tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/entertainment-20258/articlesEntertainment – The Conversation2024-02-12T13:22:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224612024-02-12T13:22:05Z2024-02-12T13:22:05ZLorne Michaels, the man behind the curtain at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ has been minting comedy gold for nearly 50 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573576/original/file-20240205-29-bcz58h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C7%2C4916%2C2303&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lorne Michaels holding one of his Emmy Awards in 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/74thEmmyAwards-TrophyTable/6c56e4ccbc7647aca4d123b7de872dd6/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=492&currentItemNo=2">Danny Moloshok/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On April 24, 1976, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0584427/">Lorne Michaels</a>, the creator and producer of the late-night NBC comedy program “Saturday Night” – it had not yet changed its name to “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072562/">Saturday Night Live</a>” – appeared on camera in hopes of luring the Beatles to reunite on the program.</p>
<p>The Fab Four’s last concert had been eight years earlier in San Francisco, and the <a href="https://www.thebeatles.com/abbey-road">band had stopped recording together in 1969</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL3Foo7ZokY">Michaels addressed</a> the band members by name – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – and then acknowledged rumors that the group might get back together. </p>
<p>“It’s also been said that no one has yet to come up with enough money to satisfy you,” Michaels said. “Well, if it’s money you want, there’s no problem here.”</p>
<p>Michaels then held up a check.</p>
<p>“Here it is right here. A check made out to you, the Beatles, for $3,000. All you have to do is sing three Beatles songs,” he said. “‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ That’s $1,000 right there. You know the words – it’ll be easy.”</p>
<p>Among the 22 million viewers was Lennon.</p>
<p>Lennon had watched the program from his home a few miles away from the NBC studio. A week later, he was watching the next episode with McCartney and told him about Michaels’ recent proposal.</p>
<p>“So John said, ‘<a href="https://www.theglassonionbeatlesjournal.com/2014/05/mccartney-talks-beatles-nirvana.html">It’s a hoot</a>, you know what would be great, we can go down there now.’” McCartney later recounted in an interview. </p>
<p>“For about five minutes, we were going, ‘We’ve got to do it.’ Then it was like, ‘Are you kidding, let’s stay in and watch the show,’” McCartney recalled. “It would be a great story, but we decided against it.”</p>
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<h2>‘It’s like he created Yale or NASA’</h2>
<p>No television program in history has chronicled American politics, culture, fads and tastes like “SNL,” which has mirrored and critiqued society over its half-century run by mocking it. “Caricatures,” <a href="https://www.humanitiesforwisdom.org/uploads/5/8/9/8/58987361/lampooning_injustice-__paul_conrad%E2%80%99s_perspective_on_civil_rights.pdf">Ralph Waldo Emerson</a> said, “are often the truest history of the times.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0275486">Tina Fey</a>, who appeared on the program from 1997 to 2006, <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1393319/lorne-michaels-reveals-who-may-succeed-him-at-saturday-night-live">reportedly might succeed Michaels</a> as its producer when he retires.</p>
<p>“Lorne created a show that’s impacted culture for decades,” Fey said of the man who has been the program’s producer, showrunner and mastermind for most of the program’s nearly half-century run. “No one has ever really successfully been able to replicate it.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aox7YP1Fr1I">Comedian Mike Myers</a>, who served as a cast member on “SNL” from 1989 to 1996, is another big fan. “It’s like he created Yale or NASA.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">SNL’s ‘needs more cowbell’ spoof of the band Blue Öyster Cult is among its most-watched sketches.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Unmatched track record</h2>
<p>Michaels <a href="https://horatioalger.ca/en/haa_members/lorne-michaels/">grew up in Toronto</a> before immigrating to the U.S., where he <a href="https://walkoffame.com/lorne-michaels/">first worked as a writer</a> for “Laugh-In” and “The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show.” He has received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement – Canada’s highest honor in the performing arts. He also won the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/campaign/medal-of-freedom">Presidential Medal of Freedom</a>, the highest civilian honor in the U.S.</p>
<p>He’s also been nominated for <a href="https://www.emmys.com/bios/lorne-michaels">102 Emmy Awards</a>, <a href="https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/credits/creator/lorne-michaels?lang=es">setting a show business record</a>, and he’s won more than 20 of them. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls083322620/">“SNL” has won more Emmys</a> than any other TV show.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/m/ma-mn/lorne-michaels/">Michaels’ long list of awards</a> includes the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, two Peabody Awards and the Kennedy Center Honors.</p>
<p><a href="https://screenrant.com/snl-best-skits-ranked/#olympia-caf-eacute">“SNL”‘s skits</a> and its humorous “<a href="https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/snl-weekend-update-hosts-in-order">Weekend Update</a>” news segments have tracked America’s politics, fads, foibles and scandals from the era of disco fever through the COVID-19 pandemic and today’s <a href="https://youtu.be/pGO1hC4iIb8">trepidation about artificial intelligence</a>.</p>
<p>Whether it was <a href="https://youtu.be/puJePACBoIo">John Belushi</a> gruffly taking orders at a dive that’s only serving cheeseburgers at breakfast time, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgZukeisGwU&ab_channel=MsMojo">Fey impersonating Sarah Palin</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwPQn7i-6JQ">James Austin Johnson</a> caricaturing Donald Trump, “SNL” has served as the nation’s laugh track through the last half-century.</p>
<p>That’s in large part because Michaels <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/how-snls-lorne-michaels-became-179894/">recruited some of the best comic minds and actors</a> of the last half-century to work for “SNL,” including, but hardly limited to, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, Will Ferrell, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Wiig, Adam Sandler, Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson.</p>
<p>“There has never been anything in show business <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/feb/17/lorne-michaels-kingmaker-comedy-saturday-night-live">like his track record for discovering stars</a>,” said Doug Hill, the author of “Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gilda Radner as Emily Litella, a recurring character, and Chevy Chase, the original Weekend Update anchor.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>No reunion necessary</h2>
<p>Michaels’ enduring success is like that of a top college football coach who remains successful year after year even though his players frequently have to be replaced. But then again, how many <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/longest-tenured-college-football-coaches-023305426.html">college football coaches</a> have remained at the top of their game for a half-century?</p>
<p>At some point, Michaels, who <a href="https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/lorne-michaels.html">turns 80 on Nov. 17, 2024</a>, will retire.</p>
<p>When asked about retirement rumors in January 2024, he said he intended to remain with the program for at least another year.</p>
<p>“We’re doing the 50th anniversary show in February of '25,” <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1393319/lorne-michaels-reveals-who-may-succeed-him-at-saturday-night-live">he told “Entertainment Tonight</a>.” “I will definitely be there for that, and definitely be there until that, and sometime before that we’ll figure out what we’re going to do.”</p>
<p>No matter when Michaels retires, his legacy is secure. So are his contributions to comedy, <a href="https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/first-saturday-night-live-cast-snl-season-1">beginning with the original cast</a>, known as the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players. The roster included Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin and Garrett Morris.</p>
<p>A movie about the behind-the-scenes mayhem before the show first went on the air, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27657135/">SNL 1975</a>,” is in the works.</p>
<p>It was near the end of the first season of “SNL” when Michaels offered the Beatles $3,000 to appear on the program. </p>
<p>Former Beatle <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0694666/">Harrison</a> did make an appearance later that year. <a href="https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/the-chris-farley-show-paul-mccartney/2868143">McCartney later made several appearances</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0694472/">Starr</a> hosted an episode in 1984. But neither “Saturday Night Live” nor Michaels, as it turned out, needed a Beatles reunion to make their mark on popular culture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Lamb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The show has served as the nation’s laugh track for decades. Who will take over when he retires?Chris Lamb, Professor of Journalism, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177742023-12-08T13:34:52Z2023-12-08T13:34:52ZConservatives’ ‘anti-woke’ alternative to Disney has finally arrived<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564036/original/file-20231206-15-bo3nqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C5%2C3918%2C2618&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daily Wire co-CEO Caleb Robinson, co-CEO Jeremy Boreing and editor emeritus Ben Shapiro attend the red carpet premiere of 'Lady Ballers' on Nov. 29, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/caleb-robinson-jeremy-boreing-and-ben-shapiro-attend-the-news-photo/1822502280?adppopup=true">Jason Davis/Getty Images for Bentkey Ventures</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As fanfare blares, female sprinters at the starting line suspiciously eye a man in a wig. A hulking, goateed wrestler slams a woman half his size to the mat. An ominous voice-over intones that women’s sports are being “trans-formed.”</p>
<p>No, this isn’t the beginning of a classic <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls026509984/">cross-dressing comedy</a>. It’s the trailer for “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30216176/">Lady Ballers</a>,” a new right-wing movie that farcically depicts cisgendered men claiming to be women in order to dominate women’s sports.</p>
<p>At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss the movie as yet another example of the meme that <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/conservatives-have-one-joke">conservatives only have one joke</a>, repeated ad nauseam, mocking liberal views on gender identity. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520402966/thats-not-funny">my own research</a> has explored the vast network of conservative comedy that bolsters right-wing political efforts.</p>
<p>Now, in addition to comedy, U.S. conservatives are using action films, dramas and even kids’ cartoons to build their own alternative entertainment industry, one shielded from the alleged liberal biases of Hollywood.</p>
<p>The most prominent recent efforts are two streaming entertainment platforms from right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro and “Lady Ballers” star <a href="https://www.politicon.com/speaker/jeremy-boreing/">Jeremy Boreing</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/style/daily-wire-nashville-conservative-media.html">DailyWire+</a> offers documentaries, Westerns and faith-based fantasy series. Its companion streaming platform, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/16/daily-wire-streaming-kids-bentkey-disney">Bentkey</a>, which launched in October 2023, specializes in children’s programming.</p>
<p>To be sure, these streamers have miles to go before challenging Netflix and Disney+. But by strategically targeting their politically engaged audiences, the platforms have been successful – and could have more staying power than prior attempts at making music and movies for conservatives.</p>
<h2>Swings, misses – and a few hits</h2>
<p>U.S. conservatives have successfully launched and steered a number of news outlets. They have a spottier record when it comes to entertainment, whether it’s feature films, pop songs or kids’ shows.</p>
<p>In 2013, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum became the CEO of EchoLight Studios, which <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/rick-santorum-becomes-ceo-faith-574199/">produced several faith-based films in the 2010s</a>. Similarly, the pundit and documentary filmmaker <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/us/politics/dinesh-dsouza-facts-history.html">Dinesh D'Souza</a> has had a few modest box office hits centered on right-wing conspiracy theories. These efforts saw limited success because their niche political appeal was mismatched with theatrical movies’ wide distribution.</p>
<p>Other forms of conservative entertainment have briefly gone viral, before all but disappearing – perhaps because they’re too closely aligned with current events to have staying power. Kid Rock’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=kyFnLqJx-uU">We the People</a>” bemoaned COVID-19 restrictions and “Bidenomics,” while Jason Aldean’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY">Try That In a Small Town</a>” tried to harness conservative resentment toward Black Lives Matter protests a few years too late.</p>
<p>One notable conservative entertainment hit is the 2023 thriller “The Sound of Freedom.” The movie’s surprise success had as much to do with its subject matter – child trafficking, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/sound-of-freedom-movie/">which is catnip for right-wing conspiracists</a> – as it did with its unique financing. The film’s producer, Angel Studios, used an <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/news/business/sound-of-freedom-box-office-analysis-crowdfunding-pay-it-forward-1234881363/">equity crowdfunding model</a> that gave 100,000 individual investors a say in creative and marketing decisions.</p>
<p>Then “The Sound of Freedom” used a “pay it forward” marketing scheme that encouraged the film’s fans to buy tickets for like-minded friends and family. Although Angel Studios <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/sound-of-freedom-angel-studios-pay-it-forward-1235550898/">won’t disclose how much revenue “pay it forward” generated</a>, the movie <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2023/11/sound-of-freedom-amazon-prime-video.html">has an overall gross</a> of nearly US$250 million against a $14.5 million budget.</p>
<p>“The Sound of Freedom” allowed audiences literally to buy into the film’s success, which its marketing campaign equated with actively rejecting Hollywood’s liberal agenda. A similar dynamic informed the launch – and will likely determine the future – of DailyWire+ and Bentkey.</p>
<h2>Packaging conservatism for kids</h2>
<p>Shapiro is among the <a href="https://voz.us/ben-shapiro-endorses-ron-desantis-as-republican-presidential-nominee/?lang=en">most vocal backers</a> of Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. Both are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/desantis-signs-dont-say-gay-expansion-gender-affirming-care-ban-rcna84698">deeply hostile to LGBTQ+ rights</a>. They’ve also routinely claimed that supporters of “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/gov-ron-desantis-addresses-woke-gender-ideology-dont-say-gay-law/">woke gender ideology</a>” like Disney are “<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1600858728856965121">grooming</a>” children.</p>
