Chapter 7: Cultural Studies and Communication Technology

Weapons are a form of technology to impose social order

Have you ever felt that there was a purpose built towards new technological inventions, such as a bridge connected to another island or the use of industrial machines to help with the production in factories? What are the reasons for these? Although, we will not be covering this chapter in class, I felt there were some interesting topics that were covered in this chapter and felt I would like to discuss. There was one section, where the argument was circulated around the political uses of technology, in a sense that technology uses are determined by its use in society. Winner Argues, “that we should consider that the technological arrangement itself, prior to its specific use, not only reflects but imposes a social order” (150).  There does seem to be a feeling of bias towards technology and the purpose it was made for. Jennifer Daryl and J. Macgregor Wise, authors of “Cultural Studies and Communication Technology,” provide examples regarding this matter, “…the bridges on Long Island were designed by Robert Moses, to be too low for buses to be let through, thus cutting off access to the Island to the poor and minorities who more likely to use public transport…[or] expensive industrial machines in Cyrus McCormick’s reaper manufacturing to replace workers and force out the unions (the machines were taken out after the unions were defeated” (150). These are a just a few examples of how technology use was to keep instigating the social order.

Of course, guns were meant to be used as a purpose of protection. Countries that go to war use weapons to enforce power, resources, etc. I remember in my summer class in LSE, we were covering a section on the Ottawa Treaty, which Canada began an agreement with other countries to ban the use and selling of landmines. International Humanitarian Law – Treaties & Documents have, “determined to put an end to the suffering and casualties caused by anti-personnel mines, that kill or maim hundreds of people every week, mostly innocent and defenseless civilians and especially children, obstruct economic development and reconstruction, inhibit the repatriation of refugees and internally displaced persons, and have other severe consequences for years after emplacement” (IRIC). Why is it that the United States of America, even today, refuses to sign the Ottawa treaty? From what I remember reading, is they are the country that produces and supplies these weapons. Sure its main purpose was for protection against the enemy or aggressor, but over time the landmine are forgotten and innocent civilian lives are at stake. According to International Campaign Against Landmines (ICBL), “ The U.S. stockpiles approximately 10.4 million antipersonnel mines and 7.5 antivehicle mines…[and] The last recorded use of antipersonnel mines by U.S. forces was in the 1991 Gulf War.” (ICBL). It has been more than ten years, since the last production of a landmine. ICBL addresses that, “ In February 2004, the Bush Administration announced its landmine policy: The United States will not join the Ottawa Convention because its terms would have required us to give up a needed military capability. The Obama Administration has not yet taken a position on landmines (or cluster bombs)” (ICBL). Although, the US does not use the methods of landmines anymore, due to the fact they supply other weapons, we can only hope that they will eventually sign the landmine treaty. Technology sometimes is not only built for its intended purposes, but to keep on imposing the social order. What is your opinion about this?

Sources:

IRIC. http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/580?OpenDocument

ICBL. http://www.icbl.org/

Photoshop for Democracy

I decided to take one the questions from this presentation to blog about.Do you think that the youth of American today has the ability to separate what is fact and what is fantasy from shows such as The Daily Show? I think this is a hard question to answer because The Daily Show or The Colbert Report really gives vital facts but it is in a satirical matter. Obviously the younger the viewer, the harder it may be for the facts and fantasy to be separated. If the viewer is able to separate the fact from fantasy (which I believe many can do) they will be able to gain vital political information. I think a bigger struggle with these programs is being able to understand the satire and to realize that these men are highly opinionated. The satire can easily cause someone to form opinions without identifying what their own opinions are.  These programs can definitely sway the youth’s opinions of politics.

American Idol

After reading everyone else blogs about American Idol, I decided I would add to the conversation about product placement. I actually did know through my intro to marketing class about the (specifically) Coke product placement in American Idol. From day one the judges have those cups on their table always facing the cameras. I think the more interactive the medium becomes, the more advertisements have to be done within the content of the show itself. Since viewers have the option to change the channel during commercial(usually I do) or for people to have DVR they can choose to fast forward through the commercials. I remember a few years ago I flipped on American Idol and watched the final 12 or something like that singing some song about soap or something dressed as ducks…or something ridiculous along those lines. Not being an steady AI follower it turned me off because basically, I thought it was corny. Now I realize that’s where they get their advertising money. They have to resort to this form of advertising because all the new technology creates ways of “tuning out” during commercials defeating the purpose of the advertisement.

