Elin Jernstrom's Webpage

December 6, 2018

Protest Media

How does social media play a part in protesting?

Since the dawn of the different social medias, more and more people are able to connect with each other through simple clicks online. Quite soon the public sphere within the cyber net came to understand the power of writing, sharing and hash tagging online. This is a space where people could express themselves and start “hashtivism”, a form of protesting online. The Black Lives Matter movement came into being by linking the unjust justice system towards black people in the states and linking that to #blacklivesmatter. This is a protest against authorities who abused their power and vigilantes who shot innocent black peoplewhile getting away with minimal punishment. Now, how does social media contribute to the protests and is it a sufficient enough form of protest?

Social media is a great tool in order to spread information fast and without costs, to a large number of people. By putting a hashtag into a statement, it connects all people who look up the hashtag in the relevant context. By sharing a statement quickly on facebook bares its own cons to protest media. It’s might give the illusion of somebody doing enough by simply sharing. Sharing is a good start in which to spread information and get people together for a physical protest. However, social media alone could not have made too much of a change. I think had it not been for massive physical protests in Ferguson, the movement would not have had as big of an effect overall.

In Stay Woke – Black Lives Matter (Peabody and Laurens Grant, 2017), we see how the movement came to be. It all started with a response to a Facebook post (See picture below)

However, the moment really took off to a movement when the video footage of police brutality and killing of the innocent black man Eric Garner (Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement documentary (2016)) went viral.

Social media played a huge role during the physical protest in Ferguson. People were tweeting in solidarity from the Arab spring in how to treat eyes after tear gas.

It connected people across the globe and benefitted people on the battlefield. Tweeting live also lets us see how the protests are unfolding as they are happening, spreading the word on the spot without any control over what is allowed to be shown.

Social media is great for forming big groups with a common goal, but would have trouble in the future since “it has sidestepped some of the traditional tasks of organizing.” (Zeynep Tufekcias, xxiii). Hence why the Black Lives Matter is now a network as well (24, Alicia Garza). The #blacklivesmatter keeps the movement alive on a grass-root level in the public sphere and the network itself keeps it organised.

Sources:

“Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement documentary (2016).” Youtube, Uploaded by Manufacturing Intellect, 8 April 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIoYtKOqxeU.

Tufekci, Zeynep. “Introduction”, Twitter and Teargas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. 2017, pp. xxi-xxxi.

Garza, Alicia. “Black Love-Resistance and Liberation” Race, Poverty & the Environment, Vol. 20, No. 2, Alive! Strategies for transformation (2015), pp. 21-25, www.jstor.org/stable/43873216, Accessed 5 December 2018.

missy-magazine.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/DSC_7426.jpg. Accessed 5 December 2018.

December 6, 2018

Media and Representation

How are women portrayed in mainstream media and how have the people reacted to it?

“You don’t have to be a formal researcher to notice that there has been a pronounced increase in the number of sexual images of girls and young women in mainstream media”(R. Danielle Egan, 56). We see this in different ad campaigns, in magazines and on television. In many so-called ‘chick-flicks’, we can see how a girl becomes popular after the traditional make-over, and she is usually unpopular in the first stage because she is an intellect.

This problem moves past the screen itself to interviews of actresses who are mainly asked about looks, what fitness routine they have at the moment, compared to men who get relevant questions about the movie they are promoting.

“From the red carpet to the slopes, the media sends the limiting message that a woman’s value lies in her youth, beauty, and sexuality and not in her accomplishments […] According to a study that analyzed over 160 million words from decades of newspapers, academic papers, tweets, and blogs, […] women are disproportionately described in relation to their marital status, age, or appearance.” (The Representation Project).

Luckily, people are fighting against this on social media. The Representation Project has undertaken some means to campaign against this. They use the #askhermore, to challenge journalists and interviewers not to ask a question simply based on appearance but to focus on women’s achievements instead.

Works cited:

Youtube video sources:

“Celebrities Who Show You How To Deal With Sexist Comments.” Youtube, uploaded by Salty Facts, 19 August 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrSTsWNqRzw.

