"Crash"

Blog Entry #6:

For my final blog entry, I found this interesting article that demonstrated how the movie Crash can be applied to CMM theory.  The article also provides a critical analysis of students’ reactions to the film.  In other words, the authors developed a small research project, similar to the way we are in this class.  Because I used CMM theory in my own research, I thought this article was more than appropriate to dissect.  In both, the article and my research paper, similar key terms are addressed such as complicity and coherence.  I’ve also provided my own thoughts and reactions to the film related to the article.

Crash Under Investigation: Engaging Complications of Complicity, Coherence, and Implicature Through Critical Analysis
Mark P. Orbe; Etsuko Kinefuchi
Critical Studies in Media Communication, 1479-5809, Volume 25, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 135 – 156

In the article “Crash Under Investigation…,” authors Mark P. Orbe and Etsuko Kinefuchi provide a critical analysis of the film Crash and examine how racism reflects complicity, coherence, and implicature.  The article begins analyzing the film using complicity theory.  According to Orbe and Kinefuchi, complicity theory is a “helpful framework for transforming the current state of race relations into more liberating dialogues where true racial reconciliation can occur (137).”  Then, the authors feature images that “reflect complicity, coherence, and implicature within a larger racialized society (138).”  Near the end of the article, they provide an analysis of student reactions to the film that they put into three distinct categories: Explicit Complicity, Coherence through commonalities and implicature, and Negative similarities: complicity within coherence.

After collecting student responses to the film Crash, the authors placed them into three categories.  The first category, explicit complicity, examines the negative views of difference in society.  Explicit complicity was also evident in students’ comments about the “realness” of the film.  Some students said the film was an accurate representation of racism while others felt “it was ‘a little over the top’ (147).”  The second category looks at the “commonality and interconnectedness of human experience (148).”  In the students’ papers commonality became a recurring theme.  Regardless of race, they noted that all of the characters possessed similar traits.  Several students also felt like the movie was an accurate portrayal of how humans can be both, good and bad.  The final category describes the negative similarities throughout the film.  Students pointed out how we all share negative traits despite what our racial or cultural background is.  Many students noted that to “some extent ‘we are all racist’ (150).”  In some respects, I agree. 

For me, the most obvious theme throughout Crash was the negative similarities in the film.  I agree with one student’s response that “in the end, ‘everyone is a bad guy’ (150).”  This film is a clear representation of how “racism is experienced equally by all (151).”  You would be blind not to notice the racism filtering throughout each race in the movie.  It is, in a sense, refreshing to me that this movie tackles the issue of racism coming from all sides.  The message that we all share these racist qualities is very clear throughout the film.  Something else that caught my attention in the movie was the racism between racial minorities.  It really shows how minorities are not always the victims like many of us believe.  It’s hard to say whether interracial relations will ever improve.  One thing is for sure, all of us, no matter our race, all share negative similarities.

The author’s notion of coherence is about the “embraceable and undesirable similarities” between races (152).  Just as there are negative differences, there are negative similarities as well.  According to the authors, “aspects of coherence—most notably the recognition of negative similarities—continue to hinder the facilitation of productive race relations (152).”  In other words, focusing on the similarities between people in the past has led people to ignore racial differences and believe in a “color-blind” (152) society.  The movie Crash exposes the notion of a “color-blind” society and doesn’t allow us to recognize the differences between races as a good thing, but rather, a negative one.  This movie provides us with the examples of racism that flood our society but aren’t always recognized.

American and European Family Communication

Blog Entry #5:

 

Seasons, Melanie, "An examination of modern family communication and moral values in America and Europe" (2005). Senior Honors Theses. Paper 67. http://commons.emich.edu/honors/67

Click here to view article

In “An Examination of Modern Family Communication and Moral Values in America and Europe” by Eastern Michigan University student Melanie Seasons, moral values are defined, explored, and cross-referenced between the two cultures in order to get a better understanding of how they play a part in modern family communication.