Transmedia in Sports

New York Yankees might be the worlds most recognizable sport team in the history. Is it because people watch their games? Or is it simple because the franchise has made a really good job using transmedia marketing? To me, the answer is simple. The Yankees has made its logo recognizable all over the world and used it in a very profitable way. It has also made people eager to find out more about the New York based team. Examples of this are: magazines (people buy magazines to find out more about their stars), video games (people want to be a part of something and especially their favorite team) equipment, (the fans want to use the same equipment as the players of the Yankees) and documentaries (fans want to get to know their players).

This is an example of how Sport teams can be used as a transmedic way and as for the Yankees, make people interested in what is behind the logo. Many teams in all kind of different sports are trying to do what the Yankees have done, but the question is if any team ever again will have the same popularity and recognition across the World.

Little Red Riding Hood and a gun

For this blog post, I would like to speak about transmedia storytelling.  Like mention in various of other post, it happens when a group of people, mostly fans, come together and create their own variations of stories.  We have seen this with many stories in time and sometimes the content produced by the person inspired can surpass the original thought.

The one fairy tale that comes to my mind, though, that has been changed and played with so many times is none other then little red riding hood.  Of course it just had a movie, Red Riding Hood, but the twisting and turning for that character did not start their.  The video game company Capcom produced a series of games called Darkstalkers.  A very eventful and fun game, it basically was a fighting genre game that mixed different monsters from different franchises.  Among all of these characters, which included a werewolf, a swamp thing, and a vampire; Capcom decided to twist the story of little red riding hood, and make her a psycho killing machine.  The product was the infamous Baby Bonnie Hood, a.k.a B.B. Hood.  In here picnic basket, she carries machine guns and bottle rockets.

Robot Chicken: Fan Filmmaker and Co-Creation

Where is the line drawn between Fan Filmmaker and Co-Creation? That was something I questioned after hearing the presentation on Quentin Tarantino’s “Star Wars”. Throughout the presentation there were numerous mentions that a “Star Wars” fan film can only parody the universe and not expand on it. However, what happens when Lucasfilm gets involved? Is it no longer a fan film and when does a fan film become a co-creation? To clarify my point, let me use the example of “Robot Chicken Star Wars.”

“Robot Chicken” had been around for a number of years before the “Star Wars” specials started airing. It was created by renowned geek comedic actor Seth Green (Oz from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”) and his clever geek business partner Matthew Senreich (ex-editorial director of WIZARD magazine).  The show itself mocks pop culture, television, films, and popular fads with the use of stop motion action figures. The show is essentially a fan film with a slightly bigger budget.

Then in 2007, the creators of “Robot Chicken” not only received permission to do an entire episode dedicated to parodying “Star Wars”, but they got George Lucas, Mark Hamill, and even Billy Dee Williams to lend their voices to the episode. Lucasfilm became involved and began allowing Robot Chicken to create characters like “Gary the Stormtrooper” and expand the universe by showing what happened to Boba Fett after he was eaten by the Sarlacc. This leads me back to my initial question; does the inclusion of Lucasfilm in “Robot Chicken,” mean it has become a co-creation? What if Lucasfilm had done nothing to hinder the fans creativity? Where is the line directly drawn between a fan film and a co-creation? If someone can answer that question, I would truly like to know. Until then, I will leave you with two clips from “Robot Chicken Star Wars.” One featuring Admiral Ackbar using his famous catchphrase to sell cereal, the other is Boba Fett in the stomach of the Sarlacc after the opening scene in “Return of the Jedi”. Enjoy.

Admiral Ackbar Cereal

Boba Fett Volunteered

Product Placement is EVERYWHERE…Even if you don’t know it!

