Week 9 : 'Asianization'

Klein (2004: 361) suggests, “Hollywood is becoming Asianized in diverse ways, while Asian film industries are in turn becoming Hollywoodized.” Over the decade since this article was published this concept of Asianzation has been sustained and even further developed. Originally the Asian film industries were dominant with Asian cartoon movie/shows and martial art movies. 

                                   Jackie Chan being a huge contributor.

These martial arts and fight scenes although developed are still evident in movies that are made in the current day. Huge blockbuster movies like Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2 are filled with the developed concept of martial arts fighting scenes, which came about because of Asianisation of Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino, the director of Kill Bill brought this concept into these two movies deliberately to get the large audiences and high ratings.

The Chinese animation style that is evident in blockbuster movies like Mulan (1998) is still evident in children’s movies being produced today. Disney, one of the largest entertainment corporation’s in the world embraced these styles and further developed them in more and more movies. There is no doubt that the concept of ‘Asianization’ of Hollywood is still evident and vice versa with the Asian film industry being ‘Hollywoodized’.

Hollywood has influenced how Asian cinema has developed in order to appeal to more people rather then just those interested in Asian film, and similarly these Asian films and styles have and will continue to influence the way Hollywood interprets and produces movies. The two industries  or separate techniques and styles influencing one another is a classic example of globalization within the film industry.

References:

Klein, C 2004, 'Martial arts and the globalization of US and Asian film industries', Comparative American Studies: An International Journal, vol. 2, pp. 360-383.

Week 8 : Specular Economy

Everytime we post something on our facebook, instagram or twitter account we have to think twice about it. Everything we are posting prints a digital footprint online which can be accessed by anyone as private as we may think our accounts are. This concept relates to the specular economy where the way we present ourselves online is the way in which we would like to be viewed by others online. According to Marshal (2010, p. 498) the specular economy is “a two way mirror projection on to the screen, and the circulation of and interaction with those images and texts into the wider world.”

So think about this. As an everyday citizen, our social network comprises of our friends and family within the hundreds. But as a celebrity they have a massive social network, some with around millions of followers or ‘friends’. Everything they do online can be viewed and monitored by anyone and everyone who wishes to do so. A well known and developed specular economy exists within the celebrity culture, which comes with the emerging comfortability of a society of surveillance.

These new forms of media have allowed celebrities to create online public personas through their social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Their accounts now affords and privileges the interaction and exchange between and among users. This allows fans to go beyond simply writing a ‘fan letter’, as they can now attempt to create a relationship through social media interactions with the celebrity.

Not only has social media changed celebrities but it has also changed the way in which we perceive celebrities. Social media allows individuals to present ourselves online in whatever way that we desire, and according the a large majority of the public, some celebrities are creating ‘negative’ images of themselves.

An example of a celebrity who has created a negative online presence is Miley Cyrus. She started her career as a role model for young girls however she has recently spiraled out of control in her attempt to shift her image to an ‘adult star’ rather than ‘teen star’.

Miley Cyrus tweeted this image of her getting her furry on.

Miley Cyrus used her social media accounts as a way of transitioning from Hannah Montana to an adult. Although raunchy social media posts have sparked much negative attention from the public, she has used social media to create a new persona. 

Week 7 : Games

Raessens(2005) believes that there are three sections or domains of participation that characterise computer games as participatory media culture. These three sections or domains are interpretation, reconfiguration and construction. He states that all these three link together to exemplify computer games as a form of participatory medial culture.

A lot of people play video games to escape from reality and the troubles of their actual life. Virtual worlds are equally as important as the real world for many obsessed gamers. You can be whoever you want to be when you play a video game. You can design how you look, your attitude, what your good at, where you live and several other factors to create the ‘perfect you’. The person that you want to be but maybe cant be.

In this weeks tute we talked about designing our own game and what we would have to consider when designing our own game. Who were we going to target? Was the game going to be a real life scenario game, a racing game or a game (which our group decided on) that involved a spider on a mission to survive in an everyday human household. We had to think about thing like gender roles within the game and how the players of the game would re act to that. I found it particularly interesting studying gender roles within cartoon games, particularly the Princess Peach example. We had to think about settings, ratings consoles and hundred’s of things that make a successfully game. A game which may bring so much joy to someone’s virtual world that it becomes equality as important as reality as they sit on their couch.

I drew the comparison between social media and games through how people utilise the two outlets. On social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram, people are more often then not removing stuff from their sites to protect their external image from others. In games, rather then removing information or photos for example, people add scenarios, which please them and not the whole of the world like social media must.

Social media often relates to protecting the individual’s image, whereas games do quite the opposite and allow the individual to let free and not have to worry.

References:

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

Week 6 : Politics and Social Media

Social Media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook are evidently a driving force in the current election. There are both liberal and labour pages set up of Facebook for people not only to ‘like’ to show support, but to also explain why they support the party and share suggestions. Both these sites are updated regularly updating Australia of the parties and its leader’s activity, particularly throughout the build for the election. These sites are very influential on voting decisions I believe, particularly for the younger generation as they are constantly checking their own Facebook page. Obviously these pages aren’t the parties main source of marketing, however this pages are influential on the younger Australians vote.

Twitter is often understood as a derivative or miniature version of the regular blog – i.e. a microblog, consisting of ‘short comments usually delivered to a network of associates’ (Jansen et al., 2009: 2170). Both major Australian political parties use twitter constantly as a way to communicate with people around the country. Kevin Rudd has almost 2 million followers, allowing him to instantly communicate with roughly 11% of the country.

Considering ‘technology is often viewed as a key driver of change in the electoral arena’ (Gibson et al., 2008: 15), twitter and social media are a huge driving force in politics.

Larsson and co, argue that Twitter research is still at a very early stage and that the difference between a blog post and a tweet is still quite substantial.

References:

Jansen BJ, Zhang MM, Sobel K and Chowdury A (2009) Twitter power: Tweets as electronic word of mouth. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60(11):

2169–2188.

Gibson RK, Lusoli W and Ward S (2008) Nationalizing and normalizing the local? A compara- tive analysis of online candidate campaigning in Australia and Britain. Journal of Information Technology & Politics 4(4): 15–30.

Olorf Larsson, A. and Moe, H., 2011 ‘Studying political microblogging: Twitter users in the 2010 Swedish election campaign’ New Media and Society, vol. 14, no.5 pp.729-747.