In her senior honors thesis, Seasons examines the American family and its so-called traditional moral values and contrasts them to European families.  This article goes hand in hand with my research project, because I want to compare the daily communication and interaction between American and European families.

To fully understand the American family’s communication processes, the

American family is contrasted against the European family (who seem to, according to her research, lack concern for the same traditional beliefs that American families do).  The paper is divided into two sections.  The first section of the paper deals specifically with the American family.  The second section examines the same thing, this time with the European family.

A large part of the European section of her project focuses on the European reaction to

American family values.  This is a vital section because it not only helps to understand the Europeans’ perspectives on America, but it uncovers the intrinsic differences between the two.  For my research, I will attempt to do the same thing through various recordings of family conversations as well as transcribing them into English.

I know my boyfriend’s parents (who happen to be 100% Serbian) for instance; have very definitive opinions on American culture and American communication practices.  It will be interesting to examine the two cultures and explain the different positions that the “modern family” finds itself in.

Because they speak no English in the home, I am always intrigued by what they are saying.  I would also be interested in studying and comparing the customs and etiquette of families who speak different primary languages in the home.

Her article serves two purposes relevant to my research project:  To gain a better understanding of why the European values are the way they are and also to gain more rounded characterization of the American family.  She concludes her paper by explaining why there are such divergent viewpoints between the two cultures.

The New York Times: "Life in the Fast Lane"

Blog Entry #4

Video clip:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2006/11/26/us/1194817111326/life-in-the-fast-lane.html

Accompanying article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/us/27album.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

For this entry, I decided to do a media analysis of an interview conducted by Charlie Leduff for the New York Times series “American Album.”  Leduff’s piece focuses on fast food worker and American, Gloria Castillo.  I chose to deconstruct this interview because it reminded me that the way we make sense of the numerous impressions that we come across us daily is to use frames that Chaika mentions in chapter 5 of Language: The Social Mirror. A frame is an artificial intelligence data structure used to divide knowledge into substructures by representing "stereotyped situations."

I hope that through an analysis or a dissection of Leduff’s interview and video clip “Life in the Fast Lane,” we can resurface stereotyped situations in society and more importantly, show how people may choose to interpret them differently based on their own experiences and cultural meanings. 

In terms of content and organization, in the video “Life in the Fast Lane,” the core of the interview is told mainly through Gloria Castillo, herself.  Its main focus is on minorities, in general, in the workplace –something we find very stereotypical today.  In her interview, she even states that she has never worked with white people before; it has only been Mexicans, African Americans, and Asians.  The entire interview cleverly takes place through the window of a Burger King drive-thru.

Obviously here, Leduff is trying to put a human face on a serious problem.  His voice is casual and familiar, but that doesn’t mean he wants us to be casual in our attitudes towards that fast food worker from Dallas.  He wants us to listen to her, and to take what she has to say seriously.  He provides us with factual information –stuff that could be found in any abstract report, but his insights run a little deeper than the statistics he tosses at us.  He employs “pathos” to get our attention –he appeals to our emotions, our sympathy –in an effort to gain our interest and concern about a problem or issue that many people live with from day to day. 

After watching this clip I ask you this:

Because “society says so,” why must we conform to these stereotypical generalizations that people of ethnicity must be separated from jobs and isolated from gaining any amount of success?

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills "The Dinner Party From Hell"

(Between 5:25-7:30 in the video)

According to Chaika, greetings are an excellent example of style as communication (Chaika, 58). In most greetings, the words tend to be ignored and it is the style of the greeting that stands out. In this video of Bravo’s reality series, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” double-cheek air kissing and high class gestures clearly take precedence over what is actually said between the women as they greet each other. In other words, what someone says takes a back seat to how it is said.

The series offers a glimpse inside the world of luxurious wealth and pampered privilege, where being seen and who you know is everything. These women are in the center of it all and they have the mansions, the cars, and the diamonds to prove it.

