Ecological Analysis & Media.

The root word in Ecological is "Eco" which is associated with ecology, the environment, our world: our atmopshere. What does the ecology, which is associated with science, have to do with something like media? Well, the word ecology implies the study of environments: their structure, content, and impact on people. The impact. Look into the way our environment dictacts what we should do, what we think is okay and what we should avoid. The things you do in the comfort of your home are not always the same things you'd act on in public.  An environment is "a complex message system which imposes on human beings certain ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving."  It structures what we can see and say and, therefore, do.

Media Ecology was introduced in 1968 at the annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English by A. C. Eurich, ed. (1970). Media ecology looks into the depths of ways media and communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling, and value. This analysis also looks at how "our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival." Media ecology tries to discover and "understand what roles that media force us to play, how media structure what we are seeing, why media make us feel and act as we do.” But are we really forced or simply influenced? Our environment then specifies what we are permitted to do and what we are not. Media environments are in the form of  books, radios, films and television, etc., the specifications are more often implicit and informal. Media ecology is about seeing the big picture. It studies the ways that media help us live our lives. Understanding how media shape our lives by influencing how we make sense of our social world.

Image source: Google Images

Reference to: Critical Media Studies - Brian L. Ott and Robert L. Mack.

Medium Theory & Media.

Large, medium and small. The context of medium is completely different from the general meaning of medium that we all know all - not too big, and not too small. The real meaning of a medium is its capacity to transform human minds and human affairs and that is what the Medium theory represents. In this theory, it is believed that each medium of communication has fixed characteristics that influence communication in a particular manner. We are influenced by many things in the society that we live in today, but the way we communicate, act and understand is all learned. The Medium theory studies this. An example of a mass medium indicator in media is the Internet.

The real message of the internet is its capacity to extend "human sight, speech, and memory to an unprecedented degree." The goal is to reach a massive area and to influence. A lead indicator in this theory was Marshall McLuhan. He continuously evaluated different types of media based on a metaphorical understanding of their interactive “temperature” - referring to the variations of mediums as either hot or cool.

Hot medium: technology whose message is linear, sequential, and strictly controlled (Radio, Cinema, Video games)

Cool Medium: technology whose message favours participation and is multi-vocal and open ended. little given and much has to be filled in by listener/viewer. (Telephone, Television) 

Media has always been a major factor in the things we understand, what we are influenced by, and also in the ways we communicate. We are not necessarily defined by media, but we are engulfed into the trends bestowed onto us by the media and we channel them into our daily lives. Seeing how we are at the final end of the semester, I remember clearly Professor Petit speaking about how we are influenced by media and we do not even know it. Maybe we are, maybe we are not. But media triggers a reaction out of all of us and that is exactly what they want.

Jouissance

Jouissance is the disruptive pleasure that destabilizes culture and subjectivity, separating domination.

Six Modes of pleasure in Jouissance

1) Abjection (crossing cultural boundaries and the defilement of social categories, including the human body. Abjection results when cultural boundaries are crossed and defiled – the living and the dead, for example: vampires and zombies, The pleasure of abjection lies within its transgressive nature and its power to repel and fascinate, attract and disgust.)

2) Carnivalesque (inversion of social hierarchy; degredation, bebasement, uncrowning. Reality based pleasure, escaping rules and conventions that influence social control. Pleasure in bringing high status people down to earth)

3) Intertextuality (intentionally/unintentionally refers to other texts; shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy are examples. Deep focus on elements within the texts, absence of daydreaming but deep analysis instead, reflecting on matter.)

4) Irony (watch from a variety of viewpoints without choosing one and seeing everything as an ironic opposite of what's said)

5) Liminality (space between ideologies; borders and boundaries)

6) Depthlessness (development of the new information technologies has give to a culture and spectacle. Comsuming images without consuming their meanings.)

These six modes of pleasure all reflect what keeps audiences engaged when it comes to matters of pleasure. It all comes down to what our own personal preferences are, what engages us and what keeps us coming back. When acknowledging the factors of what keeps us interested in what the media dishes out to us in general society, these six factors which relate to our pleasure affect the types of shows we enjoy, what we reflect on or what we over look, the reality behind what we view and so forth. Media and Erotic analysis seeks to understand the ways in which not only the media affects the audience, but how the audience affects what the media will display.

