Fairy Tales And Culture Industry Media Essay

Fairy Tales And Culture Industry Media Essay The western fairy tales have basically undergone three major stages of transitions: the oral form; the literary form and finally the digital form. Originally, fairy tales in the western civilization are oral folk tale of magic which serve to express lower classes wishes to satisfy their needs and wants. (Jack, ) Toward the end of 17th century, printing press adapted oral tales into a new literary genre. The rationalization of fairy tales, due to intervention of gatekeepers in blocking fantasy fairy tales while publishing those stresses christian morality, has hindered creativity. At the same time, increased production of new tales for amusement illustrates Adornos culture industry which mars cultural heritage and imagination for increased production and profits. Then came to the era of digital form, one of the most successful genres of fairy tales, during World War II and Great Depression. Widespread misery brought in the idea of producing fairy-tale films to make money from peoples longing for happiness.(Jack, ) Standards were based in the first place on consumers needs, and for that reason were accepted with so little resistance. The result is the circle of manipulation and retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows even stronger. (Adorno Horkheimer, 1976) Fairy tales have been commodified and influenced by proliferation of adaptations for films. Today, fairy tales become a form of entertainment, embracing the concept of marketing and advertising. The change is in line with two main roles of culture industry: to create profits and to stimulate economic changes. Case study: Walt Disney Company The fairy-tale film industry Walt Disney, the ever successful model of fairy-tale film industry, is said to keep fairy tales alive through films and theme parks. Bringing us back to the standard structure of western fairy tales as shown in the classic stories like The Cinderella and The Sleeping Beauty: the white princess who soon gets into trouble and rescued by Prince Charming, followed by an inheritant end of the story: and they lived happily ever after, we realize that the idea of pseudo-individualization in Disneys early films may be true. This maybe strategy to reduce quality uncertainty as well as risk of trying to be innovative and to assure profitability by providing consumers something they familiar to or previously successful storylines. However, realizing the fact that consumers are no longer as passive and uncritical as what Adorno critiqued, Disney fast to adapt to the ever-demanding consumers by moving in suprising and interesting ways instead of imitating or reproducing what had been done before. Modernisation has contributed to a switch-over in power to the consumers. Disney gives birth to its first black princess, Tiana, in its recent animated fairy-tale film The Princess and the Frog inspired by old tale The Frog Prince. Everyone knows the story in which a princess finds true love by kissing a frog that magically turns into her handsome prince. Tiana still kisses a frog but the result is quite different. Besides trying to surprise its audiences with a fresh twist in the mix of humour, thrills and melody, Disney also moved away from its usual macho genre by protraying a strong and independent girl who is so determined in pursuing her dreams instead of waiting to be rescued as other princesses. By using familiar characters and title, Disney tends to appear to the public with a simple, immediate and easily recognizable identity which helps to reduce the uncertainty and to attract consumers while manifesting the differences from the original story based on their similarities. Since film is considered an experiential commodity that quality isnt accessible prior consumption, successful branding becomes essential as it is emotionally rewarding to consumers and financially rewarding for the business. What Disney differentiates itself from other competitors is making people happy. In order to compete more effectively, besides using advanced technology to stand out among competitors, Disney also relies on advertising to lure consumers to watch its movie which again reflects self-renewal nature of culture industry of creating artificial needs through advertising and satisfying those needs through consumers consumption. Cult of stars and famous creators are also used to convince the consumers of the films quality by their celebrity status in the field. Windowing is not new to Disney. Disney has expanded its line from VCDs, DVDs to Blu-ray in recent years as part of efforts in extending the life-cycle of its films by moving to smaller theaters. Due to the rising cost of production and high risk of failure, Disney has a wide repertoire of cultural goods under it as part of risk management. As one of the worlds largest conglomerates, Disney dominates in various media business encompassing movies, music, publising, TV and theme parks. As Negus (1999) stated, Culture produces an industry. Corporate culture impacts the workers and the cultural products they produce thus affect the economic profits. As one of the worlds best company to work in, Disney has always been promoting a vibrant culture that allows risk taking and innovation. It also promotes positive and inclusive ideas about families, passion and dedication among its employees. As in other service business, the quality of service can make or break Disney. In order to keep up with consumers ever-more-demanding expectations, quality and service are built into all the training programs taught by Disney University. Benchmarks are set to measure employees quality or service. This illustrates the manipulation of emotional labour as workers are increasingly being expected to display certain emotions but to suppress others in order to provide quality services. Although workers are not passive and may react