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<p>In late 2022, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/17/daily-wire-1m-subscribers">DailyWire+ surpassed 1 million subscribers</a> by releasing programming that stoked these culture war concerns. Among the platform’s hits were right-wing commentator Matt Walsh’s anti-trans documentary “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20256528/">What Is A Woman?</a>” and PragerU’s video shorts that advocate for conservative pet issues through sober, educational-sounding explainers. Then, of course, there are comedies like “Lady Ballers.”</p>
<p>Boreing has explicitly highlighted the disconnect between viewers’ politics and their entertainment options. </p>
<p>“[Americans are] tired of giving their money to woke media companies who want to indoctrinate their children with radical race and gender theory,” he told The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/31/daily-wire-kids/">ahead of Bentkey’s recent launch</a>.</p>
<p>Bentkey strives to directly counterprogram Disney with its own conservative family programming. “Chip Chilla,” for instance, is a fairly transparent rip-off of the Disney+-distributed hit “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/31/1191155197/bluey-tv-show-new-series-disney">Bluey</a>,” a cartoon about the hijinks of a family of Australian dogs.</p>
<p>The creators of “Chip Chilla” include <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/rob-schneider-politics-conservative-anti-vaxxer-1234779419/">“Saturday Night Live” alumnus-turned-anti-vaxxer</a> Rob Schneider and Ethan Nicolle, the former creative director of the right-wing satire website <a href="https://babylonbee.com/">The Babylon Bee</a>.</p>
<p>The platform also aims to challenge Disney’s dominance in the princess realm. Bentkey’s forthcoming fantasy film “Snow White and The Evil Queen” stars the popular conservative YouTuber Brett Cooper and purports <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/10/daily-wire-snow-white-movie-youtuber-brett-cooper-watch-1235574937/">to emphasize the fairy tale’s traditional social values</a>.</p>
<h2>If politics is downstream from culture …</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/06/13/media-job-cuts-record">As media grapple with declining advertising revenue</a>, DailyWire+ and Bentkey are betting that loyal, politically engaged subscribers will drive their growth. </p>
<p>Shapiro’s strategy aligns with that of X, which is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/18/musk-says-twitter-now-x-is-moving-to-monthly-subscriptions.html">backing into a subscription model</a> as chairman Elon Musk’s impulsive tweets alienate advertisers. </p>
<p>In a move away from the ad-supported YouTube, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/23/daily-wire-bringing-podcasts-twitter">Shapiro struck a deal with Musk</a> for X to host The Daily Wire’s podcasts. Like Shapiro, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/politics/elon-musk-ron-desantis/index.html">Musk is a supporter of DeSantis</a>, with X – then known as Twitter – infamously hosting the candidate’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/us/politics/ron-desantis-campaign-announcement-twitter.html">disastrous campaign launch</a> in May 2023.</p>
<p>Backed by this confluence of powerful right-wing voices, conservative entertainment can engage the Republican electorate in new ways. Liberals would do well <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/13/liberals-should-worry-conservative-comedy-00031907">not to dismiss</a> its potentially galvanizing effects before the 2024 election.</p>
<p>The late right-wing muckraker Andrew Breitbart – a mentor of Shapiro – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/opinion/progressives-republican-censorship.html">famously asserted</a> that politics is downstream from culture.</p>
<p>If this is, in fact, the case, slapstick comedy and children’s animation just might buoy the next wave of conservative activism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Marx does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through action films, dramas and kids’ cartoons, right-wing activists are working to build their own alternative entertainment universe insulated from Hollywood’s purported liberal biases.Nick Marx, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189962023-12-07T21:52:07Z2023-12-07T21:52:07ZThe sky’s the limit: A brief history of in-flight entertainment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563048/original/file-20231201-21-2dzmmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C4%2C3105%2C2069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The in-flight entertainment and connectivity market grew to US$5.9 billion in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-skys-the-limit-a-brief-history-of-in-flight-entertainment" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As the winter holidays draw near, many of us are already booking flights to see friends and family or vacation in warmer climates. Nowadays, air travel is synonymous with some form of in-flight entertainment, encompassing everything from the reception offered by the aircrew to the food choices and digital content.</p>
<p>These services all add value to flying for customers. Passengers are now so familiar with in-flight entertainment that to travel without it is unthinkable.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/10/19/2762903/0/en/In-Flight-Entertainment-Connectivity-Market-to-Worth-21-03-Bn-by-2030-Exhibiting-With-a-15-9-CAGR.html">The in-flight entertainment and connectivity market grew to US$5.9 billion as of 2019</a>, a testament to its economic impact on both the airlines and the GDP of countries with airline carriers.</p>
<p>In-flight entertainment is so ubiquitous that, even if all other airline services were offered, <a href="https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/19427/will-airlines-compensate-me-if-my-entertainment-system-is-not-working">the airline ensures a refund is made to the passenger affected</a> if television content cannot be accessed.</p>
<h2>A brief history</h2>
<p>In-flight entertainment has evolved significantly over the years. Before in-flight entertainment media was introduced, passengers entertained themselves by reading books or with food and drink services.</p>
<p>The original aim of bringing in-flight entertainment into cabins was to attract more customers, drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, including the theatrical and domestic media environments. It was not initially for the comfort and ease of travelling, as it is today. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/5023683/A_History_of_INFLIGHT_ENTERTAINMENT">Inflight entertainment began as an experiment</a> in 1921, when 11 Aeromarine Airways passengers were shown the film <em>Howdy Chicago!</em> on a screen hung in the cabin during the flight. Four years later, another experiment was carried out in 1925 when 12 passengers on board an Imperial Airlines flight from London were shown the film <em>The Lost World</em>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black-and-white photo of a group of men watching a movie projection from behind" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564039/original/file-20231206-29-iwrx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564039/original/file-20231206-29-iwrx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564039/original/file-20231206-29-iwrx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564039/original/file-20231206-29-iwrx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564039/original/file-20231206-29-iwrx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564039/original/file-20231206-29-iwrx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564039/original/file-20231206-29-iwrx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first in-flight movie was shown on board an Aeromarine Airways plane that flew at the Chicago Pageant of Progress in 1921.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Motion Picture News)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/when-did-inflight-movies-become-standard-on-airlines-180955566/">It wasn’t until the 1960s</a> that in-flight movies became mainstream for airlines. Trans World Airlines became the first carrier to regularly offer feature films during flights, using a unique film system developed by <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/06/02/inflight">David Flexer, then-president of Inflight Motion Pictures</a>.</p>
<p>Starting in 1964, in-flight entertainment evolved to include various media types like 16-mm film, closed-circuit television, live television broadcasts and magnetic tape. In the 1970s, for example, airplanes might feature a large screen with a 16-mm projector in one part of the plane, while small screens hung overhead in another section.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/reviews-and-advice/when-did-airlines-install-seatback-entertainment-20190711-h1g51b.html">Seatback screens were introduced in 1988</a> when Airvision installed 6.9-centimetre screens on the backs of airline seats for Northwest Airlines. They have since morphed into the larger screens we are familiar with today, which are found on nearly every airline.</p>
<h2>In-flight entertainment today</h2>
<p>Most airlines nowadays have personal televisions for every passenger on long-haul flights. On-demand streaming and internet access are also now the norm. Despite initial concerns about speed and cost, in-flight services are becoming faster and more affordable.</p>
<p>In-flight entertainment now includes movies, music, radio talk shows, TV talk shows, documentaries, magazines, stand-up comedy, culinary shows, sports shows and kids’ shows.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inflight-wi-fi-highlights-challenges-of-satellite-broadband-delivery-on-land-and-in-the-sky-75381">Inflight Wi-Fi highlights challenges of satellite broadband delivery on land and in the sky</a>
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<p>However, the rise of personal devices, like tablets and smartphones, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/the-weird-and-wonderful-history-of-in-flight-entertainment/">could spell the end for seatback screens</a>. A number of U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines and Alaska Air, have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/airline-seatback-screens-may-soon-become-an-endangered-species">removed seatback screens from their domestic planes</a>.</p>
<p>This decline is par for the course. To arrive at the complex system used by aircraft today, in-flight entertainment went through a number of different stages, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0641-1_10">as identified by aviation scholar D.A. Reed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person, seen from behind, looking at a screen mounted on the back of an airplane seat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563044/original/file-20231201-25-a14lv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563044/original/file-20231201-25-a14lv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563044/original/file-20231201-25-a14lv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563044/original/file-20231201-25-a14lv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563044/original/file-20231201-25-a14lv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563044/original/file-20231201-25-a14lv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563044/original/file-20231201-25-a14lv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With the widespread usage of personal electronic devices, seatback screens are on the decline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It started with an idea phase, which saw the conception of the idea, followed by an arms race phase where most airlines adopted some form of it. Currently, airlines are facing challenges in the final — and current — phase of evolution, and are dealing with failures linked to business concept flaws or low revenue.</p>
<p>Now that most air travellers carry electronic devices, fewer airlines are installing seatback screens. From an economic standpoint, this makes sense for airlines: removing seatback screens <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/business/airlines-travel-entertainment.html">improves fuel costs</a> and allows airlines to <a href="https://www.flightglobal.com/systems-and-interiors/united-ups-757-density-with-new-slimline-seats/126574.article">install slimmer seats</a>, allowing for more passengers.</p>
<h2>More than entertainment</h2>
<p>At some point in the evolution of in-flight entertainment, it started to serve as more than just a form of entertainment or comfort. Now, it’s also a competitive tool for airline advertisements, and a form of cultural production.</p>
<p>In-flight entertainment has become an economic platform for investors, business people, manufacturers and entertainment providers, especially Hollywood. It also plays a key role in promoting the national culture of destination countries.</p>
<p>However, the evolution of in-flight entertainment hasn’t been without its challenges. As a form of cultural production, it often reflects the interests of advertisers, governments and business entities. It also follows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0641-1_10">certain ideas, products and cultures are sold to passengers</a> via in-flight entertainment. </p>
<p>The lucrative practice of capturing and selling passengers’ attention to advertisers was not limited to screens, either. In-flight magazines have always been packed with advertisements, and by the late 1980s, these advertisements had spread to napkins and the audio channels.</p>
<p>Despite its shortcomings and precarious future, in-flight entertainment still offers passengers a sense of comfort, alleviating concerns about being suspended over 30,000 feet above sea level. If you end up flying during the holidays, remember your comfort is partly thanks to this innovation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olusola Adewumi John does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In-flight entertainment has evolved significantly over the years, from a one-off experiment to the on-demand streaming services many of us are now used to.Olusola Adewumi John, Visiting Researcher, Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145412023-11-21T13:22:50Z2023-11-21T13:22:50ZShows like ‘Scandal’ and ‘Madam Secretary’ inspire women to become involved in politics in real life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560036/original/file-20231116-29-xjji4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Netflix's show 'The Diplomat' is one of the few with strong female leads in politics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hollywood-ca-a-billboard-for-a-netflix-streaming-show-the-news-photo/1252546201?adppopup=true">Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hillary Clinton famously did not win the 2016 election and become the first female U.S. president. Yet Clinton’s presidential campaign still resonated with many women who have said it made them more likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912915605904">get involved in politics</a>. </p>
<p>When women run for office, it can inspire other women and girls to become more politically active. Clinton, Vice President Kamala Harris, presidential candidate Nikki Haley and other high-profile female politicians have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12351">motivated women to follow in their footsteps</a> and consider running for office.</p>
<p>It turns out that same sort of inspiration can happen when a female politician is not actually real, but instead is a character on a fictional TV show.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://www.cla.purdue.edu/directory/profiles/jennifer-hoewe.html">scholar of political communication and media psychology</a>. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J4fMerkAAAAJ&hl=en">My research</a> shows that when women watch a female lead character on a fictional political TV show, it can increase their interest in participating in politics and their belief that they can make a difference in the electoral process and results.</p>
<h2>American women’s political engagement</h2>
