Week 9 - Cinema and Television

In this modern era, cinema and television have become amongst the most common forms of media. We are bombarded with continuous types information which is what Hartley describes as a 'socio-culturally meaningful phenomenon' (1999). He explains that it is a history of the discourses and practices which enclosed, filled, shaped, disciplined, enabled and obstructed its development. What is shown through cinema and television is an access to 'reality' (Stadler, 1990). However, we need cultural literacy to understand and analyze and judge what is 'real' because we don't want to end up like this:

Cultural literacy is described as both an understanding of meaning systems and an ability to work through those systems within different cultural contexts. It is virtually impracticable to describe and analyse what is happening in any communication conditions or practice without using the concept of cultural literacy (Shirato and Yell, 2000, p.1).


 According to Harley, textual tradition is important to understand how we acquire cultural literacy. The word 'traditional' can be said as our habits that we have adapted to thus we have unconsciously manipulated this mechanism of adaptation to allow us to gain cultural literacy (Harley, 1999, p.60). Cultural semiotician Yuri Lotman (1990: 273) stated:

"The individual human intellect does not have a monopoly in the work of thinking. Semiotics systems, both separately and together in the integrated unity of the semiosphere, both synchronically and in all the depth of historical memory, carry out intellectual operations, preserve, rework and increase the store of information."

As so being said, cultural literacy is the foundation of our understanding. It contains rules and customs that form our  understanding of language. It is a shared knowledge that allows us to comprehend a context of a discourse better. Cinema and television e therefore are mediums from which we can obtain knowledge and better our cultural literacy.

Thus the more cultural literacy we have, the easier for us to understand text without much cognitive problem. However, Harley (1990) argues that information broadcasted in cinema and television are under formal education institutions, government instituitions and critical instituitions. Information provided is controlled to ensure viewers have an uniform ideology. Hence, viewer must be more critical and gain critical literacy to understand and be able to question the represented information.

I have selected a movie trailer called Precious (2009). This movie is set in Harley in 1987. It is the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a 16 year old African-American girl. She is pregnant with her second child by her nonexistent father. At home, she is tormented by her mother (Mo'Nique), an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is not a safe place either and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks, however she is illiterate.(Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx-3jYJkUWQ)

The critique I have for this trailer is the representation of African-American women in America in the given condition. Are they always seen dressed like that? The language is also something to touch on because given the living condition and the lack of educational support, Precious and her mother communicate differently. However, the portrayal of the given language used is very stereotypical to African-American people from the ghetto.

What about the abuse? Emotional, physical and sexual abuse are all represented here. Are they represented in biased to American context? Is that how all abuse look like, are they no other ways of representing them? 

These stereotypical representations of 'reality' is in fact ways for producers to follow the 'norm' however, this causes problems because it makes viewers/public agree unconsciously that THAT is the 'norm' itself especially for us Bruneians who have never been to America.

If my mother, who I would personally say has a narrow cultural literacy, were to watch Precious then go to America (whatever the year may be), she would totally avoid visiting Harlem. Yikes!

References: 

Hartley, J. (1999). Knowledge, television and the "textual tradition". Uses of Television (pp. 55-70). London and New York: Routledge.

Schirato, T. and Yell, S. (2000). Communication and Culture. Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction (2nd ed.). (pp. 1-3). Victoria; BPA Print Group.