Image source & credit: Google Images, and PowerPoint provided by M. Petit.

Erotic Analysis & Media.

Erotic analysis explores the array of resistive pleasures that audiences derive from media by examining the various sensuous, creative and transgressive ways in which persons use and interpret media. Resistance is defined as the symbolic and material practices that challenge cultural codes, rules and norms that neutralize social structure in a certain space and time. Now, resistance is based on five principles:

               Contextual (how, what when where and why; depends on prevailing norms or codes to resist)

               Tactical (must cease the opportunity; fleeting)

               Creative (takes advantages of available resources)

               Cumulative and Incremental (over time, slowly while incremental resistivness is motivated by personal benefits and desires)

Desire and pleasure hand in hand constitutes domination in one form or another. However, the term interpretive play is quite different. Interpretive Play is an active mode of reading media artefacts that ignores dominant interpretive codes in favor of pursuing one’s own desires. Erotic analysis encourages the understanding that neither text nor audience determines the other, but instead recognize the production of meaning through Open text (“writerly”) A text structured to call for active participation from audiences in the production of meaning. (e.g. Lost, Walking Dead) or Closed text (“readerly”) A text structured to elicit a particular, usually singular, response from audiences. e.g. a situation comedy; tv game show such as The Price is Right)

"Pleasure always means not to think about anything, to forget suffering even when it is shown. Basically it is helplessness." - Theodor W. Adorno.

Pleasure is everything in society. If it feels good, we want more. If it eases the burdens of our hard lives, we "need" it even more. Plaisir is a hegemonic pleasure. A type of pleasure that is both comfortable and comforting, but reproduces dominant culture and subjectivity. Dominant (hegemonic) is the gaze; form, genre and narrative. In contrast, Jouissance on the other hand is described to be the disruptive pleasure that is elusive and ecstatic pleasure that destabilizes culture and subjectivity. Jouissance creates a divide in dominant ideology. Resistive (counter-hegemonic): interpretive play; fandom, cultural production and participatory media.

Reception Analysis.

This analysis proposes a question: What is the role of the actual audience in the process of meaning-making in the media? Well, Reception analysis is described as the method of analysis that "stresses audience interpretation as the primary site of meaning-making." (Critical Media Studies, p. 222). As described in the textbook, Meaning is "fluid and communication is imperfect within this perspective and negotiation between media producers and consumers constantly skews the true meaning of media texts."

We are aware that what makes most happy is what media strives for, not everyone has the same tastes and preferences. This is where the "two step flow" model by Paul Lazarsfeld is introduced. Opinion leaders are considered to be the certain individuals that are attended to media more than others, simply for the fact that their significance can influence secondary audiences  Makes sense, huh? More audience, more money, and more views. In coherence with the reception analysis, the Encoding/Decoding Model  by Stuart Hall was made to make better sense of audience effects. Firstly, a code: a set of rules that govern the use of visual and linguistic signs within a culture. Note that codes are never neutral, and they shape the representations of race and gender in a hegemonic way. The left side called the encoding side of the model is concerned with how dominant ideologies come to exist in mass-mediated texts. Media texts are marked by hegemonic ideologies. The right hand decoding side of the model shows how audiences can actually interpret or read media texts according to three possible codes or positions: (Dominant, Oppositional & Negotiated)

As we know, what majority of the audience takes interest in, the more the media strives to make meaning out of what is most attracted to. Traditionally, this is how most decisions are made, so we can only imagine how much an impact the audience has in sales, progress and the end result of a mass media production. 

Polysemy & Polyvalence.