“Helen Mirren The sexist Parkinson s interview 1:2.” Youtube, uploaded by P.I. Becky, 23 August 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VuvyItN3es.

“Charlotte McKinney – Carls Jr Ad Commercial – Super Bowl XLIX 2015 – The All Natural Burger.” Youtube, uploaded by Charlotte McKinney, 23 January 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUvQkW4B1k.

“Women On The Red Carpet Get Sh!tty Questions – Today’s Topic (Scarlett Johansson, Mindy Kaling).” Youtube, uploaded by Cracked, 9 August 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=paPZX_JLokI.

“Coco Mademoiselle: The Film – CHANEL.” Youtube, uploaded by CHANEL, 8 March 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRV-2_Un-kk.

“The Devil Wears Prada (4/5) Movie CLIP – Andy Gets a Makeover (2006) HD.” Youtube, uploaded by Movieclips, 18 June 2015, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSPYgwP9R84.

Websites:

“#askhermore”The Representation Project. therepresentationproject.org/the-movement/askhermore/. Accessed 5 December 2018.

Twitter:

@JenSiebelNewsom. ”We are not just objects to entertain the world. We are not simply images to bring smiles or grimaces to people’s faces. We are not members of a giant beauty pageant to be pit against one another for the pleasures of the public. We women in Hollywood, we have voices.” #AskHerMore” Twitter, 16 October 2018, 12:41 p.m., twitter.com/JenSiebelNewsom/status/1052283303540060160

@Just_Tarable. “CRINGE, why did your interviewer Paul Martini ask @tessavirtue about getting a ‘new dress’?? She is competing for a GOLD MEDAL and she is an ATHLETE, can we not focus on that? Unless you also ask @ScottMoir about his snazzy ensemble. #askhermore GEEZ” Twitter, 10 February, 7:29 p.m., twitter.com/Just_Tarable/status/962529051364782081.

@nickykc. “What shoes were you wearing @christopherhope ..Oh wait this isn’t a fashion show so I don’t care – same applies to women #Askhermore” Twitter, 26 September, 7:09 a.m., twitter.com/nickykc/status/1044951989501784064.

Articles:

R. Danielle, Egan. “Sexualising girl troubles” Contexts, Vol. 11, No. 2, from sweatshops to surrogacy (SPRING 2012), pp. 56-57. www.jstor.org/stable/41960814. Accessed 4 December 2018.

December 6, 2018

Consumption: The Film Industry

How does affective economics function in post-modern Cinephilia?

Cinephilia has changed drastically since the classical times. Nowadays thanks to transmediality, we can watch movies from the comfort of our own home. “Facilitated by the development of new technologies, magic retrospectively appears as an inherent trend in cinema consumption as soon as cinema becomes a “universal” type of leisure, potentially encompassing all types of societies and social classes”(Hills, 146). There are a few websites out there that allow us to look up, write reviews, and rate movies, for example, Letterboxd and Imdb. The fact that we can read and share, or disagree with arguments from ordinary people around the world, has made it possible for fan bases to grow easily. Fan Cultures, do not only write reviews but they can rewrite and produce their own content as well.

Fans have not only the power to actually bring back a show, like Brooklyn 99, where the massive backlash from fans was listened to, and previously produced by FOX, NBC promised to produce another series (O’Brian), they can also participate in the making of different projects. Since these massive fan bases exist, producers have taken advantage of this mass of fan bases in order to produce content through Crowdfunding sites. This is ‘Affective economics’. “In short, affective economics mobilises a concept of emotional engagement between consumers and branded goods in order to position itself as beyond mere ‘commodification’.” (Hills, 185). The fans can through crowdfunding, feel like they are part of the production. In some cases by backing a certain project, like Veronica Mars, “Fans may poach from a Kickstarter project by interpreting it not only as securing symbolic proximity to the showrunner/production, but also as offering limited edition or time-sensitive merchandise not otherwise available” (Hills,194).

Crowdfunding-Benefits-and-Risks-Quicken-Loans-Zing-Blog.jpg

They work together, the fans and the producers. This blurs the line between ordinary people and educated media people. (Hills). By establishing love marks, the producers of the show avoid “cold impersonal brands” (Hills, 187). The backers and fans feel more involved in the project and can practice cinephilia almost hand in hand with the project itself since they are the ones funding it.

