneous dynamic of integration and fragmentation that has emerged in the context of globalization. Textbox 2: Communicative Dimensions: Popular Culture and Globalization The textbox discusses examples from France, Iran, and Venezuela of their response to the growing presence of American culture in their countries. Global and Regional Media Circuits We need to understand global flows of media today in terms of Euro-American dominance rather than focusing solely on the U.S. as the primary force. Telenovelas: TV soap opera made and popularized in Latin America. India and China represent significant audiences of regional importance especially when combined with the large diasporic communities from each country living around the world. The predominance of the Euro-American media circuit combines with regional and diasporic media circuits to create dynamic and contradictory challenges for intercultural communication in the global context Most Americans are exposed almost entirely to their own nation’s history, culture, and mythology. This can be disadvantageous to have an understanding of other cultures. Producing and Consuming Popular Culture Three areas of study: The production or encoding of popular culture. Textual analysis. Audience analysis. Encoding: The construction of mass mediated meaning by culture industries. Decoding: The active interpretative and sense-making processes of audiences Cultural studies scholar Stuart Hall offers a model that shows the processes of meaning-making that occur as popular culture is produced and consumed. The audience has a different set of meaning structure from that of the media producer. The audience actively interprets the meaning according to their frame of reference, rather than simply accepting the media’s message. Three ways of “reading” popular culture texts: Dominant reading: The viewer or reader shares the meanings that are encoded in the text and accepts the preferred reading, which generally naturalizes and reinforces dominant ideologies. Negotiated reading: The reader or viewer generally shares the codes and preferred meanings of the texts but may also resist and modify the encoded meaning based on her/his positionality, interests and experiences resulting in a contradictory reading of the text. Oppositional reading: The social position (in terms of class, race, gender, religion, nationality or ideology, etc.) of the viewer or reader of the text places them in opposition to the dominant code and preferred reading of the popular culture text. The reader understands the dominant code yet brings an alternative frame of reference, which leads him/her to resist the encoded meaning. Analysis of Spider-Man series Summary: The Spider-Man film series is based on the Marvel Comics created in the 1960s. The main character, Peter Parker, is an ordinary young man who acquires superhuman abilities to fight evil villains who threaten NYC. Peter also negotiates a romantic relationship with his childhood crush, Mary Jane Watson. The monstrous villains are human-made mistakes, caused by exaggerated ambitions and inflated egos of men combined with futuristic science and technology. Dominant reading: The world is a dangerous place divided between forces of good and evil. People need protection from evil or villainous forces. Average or even nerdy, working-class boys can grow up to be superheros They can serve as role models if they believe in themselves and take responsibility for the power they have. Making the right choices is difficult in the complex, competitive, capitalist-driven world, but individuals, by making the right decisions, can succeed, saving and protecting others less capable or fortunate. Negotiated reading: Yes, the world is a dangerous place divided between good and evil, but why is the superhero always a boy/man and why are all the main characters in the film white? Are the only people who can save or destroy the world white men? The female characters in the film are presented as passive, “damsels-in-distress,” in stereotypically domestic roles or revered and prized for their beauty and bodies. Fortunately, Mary Jane is represented as making some choices in her dedication to her career, as well as which boyfriend she wants. Women, apparently, do have choices—just more limited ones than men. Oppositional reading: All the evil or “bad” things that are presented in the films were caused by the greed for money, power and fame in a capitalist, corporatized, militarized society. The situations people were in had more to do with the oppressive and exploitative corporate, media, criminal and military systems that are depicted as “normal” in the films. The emphasis on individual choice masks the systemic oppression that creates the “evil” from which Spider-Man—the young, white, superhero male—must rescue and protect the vulnerable masses. Key points in the analysis of Spider-Man: Dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of the text differ. Ideologies central to U.S. culture (i.e. individualism, freedom of choice, equality and the irrelevance of class, gender, and race, the valorization of capitalism) are encoded and normalized in the text. Consumers of media and popular culture texts can make decisions to resist or challenge dominant readings. The position of privilege (or lack thereof) shapes the kind of interpretation a reader makes of the cultural text. Popular Culture, Representation and Resistance The media representations of people of color are limited, often stereotypical and reinforce negative images. Examples: Blacks men as criminals, pimps, drug dealers, and gang members. Example: Black women as overly protective mammies, excessively sexualized Jezebels, and as “naturally” dependent welfare queens. Example: Latino/as, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Arab Americans and other non-dominant groups have been relatively invisible in U.S. produced television programs and films. Example: American Indians brute and primitive savages. When appearing, non-White groups are frequently cast as socially deviant elements, as less moral, less intelligent, or “primitive,” as comic figures or as threats to dominant U.S. or White cultural norms, values and superiority. The audience’s positionality shapes the kind of meaning s/he draws from media representation. Example: Different interpretations of Pocahontas by children of Euro-American descent, urban Native American children, and Native American children on reservation. Since the 1990s, the depiction of Arabs, Arab Americans, and Muslims fueled negative racial, cultural and religious stereotypes against these groups. Example: Arabs were immediately assumed to be responsible for the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, when in fact the perpetrators were two European American members of an anti-government militia movement. Media representations of Arab and Muslim Americans erase the diversity and humanity within Arab and Muslim groups while emphasizing their distinctiveness and “otherness” from Americans. Resisting and Recreating Media and Popular Culture Three step process to develop our competence as “readers” or decoders and as “producers” or encoders of media and popular culture texts. Step One: Increased Awareness Step Two: Informed Action Evaluate your media outlet. Alternative or independent media: Media practices that fall outside of or are independent from the mainstream corporate-owned and controlled mass media. Refuse to consume media and popular culture that dehumanize groups of people. Example: Boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch by Asian Americans. The boycott of British goods by Philadelphia merchants in 1769 who opposed “taxation without representation.” The bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 that initiated the Civil Rights Movement The boycott of grapes and lettuce organized by the United Farm Workers Union to protest inhumane working conditions for Mexican migrants in the 1970s The Just Do It! Boycott Nike Now campaign to bring attention to and change Nike’s sweatshop working conditions in Viet Nam and other Asian countries By writing letters, signing on-line petitions, addressing local, state, national and international officials and targeting corporate/multinational interests, people’s actions—particularly by organized groups of people—can result in movement towards social justice. Step Three: Creative Production Citizen media or participatory media: Media texts created by average citizens who are not affiliated with mainstream, corporate media outlets. Example: Blogs from Iraqi citizens to U.S. military personnel, video footage from anti-war activists to pro-war supporters around the world, and zines represent perspectives and experiences of issues, events, and groups that are often distorted, filtered out and excluded from mainstream corporate media. Culture jamming: the act of altering or transforming mass media and popular culture forms into messages or commentary about itself. A way to resist dominant mainstream media and produce alternative popular culture texts. Example: Adbusters is a magazine aimed at challenging and disrupting the “media trance” of our consumer addicted world. Culture jamming is a form of public activism that challenges, subverts, and redefines dominant, hegemonic meanings produced by multinational culture industries. The transgressive practices of “culture jamming” are creative efforts to block or jam and subvert mainstream messages. Culture jamming challenges dominant readings or interpretations of mainstream popular culture and media texts by producing and negotiating oppositional readings that “talk back to” centers of economic, political and symbolic power such as multinational corporations. Summary Media, popular culture, and globalization Popular culture, intercultural communication, and globalization Global and regional media circuits Producing and consuming popular culture Popular culture, representation and resistance Resisting and recreating media and popular culture