Until today, I was trying to figure out what topic I was interested in blogging about from last week’s presentations. All of the presentations discussed interesting aspects of media and divergent voices, but I couldn’t seem to find anything that I could make a personal connection to. But after today, I can make that personal connection focusing on product placement. 

In last week’s American Idol presentation, product placement was at the forefront of the American Idol analysis. American Idol uses product placement to advertise in a unique way. Personally, I did not know before the presentation that Coca-Cola was an example of product placement within American Idol, but the more clips from the show that we watched, the more I noticed that Coca-Cola cups were seen everywhere in the show…especially at the judges table. This got me thinking about product placement and how many people there must be that buy Coca-Cola products because of American Idol. After all, our society strives to be like celebrities and we certainly can’t accomplish that without being like the judges in a popular television show, on a well-known television network.

The product placement that occurs on American Idol is done intentionally, but to me product placement is everywhere, whether it is done intentionally or not. The current battle that I am having with product placement is the IPhone 4. The IPhone 4 has not been intentionally placed in any television shows that I watch, but lately I feel like everyone I know has an IPhone 4. It doesn’t matter if I’m at school, at work, or even in a public place…the IPhone 4 is EVERYWHERE, just like products that are intentionally placed on popular television shows.

I keep trying to remind myself that it really is just a cell phone, but in today’s society cell phones have become a phenomenon and they really are everywhere, possibly through accidental product placement. It is Saturday and since Tuesday night I have had no cell phone. My cell phone stopped working, but has honestly been a piece of junk since shortly after I signed the 2-year contract with AT&T. The last couple of days have been crazy for me…I feel so weird without my cell phone, and the worst is receiving text messages that I cannot respond to. My family and I have now chosen to switch to version since we are in the “upgrade” phase with AT&T. I’m excited to move to Verizon as a phone carrier, but I absolutely cannot stand having to decide on a phone, that I have to keep for 2 whole years! I’ve looked through pages and pages of phones, but the IPhone 4 is EVERYTHING and it’s EVERYWHERE. Even though I do not know of any intentional product placement of the IPhone 4, I do think the company has marketed their products in ways, using both mainstream media and divergent voices, to make Apple products like the IPhone 4 appeal to everyone.

My main question is: Does product placement have to be intentional? Either way, I’m hooked and can’t wait to get my IPhone 4. Better hurry, I’m sure they are already planning to make the IPhone 5 somewhere…

Tom Clancy and the Video Game Franchise-Shane Kelly

This blog is on the Chapter 3 presentation: Finding the Origami Unicorn and is in a way related to the Chapter 4 presentation.

Tom Clancy was born in 1947 and graduated from Loyola College in 1969 where he studied English Literature.  He has dozens of books published, some of them were made into movies later on, some of them were made into video games, and a select few were made into both.  His books were tremendously popular.  They are primarily non-fiction novels that pertain to war, spec-ops, and modern warfare.  He had always been interested in being in the military and he would have most definitely served but he failed an eye exam upon his application so he did not go.  After being rejected in the 1970’s he worked for an insurance company for a number of years before beginning his literary legacy.

His first book was published in 1984, The Hunt for Red October.  But, all of his literary works are not the ones that I intend on discussing in this blog.  Many gamers of the first generation of New Media may not even know that some of the more famous games that appeared on PC, Xbox, Playstation 2, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.  In 1998, after having recently separating from his wife, he wrote a book called Rainbow Six.  That same year a game was released by the same name that was based on the book that he had written.  He knew what his book was going to be about and knew that the growing gaming generation could truly allow this story come to life.  Many aspects of the game itself may bring about some questions.  The story is basically about an anti-terrorist agency whose job is to seek out and destroy the eco-terrorists.  There are very few mentions of the actual book plot in the game itself because most gamers want to pick up a gun, shoot a handful of terrorists in the face, and call it a day.  However, there are very intricate characters that appear in the game who have background stories and connections that are only briefly mentioned in the games.