or fight back, in most cases, they tend to comply to the corporate norms as job market is very competitive. New Trends in Disney Fairy-tale Film Industry: Threats Opportunities Digital Piracy- As in other industry, piracy is not a new issue facing Disney. But the advent of file sharing system and availability of free films on the Internet further undermine the industry. Copyright protection becomes tougher as users can always develop new methods to bypass. With the advent of downloading technology, consumers are able to access to free movies just within hours after their release in theaters. Since then, consumers dont perceive a need to pay more for cinema tickets for just once and even more expensive homevideos. In addition, fairy-tale films lack of the special effects that underlying the difference between the enjoyment of the movie at the cinema or at the home is of the factors as well. Therefore, Disneys emphasizing on 3D fairy-tale films production may be part of strategies to revive the cinema as the priviledged place for film experience and high quality entertainment. Competition TV 130 With new features such as streaming Internet movies and 3D capabilities added to the digital TVs, Disney is fighting a sadder trend. Sony, Panasonic and Samsung have continually come out with new digital TVs with Internet hook-ups that can grab Flickr photos and directly link to sources such as Netflix and YouTube videos and news stories through a broadband connection. In addition, Dell and HP also sell computers with HDMI outputs that can be hooked up directly to a TV. This is especially convenient for those working people who are too busy to catch movies in cinema. It is predicted that more valued-priced TVs with Internet connection will be born in the future. Watching films online with big-screen TV will also become a mainstream and big wave in the industry. Digitalization Digitalization becomes a landmark development in Disneys evolution of home entertainment. Recognizing the pervasiveness of digital consumption especially among young audiences, Disney comes to embrace digitalization to expand its market and gain access to new revenue resources while meeting consumers demands. Recently, Walt Disney Corporation released KeyChest, a new technology that enables films distribution using computers and cell phone rather than DVDs and TVs. To compete more effectively, Disney provides value and above that provided by free films such as easy storage, higher quality, virus and legal threat protection, and acccess in multiple form and locations. KeyChest is also intended to be a multie-corporate venture as consumers wont have much of a variety to choose from if only Disney is involved. Digitalization which is more cost effective than physical one expose Disney to a larger audience. Digital medium like the Internet can serve as a new platform for its established practice of windowing . In addition, being able to grasp the opportunity of digital distribution, it is believed that Disney can better control and fight against digital piracy since it ultimately has control over consumption of the content. Nevertheless, the digitalization movement may seem to widen digital divide as some people have very limited or no access to digital and information technology at all. The high performance at box office of Disneys films indicates that consumers are still willing to pay more for good movies. While computer screen maynot where consumers want to access their films, the industry also need to cater to those consumers who like to own a physical product. By applying value-based pricing policy, consumers can watch the films in the price that matches their values, thus expanding Disneys market and increasing economic profits. It is predicted that the digital distribution of films will expand significantly and transform Disneys film from a product to a service in the recent future. Taking lessons from the music industry, the digitalisation is a great opportunity to sustain well in global market. Tie-ins and Spin-off: Selling of disneys products Disneys brand is recognized through the characters marketed in their films and mechandise. Merchandising comes with a long history, but the packages grow larger and even larger today. Fairy-tale films, especially those gain popularity, have always been the center-piece of a package with all other accessories like book, food, toys and clothes. Disney increases its productions shelf life and extracts money by generating peoples interest and enjoyment on it and though the succession of new audience-generations. Merchandising which starts even before the release of the film, is able to enhance the value of a movie that performs badly at the box office. By creating cute and appealing characters targeted mainly at children, Disney seeks to entice children who are more vulnerable to such appeals by satisfying artificial needs it creates. Since consumers tend to attribute their own value to the goods, resulting in almost worship of cultural goods. The fanatical consumption of the latest release of The Princess and the Frog wide array of merchandises is a testament to this. In addition, some tactics such as strategic positioning of outlets are used to increase consumers inclination to consume even though they never intend to do so. This brings us to realize what Bryaman (2004) called Disneyization, a process of creating variety and differences and removing of basic needs to entice consumers into consumption beyond necessity. As mentioned, consumers are not passive but most of the time, we are still unconsicously falling into the trap of consumerism. Nowadays, Disneys tie-ins to fast food restaurants seems to be a norm and results in what we call hybrid consumption. By giving consumers the merchandises they want either for free or at a lower price through fast food consumption, the fast food industry increases its patronage whereas Disney gains constant