I finished another semester of teaching this June. It went well, I led two seminar groups on Media & Globalization. We dealt with topics that generally interest me and that are closely related to what I’ve written so far in this blog. As you can guess from its title, we talked about globalization, homogenization of media, contra-flows etc.
The lecturer and con
venor of the course taught how non-Western countries tend to remodel Western media programmes, TV series, films and other media products in general. They do this to accommodate their own specific media traditions, values and cultures: make it more appealing to their own cultures and values. We looked at how every media is owned by a few major corporations that tend to be mostly American or European. We saw how easy it is to create one sole voice that influences everyone everywhere. Not a huge surprise to most I guess, but for first year undergrads I suppose so.
Teaching these subjects in fact reminded me of my own educational background as an undergraduate Media & Modern Literature student at Goldsmiths, University of London. Those three years were brilliant but traumatizing in a way, especially the first one: it provided me with many analytical tools to use in my ordinary life, to dissect whatever I used to believe or follow blindly and to closely look at all the media products.
Yes of course this was a blessing as it opened my eyes to all the hidden subliminal messages or agendas. But this also meant that I began to detest all of my childhood favourite shows, films etc. that I had idolized until then. It ruined the enjoyment of the experience at times. I just couldn’t stop analysing, I couldn’t simply relish going to the cinema for example, as I would scrutinize the themes, the choice of certain settings or cast members, lighting. I would always find and still do now (actually now more than ever) some issues that distraught me maybe due to the representation of women, ethnicity, age, sexuality etc.. It would end up with a culmination of overthinking, what you’d call reading too much into stuff.
So this year while teaching, I was aware of the “power” I had within me to change my students’ mindsets. I had the task of moulding their minds to a new way the could view the world, which is by all means a great thing, but a huge ginormous responsibility. I mean, even though I was teaching only 50 students, I felt the weight of Uncle Sam’s words looming over me as he warns Peter Parker A.K.A. Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility!”
Okay… I might be exaggerating a bit but I was really eager to help them out and to initiate their journey in media studies. As this year I had the opportunity to organize my own own seminars without the need to follow a set plan, I felt compelled to show them some videos I had gathered during the years that highlighted the problematic of having a Western-centric view of everything. I wanted to give them my own perspective.
Some of the clips I showed included the TedTalk by Mallence Beart-Williams, who talks about the issues surrounding the ways in which different NGOs (such as Oxfam, Unicef and many more) have portrayed Africa during the years, without acknowledging the immense potentiality that the continent has counting on its sole material resources. This speech truly cuts deep into the listener’s conscious, so much so that her voice haunts me everytime I stumble upon words such as development/Africa/charities/money.
Another one was a clip from a stand-up show by comedian Trevor Noah (which I’ve shown my friends hundreds of time) where he mocks the way NGOs depict ‘African children’ in their ads. Honestly worth a watch!
However, the video that had me questioning my own teaching methods when I showed it was the one about the film ‘Moana’.
I was obsessed with ‘Moana’ ealier this year, I personally feel that it’s one of the best Disney films ever made (Shut up! I’m not too old to be watching Disney films!). If you haven’t watched it, I suggest that you do, ASAP! Anyways, my ususal routine during my ‘obsession phase’ is googling every possible information, videos/clips related to it: backstage footage, ‘making of’, playing the soundtrack 24/7. Amonsgt all this I found a ‘Hollywood Reporter- Oscar Animator Roundtable’ Interview from this year where the creators of ‘Moana’ explain their journey developing the idea of that film. They explain that they travelled around the various South Pacific islands in order to immerse themselves in the culture. They studied the Polynesian mythology and met up with different anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists and cultural ambassadors there to make sure that they did right with the various traditions of that area, at least this time around. In fact, these are the same creators that wrote ‘Aladdin’, and in their own words:
“Our research on Aladdin, it was during the First Gulf War. So [for] our research on [it] we went to the LA Convention Centre: there was a Saudi Arabian Expo, and that is a true story.”
!!! (This is my commentary btw)
“(…) So this time around we met up with the people that really stayed involved. It really helped us on the movie, to try to keep the authenticity and make a movie that they would embrace.”
It was astonishing to hear how different their approach had been to ‘Aladdin’ first and ‘Moana’ now. They themselves acknowled
ged the sheer unsubstantiated research they conducted (or didn’t, thereof) for ‘Aladdin’. When I showed the clip in class close to the end of term, it was received well by most, who were outraged but now made sense of the confusional mix of Muslim/Arabic/Indian/Middle Eastern symbolism present in ‘Aladdin’. But there were a few who remained unconvinced, who opposed my slight ‘bashing’ of their dear childhood film. One of them in particular was quite adamant to chaning her perception of ‘Aladdin’.
“Yeah, but it’s still a nice film, a GOOD film” she said. Looking at me with a “Why are you bumming down my favourite childhood film????!” look, to which my head tilted at a 45” age, my lips tightly sealed as I didn’t know what to say. After a bit my mouth instinctively opened up to a “wwwwweeeeeellllllll” kind of sound. And that was all I could say.
Because what could I say? I was aware of that feeling, I completely knew what was going through her mind, what it was like to have my favourite films/shows broken down bit by bit, week by week while studying media. And hence all I could convey was a “wwwwweeeeeellllllll” that hinted to a “well, even though you like it that doesn’t mean that it’s ‘good’ film that doesn’t raise any problematic. You will understand it maybe in the years to come, but it’s a journey you have to undertake on your own”.
But this would usually happen with other media products or outlets. I would have to shine a more realistic light on the biases of the BBC, as most my my students this year thought that it was one (if not THE) most objective news source (I guess they didn’t know about the ‘Corbyn-portrayal’, ‘War on terror’ etc.)
I felt guilty most of the time, because I knew I was planting a seed in their brains that would aid them in becoming more independently-minded, developing their critical mindset (maybe with a hint of pessimism but let’s not get into that). It was a difficult task, in a way crushing their dreams or the memories they held dearest, but it had to be done by someone! It was a necessary evil at the end of the day, and I’m glad now that I’ve done it.
I feel that we have to stop worrying about ruining childhood memories, or well I have to stop worrying about not being the “cool teacher” who makes jokes and goes the extra mile to please her students. Instead, I/we need to learn to focus more on how we can make and enjoy media content that celebrates all diversity, be it gender, class, sexuality, age, disability or ethnicity!
A Transnational Child 