<p>Women run for office in the U.S. and serve in political positions less often than men. Only <a href="https://cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/current-numbers">28% of Congress and 24% of state governors are women</a>. The U.S. <a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/gender-gap-2020-report-100-years-pay-equality/digest">ranks 86th among 152 countries</a> when it comes to the number of women who serve in political office – and how long they hold those positions, according to the World Economic Forum.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/voters/gender-differences-voter-turnout#GGN">exception of voting</a>, women are less likely than men to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/it-still-takes-a-candidate/7BEAE647EF1B86EC62521AAFC159020B#fndtn-information">participate in political activities</a>. Compared with men, women often have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X08000469">less confidence in their abilities to understand politics</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00402.x">role model effect</a> documents that women and girls become more encouraged to participate in politics when they see other women run for political office.</p>
<p>And my research team found that this role model effect can translate into fictional TV content as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women in white drop a ballot in a voting box." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560039/original/file-20231116-23-rnrzil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When women see strong female lead characters in political TV shows, it can inspire them to vote or find other ways to get involved in politics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-dressed-as-a-suffragette-casts-her-ballot-for-the-news-photo/1047626118?adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connecting with TV characters</h2>
<p>The fictional characters <a href="https://thegoodwife.fandom.com/wiki/Alicia_Florrick">Alicia Florrick</a>, <a href="https://scandal.fandom.com/wiki/Olivia_Pope">Olivia Pope</a> and <a href="https://madam-secretary.fandom.com/wiki/Elizabeth_McCord">Elizabeth McCord</a> are examples of women whose political power exists only on TV.</p>
<p>Alicia Florrick, played by Julianna Margulies, worked as a Chicago-based lawyer before she eventually ran for Illinois state attorney general in CBS’s drama “The Good Wife,” which aired from 2009 until 2016.</p>
<p>Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington, worked as a high-profile political fixer and consultant on ABC’s political thriller series “Scandal,” which started in 2012 and ended in 2018.</p>
<p>Elizabeth McCord, played by Téa Leoni, regularly overcame political obstacles as U.S. secretary of state – and later as the first female U.S. president – on the CBS drama “Madam Secretary,” which ran from 2014 to 2019. </p>
<p>Each of these shows includes a woman lead character in a nonstereotypical role – a leader successfully tackling political problems.</p>
<p>When people watch these TV shows, they can feel a strong bond with their characters, a connection researchers call <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/hcre.12063">parasocial relationships</a>. Viewers even use their attachments to TV characters <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000358">to satisfy their need to feel connected</a> with other people.</p>
<p>Sometimes, connecting with fictional characters – and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0704_2">seeing strong, female characters</a> – can even spark viewers to become more involved in politics.</p>
<h2>Inspiring political engagement</h2>
<p>Two studies that I co-authored show how viewers’ connections with TV show characters influence their political engagement.</p>
<p>Political engagement can mean a range of things, including how closely someone follows news about the government and elections. Political engagement can also be someone feeling that they can make a difference in an election and that they have a say in what the government does. Political engagement can also include circulating a petition, attending a political rally or speech and, of course, voting.</p>
<p>We found that viewers formed strong bonds with these fictional women, and these connections persisted even after the credits rolled at the end of each episode.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2019.1570782">first study</a> on this topic in 2019, we surveyed people who watched one or more of three shows: “Madam Secretary,” “The Good Wife” and “Scandal.” When compared with individuals who watched less often, viewers who regularly watched one of these shows, who were mostly women, had particularly strong connections with that show’s lead female character. These bonds with the fictional character translated into viewers saying they had a growing interest in politics, feelings of making a difference in the election process and greater intentions to participate in politics. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2020.1849703">second study</a> from 2020, we collected data from people who were much less familiar with these shows. Participants in an experiment viewed a leading female character in “Madam Secretary,” or a leading male character in another show, with either a political- or family-focused plotline.</p>
<p>When compared with the other experimental conditions, participants who self-identified as more feminine, primarily women, experienced greater connections with the female lead character when she was shown in a plotline that addressed a political problem. That then increased their interest in politics, feelings of political self-efficacy and plans for political participation.</p>
<p>Importantly, our study concluded that merely seeing women as lead characters on TV is not enough to prompt women and girls to become more involved in politics. Instead, these women characters must be shown as a political leader. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman walks past a billboard in front of a bus stop in a city. The billboard is for the show 'The Good Wife,' and shows a middle aged woman in a red dress looking directly at a camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1103&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1103&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560040/original/file-20231116-17-2wrgwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1103&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman walks past a billboard promoting CBS’s ‘The Good Wife’ in 2009, shortly after the show’s release.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-walks-past-a-billboard-promoting-cbss-the-good-wife-news-photo/93117421?adppopup=true">George Rose/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than just entertainment</h2>
<p>Fictional television can influence viewers’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X16651615">political attitudes</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00017.x">policy preferences</a>. Political TV shows, in particular, can be both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000091">fun and thought-provoking</a> for viewers.</p>
<p>Given the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2016.1212243">limited amount of nonstereotypical TV content featuring women</a>, political TV shows with female lead characters may be particularly influential. Shows like “Madam Secretary,” “Scandal,” “The Good Wife” and, more recently, Netflix’s political drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17491088/">“The Diplomat”</a> all feature strong female characters with high-profile careers in politics, entertaining millions of viewers.</p>
<p>But these shows do more than just entertain their audiences. The power of a woman character leading a political TV show extends beyond viewership to real-world political engagement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Hoewe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Watching a woman character star in a fictional political TV drama can spark viewers, particularly women, to vote, campaign for a politician or find other ways to become involved in politics.Jennifer Hoewe, Associate professor, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2104952023-09-11T22:47:09Z2023-09-11T22:47:09ZThe talk shows we love: Dignity-crushing machines?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539846/original/file-20230727-19-8vyjl5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What hides behind the entertaining nature of your favourite talk shows?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Talk shows are not just a form of harmless entertainment where social issues are discussed. The choices made in production and by the host can harm the guests appearing on the show, particularly regarding the humiliation techniques used.</p>
<p>In the world of academic research surrounding culture, media and entertainment, the study of talk shows has a rather humble place, informed primarily by semiology (the study of signs and their meanings), journalism studies and language sciences.</p>
<p>In such contexts, this media genre appears innocuous, using mainly discursive strategies such as interviews or debates for the purpose of informing or entertaining the public while exploiting topics of public interest.</p>
<p>However, placed under the lens of a practical approach to communication, such as I use in <a href="https://professeurs.uqam.ca/professeur/genest.sylvie/">my research on popular culture</a>, talk shows appear under more threatening lights. The genre is notable, particularly in ethical terms, for the humiliating and coercive measures that hosts take towards their guests in order to extract unexpected or compromising revelations, all in the expectation of gains in popularity.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529838/original/file-20230602-15-7ttqs5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cover of a reference book on violations of human dignity, 2011 edition.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pliable morals and bloated egos</h2>
<p>From this perspective, talk shows become human dignity-crushing machines, knowingly wielded by producers with pliable morals and hosts with bloated egos for entertainment, narcissistic or capitalist purposes.</p>
<p>The intention of this article is to highlight the threatening nature of humiliation as a deliberate act of power, carried out on people who are vulnerable or made vulnerable by the presence of an audience, microphones and cameras.</p>
<p>The consequences of such degrading methods of humiliation can be devastating for the victims: psychological suffering, loss of self-confidence, feelings of exclusion, and the desire to disappear or to take revenge. Yet, the television industry persists in its use of humiliation in so-called entertaining forms in a vast number of talk shows, including some of the most popular of the last decade, be they in Canada, France, England or the United States. </p>
<p>In the striking multitude of cases of televised humiliation available to me for this article, the following three remain exemplary because of the tried and tested nature of the offensive strategies employed by the particularly skillful and experienced hosts (or ex-hosts).</p>
<h2>Arbitrary Dismissal: <em>That’s all we’ve got time for</em></h2>
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<p>In the U.K., as is also true in some other countries, dismissal without good and sufficient reason is a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/dismissal/unfair-and-constructive-dismissal">breach of employment standards</a>.</p>
<p>Firing or simply ridiculing an employee because of his or her physical appearance, annoying nature or foreign accent is then not only a sign of infamous contempt, but also illegal. Yet, this is what seems to be <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Accents-and-social-mobility.pdf">happening to a lot of people in the U.K.</a>, including the participants on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PziMH5MvvsmqM0VCZTy-g">Graham Norton’s show</a> who naively agree to sit in what is known as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-NuzLdxUrU&ab_channel=BBC">Dreaded Red Chair</a>.</p>
<p>In a recurring segment of the show called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-NuzLdxUrU&ab_channel=BBC"><em>That’s all we’ve got time for</em></a>, “ordinary people” — that is, those who have not yet reached the threshold of talent or celebrity deemed necessary for admission to the select club of entertainment stars — are offered the chance to gain access to that club, simply by entertaining a jury with a funny story. Presided over by Norton, the whole situation resembles the parody of a trial — that is, one that would be widely publicized, expeditious and fundamentally rigged.</p>
<p>In the first minute and a half of the clip above, a young man from New Zealand is ridiculed and singled out by Norton and his audience, simply because of his accent. Now, even if a person’s accent is not in itself a <a href="https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2022/november/25/accentism-in-the-workplace">characteristic protected by law</a>, discrimination based on this aspect of one’s identity is clearly unfair, hurtful, and contemptuous. </p>
<p>From a moral standpoint, Norton’s red chair is a weapon of shame wielded in order to humiliate people who dream of shining in front of the millions of viewers of the show. Instead, “all they’ve got time for” is rejection on national television.</p>
<h2>Psychological spanking: <em>Get a Job!</em></h2>
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<p>As “one of the world’s best-known and most trusted mental health professionals,” and “host of daytime television’s most popular show from 2002 to 2023 in USA,” <a href="https://www.drphil.com/about-dr-phil/">Dr. Phil McGraw</a> was no less harmful to some of his guests than the host in the aforementioned example.</p>
<p>According to Timothy C. Thomason, McGraw does <a href="https://pocketmags.com/ca/skeptic-magazine/271/articles/1113451/wild-psychotherapy"><em>Wild psychotherapy</em></a>. Indeed, he is no longer licensed, does not respect confidentiality, tells hard truths without sparing his clients’ egos, is often impatient with his anxious guests, and his style is abrasive and tyrannical, but… he entertains crowds.</p>
<p>In the video above, McGraw administers what might be called a psychological spanking to King Keith, a young man who apparently needs a “reality check.” Despite the talk show setting not being appropriate for this type of conversation, McGraw humiliates the poor boy regardless:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let’s stop that right now. That’s a complete load of crap… Take this note… Since this is my show, and you don’t have yours yet, we’re gonna run my agenda and we’re gonna talk what I want to talk about… You’re not pulling your own weight… Get a job! </p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Spank!</em></p>
<h2>Coercion to obey: <em>Yes! You Will!</em></h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ellen DeGeneres et Taylor Swift" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538606/original/file-20230720-27955-88naug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">TV host Ellen DeGeneres, left, and singer Taylor Swift, right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Flickr/@ronpaulrevolt2008), (Flickr/Eva Rinaldi)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRXVuIsVBnI&ab_channel=MilagrosMenendez">Part of an interview</a> between Taylor Swift and Ellen DeGeneres <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/this-taylor-swift-ellen-degeneres-interview-from-2013-is-upsetting-a-lot-of-people">sparked public outrage</a> in tandem with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/may/13/ellen-degeneres-toxic-workplace-allegations-talk-show-ending#:%7E:text=The%20announcement%20came%20after%20months,interviews%20with%2036%20former%20staffers.">accusations of harassment</a> levelled against host and producer DeGeneres in 2020. The techniques used in the interview are not dissimilar to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1964-03472-001">Stanley Milgram’s discoveries</a> about obeying unreasonable orders from an authority when that authority is perceived to be legitimate.</p>
<p>From her metaphorical vantage point as a host and producer at the top of her game, DeGeneres here demands that Taylor Swift, who in 2013 was still quite young (24) and inexperienced, perform a seemingly innocuous act (shaking a bell), but one that is nonetheless likely to have detrimental and irreversible effects on her private life and career, including: revealing the identity of a third party, exposing her amorous and sexual conduct in broad daylight and performing, in front of everyone, the desecration of her own sanctuary of artistic inspiration.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Taylor: Oh my God! I don’t know if I’m gonna do this…
Ellen: Yeah, you will!