publicity for its existing or forthcoming films and makes profits from the process while keeping Disney in peoples mind. According to Disneys vice-president of marketing at Buena Vista UK, These movies are very expensive to make and release and these tie-ins get us exposure we couldnt afford to buy. Globalization disneyfication Over the years, Disney has been expanding its business in a coordinated manner to almost every corner of the planet. Robertson argued that the production and promotion of goods and services on a global scale requires close, ongoing sensitivity to cultural differences in local circumstances. Its roaring success can be attributed to its transformation into a truly global enterprise and transculturation by taking account into cultural differences while maintaining cultural authenticity American culture. In order to ensure its films dont look so different as to allienate the nonwestern audiences, Disney always seeks to modify its products to fit consumers tastes in each market around the world. Therefore, local managers are rendered more power and accountability to increase the globalization of Disneys products by ensuring the products are locally relevant to the consumers, leading to more strategic distribution and marketing planning. The company also transforms the mode of presentation to which the non-western audiences can respond such as different language subtitles in the films. In China, for exa mple, products are localized to appeal to Chinese consumers. As globalization is no longer one way homogenous cultural flow from the West to the East but multiple processes that spreads heterogenous global culture through enrichment by variety and diversity of local cultures, Disney starts to absorb and extend its narrative repertoire to include more or less distinct cultures and non-western characters in films such as Aladdin (Middle East), The Lion King (Africa) and Mulan (china). From the production perspective, the extension may be seen as marketing gimmick aimed at capturing more diverse audiences and thus expands its service coverage into international markets when it acquires more markets in these cultures. Besides catering to the needs of global audiences, Disney also creates a sense of cultural autheticity in globalizing its local cultural products. In The Princess and the Frog, there is dialectical tension between particularism and universalism. In order to capture cultural autheticity of New Orleans, one the oldest cities in America, distinctly American sound such as Jazz and gospel is used in the film. By universalising the culture to the other side of the world, Disney came out with a natural love story blended with advernturous storytelling, offbeat comedy, captivating characters built on universal longing for happiness. The fateful kiss between Tiana and the frog from different world and social status brings them on a hilarious adventure through the mystical bayous. The intricate love story and characters flaws give consumers a sense of realistic. Disney also took advantage of feminism and wove it in the film to attract audiences, especially females, by protraying a strong and i ndependent girl who has motivating desire in pursuing her dreams. As in reality, it is no longer a love at first sight but a couple who really dont like each other at first sight fall for each other after spending time together. Tiana doesnt know how to appreciate live whereas Prince Naveen is spoiled and irresponsible. A prince that really influences a heroin, he teaches Tiana how to appreciate her life. Their flaws reflects the reality which consumers can identify. Showing family love. who then facing problems of expressing love openly. The most striking fea ture is the female protagonist, Tiana. took advantage of a feminist touch to attract Asian audiences, esp women. Focuses on a tough women and wove the feminism into the film. true love can really thriump, to strive for an ending where everyone lives happile ever after. Tiana has her own motivating desire, motivations and decisions that drive her and make her interested and sympathetic. In fact, the film impressed the global audiences not really because of its uniqueness and exotics, but it pertains to their lives and cultures. Tiana is appealing as the female consumers can identify themselves with her and even want to cheer her on. The producer maintains a global-local perspective, exploiting the particularity of local culture on the one hand and universalizing it for the world on the other. By fusing the fairy tale, advernture, music and comedy together, the film is reproduced and presented in a new style to the global audiences. The fairy tale genre, the use of English language, the setting of New Orleans, the American music and so on served to bring forth a strong sense of cultural authenticity. In a nutshell, besides the ability to adapt to transculturation, the budding success of technology investment, the growing conglomeration to mobilize resources and pursue opportunities more effectively, and the elevated status of English as a global language all together provide a favourable environment for the globalization of Disneys fairy-tale films. Conclusion Disney continues to sustain our dreams despite the cruelty of reality. It is Disneys ability to make people happy captivates a large audiences over the globe, thus it would be better with innovation without changing the happy ending that audiences emotionally attached to. Through various strategic management and its fast adaptation to threats and firm grasp of opportunities, Disney is coping well in going globalization. In fact, Disneys fairy-tale films do leave more or less some impacts on its audiences. Some love Disney as it make them feel like kids again, while some may think Disney brainwashes the audiences by adding subliminal messages in its films and gives girls delusion that Prince Charming is going to knock on their door one day.