         There are many meanings to a beginning and end, there is meaning in every aspect of our lives. Even in the things we do not understand, we seek to find meaning. The same thing applies in mass media. Understanding is different as every person is different. To understand is to take things from one perspective and interpret it to give it meaning, for example interpreting media texts. Polysemy is simply defined as "many meanings”. Polysemy was proposed and influenced by John Fiske and according to our textbook, it refers to the relative openness of media texts to multiple interpretations. There are three primary types of polysemy: a. Strategic Ambiguity – The intentional decision on the part of media makers to craft a vague, semantically rich text that is open to multiple interpretations. (Breaking Bad, for example) b. Resistive Reading – The creation of a textual meaning that is contrary to the meaning intended by the text’s author, creator or producer. (Similar to Hall’s notion of “Oppositional Reading”) c. Hermeneutic Depth – Critics recognize that the multiple meanings in a text is the source of its overall meaning. Media studies critics play with and problematize any apparent single meaning and show how it is in fact one of multiple meanings. Polyvalence occurs when audience members share understandings of the denotations of a media artifact but disagree about the valuation of these denotations to such a degree that they produce notably different interpretations. As the terms both seem similar, they are quite different. Polyvalence differs from polysemy in being that the difference between audience members is a connotation rather than being a meaning as a whole. According to Celeste Condit polysemy is seen as the theory that accounts for how audience agree with texts. Stating that polysemy are “compromises that give the relatively well-to-do more of what they want, bringing along as many economically marginal viewers as they comfortable can.”  

Deployment of Alliance & Sexuality.

The topic of sexuality has always been a topic that holds many perspectives and views, so many that it is impossible to generalize all preferences under one. We question why we are attracted to the things that attract us, or how it develops, are we born straight or gay? What does gender have to with anything? With gender comes roles that are influenced by not only what we see, but what we have been taught.

"Sexuality is a social construction made invisible, natural, normal and biological by its discursive aspects.", suggested both theorists Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. 

Judith Butler argues that gender is not an objective natural thing, it is solely and completely a social construction. Repetition of gendered acts in the most mundane of daily activities (the way we walk, talk, gesticulate, etc.) maintains the hegemony of heteronormative standards and the power it entails. Society dictates what each gender should embody. As members of society, we fuel to these expectations because we have been conditioned to do so. On the other hand, Michel Foucault proposed that sexuality allows for people to perceive sexuality as a biological quality. The deployment of alliance is the history behind every society in order to understand relationships of all kind. While the deployment of sexuality is the historical understanding of people possessing a sexuality through the sensations of the body and the quality of pleasures. Foucault believed that our sexuality is influenced by what the higher powers of the past, and how they distinguished themselves in their sexuality.

In other words, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFTheldotb0

Queer analysis & Media: Heteronormativity

Brief overview of Queer Analysis: The word "queer" has been around for years now, in society the term queer is interpreted as a derogatory term associated with human sexuality; the term being slang for homosexual. However, the queer analysis seeks to disrupt socially constructed systems over meaning regarding human sexuality. Queer theorists work to bring the shortcomings of these labels to the light and show how they work to support systems associated with social power and privilege. The analysis explores the “natural” binary both being: heterosexuality and homosexuality. As outlined in the powerpoint, Sexuality is the emotional, romantic or sexual attraction toward others. In connection sexuality, there are variations of sexuality: Homosocial (same-sex environment, such as in prison, the military, and schools) Homoerotic (same sex feelings not acted upon in a sexual manner)  and Homosexual (same-sex erotic activity) 

 Heteronomativity is defined as the "system of inequity" stemming from the homosexual/heterosexual binary. This system convinces people that the binary exists, but it is not easily limited by biological sex. A “heteronormative” view is one that aligns biological sex, sexuality, gender identity, and gender roles. Anything outside this system is seen as “perverse”. To stigmatize homosexuality is called sexual othering. The reason why we classify gender roles, sexuality, preference and so forth is to be able to understand our sexuality. These various categories allow for humans to distinguish and make sense of their sexuality as each person is different. Imagine if everyone felt some type of attraction to the same sex and couldn't make out what exactly it is that they felt. The traditional gender roles and stereotypes fuel to the confusion to one's sexuality. These classifications help to make ends meet when it comes to inner acceptance of sexuality and expression.

Post-feminism & Media.

