American media - Tv Tricks

LOL how absurd ^^^
The above picture is part of a  Black History Month advertisement, a clip from the show Kim Possible (a show which used to be aired on Disney Channel - when Disney was still good). The boy in the top right hand corner mouthing "That's Racist" of course isn't apart of the ad but I just found out hilarious, hehe.

The picture should speak for itself. I'm just going to mention a few words. I'm not sure if that picture is meant to be intentional and I will not accuse Disney Channel for putting that intentionally in their ad. Disney Channel is by no means racist but truth be told, that picture is provocative with her looking like a hungry Cavewoman. I wonder why they didn't change the ad (assuming that they saw the final product). I figure they didn't take it as seriously as some persons would. Either way, I'll just make an important point and say that American media in popular culture has a way of reworking images to make things seem a little different from what they are and is sometimes seemed as deceptive...ya think? It's an art to manipulate images to show to a wide audience. hmm

lol Made ya look

Civilization in American Media

I followed up on the war themes and recognized the extent of American infiltration. One of the best visually aesthetic films Avatar (2009) written, edited, produced and directed by James Cameron (whom also directed the iconic Titanic movie) is as some critics would say mind-blowing. It is a science fiction film set in the mid-22nd Century when humans are mining a precious mineral called Unobtanium on Pandora (a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system). Humans have severely depleted the earth's resources and are now threatening the continued existence of a local tribe Na'vi - a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body with a remotely located human and is used to interact with the natives of Pandora. The avatar must aid in research of Pandora's biosphere by interacting with the natives. He becomes friends with natives and has an affair with one of them but they soon recognize his facade after he disables a bulldozer which threatened to destroy a sacred Na'vi site. Of course, the two cultures clash (America and the Na'vi) and it becomes complicated when the avatar becomes too close too the culture he's supposed to be fighting against. He makes an epiphany about his own role and realizes that his civilization is probably doing more harm than good. Cameron notes that the film is also an implicit reference to America's role in the Iraq war. He states that "we may know how to throw missiles but we may not know what it feels like to have it land on our home soil, America". He continues to say that the film is not Anti-American but he feels it is being patriotic to question a system that needs to be coralled. (Well said Cameron, well said!). The same institution that has the capacity for good also has the capacity to do wrong; "...parts of our selves that are trashing our world and maybe condemning ourselves to a grim future".

I think Cameron highlighted a number of important issues here:

1. He notes the importance of popular culture and media to make important and sometimes overlooked statements on the nature of our existence. He recognizes that there are times when media has the power to say something that is greater than ourselves and the excessive pride we sometimes have as a country. Media has a responsibility for critiquing even the big-shot nation that prides itself on doing good and being moral. Popular culture essentially has the equivalent gravity as other mediums in critiquing the society.

2.  He specifically places America in the context of imperialism and implicitly shows that America has the propensity for colonialism. In fact, America is a driving force for the act of taking-over (and you can see it in the movie definitely - hinted in the description).

3. He also suggests that America's power also falls into the territory of devastation. The nation isn't perfect but sometimes you wonder if they're really striving for something other than the upright and respectable. Maybe in all the wars, there is no final resolution of restoring balance but all that is left is rubble, ruin and damaged lives which can never be returned. Is their cause really worth the fight? Is it okay to ruin to other lives just for revenge? Sometimes American power is simply destructive.

How else do you think American civilization is portrayed through popular culture?

Think on these things.

 For more information on the movie, check it out >>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29#Themes_and_inspirations

Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! No It's America The Great...Superhero? 0.0

America has an excellent gift of documenting themselves and their history. Call them conceited but it's true. They will inject their influence in everything, especially in media. Yet, presenting self may be argued as an obvious feat to learned when founding a new nation. Setting themselves apart from the old ways of the world and accommodating the capacity for building a place where the past does not exist but where creation and re-creation can thrive is an exhilarating activity. How exciting it is to become new and improved; to know that you can change your life through transformation. I will give America an applause for the knowledge of and their agency in progression. They always know how to think forward.

So I'll use this thought as a point of departure for the notion of America as a super power (literally). Apart from it's economic hold on the rest of the world (American dollars are getting more and more valuable and expensive where I come from), America exhibits itself as a legitimate war power, and yet also prides itself in conforming to the dreams of "World Peace". (Kinda makes you wonder if the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden is truly symbolic of a new type of peace, or just to showcase American militia power orrrrr just to settle the unrest from the (now stale) 9/11 event. Killing to create peace; Is it a case of bad things happen for good reasons? Who knows, but that's a different story.

So before I go on an even bigger tangent, I'd like to express how we use these "peace and power" tropes to ignite American creativity and sense of self. If anybody likes American media, you must take into account it's procession into popular culture through magazines, specifically, Comic books which have also been made into film adaptations through TV shows and movies. I personally love the adventures of American Superheroes. Their fun and action-packed. But I hadn't fully realized that such Superheroes really have a place in American history. So i embarked on a little research and found out about the origins of Captain America. I remembered the not-too-recent movie trailer but I couldn't understand why anyone would give a superhero such a corny name. I figured it must have had something to do about the ultimate man saving the nation and keeping the nation immune from the extra-territorial evil powers (obviously).

