Globalisation and Hollywood

Christina Klein (2004) believes that many films have been hybridised. This means that both Hollywood and Asian characteristics have been mixed into films. She lists films that have been Asianized by including martial arts within the narrative, such as, Shrek, Charlies Angels, Scary Movie and The Matrix.

Klein’s publication was published nearly a decade ago, but in recent times, Amos Dane (2011), a freelance film critic with a B.A. in film and classic cinema, still believes in Hollywood and Asian hybridity in films.

Dane points out in this article (2011) that movies made in other countries are being copied and released in America and Hollywood movies find their way to foreign markets. Foreign movies rarely find success in the US and Dane believes this is because American’s do not like to read subtitles when watching movies made in other countries like “Brothers, Solaris, Vanilla Sky, Let Me In, Chloe, and Death at a Funeral”. Dane believes that foreigners speak English as a second language so they therefore understand English and enjoy Hollywood films.

Klein (2004, p.363) confirms that Asian audiences enjoy Hollywood films, because “Hollywood in the 1990s became an export industry, making movies primarily for people who live outside the USA –and increasingly for people who live in Asia”. Klein (2004) conveys that Hollywood movies make most of their money outside of the USA and so focus on “spectacle-driven films such as special-effects-heavy blockbusters”. This means that the asianisation of films has been increasing due to its rising success in making profits. Blockbusters, which is as Klein (2004) describes as the over reliance on special effects to drive the film, means that narratives are focussed on less in order to hook the audience through visual experience of the special effects. Klein (2004) believes that this increases audiences in foreign countries and therefore increases profits.

I believe that the effects of globalisation where people in different countries have access to many forms of media were the foundation for transnationalization. Klein (2004) believes that transnationalization in film is where Hollywood hire a broad range of Asian film workers. This means that Asian workers will go to Hollywood and then “at other times, Hollywood went to them”.  An example of this is Rumble in the Bronx (1995), a movie that brought Jackie Chan to American mainstream.  Jackie Chan then went back to Asia in 2010 for the remake of The Karate Kid which is another example of asianisation in film where a Hollywood movie is set in China, starring Jackie Chan who was born in Hong Kong. This illustrates that in the decade since Klein’s 2004 publication, his observations have sustained with movies like The Karate Kid (2010) which is a recent movie that hold many Asian characteristics and references.

(Image:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid_(2010_film))

References

Dane, A 2011, ‘Hollywoodization: Foreign Movies Lost in American Translation’, Yahoo Voices, 21 April 2011, Retrieved 20 September 2013, <http://voices.yahoo.com/hollywoodization-foreign-movies-lost-american-translation-8304979.html?cat=2>

Klein, Christina 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalisation of US and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 360-384. 

The Specular Economy

The specular economy is explored by David Marshall (2010, p.499) to be ‘where collectively we are becoming more conscious of how we present ourselves and how others perceive us…’  Just like your day to day routine where you get ready to present yourself to the outside world and check that you have done so by looking at your reflection in the mirror. This is the idea that the specular economy is based on. Today, unlike the years before, we have to present ourselves to the public on social media. We ‘pose’ for our friends on Facebook, for our employers on LinkedIn and for our fans on YouTube. Marshall (2010) believes that the specular economy which is produces by the media, means that we continuously construct ourselves to be viewed in a certain way.

In relation to my own social media use, I choose not to post the fact that I reversed into my partner’s car today because I do not want to be seen as an incompetent driver by my ‘friends’ on Facebook. I also chose not to post that I can’t be bothered going to work on the weekend because I want my colleagues and managers to see me as a motivated employee who enjoys my work and the workplace. Yes, I have now shared two facts on the internet about myself that I did not want my ‘friends’ to see, but they will not read this blog post, nor will they even know that I have blog because I have chosen not to share this site with them because I feel that my scholarly postings may not be good enough. Can you see a pattern? I have chosen to hide negative aspects (aspects that I perceive to be negative) about my life because I am constructing my persona to be more positive than it really is.

Click here to find out how to make you more attractive on Facebook.

(Image: http://allfacebook.com/attractive-facebook-profile_b12124)

Marshall (2010, p.499) believes that “The online and mobile media screen as mirror has to be thought of as producing ‘persona’”.  This is exactly what I am doing, using Facebook and other social media sites to develop a certain persona and pose to be a specific way for my audience. With many more people online today than ever before, the specular economy is a global concept that applies to people all over the world.