As defined in our textbook, post-feminism refers to the shift within the understanding of feminist culture. Post-feminism basically focuses on "the evolution in emphasis from the oppression of all women to the empowerment of individual women." Over the years this term has expanded in the focus on the status of women. Historically, the development began in the nineteenth and early twentieth century with the even of the First Wave. This event was worldwide but was most carried out particularly in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States of America. The First Wave focused on inequalities, primarily on giving women the right to vote. As everyone has a voice and deserves to be heard as all contribute to the condition of society, women fought extensively for this right. Furthermore, the Second Wave occurring during the 1970's and the 1980's focusing on the right to have both workplace and reproductive rights in society. The Third Wave occurred more close to present day, in the 1990's and beyond.

In summary, the three waves of post-feminism were characterized by:

a. sexual agency, reproductive & voting rights

b. personal choice

c. individual empowerment

Although its difficult to pin point what exact post-feminism is, it has been broken down into four basic factors: melding of female sexuality in response to sexualized culture, dominance of individual choice and responsibility in associated with self discipline, supporting theories that address sexual difference between men and women and lastly, a reliance on irony in cultural messages. In all, women’s rights have grown and also progressed in due timing significantly in the last two decades. However the larger challenges at hand remain in order to end global gender discrimination.

Feminism Analysis: Gender Stereotypes in American Media

Feminism generally focuses on the diversity between women and men that are either socially empowered or the complete opposite. The concept of feminism often analyzes the different between both sexes - What the other gains as the other loses, or the general inequality between males and females. In society we know that feminists are depicted to be women with stubborn perspectives that seek to find a way to make it seem as though women have the lower hand in society. Well, if we were to focus on the amount of violence against women in some societies today, then there is some truth behind this stereotype.

Gender stereotypes comes in levels classified as: Active/passive (Males depicted to be the embodiment of strength in the ways media shows males participating in active and sport related activities, while women are represented as the passive beautiful stance, while the man embodies power) Public/private (Family provider being the man of the family, while the woman is the nurturer, the one who keeps the family together, takes care of the needs of the home rather than in society), Logical/emotional (Logic representing masculinity, emotions represent femininity), Sexual subject/sexual object (To be intelligent, logical and in charge is the male perspective, while the woman takes on the role as the sexual object, the one to be lusted after, submissive, emotional, etc.)

 It is clear that females are seen are the weaker link in media; being seen as the ones with the lower hand in society. While men seem to be more glorified or praised, the fact remains that truthfully, all parties in society are affected in one way or another. Media reaches mass majority, everyone endures the struggle of power regardless.

Lacanian Psychoanalysis vs. Freudian Psychoanalysis

Jacques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst who chose to further Sigmund Freud's theory but was always more curious about how the individual mind dealt with culture at large. Lacan believed that the unconscious and conscious mind had to do with language more so than Freud's theory that the factors of the mind were somewhat sexually related. Lacanian Psychoanalysis notes three factors of human existence:
The Real: beyond signification, the things that cannot be explained or put into words. The Mirror stage: basis of ego formation, The Imaginary and the Symbolic (Law of the Father): both represent the steps that a newborn takes in the process of developing a psychical structure that is considered to be normal. Lack: desires unknown to unconscious self as unable to comprehend and Shared: sense of loss between language and imaginary pleasures. On the other side, the Freudian Psychoanalysis theory claims that a person's identity is not passed on or inherited through genes but is a result from their past experiences specifically taking place during youth. This resulting in our identities being influenced by outside forces that were encountered during the early experiences in their lives.

Freud/s theory was based on the preoedipal stage (pleasure principle), postoedpal stage (curbing desire), desire explained through: repression, definition of the unconscious being repressed desires and wanting to make them known or felt, and the phallus: father/s sexual characteristics reflect sexual power to the child

Comparing the two, it is logical to believe that without language, it is impossible to understand, express or denote our experiences. Language is the basis of most of things that we don't feel through personal experience first. Freud's theory being built on the sense that the past and what we experience make up who we were, who we are and who we will become associates with Lacan's theory. The mind is comprised of many factors. There is no doubt that our past influences us, but it does not dictate who we will be. It is simply something that we have lived through and we choose to decide whether or not to let it affect who we will become.