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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
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