So Captain America was published by Marvel Comics and written by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby during the 1940s. Captain America is the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a feeble young man whose body was enhanced to human perfection by an experimental serum. He was then used as an agent to help the US Government in efforts to win World War II. His costume bears the American flag and is used as a shield motif for all attacks made against him. He is armed with an indestructible boomerang-like shield which can be used both as a weapon and a defense against other weapons. He is usually depicted fighting enemies such as the AXIS powers (Germany-Italy-Japan). I even looked at other superheroes and found out that Iron Man is also an agent used to test progressions in American Technology in the fight against Communist influence. Other Superheroes are either simply born American or were placed in the context of the American landscape. Their purposes are to save humanity, protect against social injustice, terrorism, tyranny and other social ills. Heroes literally fighting for their lives and others reserving the peace of American society and possibly the wider world. The inherent paradox - creating world peace through war; One must fight through the chaos to find victory and of course one has to move through the damages of battle and to finally restoring harmonic balance and freedom for the nation. These superheroes reaallly took some lessons from the American anthem (if i may say so myself).

What I found increasingly astounding however is how America can use Benjamin Franklin's platform of autobiography to reshape American history and more importantly, the average American man into the ultimate omnipotent figure. (Such a huge ego boost). These heroes are completely patriotic. It's a fascinating institution - the world of youthful entertainment literature can capture the theme of 'America The Great' in one single character. It's amazing the impact on future generations too. Young people would like to look up to the figure of Captain America and say: "When I grow up, I wanna be just like Captain America and protect my country and the world!". America has gone through many transformations but I believe this is one of the most intriguing. America has literally refashioned and chronicled themselves into a totally new symbol of power and prowess - a figure of the wholly moral, indestructible, super-strengthened, ultra-cool (decked out with gadgets), and perfectly good-looking. He is the definitive of the American man. He is the American pride and joy. He is the American soul. *queue Superhero themed music and image of superhero overlooking the vast landscape of America*

   

BEWARE: Attack of the Internet Force Field

(#stolen - but giving props to the person that said this. Thoughtful words.)

"Facebook is such an unhealthy instrument which has somehow become a necessity for daily contact and expression. All it does is nurture lust, greed, gluttony, pride, envy, wrath and chronic procrastination.

I spend so much time generating envy based on a friend's exciting timeline that I don't see or appreciate the same or more blessings bestowed on me each day.

Take some time to consider this fact. Whether you are religious, spiritual or not, this is a generalized fact."

- *Jenna (Name changed for confidentiality) 

I hinted in my introduction that the internet is a big deal for this modern platform we live in. I cannot stress enough how much we use it every single day. This virtual world we consider to be truly either the mirror to our real lives or alter egos; the performance stage, our promenade to prance our lifestyles and the itsy-bitsy details (even the most irrelevant of information). Oh what a day in the future when for once, I don't have to know what time you bathed or looked at a picture of what you had for breakfast this morning. But what can I say, sometimes I kinda like the 'reality shows' that appear on my Facebook timeline.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and whatever other social network site that allows such free self-expression has opened up shared information to new heights. In fact, I believe that the internet and these sites have utterly reshaped the notion: "It's a free country, I can do whatever I want!". It opened up for other countries too, favouring even my small island. I believe these sites are wonderful mediums for sharing useful information and things which can improve our thinking. I will not knock the power of social networking for providing great benefits; (heck some people get jobs from these things). Yet I really am disappointed about we treat these channels. The most trivial of things like: "What am i going to do tomorrow afternoon?" reign on our glass screens instead of "What book will i read next" or "What kind of inventive creation can I think up that can save humanity?" (exaggeration, but you get the point). 

This expansive freedom may have dumbed us down a little bit. It blurred the lines of privacy and public information. The things we post are never sacred again but subject to all manner of public conversation, whether positive or negative. Most persons seem to have held its power dear to their heart while clutching their phones to their breast awaiting the ping of a new "like" or comment. The most absurd point of it all is that we enjoy the attention these social public realms produce. We take pleasure in seeing people waste their time on forums not realizing that we too are addicted to the same type of chronic procrastination and attention-seeking ways. The internet and its partner-in-crime websites have allowed us to take a small piece of independence which we obviously have blown out of control many times. Yes, I believe it has succeeded in watching how stupidly obsessed we've become and how we have surpassed even the basic rules of authentic communication. (I think sometimes the makers of networking sites laugh at us and the things we post. I suppose however, they knew the consequences of giving us the power to lose ourselves and boy, did we give that power a 360 degree turn). I'll use T.S Eliot's notion and say that some of us at least are beyond redemption in this Wasteland.

 

Introduction to blog - American Culture as Power

So because this thing does not allow me to put it in the top slot for the description (how rude to tell me only 500 max characters smh*), I'm placing these words in first post. My trial and error for the day - I'm new to this blog world. I decided to go a different route and turn out my usual pen and paper for a more encompassing medium: the internet. It's great! plus it's useful for the things i'd like to reveal and use in this blog in my analysis of the subject. This gives me a little freedom to do what I wish and it's different from the assignment norm. The internet itself is an expression of their authority of culture in the Western world. When you place this instrument  for the world and call it a global village and everyone feels they are entitled to show their faces on surface of the world for everyone to see - they have opened up a totally new realm of life for us to live; (but this is another story, so moving on)

Sooo I hope this allows me to be interesting and provide some chatter about the excitement of American culture. I'll explore American power through it's popular culture by pointing references to it's use of media and show how in the everyday uses of it's entertainment, America has either influenced or simply set some newly infectious ideas for the rest of the world to latch on. America's power is then defined by the force of it's concepts and visions, how it portrays itself as the mecca, the creator of novel beliefs and how it maintains itself as leader of the western world. But let's see how great America really is. I have to say though, that America does have a knack for keeping themselves as "The GREAT". 

YAY let's begin! I'll keep you posted

- Danielle G.

smh* - *shake my head*