communications 486 - race and media new media: new possibilities or new modes of surveillance? race...

Communications 486 - Race and Media

New Media: New Possibilities or New Modes of Surveillance?

Race and Cyberspace

Brian Barbosa. Queenie Tsang. Vincent Tan.

Objectives

To examine how race is represented throughnew media and cyberspace

To examine the representations of race in sci-fi – through television shows and movies.

Battlestar Galactica

Star Trek, 5th Element, Blade Runner, etc.

To discuss our notions of race, racial relations, and racial differences as they have been

shaped and re-shaped through new media

New Technologies of Race- Hammonds

Hammonds discusses race as it has been represented and viewed through emerging new media and technologies

1950 UNESCO findings Change in how race and racial differences are studied

Dubois Study Newsweek – “What Color is Black? What Color is

White?”

Group Activity

Get into small groups and list all the races

Group Activity Discussion

• How many races did your group come up with?

• Why did groups have different numbers?

• How do we categorically define race?

Race is a social and cultural construct

New Technologies of Race• Hammonds argument is that “the notion

of race – both as a social and scientific concept – is still deeply embedded in morphology, but it is the meaning given to morphological differences that has transformed”

• Black or White music video– http://youtube.com/watch?v=IisX9N6-dBc

“See, It's Not About Races

Just PlacesFaces

Where Your BloodComes From

Is Where Your Space Is

I've Seen The BrightGet Duller

I'm Not Going To Spend

My Life Being A Color”

Morphology

“Got a light skinned friend, look like Michael Jackson. Got a dark skinned friend look likeMichael Jackson” – Kanye West

Time Magazine, 1993 Special Issue

SimEve

Inter-ethnic marriages

Immigration / Multiculturalism

Inter- ethnic/racial marriages& Morphology

Discussion Question:

As more inter- racial and ethnic relationships are more apparent to us today, how do our notions change in terms of what race is and what racial differences are?

Terse Conclusion

• Hammonds' article begins by discussing the contents of an article titled, "No Scientific Basis for Race Bias Found by World Panel of Experts", which argued that race is "less a biological fact than a social myth" (p. 108). I agree with this statement, and belief that classifications of race are indeed socially constructed by the individuals who are highest in the "race hierarchy". Hammonds then discusses the issue of morphing, and race mixing, and ultimately suggests that we still have a long way to go in terms of accepting "non-white" races as equal individuals.

Cultural Moves: African Americans and the Politics of Representation

Is (Cyber) Space the Place?- Gray

“The meanings we make and the uses to which we put them are experienced socially and

culturally in local and specific circumstances”

Media forms have a significant role in how we locally and globally construct meanings, including those associated with race.

Is (Cyber) Space the Place?

Fiske – social categories of information, knowledge, and power relations.

- The cultural politics of differences and new technologies.

- Hall- West

Is (Cyber) Space the Place?

Possibilities of the Internet and Cyberspace

A poststructuralist dream or nightmare? Anybody can be anybody

“In cyberspace, subjectivity and identity are indeed severed from the body” - Gray

Is (Cyber) Space the Place?

Subjectivity and Identity

• How meaningful are wide representations of race in cyberspace if they are not in fact real?

• Race representations throughout the Web

• Identity

Terse Conclusion

Gray:In this complex article, the author reviews and builds upon the works of West and Hall on the cultural politics of blackness and the representation of difference. I agree with his argument that “technology, no matter how complex, removed or abstract, must still be understood socially and culturally” (p.4).

Battlestar Galactica, 1978

• Boomer

• Starbuck

What are the effects of these changes in cast members? 30 years, Women’s Movement Next 10-20 years, Race?

Film: Battlestar Galactica Mini-Series

Things to think about while watching:

How is race represented in sci-fi? Is this representation different from

other film genres? i.e., comedy or action?

Do you notice any racial stereotypes?