References

Marshal, P.D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 498-502

The Damsel Fights Back

‘The Damsel Fights Back’ is a 3D computer game full of action and adventure about a woman on a quest to save her husband who was too weak to escape from his male kidnapper. This story-line reverses the ‘Damsel in Distress’ cliché that has been widely used in gaming history, like Donkey Kong (1981) and the most recent, Double Dragon Neon (2012) which both involve a male protagonist trying to save the life of the damsel. This is a global story line and is the basis of many more games played around the world.

I am here to fight back against this cliché. This is something very rare and is seen in only few games around the world like Super Princess Peach (2006) where the female protagonist fights to save a male plumber.  This cliché is spoken about in the series, ‘Damsel in Distress: Tropes Vs Women in Video Games’.  Rachel, the female protagonist in ‘The Damsel Fights Back’ will look similar to this character below from Wolverine.

(Image: http://moonfirecharms.com/2013/07/26/the-wolverine-review/)

 She is tremendously smart and needs to figure out clues in order to proceed. Rachel will work hard through the obstacles in Melbourne’s big city, using her super powers to find her husband and fight the men who kidnapped him.

This production process will follow the Hollywood studio system like many games, starting with developing and then manufacturing, publishing, distribution and retail. Hopefully Nintendo will be this up and I will get at least 20% of the profits.

Raessens (2005) believes that games are participatory media and that there are three domains of participation- “Only gamers can jointly construct events and actions through the fourth characteristic, connectivity” (Raessens 2005, p. 374). This means that gaming is very different from other media like television and reading newspapers due to participation.

One of the domains of participation Raessens (2005) presented is interpretation. Interpretation of the media by gamers, according to Start Hall (1980, cited in Raessens 2005, p. 375) can be a dominant reading, where my audience will agree with my view of the importance of a female protagonist, the negotiated reading, where some gamers may believe my game is good in representing females but either way it doesn’t matter, and the oppositional reading where the gamer thinks that sexism is good in games and males play a better protagonist.

The second domain of participation according to Raessens (2005) is reconfiguration where my audience will be ‘…invited to give form to these worlds in an active way by selecting one of the many pre-programmed possibilities in a computer game” (Raessens 2005, p. 380).
The third domain of participation is construction where gamers playing my game will be able to add “…new game elements” (Raessens 2005, p. 381).

References

Raessens, J. 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, Handbook of

Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388 

Employment and the Blogosphere

We are all guilty of being cynical about our work, employers and colleagues at one time or another. Complaints about daily tasks, management’s leadership skills and gossip about other co-workers and office politics can now be shared in a different way- the blogosphere! The term ‘blogosphere’ was created by William Quick (2001), and describes it as the ‘intellectual cyberspace’ that bloggers occupy.

Employee cynicism published in blogs is spoken about by Richards and Kosmala (2013) as they contend that employee blogging is a response to corporate culture. They deliver the ideas of Fleming and Spicer (2003, cited in Richards and Kosmala 2013, p. 2) who argue that the manifestation of power is imaginary because employees who blog about their job still remain ‘compliant’ with the organisation. This means that employees are being cynical about their occupation and publishing their distrust in the organisation or employer on blogs but go back to work the next day and do the work that they are employed to do.  

(Image: http://fitforlifedaily.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/fit-for-life-joins-corporate-blogosphere-with-fit-for-life-daily/)

I do not have a blog covering the issues I have about my part time job, but I do put my hand up to say that I participate heavily in cynical talk in regards to my workplace with family and friends. However, I do this because I care about the organisation and think that some progresses could be made to develop employee satisfaction thus improving business as a whole. I agree with Richards’ and Kosmala’s (2013, p. 7) study that found employee bloggers had a strong sense of loyalty and dedication to their job. This I believe can be applied to me as my cynical expressions can improve the business.  Richard and Kosmala (2013) believe that blogging about work allows voices to be heard and can substitute trade unions for employees who just need to ‘vent’.

Schoneboom (2007, cited in Richards and Kosmala 2013, p 4) contends that these blogs are no longer ‘attacks on employers but are organised vocal movements’. Blogging about work can connect the employee to their occupational community online participating in a ‘global village’ feeling connected to others who feel the same things in their line of work and possibly in other countries. This is the benefit of globalisation and does not come without some costs  employers and employees need to consider.  

(Image: http://mariosundar.com/category/how-to-use-social-media/business-blogging/)

References

Quick, W 2004, ‘Content delivery in the blogosphere’, DailyPundit.com, 831520, 30 Dec 2004, <http://thejournal.com/articles/2004/02/01/content-delivery-in-the-blogosphere.aspx>

Richards, J Kosmala, K 2013, “In the end, you can only slag people off for so long”: employee cynicism through work blogging”, New Technology, Work and Employment, Vol. 28, No.1, Blackwell, Oxford