Week 9 Seminar Notes Gp2

Seminar Outline
1. HOUSEKEEPING (17.30-17.45)

- CRITICAL CASE STUDY

2. INDIVIDUAL RAT (17.45-18.00)

3. TEAM RAT (18.00-18.20)

4. CHALLENGES (18.20-18.25)

- ONLY IF REQUIRED

5. LECTURE INPUT - DISCUSSION ON READINGS/RATs (18.25-19.00)

6. DISCUSS REFLECTIVE ESSAY & TEAM PROJECT (19.10-19.30)

7. 2nd TEAM MEETING (19.30-20.20)

Important Information, Ideas & Questions
Mass Communication Models/Audiences and Research
 * With older models of mass communication, the focus on the power of producer and the sender of the message.
 * Sender - message - receiver model (also known as the hyperdermic needle model - straight into one's head). Power is with the sender.
 * Implies negative impact of mass communications and societal culture for the masses.
 * Media imperialism relies on unidirectional model of communication - patronising to media users
 * Mass audiences were traditionally defined by academic 'others' - no scholars were included as they did not see themselves as vulnerable to the mass media.
 * Media meaning started to be constructed, dynamic and unstable and then a different approach was taken to mass communications.
 * 1980 study by Morley (Birmingham School of thought) of British people watching 'Nationwide' show demonstrated there were differences to readings of text - no link to socioeconomic background/education level.
 * Serious shift of power from the power of the sender and producer of the message to the construction of meaning as audiences were proven to interact with texts.
 * First article reviews the ways Korean soapie fans use texts to aid and construct their own identity.

Diaspora
 * Originally relates to Jewish separation from their homeland - now is applied to any 'displaced' person/s
 * Seeing homeland through rose-coloured glasses and nostalgia
 * Necessarily imagined
 * Texts are shaped to satisfy perceived expectations
 * Sense/fear of loss of traditional values and cultural identity
 * Possibility of redemption through a return to home
 * Narrative play these events out to help them reconcile their cultural/national identity
 * Do the Indian film makers really think so much or just focus on the emerging new middle class and make films advocating popular culture?
 * There is a specific group of producers and directors in India such as the Yash Raj production which particularly makes films for the NRI's(Non- residential Indians) and note merely the Indian because these films have a huge success rate overseas compared to the local market, which means more money they make in foreign markets.
 * Keen to devour cultural products which them no shame.
 * Attempts to reconcile their experiences in the new "home: with society back in the "homeland" via popular movies.
 * Particularly keen to lap up rosy/positive images of Indian society.

Korean dramas are appealing across Asia because they are packaged in trendy aesthetics and modernity, facilitate emergence of social imaginary of modern Asian femininity's, and re-affirm traditional, an imaginary or construction.

-Transnationalism and Korean dramas refers to the consumption of globally circulated cultural products in cosmopolitan cities in East/South-East Asia, the localisation of the global production of the local and cultural resonance.

-Korean dramas facilitate female agency, play a role in women's consumption, construction and exploration of different modern Asian femininities, and constitute an imaginary space which portrays a social universe with compassion; this re-creation is imaginary, there is always tension between realism and idealism.

-According to Kaur, in Hindi movies, the Occident is use as a "rhetorical counter" in order to define and understand the non-West/orient. It serves to support nationalism by subsuming or covering over problematic dichotomies such as urban/rural & modern/traditional. It reveals long-held images of the West and the construction of the Occident on film.

Notes on Group Project
 * Think of the group project as an exhibition piece, with self-explanatory notes that helps the viewer to understand.
 * Begin the project from the angle of a debate. Select a position, and present your arguments within the 500 word structural essay as well as an end visual presentation.
 * There is no right or wrong answer and you are not aiming for 'proof' - persuasion is the aim.
 * Focus on the criteria in formulating your response
 * Most important aspect is not the presentation - it is the intellectual stimulation and challenge it will provide to the other groups
 * Because there will be multiple parts to it, it will be helpful to create a basic guide for your audience as to how you want them to experience your project.
 * Keep your audience and the aspect of their responses in mind.
 * Consider using collaborative sites such as http://www.zoho.com/ or http://etherpad.com/ for a smoother collaboration.

David Morley (Professor of Communications)

The history               of studies of the media audience can be seen as a series of oscillations                between perspectives which have stressed the power of the text (or                message) over its audiences and perspectives which have stresses                the barriers "protecting" the audience from the potential effects                of the message. (Quoted from Audience Research)