• Discusses and describes examples of women warriors in the science fiction genre

• Addresses some social issues such as gender roles, femininity, and sexuality

Where No Man Has Gone BeforeD. Mainon & J. Ursini

Star Trek

• Created by Gene Roddenberry, 1966

• Significant innovation on TV: – Includes strong

women in all of his SciFi projects

Women Warriors

- Nyota Uhura- African-American- Promoted

Women Warriors

- B’Elanna Torres- Portrayed as

“combative and anti-social”

- Married a human and has a daughter

Women Warriors

- T’Pol- Emotional- Intense Sexuality

Women Warriors

- Hoshi Sato- First Japanese regular

character- A linguist and

communications expert- Seductive

Star TrekThe Gamesters of Triskelion

(1968)- “Collars of Obedience”

Angel One (1988)

The Fifth Element

- 1997

- Written by Luc Besson

- Plot: survival of humanity

- Setting: futuristic NYC

The Fifth Element

Main female character : Leeloo

Terminator Trilogy

- James Cameron, Gale Hurd- 3 films

- The Terminator (1984)- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)- Terminator 3: Rise of Machines

(2003)

Terminator Series

- Main female character: Sarah Cooper- Linda Hamilton- Insecure and fragile- “weak-willed female of the eighties

Terminator Series

- Terminator 2- Sarah evolves into a fighter

Terminator Series- Terminator 3

- Sarah is dead- Terminatrix (Kristianna Loken)

- Aggressive and sexual

Discussion Question

• Now that we have seen examples of female warrior characters from different points of time (from 1960s to 2000s), what are the differences and similarities between these characters? Think about the appearance, symbols, themes, and roles that the characters use or portray?

Terse Conclusion

Mainon & Ursini: This article goes through an array of television shows and movies that follow the genre of science fiction. The theme of all the articles is the role of woman as mostly dominant, powerful and at times sexual. I enjoyed this reading because since I myself have never had an interest in science fiction I was able to see women in roles opposite of norms usually associated with women in contemporary society. These shows/films were as successful as they were because they displayed a society that is possible in the future and at the same time it empowers woman and their roles in society.

Race in the Construct and the Construction of Race

- L. Nakamura

• Early Cyberpunk films, novels and videogames provide templates for the construction of race– Blade Runner (1982)

Nakamura (continued)

• Traditional cyberpunk films use race to ‘window dress’ their films and signify the future but still employ the leading white male character to save the day

Newer versions of cyberpunk films inject the Asian cross-bred hero into their films and still use Asian-ness to depict the future

Terse Conclusions

• Nakamura– There was some discussion and criticism surrounding

the idea of Keanu Reeves character as being ambiguously white. He wasn’t the first choice for the role as Will Smith and Nicholas Cage both passed on the script.

• Discuss the ideas of the hybridization of an individual

• Evolution? Convergence? Does it make it seem more futuristic?

The Matrix (1999)

• Film by the Wachowski brothers tackles the “possibilities and dangers of the internet” in a future where a multi-cultural group of hackers opposes the authority of the machine

Nakamura highlights the ideas of multiculturalism and visibility in contrast to the “dehumanizing excesses” of the machine

The Matrix (continued)

Alludes to several historical events of affirmative action

Tough Women in Outer Space - S. Inness

• Historically featuring courageous male leads, strong women are becoming a common theme in science fiction films

• Science fiction reflects women’s roles in contemporary society and also attempts to alter gender specified roles

Weaver and the Alien

• Sigourney Weaver (Ripley) is more than your typical Rambo-esque hero in the Alien Trilogy, she is smart, strong, unemotional and powerful throughout these films– “For her, toughness is not

just a physical attribute but a moral one”

• Femininity and strength shown in Alien by the ability for Ripley to both be morally and physically tough while at the same time being vulnerable

Captain Mulgrew

• The first female captain of the Star Trek Series Kate Mulgrew (Cpt. Janeway) was to be more than just a follower like previous women cast in the series, she was meant to lead.

Changing Realities

• Women are able to challenge the traditional norms of womanhood and femininity in science fiction films because of the social changes that this genre suggests.

• Even though sci-fi films attempt to break tradition with past representations of women, they still continue to reaffirm these traditional modes of representations by focusing on the female leads maternal and nurturing instincts

Terse Conclusion

• Inness – There was some discussion surrounding

women’s toughness being portrayed only in fantasy. Are there representations of women being ‘tough’ in a more realistic setting?

– Flaws of the Tough Women in Outer Space presented as nurturing? What are men’s flaws in the sci-fi genre?

GAME TIMEGuess Who? Sci-Fi Edition

- Split into 2 teams- Each team receives a character for the other team to

guess- Members from each team take turns in asking a

question- Question cannot state the film or any other films the

actor portraying the character has been in- Members on each team playing individually- First to shout out character wins!

Guess Who? 2nd Edition:Race-less Faces

Same rules apply, but one exception:

Cannot use any categorical distinctions built around race – as discussed in the activity earlier.

- No skin, eye, hair, colour can be used