In chapter 3, Chaika indicates that it is inappropriate to state one’s “real” feelings in words. If responders are not happy or satisfied, they still must use words that indicate good feelings (Chaika, 59). We can apply this to the point in the clip (5:25) where the women hug and kiss each other even though most of them don’t get along. By watching their private interviews, we are exposed to what they are truly feeling at the time of the greeting. It was also interesting to hear their interpretations of how they were greeted by one another.

The rules for greeting and other social routines are typically unspoken. I think it is the culture or setting that has a hand in determining how certain social groups interact. I wonder, would the greetings between these women be any different if they were in a different setting? Does culture really play that big of a role in the way we communicate with others?

"The Newscaster"

Blog Entry #2:

(Click on the link below to watch the video clip)

Baron Vaughn - Special Expose

(The language in this clip may be a little inappropriate so I apologize.)

In this hilarious video clip, stand-up comedian Baron Vaughn jokes that the voice of a newscaster is consistent in all languages, accents, and dialects.

When I first watched this clip, I actually found some truth in his joke.  What’s funny is that newscasters do, in fact, seem to speak in a similar tone, across all cultures.

According to our textbook, dialects are varieties of a language, usually but not always mutually intelligible to their speakers.  Dialects encompass differences in grammar as well as word choice; whereas, accents refers only to differences in the way words are pronounced (Chaika, 2).

If you think about it, the voice of a newscaster doesn’t change, no matter what language he is speaking, what dialect is being used, or what way he pronounces his words.  What Vaughn suggests, is that the voice of a newscaster is consistent in each of these aspects of language whether it comes from domestic of foreign broadcast media.

(Baron Vaughn beginning at 00:25 in the video):  “America’s an amazing country.  There’s so many voices, accents, dialects, languages, things like that, but there’s one voice that you hear no matter where you go, and that’s the way newscasters talk...”  (He then speaks like a newscaster in English, Spanish, and Norwegian to give examples.)  

I chose this clip because it was a funny and lighthearted way of elaborating on some of the key concepts in Chapter 1 of our textbook.

This post has me wondering, what else seems to remain consistent in all languages, across all cultures?  Is there anything?

"Cosmopolitanism"

In this interesting video that I was recently introduced to in one of my other classes, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Ghanaian-British-American philosopher, explains the meaning of the term “cosmopolitanism” in Astra Taylor's Examined Life.

Kwame (beginning at 2:12 in the video):  “Cosmopolitanism comes from the Greek phrase kosmopolitês which means “Citizen of the Cosmos—of the world” and uh, we need a notion of level citizenship.”  (The camera pans to the flight board displaying many names of various destinations around the world as Kwame walks through the airport.) “The cosmopolitan says you have to begin by recognizing that we are responsible collectively for each other as citizens are.  But second, cosmopolitans think it’s okay for people to be different—that they care about everybody but not in a way where they want everybody to be the same or like them.”

We’ve recently discussed in class, what Kenneth Burke calls “God-terms.”  According to Burke, “God-terms” are defined as the most privileged terms that are both vague and powerful.  Among them, are words like “freedom,” “progress,” and “the fatherland.”  After watching this clip, perhaps we could consider Kwame’s concept of “cosmopolitanism” a “God-term.”  Because “cosmopolitanism” is about bringing cultures together and learning how to be responsible citizens of the world, it encompasses everything it means to be “God-term."  It is a word that has a special meaning within each culture and carries power where ever it is used. 

“Cosmopolitanism” could be a “God-term” for those who believe in equality and who are open to people of all languages.  I feel it is a prime example of a “God-term” because the word seems incomprehensible and automatically gives the phrase a positive meaning.  It represents a “philosophical universalism” that attempts to resolve conflicts of values across many cultures.  The term could be used to interpret our surroundings by allowing us to recognize the differences between people and learning to accept that not everybody has to be like us. 

Though the term “cosmopolitanism” sounds marvelously noble, it can mean practically anything and seems deliberately unclear.  To my readers, I pose this:  What does the term “cosmopolitanism” mean to you?