The post-modern cinephilisist has the advantage of the internet and the capability of funding projects they believe in. By working together with project leaders and choosing whom to fund, they are ultimate choosing what is put out there in the market to be shown for yet other cinephilisists.

Sources:

Jullier, Laurent and Jean-Marc Leveratto. “Cinephilia in the Digital Age.” Audiences: Defining and Researching Screen Entertainment Reception. Edited by Ian Christie. Amsterdam UP, 2012, pp. 143-154.

Hills, Matt. “Veronica Mars, Fandom, and the ‘Affective Economics’ of Crowdfunding Poachers.” New Media & Society 17.2 (2015): 183-197.

O’Brian, Kelly. When Does Brooklyn 99 Come Back? Season 6 Return. 29 May 2018, www.women.com/kelleyobrien/lists/when-does-brooklyn-99-come-back-season-6-return-052818. May 29 2018 Accessed 5 December 2018.

www.quickenloans.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Crowdfunding-Benefits-and-Risks-Quicken-Loans-Zing-Blog.jpg. Accessed 5 December 2018.

December 6, 2018

Consumption: The Music Industry

How has music consumption changed recently?

Music consumption has changed radically in the last two decades from buying CDs in a shop to downloading files illegally on LimeWire to streaming online, for example, Spotify.

People used to download a lot of music online illegally since there weren’t any regulations before to control the issue. After regulations were put down, most likely because it affected the economy; “the GAO study found that the estimated losses in the US economy due to piracy accounted for $58 billion in output and $2.6 billion in tax revenues (BPI, 2010: 24), and people got caught, because of regulations for example when “In April 2009 Sweden implemented a local version of the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive that gave copyright owners the right to request the IP addresses of suspected illegal file sharers by personal experience” (Jewitt, Robert, and Majid Yar, 4), *I find it harder to download nowadays and *I have to think twice before committing a crime that *I can get caught for.

Nowadays, *I actually pay for music, through Spotify.

Before I would not have streamed music since the internet was so expensive to pay for. It would have seemed useless to stream the song once instead of just downloading it at home. However, the developments of technology and access to the internet almost everywhere have made it possible to stream easily. It’s so incredibly easy to have Spotify on your phone instead of carrying CDs and Walkman’s around. It’s the simplicity of having almost all the music in one app that draws people, myself included, to stream music on Spotify.

Also, I think people respect music more now. “By positioning the paying consumer as a stakeholder in cinema, especially younger tech-savvy demographics, recent antipiracy efforts have sought to promote respect for the creative sector and its various employees, whilst at the same time raising public awareness of legal alternatives to piracy.” (Jewitt, Robert, and Majid Yar, 6). I think this works for music as well. People are realising the worth of the artists more and more by being exposed to the promotion of creativity on different mass media online.

People also consume music on Youtube. Here we combine two types of art in one, filmmaking and music. Music videos can draw people into listening to music. For example, Childish Gambino’s track ‘This is America’ caused a lot of hype because of its strong political statement.

It’s hard to say where the future in music consumption lies but I think people will have more respect for artists and will more and more consume legally online since there are more platforms like Spotify (on which you can stream free as well with the only cost of hearing advertisements), Deezer and Youtube.

* Where I have referenced to myself, I really mean my anonymous friend. I cannot be legally held accountable for committing any crimes that have been confessed here. The person in question shall remain anonymous.

Sources:

Jewitt, Robert, and Majid Yar. “Consuming the Illegal: Situating Piracy in Everyday Experience.” Convergence 19:1 (2013), pp. 3-8.

Barekat, Houman. “No More Heroes: How Music Stopped Meaning Everything”.

October 30, 2018December 6, 2018

Introduction

Hi,

A very warm welcome to you all. My blog is about different areas in Screen media and the challenges that come with them. In my 4 topics; Protest Media, Media and Representation, Consumption: The Film Industry, Consumption: The Music industry, I discuss the changes in how people consume these things and how we as an audience can also make a difference to the topic in question.

Cheers brothers and sisters!

Best,

Elin