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Tale as Old as Time: A Character and Gender Content Analysis of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Beauty and the Beast Live Action (2017) View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hannah Scheffer Wentz
This study is a qualitative character and gender content comparative analysis of Disney’s original animated Beauty and the Beast (1991) and the live action Beauty and the Beast (2017). As a leading conglomerate in media, Disney captures the attention of millions not only with their classic cinema, but their new releases all housed in Disney+. The rebranding of the classic Disney princess films with the addition of their live action remakes raises questions of the progression of society, values, and representations throughout the decades. The aim of the research is to identify the similarities and differences between Belle and the Beast in their role, gender depiction, and development between the two films. This study takes a mixed method approach of character analysis with roles, motivation, actions, traits, relationships, development, and dialogue, and content analysis of traditional male and female gender traits.
Spatiality and Temporality in Contemporary Chinese Media Engagement: Reevaluating China’s Got Talent View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eason Lu
Through analyzing licensed reality television programs such as China’s Got Talent, this paper examines transnational television formats and their circulation and imitation in contemporary China, challenging the traditional concept that television format trade falls within a West-Rest narrative and highlighting the cultural and media phenomena of interactive "glocalization" of cultural products through hybridizing a universal format with local audience preference. Detailing the localizing concerns, adaptations, and re-adaptations of licensed reality shows in China, this research updates the notion of transnationality inherently embedded in television format trade. China’s Got Talent inspired a series of talent shows in China and East Asia. These programs indicated a recycling and readapting flow of the already-licensed programs. This paper argues that these talent show programs developed with the intention to imitate China’s Got Talent should not be seen as an extension of the Euro-American format power; instead, they should be seen as phenomena of interconnected recreation and circulation of media products in China and East Asia. The study introduces the new “title-only” format production in China, in which the broadcasters only purchase the right to use the format title and alter the setting and plot of the programs. It also discusses how this practice is a bypass and reconciliation between transnational media production and Chinese ideological censorship. In the meantime, the paper also considers how spatiality and temporality in television experiences have been reshaped by these formatted television programs, especially by privileging primacy and audience’s authority.
Infotainment and Its Influence Potential on Public Opinion: A Case Study of the Episode "MACONHA" of Greg News Show View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gabriela Martin
This study has as its main theme the infotainment and its influence on public opinion from bibliographical research, inside Brazilian scenario, through a case study. The thesis’ main objective is to analyze the effectiveness of fulfilling the role of informing from the research object, the episode “MACONHA” of Greg News TV show, in relation to the infotainment’s potential on public opinion in the issue related to discussions on the decriminalization of cannabis in Brazil, as well as, fathom the concept of infotainment and how it acts in the scope of public opinion; meditate on the use of infotainment to deliver information that is considered taboo in society; and finally, understand the role of the object of study and its strength in a social context, and verifying its impact on public opinion on YouTube in order to remake a new image by breaking stereotypes and creating new symbols (Lippmann, 2010). By using bibliographic and documentary research methods, it was possible to discern concepts about infotainment, the history of the cannabis plant and the manipulation of public opinion about its use throughout history. Through the case study episode, it was possible, with the documentary research, to adapt a content analysis along with an image audit, to better understand the reputation of the object of study; audience engagement; their interaction through the chosen exhibition platform; what is the profile of the mass public; and finally, identify the position of public opinion on cannabis.
Applying Fiction to Reality: Fans Establishing Celebrity Personas based on TV Characters View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Qiuyan Guo
Many contemporary media audiences/fans develop understandings of and personas for celebrities based on the fictional characters they perform, necessitating research on fans’ negotiation between fiction and reality. This innovative media consumption demonstrates an opposite practice to the traditional scholarly understandings of how fans borrow actors’ real-world behaviors or chemistries to form their perceptions and imaginings of fictional characters. Based on unobtrusive observation and semi-structured interviews, this research particularly investigates fans of two Chinese actors Zhehan Zhang and Jun Gong, who became famous playing the leads in the popular 2021 homoromantic television series Word of Honor. Findings illustrate that fans first contextualize the two characters’ stories and then suggest their personality traits ultimately represent certain aspects of the real-world actors. Most fans focus exclusively on characters’ “great” qualities as extensions of the actors while blaming screenwriters and directors for creating and forcing the actors to “unwillingly” perform those “undesirable” plots. On this basis, fans keep analyzing the two actors’ interviews, gestures, social media posts, etc. to confirm their perceived character-actor similarities and build up the actors’ personas. Exploring this new type of media and celebrity consumption, this presentation will offer media scholars insight into how contemporary audiences/fans balance and act on their affections or interests toward fictional creations and real-world celebrities. Further discussions on how the media industry may have increasingly realized, responded to, and manipulated fans’ this type of desire in media productions and promotions is also provided.
Star Persona in the Age of Social Media: Reinventing the ‘Girl Next Door’ View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sara Ross
This paper analyzes media identity in light of the augmentation of stardom via social media, considering how the ‘girl next door’ persona smooths the path for female social media influencers/stars. A number of contemporary film stars have augmented their personae through their roles as influencers. Stars such as Jennifer Lopez and Selena Gomez use the enduring archetype of the ‘girl next door’ to amass followers while managing the potential threat of their sexuality in a culture still deeply suspicious of knowingly sexual women. The ‘girl next door’ is a figure that reconciles the seemingly contradictory traits of innocence and sexuality in representations of femininity on and off screen, which was innovated in the 1910s and 1920s and remains fundamental to the portrayal of both female stars and the characters that they play. The girl next door should be fun, pure and unassuming; a ‘real pal.’ At the same time, she should have a magnetic sex appeal of which she is preferably unaware. A comparison of film performance by Clara Bow in 1927, television performance by Alicia Keys in 2021 and Instagram performance by Jennifer Lopez in 2022, among others, demonstrates the persistence of the ‘girl next door’ strategy and the ways that it has been updated in the age of social media.