Taylor: This is the one thing that I have! It’s like the one shred of dignity that I have… People go and make guesses about it and the only thing that I have is that one card…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The cleverest thing DeGeneres did in this scene was to imagine and set up a double bind for the singer, making her “damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.”</p>
<h2>Humiliation: “the new poison of our society”?</h2>
<p>In everyday life, humiliation is not a spectacle or a form of entertainment. It is a deliberate act of authority abused by an aggressor whose main lever of power is the complicit presence of others.</p>
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<span class="caption">Cover of a 2022 book by Olivier Abel.</span>
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<p>For in order to be humiliated, a victim must not only be diminished by words or deeds, but must also be seen and appear as such in the eyes of others. In this kind of collaborative arrangement between an executioner and an anonymous crowd of witnesses, those who do nothing but watch nevertheless accomplish something: their presence is not only the essential condition for the crime of humiliation, but it is also the guarantee of impunity.</p>
<p>By combining the talent of presenters, the greed of producers, the efficiency of television technologies and the passive infatuation of an armchair audience that can see everything without being seen, talk shows are the contemporary instrument <em>par excellence</em> of the psychological crime of humiliation, a formidable human dignity-crushing machine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210495/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvie Genest ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Believed to be mere entertainment, talk shows can become human dignity-crushing machines. The consequences of the degrading techniques used can be devastating for the victims.Sylvie Genest, Professeure à la Faculté des arts, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102442023-07-22T00:01:26Z2023-07-22T00:01:26ZTony Bennett: the timeless visionary who, with a nod to America’s musical heritage, embraced the future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538796/original/file-20230721-6292-8kcivc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C13%2C2991%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga in 2015. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObitTonyBennett/d2da02e3d0754ead95520651844ef2a6/photo?Query=tony%20bennett&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3377&currentItemNo=6">Charles Sykes/Invision/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the history of American popular music, there have been few luminaries as enduring and innovative as Tony Bennett.</p>
<p>With a career that spanned almost 80 years, Bennett’s smooth tones, unique phrasing and visionary musical collaborations left an indelible mark on vocal jazz and the recording industry as a whole. </p>
<p>That his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tony-bennett-dies-c3b3a7e2360449fb936a38794c7c3266">death at the age of 96</a> on July 21, 2023, was mourned by artists as varied as <a href="https://twitter.com/KeithUrban/status/1682395658395824133">Keith Urban</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/OzzyOsbourne/status/1682411338340126720">Ozzy Osbourne</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/HarryConnickJR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1682411086656557056%7Ctwgr%5E04a78435a793b5246d7bc19e09529f2b2f0bcfab%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2023%2Fmusic%2Fnews%2Ftony-bennett-elton-john-reaction-tribute-1235676405%2F">Harry Connick Jr.</a> should come as no surprise. Yes, Bennett was a jazz crooner. But if his voice was always a constant – even late into his 80s, way past an age when most other singers have seen their vocal abilities diminish – then his embrace of the contemporary was every bit a facet of Bennett’s appeal.</p>
<h2>Vocal innovator</h2>
<p>Bennett’s journey is a testament to the power of daring innovation. </p>
<p>From the early days of his career in the 1950s to his final recordings in the early 2020s, he fearlessly explored new musical territories, revolutionizing vocal jazz and captivating audiences across generations.</p>
<p>His vocal style and phrasing were distinctive and set him apart from other artists of his time. He utilized a delayed or “laid-back” approach to falling on the note, a technique known as “<a href="https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/how-to-read-sheet-music/rubato/">rubato</a>.” This created a sense of anticipation in his phrasing, adding an element of surprise to his performances. Through Bennett’s skilled use of rubato, he was able to play with the tempo and rhythm of a song, bending and stretching musical phrases to evoke a range of emotions. This subtle manipulation of timing gave his songs a natural and conversational quality, making listeners feel as though he was intimately sharing his stories with them.</p>
<p>Armed with this silky, playful voice, Bennett found fame fairly early on in his career, delivering jazz standards alongside the likes of Mel Tormé and Nat King Cole. By the mid-1960s, he was being touted by Frank Sinatra as “the best singer in the business.”</p>
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<img alt="A man in an open-necked shirt sings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538797/original/file-20230721-40270-jsbx42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538797/original/file-20230721-40270-jsbx42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538797/original/file-20230721-40270-jsbx42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538797/original/file-20230721-40270-jsbx42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538797/original/file-20230721-40270-jsbx42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538797/original/file-20230721-40270-jsbx42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538797/original/file-20230721-40270-jsbx42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Tony Bennett in 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TonyBennett/f049da09ad994e1fab65b80524c35f7e/photo?Query=tony%20bennett&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3377&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>But his musical style fell out of fashion in the 1970s – a lean period during which Bennett <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/07/21/tony-bennett-son-life-career-drugs/">almost succumbed to a drug overdose</a>. Then, in the 1990s, Bennett found a new audience and set off a series of collaborations with contemporary musical stars that would become the standard for his later career.</p>
<p>No genre of artistry was deemed off-limits for Bennett. “<a href="https://www.tonybennett.com/music-detail.php?id=11">Duets: An American Classic</a>,” released to coincide with his 80th birthday in 2006, saw collaborations with country stars such as k.d. lang and the Dixie Chicks – now known as the Chicks – and soul legend Stevie Wonder, alongside kindred jazz spirits such as Diana Krall. “Duets II,” a 2011 follow-up, saw further explorations with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, Willie Nelson and Amy Winehouse, in what would become the <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/amy-winehouse-final-recording-session/">British singer’s last recording</a>.</p>
<p>But his cross-generational, cross-genre and cross-cultural appeal is perhaps best exemplified by his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/21/arts/music/tony-bennett-lady-gaga.html">collaborations with Lady Gaga</a>, first on the 2014 Grammy-winning album “Cheek to Cheek.” The recording brought together two artists from different generations, genres and backgrounds, uniting them in a harmonious celebration of jazz classics. The collaboration not only showcased each one’s vocal prowess, but also sent a powerful message about the unifying nature of music.</p>
<p>Lady Gaga, a pop artist with avant-garde leanings, might have seemed an unlikely partner for Bennett, the quintessential jazz crooner. Yet their musical chemistry and mutual admiration resulted in an album that mesmerized audiences worldwide. “Cheek to Cheek” effortlessly transcended musical boundaries, while the duo’s magnetic stage presence and undeniable talent enchanted listeners.</p>
<p>The successful fusion of jazz and pop encouraged artists to experiment beyond traditional boundaries, leading to more cross-genre projects across the industry – proving that such projects could go beyond one-off novelties, and be profitable at that.</p>
<h2>Timeless artistry</h2>
<p>Bennett’s embrace of contemporary artists did not mean that he abandoned his own musical self. By blending traditional jazz with contemporary elements, he managed to captivate audiences across generations, appealing to both longtime fans and new listeners.</p>
<p>One key aspect of Bennett’s success was his ability to embody the sentiment of old America, reminiscent of artists like Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, while infusing contemporary nuances that resonated with the human condition of a more modern era. His approach to music captured both the essence and struggle of America, giving his songs a timeless and universal appeal. Moreover, his voice conveyed familiarity and comfort, akin to listening to a beloved uncle.</p>
<p>Bennett’s albums stood out not only for his soulful voice and impeccable delivery but also for the way he drew others from varied musical backgrounds into his world of jazz sensibilities. As a producer, he recognized the importance of nurturing creativity and bringing out the best in artists.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Bennett’s approach to evolving his own sound while preserving its essence sets him apart as an artist. Fearless in his pursuit of innovation, he delved into contemporary musical elements and collaborated with producers to infuse new sonic dimensions into his later albums. The result drew listeners into an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kNpdLZwetU">intimate and immersive, concert-like acoustic journey</a>.</p>
<h2>Depth of emotion</h2>
<p>The greats in music have an ability to speak to the human experience. And either in collaboration with others or on his own, Bennett was able to achieve this time and time again.</p>
<p>His albums were successful not only due to their technical brilliance and musicality but also because Bennett’s voice conveyed a depth of emotion that transcended barriers of time and culture, touching the hearts of listeners from various backgrounds. There was a universality in his music that made him a beloved and revered artist across the globe. </p>
<p>Bennett’s life spanned decades of societal upheavals in the United States. But in his music, listeners could always find beauty in challenging times. And as the 20th- and 21st-century American music industry went through its own revolutions, Bennett’s artistic evolution mirrored the changes, cementing his place as a music icon who defies the boundaries of time and trends.</p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/2UxxnhUE5YLchYgutxKEbJ?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="380" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jose Valentino Ruiz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The jazz singer saw renewed success late in life on the back of collaborations with an eclectic array of artists.Jose Valentino Ruiz, Program Director of Music Business & Entrepreneurship, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2101102023-07-20T14:45:19Z2023-07-20T14:45:19ZThirty years after Jurassic Park hit movie screens, its impact on science and culture remains as strong as ever – podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538375/original/file-20230719-22038-i0v8x9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5351%2C3564&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Jurassic Park franchise has spawned several movies, theme parks and spin-off products.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Jurassic Park</em>, the 1993 film about dinosaurs, is a cultural tour de force. Not only did the film herald a new era in computer-generated movie effects, it also revived the field of paleontology. And if that wasn’t enough, it raised questions about the ethics of DNA research.</p>
<p>Based on Michael Crichton’s novel by the same name, <em>Jurassic Park</em> told the story of an ambitious theme park that used resurrected dinosaurs as its attractions. But as the story unfolds, things start to go wrong.</p>
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<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In this Discovery episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em>, we speak with Travis Holland, a senior lecturer at Charles Sturt University in Australia. He researches media and fan studies, and has looked at the popular and scientific cultural impact <em>Jurassic Park</em> continues to have.</p>
<p>“We started to see through the mid part of the 1900s a dinosaur renaissance, where there was a spate of interesting research discoveries happening all around the world,” Holland said. “Jurassic Park came at the tail end of that. It took all of this new science and made it public.”</p>
<h2>Philosophical questions</h2>
<p>The film’s plot is based on the ability of scientists to produce animals from DNA and resurrect prehistoric animals using that technology. Since 1993, DNA science has developed so much that this premise is no longer a far-fetched science fiction plot.</p>
<p>The film — and its science — have influenced and shaped research not only in paleontology, but also in genetic technologies. In a somewhat prescient move related to genetic science, Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/21/life-will-find-a-way-could-scientists-make-jurassic-park-a-reality">was born three years after <em>Jurassic Park</em> was released</a>.</p>
<p>In a highly publicized announcement, the biotech company <a href="https://colossal.com/mammoth/">Colossal Biosciences is trying to bring back the woolly mammoth</a> and other extinct species.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences is trying to resurrect extinct species.</span></figcaption>
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<p><em>Jurassic Park</em> posed the question to viewers that even if the science to resurrect extinct species did exist, should it be used? The film doesn’t resolve this question, and it’s one that has grown in importance as genetic technologies are becoming more sophisticated and mainstream.</p>
<h2>Representation and art</h2>
<p>Holland’s work considers <em>Jurassic Park</em> within a lineage of dinosaur representations and depictions — what he refers to as paleo-media. These representations of dinosaurs were a combination of thorough paleontological research and art.</p>
<p>“Charles R. Knight painted a mural called the Leaping Laelaps, which is these two therapod dinosaurs leaping at each other,” Holland says. “I’d suggest that that piece of art possibly inspired even the Velociraptors and the way they leaped in Jurassic Park.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="an illustration of two light green dinosaurs jumping in a meadow" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538385/original/file-20230719-27-tivq2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CAPTION.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laelaps-Charles_Knight-1897.jpg">(Charles R. Knight/Wikimedia Commons)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since 1993, there have been a total of six <em>Jurassic Park</em> films released in the franchise, with the most recent one coming out last year. To hear how the film continues to inspire new generations of scientists, artists and filmmakers, tune in to this Discovery episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em>.</p>
<hr>
<p>This episode was written and produced by Katie Flood and hosted by Nehal El-Hadi. Mend Mariwany is the executive producer of The Conversation Weekly. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode will be available soon.</p>
<p>Listen to <em>The Conversation Weekly</em>_ via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210110/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nehal El-Hadi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jurassic Park was a technological breakthrough for film because of its use of CGI. It also revived an interest in paleontology and raised ethical questions about DNA use.Nehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2098282023-07-17T19:34:33Z2023-07-17T19:34:33ZHere’s how the Hollywood actors’ strike will impact the Canadian film industry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537874/original/file-20230717-236884-qp5o4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C0%2C5573%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Picketers carry signs outside Paramount in Times Square on July 17, 2023, in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/heres-how-the-hollywood-actors-strike-will-impact-the-canadian-film-industry" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Hollywood actors <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/hollywood-actors-to-begin-historic-strike-at-midnight-after-studio-talks-break-down-1.6905349">went on strike on July 14</a>, joining film and television writers <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai">who have been on the picket lines since May</a>. It’s the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/actors-strike-why.html">first time actors and writers have picketed together since 1960</a>, when Ronald Reagan was the president of the Screen Actors Guild.</p>
<p>Following failed talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced the strike at a press conference on July 13.</p>
<p>At the heart of the negotiations between the union and the guild <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jul/14/the-hollywood-actors-strike-everything-you-need-to-know">are two key issues</a>: residual payments in the streaming era and the ownership of an actor’s likeness if it’s reproduced by artificial intelligence. The union is calling for fairer pay splits and tighter AI regulations over these issues.</p>
<p>This strike is a watershed moment for the entertainment industry, marking a turning point for the future of labour in the arts. But it will also have widespread impacts on the film and television industry beyond the United States, and Canada is bracing for impact.</p>
<h2>‘Cataclysmic’ issues at stake</h2>
<p>The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists <a href="https://www.actra.ca/news-release/news-you-can-use/2023/07/actra-stands-in-solidarity-with-sag-aftra/">released a statement last week in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA</a>: “[U.S. actors’] issues are our issues and performers deserve respect and fair compensation for the value they bring to every production.”</p>
<p>These issues are “cataclysmic,” according to Canadian actor and producer Julian De Zotti. De Zotti and I discussed these issues as part of a greater conversation on the future of entertainment <a href="https://www.artscapedanielslaunchpad.com/ctrl-alt-disrupt/">in the ongoing CTRL ALT DISRUPT series</a>, organized by Artscape Daniels Launchpad and the City of Toronto’s Creative Technology Office.</p>
<p>He says the issues being negotiated are existential for creators the world over: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We are at a seismic inflection point in the industry, as a massive technological shift is changing how working and middle class artists, actors, writers, craftspeople can make a sustainable living in the entertainment industry.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman crowd of people wearing SAG-AFTRA shirts hold their fists up" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537885/original/file-20230717-228004-r0vcf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537885/original/file-20230717-228004-r0vcf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537885/original/file-20230717-228004-r0vcf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537885/original/file-20230717-228004-r0vcf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537885/original/file-20230717-228004-r0vcf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537885/original/file-20230717-228004-r0vcf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537885/original/file-20230717-228004-r0vcf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher attends a press conference announcing a strike by The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on July, 13, 2023, in Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To be clear, it’s not the technology itself creators are taking issue with. When it comes to AI, many film industry professionals <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom/2023/02/24/how-ai-and-the-cloud-are-erasing-the-borders-in-making-movies-and-tv-shows/">are already using tools</a> like ChatGPT and Midjourney to help flesh out the background for scripts or develop visual worlds and imagery for pitch decks.</p>
<p>De Zotti, who has won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Web Program or Series for the past two years, is already integrating AI tools into his practice. He is not afraid of new technology, but rather, how it might be misused. </p>
<h2>An existential threat</h2>
