Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Narrative
On page 6 and & 7 of this interview Hall discusses that ideas of how a story is told. We see how stories are often told through certain narratives. It seems that each story has it's own voice and it's own uniqueness of being told. On page 7 Hall states, "Well, I suppose that's the point at which one would have to ask why stories get told in those ways. Let me make the point that if you tell a story in a particular way you often activate meaning which seem almost to belong to the stock of stories themselves." When we hear a story there is a certain meaning we get from it, it is obvious that children's stories are different from adult stories, that are different from teen stories. Although sometimes the meaning behind a story can be different than the age group it is aimed at. For example the movie Happy Feet is a children's movie but throughout the story there are a lot of sexual references that adults would pick up, kids might pick these messages up but in a different meaning than adults. It seems that stories such as this movie have hidden meanings to children but when someone older watches it we pick up those hidden meanings. Why do you think it is that there are constantly hidden meanings within stories? Why do stories that are supposed to be for young children, have meanings that adults will pick up? Do you think our culture and society influence these stories that are portrayed this way?
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I think secret messages and hidden meanings are put into these types of media texts because it is the media producer's way of keeping the adult audiences interested and entertained because most of the time, they are the ones driving their kids to see these movies and shows alike. If it was all kid stuff, with nothing in there for the parents of the kids, most of them would probably lose their minds. This way, parents keep bringing their kids to the theatres, continuing to make money for media institutions. Plus, if the parent likes the text, and approves, it is more likely that they will then buy more things associated with that particular text, such as stuffed animals, toys, and games. At the end of the day, it seems a little strange, but it seems to work out for everyone nonetheless. I can recall several instances of times that I watched movies from my childhood over again and picked up on many different messages I never quite caught or understood before. To appeal to multiple audiences and demographics, just makes media texts all the better, and overall, makes media producers more money.
ReplyDeleteP.s. What did Hall mean by "Oedipal Resolution"?
@Dustin: "Oedipal resolution" is a Freudian concept that seeks to explain human psycho-sexual development by showing that boy and girl children go through different developmental stages that bring them to identify with the parent of the "proper" sex and direct their sexual desire onto the opposite sex. But the system is meant to explain male development as the norm, so there is no clear path that girls are supposed to take.
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