Form and Structure of a Servant to Two Masters Essay -- essays researc

?A Servant To Two Masters? is the play that I studied. The structure is simplistic but also dynamic. It is quite an unusual play this may be something to do with coming under the genre of Comedia Del Art this is a form of theatre. Groups of actors would travel and perform their improvised plays. Their plays would usually be non-scripted and be very much like a pantomime. If plays were ever written then they would be written after they were performed. Comedia Del Arte was and still is enjoyed by many people. Lower class citizens could enjoy the simplistic storylines, as the upper class would admire the comedy within the play. Lazzi scenes were used in the plays to make the audience laugh. The spectators would most be looking forward to this part of the play, the only sequence that was rehearsed and written down. Lazzi comes from Lacci, which means cord or ribbon. A Lazzi scene is used to help tie the play together this maybe a metaphor for unravelling the plot. In ?A Servant To Two Masters? where Truffaldino is serving both of his masters, not knowing the other is there, is a La... Form and Structure of a Servant to Two Masters Essay -- essays researc ?A Servant To Two Masters? is the play that I studied. The structure is simplistic but also dynamic. It is quite an unusual play this may be something to do with coming under the genre of Comedia Del Art this is a form of theatre. Groups of actors would travel and perform their improvised plays. Their plays would usually be non-scripted and be very much like a pantomime. If plays were ever written then they would be written after they were performed. Comedia Del Arte was and still is enjoyed by many people. Lower class citizens could enjoy the simplistic storylines, as the upper class would admire the comedy within the play. Lazzi scenes were used in the plays to make the audience laugh. The spectators would most be looking forward to this part of the play, the only sequence that was rehearsed and written down. Lazzi comes from Lacci, which means cord or ribbon. A Lazzi scene is used to help tie the play together this maybe a metaphor for unravelling the plot. In ?A Servant To Two Masters? where Truffaldino is serving both of his masters, not knowing the other is there, is a La...

Comparing “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Band of Brothers”

All Quiet on the Western Front's primary purpose is to depict the horrors and realities of war and reactions of soldiers towards it. Remarque recounts WWI from the perspective of the defeated, Germany, just after the war was finished. It makes no attempt to glamorise war, instead describing the life of â€Å"a generation destroyed by war. † Remarque uses this book as a voice of the fallen. All Quiet on the Western Front secretly criticises the German government and military for persuading young men to go to war. For this reason, the book was burned and banned in Germany. The book also shows how war has physical and psychological effects on men. Band of Brothers is a television series that follows the â€Å"Easy Company†. Easy company is part of the United States Army. The series is set in WWII in Europe. WWII is more than 50 years before the series in made. It is important to note, that this film shows heroism of these men. This is mainly because the director wants to engage the audience of America. Americans believe that they are victors and for this series to be appealing this needs to be shown. However the horrors of war are still established as well as the soldiers reactions. The director of this series changes the soldiers reactions however towards the end. Mateship and heroism in these dark times are shown to greatly contrast All Quiet on the Western Front's themes. Band of Brothers shows a variety of battle scenes that reveal different reactions of soldiers. In â€Å"Day of Days†, the attack against the artillery gun at the end of the episode is made by soldiers who are fresh to the experience of war. The attack, although confusing to the Audience at times, is organised and orders are given and followed with clarity. Historically this attack is still used by WestPoint as an example of fine military action. The director used some shaky cameras to illustrate the shell fire and the soldiers movements. There are some partially obscured POVs shots helps the audience to sense realism of the event. However mostly the camera shots are midshot and longshot. This gives the audience a relative sense of order to the sequence. The audience is well orientated. Given that this attack is considered to be a American Military Achievement, it is unlikely that the director would use cinematography to reflect chaos of such event. In contrast to the surprise attack in the episode â€Å"Last Patrol† shows different reactions from the soldiers. In this, the soldiers have been engaged in the warfare for some months. Although battle hardened, they are disillusioned with war. The episode emphasises how the soldiers are willing for the war to be over. They are resentful of being asked to cross the river and to take German POWs and know the risks well. When assaulting the building, after Jackson ran into the explosion of his own grenade, there is a change in cinematic techniques. During this sequence a swinging camera coupled with multiple shots is used. This emphasises the chaos as the view takes the role of one of the soldiers in the room constantly moving the sightline. It also close ups to the soldiers' faces emphasising their emotion. The sounds are chaotic and loud. This disorientates the viewer. THe director has used these techniques to show how risky the situation is. The director in this episode shows this point of view as he has more freedom. He no longer needs to produce the idea of the â€Å"American hero. † After crossing the river, they go into the basement. Here it is also chaotic. The soldiers are confused and are not in control as they gather around Eugene who is dying. After his death there is a stop in the gunfire, emphasising the shock. Eugene, the medic has a voice over giving a personal view on the death. â€Å"He enrolled young† makes the viewer feel sympathetic for the soldier. In All Quiet on the Western Front, there are many examples of the reactions of soldiers. In battle, soldiers act violently in order to survive. They â€Å"have turned into dangerous animals. † This shows that they use instinct to kill without any real hesitations. They need to do this to survive.

