What is Hollywoodisation?

“Today we are seeing a partial erosion of the boundaries that once separated Hollywood from local Asian film industries, and a consequent intertwining of industries on both sides of the Pacific” (klein, 2004). Asian films are beginning to use special effects big budgets and big stars and Hollywood films are starting to embrace anime, kung-fu, and impressive stunts, “Hollywood is becoming Asianized in diverse ways, while Asian film industries are in turn becoming Hollywoodized.”(klein, 2004).

We are beginning to see not only the different styles of filmmaking erode and intertwine with each other we are also seeing the celebrities blend between both Hollywood and Asian film industry, people are becoming global celebrities as opposed to Hollywood or Asian celebrities. Just as Jackie Chan has broken into Hollywood films actors such as Daniel Craig are beginning to star in Asian films, such as ‘howls moving castle’.  The film industries are displaying a perfect example of globalisation, in full swing, and the “asian film industries are not so much resisting globalization as learning how to turn some of the transformations it has unleashed to their own advantage”.

In recent years we have seen multiple asian styled filmed receive box-office success as well as critical acclaim in Hollywood, with films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden dragon, Kung-fu hustle, fist of fury and shaolin soccer just to name a few.

Why have these films, of all the other asian films, had success in Hollywood? The answer is quite simple, and it has a lot to do with globalisation.
globalisation is all about combining cultures and therefore broadening cultures, and this is essentially why these convergences of different styles of films has had success, as they combine multiple demographics thus expanding their viewership.

I am a self-aware, self-indulgent, tech-savvy slave of the “specular economy”, but who am I?

Identity formation is supposed to be a “process in which individuals are self-aware” (David Buckingham, 2008) an opportunity for people to experiment and explore themselves to discover who their one true self or true identity is. With social networking playing a major role in the new generations lives, it appears we are approaching something David Marshall (2010) calls  the “specular economy”, where collectively we are becoming more conscious of how we present ourselves and how others perceive us…”. While being self-aware and creating identities is nothing new, “Where the specular economy differs is in its new reconstruction of how the self is reconstituted through the screens of engagement and interactivity…” (Marshall 2010)

I myself am a twitter user, and I have two different twitter accounts, one for socialising and one for professional purposes; Essentially I have created two separate identities for myself, and while aspects of my true self are presented on each account, some traits of my true identity have also been excluded on either account for either social or professional reasons, therefore depicting two different identities.

 “Identities are formed both from within and from the outside, in a complex interplay of mutual recognition and understanding of self and others” (FORNÄS, J, & XINARIS, C. 2013) and I have taken this in to account when creating my professional and social personas through Twitter.

who would you employ?

What is interesting about online identities and specular economy is that while they do play a role in creating a perceived image of oneself it is not ones true self being displayed. As being self-aware and creating a persona online means you have chosen what aspects of you to display immediately making your online persona not you, but your ideal self, which is not true to life. So is creating online identities and personas all in vain or can they really change who you are and how you are perceived in a real life context?

Buckingham, D (2008). "Introducing identity." Youth, identity, and digital media pp1-24.

 

FORNÄS, J, & XINARIS, C 2013, 'MEDIATED IDENTITY FORMATION', Javnost-The Public, 20, 2, pp. 11-25

Marshall D, 2010, the Specular Economy, Society, Vol.47, no.6,pp498-502

 

 



Reading in to Gaming

According to Stuart Hall (1973) there are 3 types of reading strategies used to interpret texts, dominant-hegemonic reading or preferred reading, the negotiated reading and the oppositional reading. Depending on which method you choose in which to interpret a certain text plays a major role in how you see the world.

Hall (1973) defines each of the readings as follows;

Preferred reading- “the dominant of preferred reading has the whole social order embedded in it…” it is basically the natural reading of a text, something we don’t have to think about and is just accepted by our social order and past experiences.

Negotiated reading- Acknowledges the legitimacy of the hegemonic or preferred definitions yet at the same time changes the rules and allows for logic, reason and personal opinion to put the text in to context and change the reading, not merely accepting the preferred and dominant reading.

Oppositional reading- “viewer perfectly understands both literal and the connotative inflection given but chooses to decode the message in a globally contrary way. [The viewer] detotalizes the message in a preferred code in order to retotalize the message within some alternative framework or reference.” Basically ignores all preferred and negotiated readings and chooses reader chooses how they want to receive the message.

One of recent history’s most controversial video games is Rockstar games ‘Grand theft Auto’ (GTA), which deals with drugs, sex and violence in a more participatory manor than any game before it. So when discussing different ways to read texts there seems to be no more fitting example than the racial stereotyping that occurs throughout the game.

Within GTA there are many representations of gangs and, unequivocally, all the different gangs are segregated by race, there are Hispanics, African Americans and Irish, just to name a few. Each representation of race in GTA is shown adhering to the white bred American society's stereotypical view of that particular race. The Hispanics drive low rider cars, have tattoos and wear bandanas; the African Americans wear baggy clothing, carry around guns and swear a lot; and the Irish drink, swear, talk a lot and have red hair. Using the three reading strategies these representations could be read either as true to life, partially true to life or as totally wrong.

 While none of these readings would be incorrect, it is pretty clear to see that to merely accept these representations would be morally and socially wrong, if you have any culture about you at all.  After reading Halls article and discussing the reading strategies I am now asking myself “is GTA racist?” And one would have to say yes, GTA is horribly racist. The stereotypical representation of race in GTA is a hindrance to the progression of the human race and is quite disturbing.

Blogging: democratic fuel or fire?

The internet is often described as a democratising force, however Kawamoto (2003) argues that “In a world of electronic information systems, communication becomes commodified and privatized; rules and regulations are driven by an increasingly powerful private sector; technologies can be used for surveillance and control; and democracy and diversity suffer…” despite technologies ability to give everyone a voice and platform in which to speak their mind. 

“Technology is often viewed as a key driver of change in the electoral debate” (Olorf and Moe, 2011) and twitter is a widely used source of technology when it comes to political discussions. Due to Twitter’s short and sharp micro-blog style it allows for everybody to participate and understand, despite their political knowledge or lack there-of.

According to Olorf and Moe (2011) blogging for political purposes does, purely in quantitative terms, contribute to the broadening of public debate, therefore having a democratising effect, however due to evidence being anecdotal at best, cannot be proven to have any effect on outcome of an election.

In 2010 twitter was examined in respect to an election in Sweden, over all a total of 99,832 tweets were analysed and while the study could not say whether twitter had any effect of the outcome of the election “a relationship between twitter and mainstream media” (Olorf and Moe, 2011) was uncovered…so is twitter and blogging a democratising force or merely re-enforcing the status quo?

One would hope that in a democratic country such as our own that Kawamoto is wrong, and I for one believe he is. The internet is a place where people can have their voice heard, make a difference no matter how big or small, a blog may just sway one vote or it could change the world (Julian Assange anyone?). No matter how small a difference, there is no denying the internet is a place where differences can be made and people have the power. to make them.