<p>AI poses a threat for actors in particular because their livelihoods depend on their identity. There need to be specific guardrails and parameters established that protect artists, their creations and their image. They must have a say in how their work and image are used and receive fair compensation for it.</p>
<p>Technology advances quickly, sometimes outpacing our ability to fully comprehend its repercussions before adopting it. The strike offers the opportunity to press pause on the otherwise unbridled adoption of disruptive AI technology. </p>
<p>“This can’t be like social media where the technology came too fast and there were no clear guidelines on its use, and now it’s completely out of control,” says De Zotti.</p>
<p>Instead of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/are-you-ready-to-go-back-to-the-office-1.6437043/stronger-government-regulation-of-social-media-companies-could-improve-free-speech-says-expert-1.6437583">scrambling to play regulatory catch-up after damage has been done</a>, considerations need to be made at the outset to avoid damaging consequences, intended or not.</p>
<h2>What the strike means for Canada</h2>
<p>During the strike, service production, which <a href="https://www.ontariocreates.ca/research/industry-profile/ip-filmtv">represents a majority of the $11.69 billion annual work done in Canada</a>, will come to a halt. All American productions — from big budget blockbusters like Star Trek, which shoots in Toronto, to indie feature films using SAG actors — will be affected. </p>
<p>This will, in turn, have a direct effect on the <a href="https://madeinca.ca/film-and-tv-industry-statistics-canada">244,000 people who work in the film and television industry</a> in this country. But it might also open up a different business model, that, as De Zotti points out, “doesn’t rely on you to package your show or movie with stars to get it made.” </p>
<p>While the streaming issue under negotiation is centred around residuals and compensation, Canadian content creators face additional struggles. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-online-streaming-act-will-support-canadian-content-201862">How the Online Streaming Act will support Canadian content</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Streaming companies have set up shop in Canada for a few years now, promising to make shows led by Canadians. However, De Zotti says this has not been the case. “It’s been a mirage. <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/industr/modern/myth.htm">Bill C-11</a> is supposed to change all that, but that is still yet to be seen.”</p>
<p>However, if the strike lingers, perhaps markets outside of Canada will look to acquire Canadian content, as is already the case with the CW, which <a href="https://www.mikehughes.tv/2023/05/12/cws-solution-for-summer-and-fall-o-canada/">turned to Canadian content to fill its fall schedule</a>.</p>
<h2>Is this Canada’s moment?</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A protest sign that says 'SAG-AFTRA on Strike'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537561/original/file-20230714-36081-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537561/original/file-20230714-36081-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537561/original/file-20230714-36081-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537561/original/file-20230714-36081-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537561/original/file-20230714-36081-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537561/original/file-20230714-36081-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537561/original/file-20230714-36081-f52ks8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Striking writers and actors take part in a rally outside Netflix studio in Los Angeles on July 14.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps this strike is a moment for Canada to rise to the occasion; while the Canadian entertainment industry can’t compete with the sheer scale or spending power of Hollywood, it is in this environment of massive change that we shine as scrappy, creative disruptors. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.nfb.ca/directors/norman-mclaren/">Norman McLaren’s experimental work with the NFB</a>, through the <a href="https://macleans.ca/culture/movies/a-documentary-like-no-other-documentary">rise of interactive documentaries</a>, to the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/21/18234980/fortnite-marshmello-concert-viewer-numbers">explosion of game-based virtual concerts</a>, Canada has always been seen as an innovator in entertainment.</p>
<p>As for the strike itself, its outcome will surely set a precedent. Whatever guidelines the WGA and SAG establish with the studios will be used as a template when it’s time for Canadian unions to negotiate. </p>
<p>The reality is, AI and streaming are not technologies of tomorrow; both are here to stay. As the dust settles south of the border, we have the chance to not just sit back and wait, but to lead by example. </p>
<p>We have the opportunity to not only create unimagined new forms of storytelling, but also experiment with fairer business models rooted in transparent data and more equitable ways of using the powerful tools that threaten to upend the industry of yesterday.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ramona Pringle has received funding from the Canadian Media Fund, Ontario Creates and the Bell Fund. She is affiliated with the City of Toronto’s Film Television and Digital Media Board, Artscape Daniels Launchpad, and Interactive Ontario.</span></em></p>The Hollywood actors’ strike is a watershed moment for the entertainment industry, marking a turning point for the future of labour in the arts.Ramona Pringle, Director, Creative Innovation Studio; Associate Professor, RTA School of Media, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2034872023-06-02T12:41:24Z2023-06-02T12:41:24ZThe allure of the ad-lib: New research identifies why people prefer spontaneity in entertainment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528844/original/file-20230529-23-47rygd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=473%2C143%2C4604%2C3607&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What makes improvised stage patter more appealing than a canned script?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/silhouette-of-woman-with-microphone-singing-on-royalty-free-image/1160645050">FangXiaNuo/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Audiences love to see athletes and entertainers behaving spontaneously, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac060">according to our recent research</a>, because ad-libbed lines, spectacular catches, improvised set lists and the like make performers seem more authentic and genuine.</p>
<p>We observed a preference for spontaneity in entertainment across several studies. First, we examined dozens of Buzzfeed articles from the past several years about spontaneity in film and TV, like “<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/tv-moments-that-were-actually-improvised">Here Are 21 TV Moments You Probably Didn’t Know Were Unscripted</a>.” Compared with other Buzzfeed articles about entertainment that were published on the same dates, the pieces about spontaneity garnered nearly double the social media engagement in comments, likes and shares.</p>
<p>We also ran an online raffle in which people could win a real, customized <a href="https://www.cameo.com/">Cameo</a> greeting from a celebrity of their choice. The vast majority of participants – 84.1% – wanted their chosen celebrity to record a fully improvised, off-the-cuff message rather than a scripted personal greeting.</p>
<p>But what is it that accounts for this preference?</p>
<p>Across a variety of experiments, our results showed that people are drawn to spontaneity because they believe it provides a glimpse into a performer’s true self. Our findings reveal that people rate entertainers as more sincere, genuine and authentic when they act spontaneously, rather than when they plan, and authenticity is something that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/615047">consumers hold in extremely high regard</a>.</p>
<p>But our research also revealed that spontaneity has a cost: When people acted spontaneously, our participants thought the output could be lower quality, less poised and more error prone. For instance, while a chef who leverages spontaneity in their cooking may be seen as more authentic, people might expect their meals to taste worse.</p>
<p>So, although participants often preferred spontaneous moments in entertainment, we found that that preference went away when money was on the line. For example, in one of our experiments, when participants were gambling real money on a sporting event, they preferred players who stuck to the game plan.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="friends laughing together on couch watching out of frame TV" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528845/original/file-20230529-24-qf0yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When it feels like anything can happen, audiences are hooked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/friends-laughing-watching-tv-together-royalty-free-image/83827011">John Howard/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>U.S. adults spend around <a href="https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2018/time-flies-us-adults-now-spend-nearly-half-a-day-interacting-with-media/">six hours per day interacting with video-based</a> media and entertainment. And great entertainment often includes spontaneity: Think of ad-libbed TV moments (many of the <a href="https://uproxx.com/tv/succession-improvised-scene-connors-wedding/">most</a> <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/succession-season-four-episode-nine-roman-funeral">heart-wrenching</a> sequences in “Succession”), impromptu concerts (<a href="https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/beatles/rooftop-concert-final-performance-get-back/">The Beatles’ 1969 rooftop concert</a>) and on-the-fly sports plays (Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/watch-chiefs-patrick-mahomes-flips-no-look-td-pass-to-jerick-mckinnon-vs-broncos/">trademark “flick” pass</a>). Spontaneity-based entertainment, like improv comedy, reality TV and jazz soloing, continue to stand the test of time.</p>
<p>Our work illustrates that spontaneity can be a powerful tool to boost publicity and engagement and generate positive impressions. Working on a new project? Perhaps leave time for unplanned action. Promoting a new show or product? Consider talking about the unscripted, behind-the-scenes moments. On a first date? Maybe fight the urge to plan your talking points ahead of time. Coming off as truly yourself might mean that you are slightly less poised and articulate, but the trade-off can be worth it.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>In our studies, we told participants that performances were either planned or spontaneous and then measured their preferences. But what if we hadn’t told them which things were ad-libbed?</p>
<p>Moving forward, we’re interested in understanding if people can accurately tell whether an action is spontaneous just by watching it, and, if so, how they know. Are there social or behavioral cues, like eye contact, colloquial language or intense emotion, that signal spontaneous action? </p>
<p>Of course, being able to identify the “tells” of spontaneity might raise a concern that spontaneity – and, therefore, authenticity – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/06/02/if-you-can-fake-spontaneity-you-have-it-made-five-key-questions-about-the-grassroots-industry/">can be faked</a>. So another avenue we’re excited to pursue is understanding the moral and emotional implications of <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/08/manufacturing-spontaneity.html">manufactured spontaneity</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Audiences love improvised, off-the-cuff entertainment, and new research suggests it’s because spontaneity seems to offer a glimpse of the performer’s authentic self.Jacqueline Rifkin, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Cornell UniversityKatherine Du, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045202023-05-18T12:41:53Z2023-05-18T12:41:53ZFrom sit-ins in the 1960s to uprisings in the new millennium, Harry Belafonte served as a champion of youth activism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526776/original/file-20230517-21-rcxyry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harry Belafonte used his personal wealth to support young activists throughout his life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-singer-songwriter-and-civil-rights-activist-harry-news-photo/1393509581?adppopup=true">Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of all the contributions for which Harry Belafonte will be remembered, perhaps none is more enduring than the celebrated entertainer’s lifelong support for youth activism.</p>
<p>This support can be traced back to Belafonte’s early involvement in the Black student-led protests of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, but it didn’t end there. Using his social stature and personal wealth from a career that once made him the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html">most highly paid Black performer in history</a>,” Belafonte also <a href="https://rockthebells.com/articles/harry-belafonte-hip-hop-beat-street/">helped establish hip-hop</a> as a dominant cultural force in the 1980s and spoke out in support of Black uprisings against police brutality in the 2010s in cities such as Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore.</p>
<p>As a historian who has <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469661445/shelter-in-a-time-of-storm/">examined Black student activism from the civil rights era</a> to today, I see Belafonte, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html">passed away on April 25, 2023</a>, as one of America’s preeminent “<a href="https://guides.osu.edu/africana/raceman">race men</a>,” social justice warriors and elder statesmen for youth-led racial justice movements.</p>
<h2>Born in a new Black era</h2>
<p>Born in Harlem in 1927, Belafonte was immersed in the politics and art of the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/the-new-negro-movement.html">New Negro Era</a>, an era that gave birth to radically new interpretations of the Black aesthetic and launched new efforts toward Black liberation.</p>
<p>As the modern Civil Rights Movement unfolded in post-World War II America, Belafonte joined the ranks of Black entertainers who sought to use their platforms to advance the cause. But it was the direct-action phase of the movement, pioneered by Black college students throughout the South at the start of the 1960s, that elevated the movement to a more intense confrontation with Jim Crow America.</p>
<p><a href="https://civilrightstrail.com/experience/student-led-sit-ins-across-the-south-lead-to-desegregated-businesses/">Sit-ins</a>, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-freedom-riders-then-and-now-45351758/">Freedom Rides</a> and <a href="https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jail-no-bail/">jail-ins</a> orchestrated by organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee – or <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/the-story-of-sncc/">SNCC</a> – and the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/congress-racial-equality-core">Congress of Racial Equality</a> brought Belafonte deeper into the orbit of the freedom struggle. Belafonte once said he admired the young activists for the “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/10860/my-song-by-harry-belafonte-with-michael-shnayerson/">power of their independence</a>.”</p>
<h2>A unifying force</h2>
<p>One of the tensest moments for the young activists was the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/freedom-rides-1961/">Freedom Rides</a> that brought waves of young Black college students into the Deep South to challenge the legality of segregation in interstate busing. Many of them ended up as victims of police brutality in the infamous <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mississippi-state-penitentiary-at-parchman-1901/">Parchman Farm Penitentiary</a> in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Not only did Belafonte make a generous donation to their cause, but his willingness to support the activists strengthened their admiration of him.</p>
<p>“Folks were just overwhelmed,” <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ready-for-Revolution/Stokely-Carmichael/9780684850047">recalled civil rights organizer Kwame Ture</a>, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, “and I believe that marked the beginning of Bro. Belafonte’s long relationship – as adviser, benefactor, and big brother – to the young freedom-fighting organization.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525301/original/file-20230510-23-llt9h1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525301/original/file-20230510-23-llt9h1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525301/original/file-20230510-23-llt9h1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525301/original/file-20230510-23-llt9h1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525301/original/file-20230510-23-llt9h1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525301/original/file-20230510-23-llt9h1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525301/original/file-20230510-23-llt9h1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harry Belafonte being interviewed by a student at Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C., year unknown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas F. Holgate Library at Bennettt College</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As students courageously languished in Mississippi’s sweltering prison, they converted Belafonte’s signature song into a freedom anthem. The calypso singer’s hit single <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO7M0Hx_1D8">“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)</a>” echoed through Southern jails as students arrested for challenging Jim Crow laws <a href="http://civilrightssongs.blogspot.com/2014/12/willie-peacock-calypso-freedom-freedoms.html">repurposed the song with new lyrics:</a></p>
<p><em>Hey, I took a little trip on a Greyhound bus.</em></p>
<p><em>Yeah!</em></p>
<p><em>Freedom comin’ and it won’t be long.</em></p>
<p><em>Well, to fight segregation this we must.</em></p>
<p><em>Yeah, Freedom comin’ and it won’t be long.</em></p>
<h2>Financed the SNCC retreat to Africa</h2>
<p>The apex of Belafonte’s involvement with the SNCC was his facilitation of a <a href="https://snccdigital.org/events/sncc-delegation-travels-to-africa/">sojourn to the West African nation of Guinea in September of 1964</a>. </p>
<p>Sensing the burnout and frustration that was brewing within the organization due to its growing dissatisfaction with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xNNrgesvx8">moderation and stall tactics</a> from both the liberal left and conservative right, Belafonte organized and paid for a three-week sabbatical. Eleven SNCC activists, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/john-lewis-traded-the-typical-college-experience-for-activism-arrests-and-jail-cells-143219">John Lewis</a>, <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/fannie-lou-hamer/">Fannie Lou Hamer</a> and Stokely Carmichael, made the trip. Belafonte introduced them to Guinea’s political dignitaries, including <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/toure-ahmed-sekou-1922-1984/">President Sekou Toure</a>. The trip proved critical in sharpening the SNCC’s focus on the potential for Black empowerment back in the States – a revelation that would greatly shape the coming Black Power Movement that unfolded in 1966. </p>
<p>Ideological tensions concerning the direction of the Civil Rights Movement after 1965 <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Pillar-of-Fire/Taylor-Branch/9780684848099">pushed Belafonte closer</a> to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.</p>
<p>However, the politically conscious showman never turned his back on the youth activists who helped to define the decade.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Harry y Belafonte waves to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as he leaves civil rights marchers in Montgomery, Alabama in 1965." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526772/original/file-20230517-25-d8dno6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526772/original/file-20230517-25-d8dno6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526772/original/file-20230517-25-d8dno6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526772/original/file-20230517-25-d8dno6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526772/original/file-20230517-25-d8dno6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526772/original/file-20230517-25-d8dno6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526772/original/file-20230517-25-d8dno6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Singer Harry Belafonte waves to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., right, as he leaves the column of civil rights marchers in Montgomery, Ala., in 1965.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Supported hip-hop in its early years</h2>
<p>It should not surprise anyone that a man who had a deep affinity for folk music and songs of the people gravitated toward hip-hop as it emerged in the 1970s and 1980s.