After this game sky rocketed in popularity towards the millennium, many gamers wanted to know more about the characters and became interested in the stories that were explained in detail in the books themselves.  This allowed a type of “Tom Clancy” culture to evolve so the slightly more intellectual gamers could discuss amongst friends the connections they made between the book and the game and now could discuss it on the internet.  Clancy, a smart man himself, so this is a beautiful opportunity to release a sequel to Rainbow Six.  He also, a few years after the millennium, came up with the brilliant idea of another game to add to his soon-to-be Franchise.  Splinter Cell was released on Xbox in 2002 a a result of Clancy going to Ubisoft, a reputable gaming company, and telling them this idea.  The game was loved by Ubisoft, so it was developed, released, and became a smash hit.  In 2004 Clancy wrote and published a Splinter Cell book, based on the video game, where he created the same things that the Rainbow Six book did for the game.  Background information and a lot of questions were answered in this book and, since the Internet had now become a tremendous forum-media, the Tom Clancy culture grew more and more, Tom Clancy’s name appears on the top of the game case in big, silver letters.

Clancy continued to allow his games to grow more and more with the releases of his books, following the game concepts and creations, Ghost Recon and a number of sequels to both Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six.  God Bless this man.  I may be a bit biased since I am a gamer and a reader, but this man had this concept down to a science relatively early as far as New Media is concerned.  Not only can I sneak up behind people and snap their neck after interrogating them, command my team of marines to attack a rebel base, and shoot blindly at a group of seemingly evil people, but I can also become highly engaged in the character backgrounds and side stories as a result of this intricate non-fiction novels.  As an English major myself, this is definitely encouraging.

Transmedia storytelling with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.

As mentioned in today’s class presentation about transmedia story telling, which can spread across multiple platforms. The fans join together in a collaboration of recreating their own version of pop culture iconic films, video games, or comics. Some instances there are some regulations created to regulate and criminalize fandom participation. I know for a fact that George Lucas’s Starwars Sequels, have especially has a huge a huge fan collaboration. However, I did not know how extreme some people would go into being diehard fans, till my older brother showed me a video from Triumph the insult comic dog.

Triumph the insult comic dog, is a puppet character, a Rottweiler, best known for mocking celebrities, but in this case Starwars fans.  A little bit more about Triumph,

Triumph usually puffs a cigar, which usually falls out of his mouth when he starts talking. Comedian Robert Smigel performs triumph. He was originally shown on the Conan O’Brien shows and his comedic style is exclusively insult comedy. In this short video, we see fans expressing their love of the film as well as showing the fans recreating video scenarios of the starwars film. Starwars has become so iconic in pop culture that even a dog like triumph has something to say about it.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zWNJHS9PBE

Advertisements: Small Scale Transmedia Storytelling

I think that the concept of transmedia storytelling has become popular among advertisers, who see the potential of an extended and spread out narrative to captivate consumers. While television shows and movies may use video games, books and additional clips to fill in the blanks for viewers and sustain their loyalty to the industry, advertisements lately have been following a similar path. How often do you watch a commercial that has a confusing and unfinished plot in the 30 short seconds that it has to air, but ends with saying to log on to a specific website to continue watching and get the whole story?  The industries are aware that a short commercial spot will probably have little affect on those watching, and are limited in their narrative, so they choose other media outlets to extend it and hopefully capture the attention of those watching.

Orbit does this with their latest commercials that have secret officials of the company going after consumers that may reveal the flavor of their new mystery gum.  The story continues on their website, where fans can not only get more information but also participate and play games revolving around the story. While the Matrix seems to have taken the whole transmedia storytelling a bit too far, and even expanded it beyond its own reach, smaller scale transmedia storytelling seen in advertisements can grab onto consumers and pull them into a story without it getting out of control.  The Orbit narrative goes beyond its limits on air and transcends onto the web.

I think that, when done right, transmedia storytelling can be very successful so long as the producer does not overestimate the loyalties of the consumer in accessing every outlet that builds upon the franchise. When there are too many additional outlets and key parts of the entire plot are contained in a single medium, viewers who do not follow every outlet will be lost and  less likely to remain loyal. Orbit latches onto the internet as its primary supplemental medium, and its production of fresh commercials based upon the same story keeps fans interested without burdening them with too much searching of their own.