Tennessine Element Facts

Tennessine is element 117 on the periodic table, with the element symbol Ts and predicted atomic weight of 294. Element 117 is an artificially produced radioactive element  that was verified for inclusion on the periodic table in 2016. Interesting Tennessine Element Facts A Russian-American team announced the discovery of element 117 in 2010. The same team verified their results in 2012 and a German-American team successfully repeated the experiment in 2014. Atoms of the element were made by bombarding a berkelium-249 target with calcium-48 to produce Ts-297, which then decayed into Ts-294 and neutrons or into Ts-294 and neutrons. In 2016, the element was formally added to the periodic table.The Russian-American team proposed the new name Tennessine for element 117, in recognition of the contributions made by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The elements discovery involved two countries and several research facilities, so it was anticipating naming might be problematic. However, multiple new elements were verified, making it easier to agree on names. The symbol is Ts because Tn is the abbreviation for the Tennessee state name.Based on its location on the periodic table, you might expect element 117 would be a halogen, like chlorine or bromi ne. However, scientists believe relativistic effects from the elements valence electrons will prevent tennessine from forming anions or achieving high oxidation states. In some respects, element 117 may more closely resemble a metalloid or post-transition metal. While element 117 may not behave like halogens chemically, it is likely physical properties like melting and boiling point will follow halogen trends. Of all the elements on the periodic table, ununseptium should most closely resemble astatine, which is directly above it on the table. Like astatine, element 117 will likely be a solid around room temperature.As of 2016, a total of 15 tennessine atoms have been observed: 6 in 2010, 7 in 2012, and 2 in 2014.At present, tennessine is only used for research. Scientists are investigating the properties of the element and using it to produce atoms of other elements through its decay scheme.There is no known or expected biological role of element 117. Its expected to be toxic, prima rily because of its radioactive and very heavy. Element 117 Atomic Data Element Name/Symbol:  Tennessine (Ts), was formerly Ununseptium (Uus) from the IUPAC nomenclature or eka-astatine from the Mendeleev nomenclature Name Origin:  Tennessee, the site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory Discovery: Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee, USA), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (California, USA) and other US institutions in 2010 Atomic Number: 117 Atomic Weight: [294] Electron Configuration: predicted to be  [Rn] 5f14  6d10  7s2  7p5 Element Group: p-block of group 17 Element Period: period 7 Phase: predicted to be solid at room temperature Melting Point:  623–823  K  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹(350–550  Ã‚ °C, ​662–1022  Ã‚ °F)  (predicted) Boiling Point:  883  K ​(610  Ã‚ °C, ​1130  Ã‚ °F)  (predicted) Density: predicted to be  7.1–7.3  g/cm3 Oxidation States: The predicted oxidation states are -1, 1, 3, and 5, with the most stable states being 1 and 3 (not -1, like other halogens) Ionization Energy: The first ionization energy is predicted to be 742.9 kJ/mol Atomic Radius: 138 pm Covalent Radius: extrapolated to be 156-157 pm Isotopes: The two most stable isotopes of tennessine are Ts-294, with a half-life of about 51 milliseconds, and Ts-293, with a half-life around 22 milliseconds. Uses of Element 117: At present, ununseptium and the other superheavy elements are only used for research into their properties and to form other superheavy nuclei. Toxicity: Due to its radioactivity, element 117 presents a health risk.