Belafonte saw hip-hop as a logical next step in the evolution of Black cultural expression and a vital space for Black militancy. In a 2006 interview, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXqL84U3VP4">he declared</a>, “When I hung out up in the South Bronx with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140309032121/http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/page/Afrika_Bambaataa">Afrika Bambaataa</a> and <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/grandmaster-melle-mel-mn0000739282/biography">Melle Mel</a>, and watched the dawning of the hip-hop culture, it brought to me a profound sense of a wonderful thing that was in our future.”</p>
<p>Belafonte produced the 1984 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086946/">Beat Street</a>,” a celebration of hip-hop that was critical in introducing the art form to wider audiences. One of the featured artists, Melle Mel of the pioneering hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, <a href="https://rockthebells.com/articles/melle-mel-harry-belafonte-beat-street-breakdown/">recalled that he met with Belafonte</a> prior to penning his verse on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrfO6kW8EIs">soundtrack’s title song, “Beat Street Breakdown</a>. His <a href="https://genius.com/Grandmaster-melle-mel-and-the-furious-five-beat-street-breakdown-lyrics">lyrics</a> reflected his exchange with the civil rights legend: </p>
<p><em>Peoples in terror, the leaders made a error
And now they can’t even look in the mirror
Cause we gotta suffer while things get rougher
And that’s the reason why we got to get tougher</em></p>
<p>Belafonte intensified his backing of hip-hop in later years, whether it was encouraging <a href="https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/harry-belafonte-giant-of-the-arts-and-the-struggle-for-justice-and-democracy/">Fidel Castro to carve out support for Cuban rappers in the 1990s</a>, or through various hip-hop summits that he hosted in an effort to prod and push hip-hop’s <a href="https://www.okayplayer.com/culture/jay-z-harry-belafonte-feud-trayvon-martin.html">most prominent entertainers to be more outspoken</a> on issues related to social justice.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525302/original/file-20230510-15-uz87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525302/original/file-20230510-15-uz87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525302/original/file-20230510-15-uz87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525302/original/file-20230510-15-uz87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525302/original/file-20230510-15-uz87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525302/original/file-20230510-15-uz87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525302/original/file-20230510-15-uz87gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harry Belafonte with 9th Wonder at one of Belafonte’s hip hop-summits in June 2013.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mentored young activists</h2>
<p>In his twilight years, Belafonte continued to mentor youth activists. In the aftermath of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/07/31/631897758/a-look-back-at-trayvon-martins-death-and-the-movement-it-inspired">Trayvon Martin’s</a> killing in 2013, Belafonte visited Tallahassee, Florida, to support the work of the <a href="https://www.wuft.org/news/2013/10/15/who-are-the-dream-defenders/">Dream Defenders</a>, an organization founded by former students from Florida A&M University to, among other things, draw attention to the injustice of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/18/stand-your-ground-laws-us-deaths-racist-violence">Stand Your Ground </a> law that was used to justify Martin’s fatal shooting.</p>
<p>Standing with the students in solidarity, Belafonte <a href="https://www.cityandstatefl.com/first-read/2023/04/remembering-harry-belafontes-visit-dream-defenders-florida-capitol/385633/">told them</a>: "I’m here because I am a part of your history. You called, and I’m here to tell you that those of us who have been in this struggle for over a century are happy to be part of this moment.”</p>
<h2>Embraced Black Lives Matter</h2>
<p>Belafonte’s tireless devotion to human rights perfectly dovetailed into support for the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0016241/">Black Lives Matter movement</a> in the 2010s, as he continued to argue for disruption of political systems that upheld state-sanctioned violence.</p>
<p>Belafonte’s defiance and support for the movement was unwavering. “Radical thought at its best is supposed to make people feel uncomfortable,” Belafonte <a href="https://crosscut.com/2015/10/harry-belafonte-on-black-leadership-and-activism-and-the-importance-of-making-people-uncomfortable">declared in 2015</a>. “We talk about the uprisings in communities like in St. Louis and Baltimore, and it is what protests are supposed to do.”</p>
<p>From the 1960s until Belafonte’s passing, young people across several generations sought him out for wisdom and guidance. His enduring commitment to youth and idealism always made him easy to find.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jelani M. Favors does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Harry Belafonte spent much of his life supporting youth-led movements that fought against racial injustice. A historian explains how.Jelani M. Favors, Professor of History, North Carolina A&T State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1992512023-03-21T12:42:41Z2023-03-21T12:42:41ZPoisons are a potent tool for murder in fiction – a toxicologist explains how some dangerous chemicals kill<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515276/original/file-20230314-2595-90gnm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Poisons are often not so clearly labeled.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/poison-bottle-with-a-skull-royalty-free-image/1319519485">Josefe Photography/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People have used poisons <a href="https://accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2462&sectionid=194918294">throughout history</a> for a variety of purposes: to hunt animals for food, to <a href="https://theconversation.com/poison-or-cure-traditional-chinese-medicine-shows-that-context-can-make-all-the-difference-163337">treat diseases</a> and to achieve nefarious ends like murder and assassination.</p>
<p>But what is a poison? Do all poisons act in the same way? Does the amount of the poison matter in terms of its toxicity?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.engr.colostate.edu/cbe/people/brad-reisfeld/">I am a toxicologist</a> who studies how chemicals affect human health, particularly when they cause harmful effects. As a fan of mystery and detective stories, which often feature the use of poisons, I’ve noticed a few poisons that turn up repeatedly in books, television and movies. How they really work is as fascinating as how they’re deployed toward evil ends in fiction.</p>
<h2>What is a poison?</h2>
<p>The 16th-century <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27214290/">physician–alchemist Paracelsus</a>, considered to be the father of toxicology, once wrote: “What is there that is not poison? All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison.” By this adage, any substance can be a poison with the appropriate amount.</p>
<p>Many people intentionally expose themselves to chemicals like ethanol through alcoholic beverages, nicotine through tobacco products and botulinum toxin through botox treatments at relatively low doses and suffer minimal adverse effects. However, at <a href="https://accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2462&sectionid=194918464">sufficiently high doses</a>, these chemicals can be lethal. The body’s response often depends on how the chemical interacts with receptors within or on the surface of cells, or how it binds to enzymes used for biological processes. Frequently, higher concentrations of the substance <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2013.04.007">lead to stronger responses</a>.</p>
<p>Despite Paracelsus’ dictum, in popular culture the term “poison” is often reserved for chemical compounds that are not normally encountered in daily life and can lead to detrimental health effects even in relatively small amounts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Person dispensing white pills from a bottle into hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515278/original/file-20230314-3245-vk99ad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At a high enough dose, any chemical could be poisonous.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-man-spilling-multiple-pills-in-his-hand-royalty-free-image/1432823897">Malorny/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Poisons in books, TV and film</h2>
<p>Novel writers and television and movie screenwriters have exploited numerous poisons in their works, including those that are chemical elements, such as <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090422045609/http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/450-from-paddington/">arsenic</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7737528/">polonium</a>, and those derived from animals, such as <a href="https://www.mrsherlockholmes.com/adventures/the-speckled-band/">snake venom</a> and <a href="https://columbophile.com/2019/11/24/episode-review-columbo-murder-under-glass/">blowfish poison</a>. Many poisons derived from plants have also been used for villainous purposes in fiction.</p>
<p>In the AMC TV series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/">Breaking Bad</a>,” high school chemistry teacher Walter White uses a compound called ricin to murder the business executive Lydia Rodarte-Quayle. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441948/">Ricin is a very potent poison</a> derived from the castor bean <em>Ricinus communis</em> and can be especially lethal if inhaled. Once this compound gets inside a cell, it <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20051181">damages a structure called a ribosome</a> that’s responsible for synthesizing proteins essential to the cell’s function. Ingesting ricin could result in intestinal bleeding, organ damage and death.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Q2Iqg2SCig?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">It wasn’t Stevia that Lydia sweetened her tea with in ‘Breaking Bad’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sometimes, particular organs are much more susceptible to the effects of a poison. Physicians use <a href="https://cen.acs.org/articles/83/i25/Digoxin.html">digitalis medicines like digoxin</a>, which are derived from members of the foxglove family of plants, to treat congestive heart failure and heart rhythm problems. When administered in sufficiently high doses, however, they can lead to heart failure and death. By interfering with a protein in heart cells called the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6328127/">sodium-potassium pump</a>, they can decrease the rate of electrical impulses in the heart and increase the strength of its contractions. This can result in a dangerous type of irregular heartbeat called ventricular fibrillation and lead to death.</p>
<p>The villain of the James Bond film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381061/">Casino Royale</a>,” Le Chiffre, has his girlfriend attempt to kill Bond by poisoning his martini with digitalis. At high doses, digitalis drugs can alter the activity of the autonomic nervous system, which controls unconscious bodily functions like heart pumping. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Poison is one way to win a poker game.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>TV characters are not immune to the dangers of poisonous mushrooms. One particularly potent fungus, <em>Amanita verna</em>, is known as the “destroying angel.” In the ITV TV series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118401/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Midsomer Murders</a>,” puppet show owner and presumed upstanding citizen Evelyn Pope uses this mushroom to fatally poison chef Tristan Goodfellow as part of her murder spree of the inheritors of an estate. This mushroom contains <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wem.2017.10.002">various chemicals called amatoxins</a> that are thought to inhibit the activity of a specific enzyme critical for the production of <a href="https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/messenger-rna">messenger RNA</a>, or mRNA, a molecule essential to protein synthesis in cells. Because ingested amatoxins mainly target the liver, these poisons can severely disrupt the <a href="https://theconversation.com/helping-the-liver-regenerate-itself-could-give-patients-with-end-stage-liver-disease-a-treatment-option-besides-waiting-for-a-transplant-191826">liver’s ability to repair itself</a>, leading to loss of function that will prove fatal without liver transplantation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_0g3mw6XkRg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">They don’t call it the “destroying angel” for nothing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another highly popular poison in detective and mystery stories is <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/strychnine/basics/facts.asp">strychnine</a>. In the Agatha Christie story “<a href="https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-mysterious-affair-at-styles">The Mysterious Affair at Styles</a>,” Alfred Inglethorp and his lover Evelyn Howard use this poison to kill Inglethorp’s wife and wealthy country manor owner, Emily Inglethorp.</p>
<p>Strychnine, which comes from seeds of the <em>Strychnos nux-vomica</em> tree, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/d1np00079a">affects the nervous system</a> by blocking a neurotransmitter called glycine in the spinal cord and brainstem. Normally, glycine slows down the activity of neurons and prevents muscle contractions. By blocking glycine, strychnine ingestion can result in excessive activation of neurons and muscles, leading to a series of full-body muscle spasms that can become so intense that they cause respiratory arrest and death.</p>
<p>Many more poisons exist in nature than described here. Aside from potentially enhancing the enjoyment of detective and mystery stories, understanding the mechanisms of how these poisons work can provide an added appreciation for the complexity of the effects foreign chemicals have on the human body.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brad Reisfeld does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From ‘Breaking Bad’ to James Bond, certain chemicals are popular options for characters looking to achieve nefarious ends.Brad Reisfeld, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2001452023-03-20T17:26:21Z2023-03-20T17:26:21ZInteractive cinema: how films could alter plotlines in real time by responding to viewers’ emotions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514508/original/file-20230309-24-nzv160.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C144%2C5969%2C3760&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A sentinel droid features in the film Before We Disappear.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AlbinoMosquito Productions Ltd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most films offer exactly the same viewing experience. You sit down, the film starts, the plot unfolds and you follow what’s happening on screen until the story concludes. It’s a linear experience. My new film, <a href="http://www.albinomosquito.com/before-we-disappear/">Before We Disappear</a> – about a pair of climate activists who seek revenge on corporate perpetrators of global warming – seeks to alter that viewing experience.</p>
<p>What makes my film different is that it adapts the story to fit the viewer’s emotional response. Through the use of a computer camera and software, the film effectively watches the audience as they view footage of climate disasters. Viewers are implicitly asked to choose a side. </p>
<p>I chose to use this technology to make a film about the climate crisis to get people to really think about what they are willing to sacrifice for a survivable future. </p>
<p>Storytelling has always been interactive: traditional oral storytellers would interact and respond to their listeners. For almost a century, film directors have been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_cinema">experimenting with interactivity</a> – the past decade has seen an explosion of interactive content.</p>
<p>Streaming services give viewers the opportunity to choose their own adventure. However, letting the viewer control the action has long posed a challenge: it’s at odds with narrative immersion, where the viewer is drawn into the world created by the story.</p>
<p>One of the most prominent recent experiments in interactive film, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror:_Bandersnatch">Netflix’s Bandersnatch</a>, clearly illustrates this. Here the action stops to ask the user what to do next – breaking the flow of the story and actively involving the viewer. Solving this issue of breaking the immersive experience remains a key question for artists exploring interactive film.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Still from Before We Disappear" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514458/original/file-20230309-1353-ri9b9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C3409%2C1426&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514458/original/file-20230309-1353-ri9b9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514458/original/file-20230309-1353-ri9b9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514458/original/file-20230309-1353-ri9b9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514458/original/file-20230309-1353-ri9b9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514458/original/file-20230309-1353-ri9b9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514458/original/file-20230309-1353-ri9b9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before We Disappear uses emotional cues from the viewer to edit the film in real time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AlbinoMosquito Productions Ltd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The films I create and direct take a different route, leveraging non-conscious control to influence a film as the audience watches. My previous <a href="http://braincontrolledmovie.co.uk/">brain-controlled</a> films, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7853742/">The Moment (2018)</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8072006/">The Disadvantages of Time Travel (2014)</a>, used brain computer interfaces (BCIs). These systems use computers to <a href="https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/980302/scanners-exploring-the-control-of-adaptive-films-using-brain-computer-interaction">analyse electrical signals from the brain</a>, allowing people to effectively control a device with their minds.</p>
<p>Using this data from the brain, audiences <a href="https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/index.php/output/1468705/from-directors-cut-to-users-cut-to-watch-a-brain-controlled-film-is-to-edit-it">create a non-conscious edit</a> of the film in real time – reinforcing the films’ respective stories of science-fiction dystopia and a wandering, daydreaming mind. </p>
<p>However, the BCI interface requires specialised equipment. For Before We Disappear, I wanted to use a technology more readily available to audiences, that could allow films to be shared over the internet.</p>
<h2>Controlling the narrative</h2>
<p>Before We Disappear uses an ordinary computer camera to read emotional cues and instruct the real-time edit of the film. To make this work, we needed a good understanding of how people react to films. </p>
<p>We ran several <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290607.3312814">studies</a> <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290605.3300378">exploring the emotions</a> filmmakers intend to evoke and how viewers visually present emotion when watching. By using computer vision and machine learning techniques from our partner <a href="https://www.blueskeye.com/">BlueSkeye AI</a>, we analysed viewers’ facial emotions and reactions to film clips and developed several algorithms to leverage that data to control a narrative.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Behind the scenes of filming Before We Disappear" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514714/original/file-20230310-16-8iwpo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514714/original/file-20230310-16-8iwpo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514714/original/file-20230310-16-8iwpo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514714/original/file-20230310-16-8iwpo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514714/original/file-20230310-16-8iwpo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514714/original/file-20230310-16-8iwpo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514714/original/file-20230310-16-8iwpo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Behind the scenes of filming Before We Disappear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AlbinoMosquito Productions Ltd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While we observed that audiences tend not to extensively emote when watching a film, BlueSkeye’s face and emotion analysis tools are sensitive enough to pick up enough small variations and emotional cues to adapt the film to viewer reactions. </p>
<p>The analysis software measures facial muscle movement along with the strength of emotional arousal – essentially how emotional a viewer feels in a particular moment. The software also evaluates the positivity or negativity of the emotion – something we call “<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00261/full">valence</a>”. </p>
<p>We are experimenting with various algorithms where this arousal and valence data contributes to real-time edit decisions, which causes the story to reconfigure itself. The first scene acts as a baseline, which the next scene is measured against. Depending on the response, the narrative will become one of around 500 possible edits. In Before We Disappear, I use a non-linear narrative which offers the audience different endings and emotional journeys. </p>
<h2>Emotional journey</h2>
<p>I see interactive technology as a way of expanding the filmmaker’s toolkit, to further tell a story and allow the film to adapt to an individual viewer, challenging and distributing the power of the director. </p>
<p>However, emotional responses could be misused or have unforeseen consequences. It is not hard to imagine an online system showing only content eliciting positive emotions from the user. This could be used to create an echo chamber – where people only see content that matches the preferences they already have. </p>
<p>Or it could be used for propaganda. We saw in the Cambridge Analytica scandal how <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal">large amounts of personal information</a> were collected from Facebook and used for political advertising. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514727/original/file-20230310-22-fdoxib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514727/original/file-20230310-22-fdoxib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514727/original/file-20230310-22-fdoxib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514727/original/file-20230310-22-fdoxib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514727/original/file-20230310-22-fdoxib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514727/original/file-20230310-22-fdoxib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514727/original/file-20230310-22-fdoxib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new film explores solutions to the climate crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AlbinoMosquito Productions Ltd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348325526_Brain-controlled_cinematic_interactions">research</a> aims to generate conversation about how users’ emotion data can be used responsibly with informed consent, while allowing users to control their own personal information. In our system, the data is analysed on the users’ device, rather than, say, the cloud.</p>
<h2>Big business, big responsibility</h2>
<p>Non-conscious interaction is big business. Platforms such as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/algorithms-take-over-youtube-s-recommendations-highlight-human-problem-n867596">TikTok</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/algorithms-take-over-youtube-s-recommendations-highlight-human-problem-n867596">YouTube</a> use analysis of users’ past interactions on the platforms to influence the new content they see there. Users are not always aware of what personal information is being created or stored, nor can they influence what algorithms will present to them next. </p>
<p>It’s important to create a system where audiences’ data is not stored. Video of the viewer or facial expression data should not be uploaded or analysed anywhere but on the player device. We plan to release the film as an interactive app, incorporating an awareness of potential abuse of the user’s data, and safeguarding any personal data on the device used to watch it.</p>
<p>Adaptive films offer an alternative to traditional “choose-your-own-adventure” storytelling. When the story can change based on the audiences’ unconscious responses rather than intentional interaction, their focus can be kept in the story.</p>
<p>This means they can enjoy a more personalised experience of the film. Turns out the old traditions of storytelling may still have much to teach us in the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Ramchurn is a director of AlbinoMosquito Productions Ltd, and also receives funding from the Arts Council England and EPSRC. </span></em></p>A new film changes its story based on the emotions expressed by the viewer.Richard Ramchurn, Assistant researcher, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1942932022-11-16T16:30:41Z2022-11-16T16:30:41ZHow the Wagatha Christie play is changing the narrative of British ‘documentary theatre’<p>In May 2022, a two-week libel trial at the high court in London dominated the front pages of the UK’s tabloid press. The case represented the culmination in a long-running saga that had held the public imagination for three years: the Wagatha Christie affair.</p>
<p>Colleen Rooney, whose husband Wayne Rooney is England’s leading goalscorer, was suing Rebekah Vardy, the wife of another prominent England footballer. Vardy sued Rooney for libel in 2020 after Rooney accused Vardy of leaking personal stories from her private Instagram account to The Sun newspaper. Rooney’s accusation had been <a href="https://twitter.com/ColeenRoo/status/1181864136155828224">made on Twitter</a> in 2019 following the sting operation she conducted to catch Vardy in the act, earning her the title “Wagatha Christie”.</p>
<p>As you’d expect, breathless newspaper accounts of proceedings were accompanied by a whirlwind of public speculation on social media. Now, a theatre dramatisation of the case, <a href="https://wagathaplay.com/">Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial</a>, is attracting sell out audiences to London’s West End.</p>
<p>The Agatha Christie connection doesn’t end there, however. Online punsters have already branded the affair <a href="https://twitter.com/suladoyle/status/1524371346158985217">“The Scousetrap”</a>, a portmanteau of Rooney’s Liverpool roots and Christie’s The Mousetrap. The producer of the Wagatha play, Eleanor Lloyd, was also behind the revival of Christie’s <a href="https://witnesscountyhall.com/">Witness for the Prosecution</a>, which has been running at London’s County Hall since 2017.</p>
<p>While both plays thrive on the appeal of the courtroom drama, Wagatha is composed entirely from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/apply-transcript-court-tribunal-hearing">real court transcripts</a>. This positions the play within a long tradition of British verbatim theatre. Verbatim plays, also known as “documentary theatre”, elevate fact-based storytelling by dramatising real spoken word and personal testimony. However, there is something crucially different about this verbatim play to those that came before it. </p>
<h2>Spoken truths</h2>
<p>Some verbatim practitioners incorporate not only what participants say, but exactly how they say it. </p>
<p>Leading playwright Alecky Blythe’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/aug/13/london-road-review">work</a>, features actors deliberately recreating the hesitation, tone and inconsistencies of interview participants, while delivering the content of their speech. Other writers incorporate verbatim material into their plays but combine this with sections of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/apr/17/david-hare-theatre-fact-fiction">imagined dialogue</a>, blurring the line between fact and fiction. </p>
<p>Despite these shades of verbatim theatre, practitioners and theorists agree that it pursues an aim that is more than artistic. Specifically, it offers an <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/why-verbatim-theatre-gives-a-voice-to-the-voiceless-a3847026.html">objective authenticity and truth recovery</a> that fictional plays cannot reach.</p>
<p>It is unsurprising then, that some of the UK’s most groundbreaking verbatim productions similarly use court transcripts. <a href="https://kilntheatre.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiAvK2bBhB8EiwAZUbP1FGBn-ZuDuZveNBV9bURW2VE45jLmbhHU-jK5LHwMFcAmJ3cEIEPXxoCnVEQAvD_BwE">The Kiln Theatre</a> (previously known as Tricycle theatre) in north London made headlines with its productions in the 1990s and 2000s. For instance, its production <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/17/race.world">The Colour of Justice (1999)</a> was dubbed “is the most vital piece of theatre on the London stage” at the time. Based on transcripts from the six-month inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, it sought to confront institutionalised racism. Another production, <a href="https://variety.com/2005/legit/reviews/bloody-sunday-scenes-from-the-saville-inquiry-1200521748/">Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry (2005)</a> examined the deaths of 13 unarmed civilians in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1972. Both plays queried the notion of justice and the authenticity of the official record.</p>
<p>By contrast, in foregrounding a story of celebrity culture and social media obsession, Wagatha Christie dramatises the Vardy v Rooney trial as an end in itself. The drama is all there: larger-than-life characters, contradictory witness statements and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rebekah-vardy-coleen-rooney-libel-phone-sea-b2010371.html">“lost” evidence</a>. Wide-scale privacy and libel issues are not there. As such, the trial’s July 2022 <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Vardy-v-Rooney-Trial-Judgment.pdf">outcome</a> – that Rooney’s claims were “substantially true” – barely matters.</p>
<h2>That’s entertainment</h2>
<p>For the play’s writer, Liv Hennessy, it’s all about escapism and commercial appetite. Referring to the trial as a national “watercooler moment”, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dmkz">Hennessy believes that Wagatha will attract first-time theatregoers</a>, which could aid theatre’s <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/stage-fright-has-british-theatre-still-not-recovered-covid/">post-pandemic recovery</a>.</p>
<p>This queries the aim of verbatim theatre as a form of exploration of social and a means by which to shed a light on underrepresented voices and tragedies. </p>
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<p>Recent productions have focused on the <a href="https://www.dictatingtotheestate.com/">Grenfell Tower disaster</a>, the <a href="https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/our-generation">challenges facing Generation Z</a> and <a href="https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/jews-in-their-own-words/">antisemitism</a>. For all their lofty ideals, verbatim plays regularly struggle with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39JSv-n_W5U">ethics</a> of adapting real speech. Interviewees may take issue with the way in which they are represented or have concerns that their identity will be exposed. Adapting inquiry transcripts incurs a responsibility to the families of those involved which may not always be discharged. </p>
<p>While Wagatha marks a submission to <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/against-guilty-pleasures-adorno-on-the-crimes-of-pop-culture">mass culture</a>, it does so by recognising that theatre is ultimately about entertainment. This is wholly different from the moral quandary that tends to accompany watching verbatim theatre. Audiences may worry that by watching injustice, they become complicit in it. Or that “enjoying” a harrowing verbatim play leads to the commodification of trauma. They won’t experience this when watching Wagatha. </p>
<p>The “Wagatha Christie” play may therefore alter the definition of verbatim theatre. Given clear audience demand – the show sold out within minutes of ticket release and <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/wagatha-christie-west-end-play-coleen-rooney-rebekah-vardy-six-dates-b1034003.html">six more dates have been added</a> – there may come a point where celebrity-led stories happily coexist alongside the underrepresented voices synonymous with the form. Hennessy clearly hopes that Wagatha will be a sort of gateway production inspiring a love of theatre that crosses genre, form and subject. For verbatim practitioners, it reinforces that aims aside, to get audiences in, little should get in the way of a <a href="https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/a-good-night-out">good night out</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah-Jane Coyle receives funding from the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership, administered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). </span></em></p>Verbatim theatre has traditionally tackled social issues but Wagatha Christie is bucking this trend and offering audiences some light entertainment.Sarah-Jane Coyle, PhD Researcher, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1920532022-10-25T12:29:40Z2022-10-25T12:29:40ZThe creepy clown emerged from the crass and bawdy circuses of the 19th century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491176/original/file-20221023-56557-sw642f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=327%2C635%2C6299%2C4947&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Clowns in American circuses were once considered a form of adult entertainment.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/evil-clown-royalty-free-image/471874489?phrase=circus clown vintage&adppopup=true">ArtMarie/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The scary clown has become a horror staple. </p>
<p>Featuring Art the Clown as the main villain, Damien Leone’s film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10403420/">Terrifier 2</a>” is so gruesome that there are reports of viewers <a href="https://ew.com/movies/terrifier-2-fainting-vomiting-art-the-clown/">vomiting and passing out</a> in the theater. And every Halloween, you’ll see vicious clowns <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L4-qRaLilY">stalking haunted house attractions</a> or trick-or-treaters dressed as <a href="https://www.partycity.com/group-costumes-pennywise">Pennywise</a>, the evil clown from Stephen King’s “It.”</p>
<p>It can be hard to imagine a time when clowns were regularly invited to children’s birthday parties and hospital wards – not to terrorize, but to delight and entertain. For much of the 20th century, this was the <a href="https://festival.si.edu/blog/american-clowns-performance-history-and-cliche">standard role of the clown</a>. </p>
<p>However, clowns have always had a dark side. Before the 20th century, clowns in American circuses were largely considered a form of adult entertainment. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://womenalsoknowhistory.com/individual-scholar-page/?pdb=2865">my own research</a> on the history of the 19th-century circus, I spend a lot of time in archives where I regularly come across vintage photos of clowns. </p>
<p>Now, I don’t consider myself afraid of clowns. In fact, I always try to remind folks that today’s clowns are <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw3g3b/everything-you-learn-in-clown-college">serious artists with an enormous amount of training</a> in their craft. But even I have to admit that the clowns I come across from old circuses give me the heebie-jeebies.</p>
<h2>Drunken, lewd clowns in drag</h2>
<p>For most of the 19th century, circuses were relatively small, one-ring events where audiences could hear performers speak. </p>
<p>These shows were <a href="https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/septemberoctober/statement/the-circus-you-never-knew">rowdy affairs</a> in which audiences felt free to yell, boo and hiss at performers. Typically, clowns would engage in banter with the stoic ringmaster, who was often the target for the clowns’ pranks. Borrowing comedic traditions from the <a href="https://library.brown.edu/cds/sheetmusic/afam/minstrelsy.html">blackface minstrel show</a>, circus clowns used puns, non sequiturs and exaggerated burlesque humor. </p>
<p>One very popular clown act, which <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm">Mark Twain depicted</a> in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” involved a performer disguised as a drunken circus patron who shocked the audience by entering the ring and clumsily attempting to ride one of the show’s horses before dramatically revealing himself to be part of the show. Famous 19th-century clown Dan Rice was <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/famous-american-clown-was-probably-model-uncle-sam-180961852/">known for including local gossip and political commentary</a> in his performances and impersonating prominent figures in each town he visited.</p>
<p>The jokes they told were often misogynistic and full of sexual double-entendres, which wasn’t a problem because circus audiences at this time were mostly adult and male. Back then, circuses were a <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807853993/the-circus-age/">stigmatized form of entertainment</a> in the U.S., considered disreputable for their association with gambling, grift, scantily clad female performers, profanity and alcohol. Church leaders regularly warned their congregations not to attend the circus. Some states even had <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3787111">laws banning circuses altogether</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A circus poster featuring clowns engaged in various hijinks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491177/original/file-20221023-26-w39tra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Clowns in the 19th century were often sinister, vulgar characters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/ppmsca/55100/55150v.jpg">Library of Congress</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Clowns played a part in the circus’ seedy reputation. </p>
<p>Showman <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820344379/the-big-tent/">P.T. Barnum noted</a> that part of the appeal of the circuses “consisted of the clown’s vulgar jests, emphasized with still more vulgar and suggestive gestures.” Clowns also subverted gender norms, with many appearing in drag, often exaggerating the female figure with cartoonishly big fake breasts.</p>
<p>In the early 19th century, some circuses also featured a separate tent that contained a “cooch show.” Male patrons were invited, for a fee, to watch women dance and strip. </p>
<p>Circus historian <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807853993/the-circus-age/">Janet Davis notes</a> that some of these performances included clowns in drag “playing gender-bending pranks on dumbfounded men who expected to see nude women.” In a shocking revelation, Davis also notes that at some cooch show performances, gay clowns had sexual encounters with male audience members “during and after anonymously crowded scenes.”</p>
<p>These clowns, suffice it to say, weren’t for kids.</p>
<h2>Clowns clean up their act</h2>
<p>It wasn’t really until the 1880s and 1890s, when entertainment impresarios like <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-selected-letters-of-p-t-barnum/9780231054126">Barnum made efforts to “clean up”</a> the circus to draw in a larger audience, that clowns truly became associated with children.</p>
<p>After circuses started traveling by railroad, they could carry more equipment, allowing them to expand from one ring to three. Audiences could no longer hear performers, so the clown became a pantomime comedian, eliminating any potentially vulgar or suggestive language. </p>
<p>Circus owners, aiming to make as much money as possible, tried to court a broader audience, including women and children. That necessitated the removal of any scandalous acts and strict monitoring of their employees’ behavior.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Circus advertisement featuring drawings of clowns and animals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491175/original/file-20221023-19-skgs8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At the directive of P.T. Barnum, clowns became palatable to families with young kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/poster-advertising-p-t-barnums-circus-greatest-show-on-news-photo/517292546?phrase=circus%20clown&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The shows with the most staying power, like Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth, were <a href="https://shop.wisconsinhistory.org/ringlingville-usa-paperback-edition">known as “Sunday school” shows</a>, free of any objectionable content. They successfully portrayed themselves as the purveyors of good, clean fun.</p>
<p>Clowns played a role in this transformation. With now-silent acts focused on physical comedy, their performances were easy for children to understand. Clowns remained tricksters, but their slapstick comedy was seen as all in good fun.</p>
<p>This had a lasting effect. Clowns entertained families at the circus, and, as entertainment moved to film and television, child-friendly clowns followed there too. Clowns became staples of children’s entertainment in the 20th century. A popular television program featuring <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254011/">Bozo the Clown</a> ran for 40 years, from 1960 to 2001. Beginning in the 1980s, clowns became <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(06)69919-4/fulltext">regular visitors to children’s hospitals</a> to cheer up young patients. And companies <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ronald-mcdonald-facts-2014-3">like McDonald’s</a> used clowns as mascots to make their brands appealing to children. </p>
<p>But in the 21st century, there’s been a sharp turnaround. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7189401.stm">A 2008 study</a> concluded that “clowns are universally disliked” by children today. Some point to clown-turned-serial killer <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment-and-culture/2021/3/19/22338876/john-wayne-gacy-serial-killer-house-chicago-evidence-art-paintings-devil-disguise-peacock">John Wayne Gacy</a> as the turning point, while others may blame Stephen King’s “It” for yoking clowns to horror.</p>
<p>Upon examining the history of the American circus, it almost seems as if the period in the 20th century when clowns were beloved by children deviated from the norm. Today’s scary clowns are not a divergence from tradition, but a return to it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeline Steiner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today’s creepy clowns are not a divergence from tradition, but a return to it.Madeline Steiner, Postdoctoral Fellow of History, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1840722022-06-02T14:16:18Z2022-06-02T14:16:18ZBlood Sisters: why the mini-series on Netflix sets a new pace for Nollywood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466626/original/file-20220601-49081-f973gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new thriller Blood Sisters puts women at the centre.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo courtesy Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527476412443089">Nollywood</a> – the Nigerian movie industry – was described as a small screen cinema involving amateurs who produced low budget trashy videos with predictable storylines. </p>
<p>But in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2020.1849971">intervening decade</a> it’s been transformed into a multi-million dollar industry with rising international interest.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/6982/1/IGWE%2C%20Izinne%20-%20PhD%20Thesis.pdf">my PhD</a> I interrogated this transformation as a gentrification of the industry due to the apparent displacement of popular viewers who previously formed its audience base.</p>
<p>The growth of Nollywood is phenomenal considering its being largely unsupported by the government and grown by private investors. The industry has become a showcase for resilience, tenacity and creative prowess. An example of how, despite limited resources, Nigerians have successfully exported aspects of Africa’s cultural history and heritage to the world. </p>
<p>Across Africa, Nigerian entertainment, especially music and film, enjoys a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230305854_8?noAccess=true">constantly rising</a> patronage. Nollywood is undoubtedly the <a href="https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/may-2013/nigeria%E2%80%99s-film-industry-potential-gold-mine">most popular</a> film industry on the continent. And, with the availability of subscription video on demand platforms, Nollywood films are reaching subscribers across the world. </p>
<p>So a Nollywood venture like the new Netflix original four-part mini-series <a href="https://www.news24.com/channel/tv/news/netflixs-first-ever-nigerian-original-series-blood-sisters-has-everyone-talking-20220511">Blood Sisters</a> is able to conquer global markets, and deserves to.</p>
<p>In my view, Blood Sisters, sets a new pace for the industry. Its plot line is untypical of popular Nollywood in a number of ways. Firstly, it chooses thrill and suspense over comical romance. Secondly, it pursues a new and growing representation for friendship between women.</p>
<p>And lastly, Blood Sisters comments on the struggle against gender and intimate partner violence in a unique way. Cases of deaths due to domestic violence are <a href="https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/domestic-violence-why-nigeria-is-experiencing-an-upsurge/">surging</a> in Nigeria. The mini-series contributes to conversations around changing the narrative. </p>
<h2>Stereotypes under the microscope</h2>
<p>Blood Sisters follows the lives of two best friends. Despite differences in ethnicity and culture, Kemi Sanya and Sarah Duru, build a friendship which becomes bound by the murder of Kola Ademola, Sarah’s fiancé. </p>
<p>The plot eschews a number of stereotypes. These include the evil girlfriend, misguided career woman, bickering and unforgiving trophy wives and pampered daughters versus overworked house girls. Instead, it promotes the supportive girlfriend and women of strong willpower. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=639&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466622/original/file-20220601-49336-nctl6a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Promotional image courtesy Netflix</span></span>
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<p>Blood Sisters suggests that when women support each other incredible things happen. This echoes a model found in literary works such as <a href="https://whatkeptmeup.com/movies/movie-review-ije-the-journey/">Chineze Anyaele’s Ije</a>, <a href="https://www.netflix.com/ng/title/81342973">Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys</a>, