Monica Butler - Media and Representaion

Media and Representation 

Monica Butler 

These weeks article each took a look at how media, namely American media, has effected cultures throughout the world and how we look at globalization. As Tomlinson first points out, American television of the 1980s, is often viewed as representing and promoting western imperialism. The television show Dallas is studied in depth to conclude its effects on other cultures, and how it could be interpreted as a threat of American commercialism against “authentic national identities.” How manipulative are shows like Dallas to the world’s media consumers? Bringing this into a modern context, I’d ask the question if this pattern continues with American Reality shows? With just about every successful American reality show of the last fifteen years, we have seen spinoffs across the world, Australia, England, Greece, Israel, Italy. Is this patten of so-called “imperialistic agenda” being repackaged in new programming? From Tomlinson’s studies and his research of other’s I took away that the implications of the shows like Dallas (which would now be categorized in the large and growing number of television “guilty pleasures”) are over-exaggerated. That they are solely guilty pleasures. I do believe that the messages depicted do have some effect on the viewer, however, from my own experience of watching today’s Dallas-like shows, I believe that the viewer is intelligent enough to decipher what is dramatized, what is improbable, and what would be morally disgusting if it happened outside of TVland. Like Tomlinson pointed out, interpretation will vary, but no culture will take the media at face value. As media consuming adults we are intelligent enough to read only the “pleasure of the text.”

When referencing media consuming adults and their ability to shield themselves from the manipulation of the media text, it is important to distinguish that media consuming child and teens are much more susceptible to the mass media. Children and teens could be the exception in the audience of Dallas’ negative agenda. The article about the Fijian adolescent girls supports the argument that children are more vulnerable to marketing than adult consumers, and especially insecure females. When dealing with the exposure of young children I beg to ask the common question, who is responsible? This harmful media is being shot into the culture of Fiji, is the parents responsibility to protect their children and reject the media? Should the media executives in America restrict their exportation to naive consumers? Is it the American’s responsibility that their media is having a significantly negative effect on a rapidly changing culture? Fijian cultures, before the introduction of American media had nearly no instances of eating disorders in their small culture. It is a culture that promotes robust  appetites and large body types. However, the authors concluded from their research that after 3 years of the American television in the society, healthy female body images among young girls plummeted and there was a significant rise in eating behavior related activities. There was a link seen between a woman’s weight and her success in her career and her home, and overall the small study showed that the media had a negative effect on the self-image of young naive girls. Unlike the adults watching Dallas, as a young girl it is much more difficult to determine the falsehoods and the exaggerations of the Hollywood production. 

With another reading specifically focusing on women and media, it brings up the question if women are more susceptible to media messages? Where is the data pertaining to young boys in Fiji and their imitation of the images they saw? Or in the data taken on Brazil, the article mainly focuses on why Brazil is changing because women are changing. Are women becoming more powerful because of the western images of female empowerment and feminism? It seems to me, with so many women in high positions in Brazil, that females actually have more power in Brazil than they do in America. Why was the change so rapid in Brazil, when women in America have been fighting publicly since the turn of the 20^th century? Brazilian women are not having as many kids, seeking education, seeking careers, seeking more materialistic and comfortable lives. However, the data presented does not use American media as the influencer, but two small influences. One, the Telenovela, the new family that the Telenovela depicts is small, wealthy, and beautiful. Two, the determination and the networking of women in Brazil. The women of Brazil know that they want modernization, power, and freedom to chose what kind of family they want and they will do what it takes to make that happen. However, with so many of our other articles discussing the effects of Western media, I would like to know if American media had an effect on Brazil? Were there outside influences that caused the women of Brazil to seek birth control, education, and power?

On a whole other continent, Bruner discusses three different types of tourism in Kenya. When each type is addressed and described, I concluded that the three have a main theme in common. Each is a business with consumers, these consumers, with the exception of Bomas, are coming from Western nations with preconceived notions of what Africa is and what the Maasai is. When they go to these tourist adventures, they are sold by the story that they will be told. Whether it is reality or not, they are on vacation and they want what they paid for. I think Bruner hits on this briefly, that these people are coming to gaze and to look at the Maasai and be entertained. It becomes authentic because they told it is. Similarly, the people who travel to see the Bomas, they know that the dancers don’t represent modern Kenya, but they want to be entertained, they want to connect with traditions of their country. They then believe it is authentic, because they are told so. This idea of authenticity connects directly to the discussion of the effects media has on young girls and adults who watch American media. If these people are told that this is the true authentic image of America, would they believe it? Like the tourists in Africa, they probably would. Therefore, with media, with tourism, there has to be a separation to define reality and entertainment. 

I have addressed how American media has affected the world’s cultures from the last century through many different outlets. However, with the growth of globalization, it is only natural for more and more cultures to claim their influence among the nations of the world. Lagaan and the article discussing the film contrast the four articles previously addressed. The success of the film not only speaks to the production but also to the emergence and growing acceptance of a new media. Western media is being threatened by Asian media. With popularity in numbers and a growing film industry it is only a matter of time before Asia continues to influence the media of the West. While Bollywood has struggled to break out into the global market in a major way, Lagaan is an example of a Bollywood film having worldwide box office and critical success. Stadler points out the that film marks a new trend in Hindi cinema. While it breaks the rules of Bollywood films it follows the template of the African tourism previously discussed. In order to garner world audiences, the film drew its success from being a period film. It gave the viewers what they wanted to see, what they thought India was. Domestic success came from the intense, dramatic, and interwoven story line. The domestic viewers resonated with the current political themes taking place through the story line of cricket and the division of the society. They linked many of the themes to turmoil among different ethnicities in their modern country and the feverous rivalry they have in cricket with Pakistan (rooted as well in politics like the British rivalry). And on the world success side of it the viewers connected with the theatrics, the dress, the stereotypes of British colonists and “tribe-like” Hindis. 

Speaking again to the consumeristic nature of media and tourism. People will only consume what they have already preconceived that they would like to see or buy. This even relates to the viewers of Dallas, the people who watched the television show did so because it was some exaggerated image of what they thought America to be like. For many people who grew up watching the show but never have been to America, may still believe that Texas is like a self-indulgent episode of Dallas. Is this the mission of the media? Do the people who make the media want us to believe its reality?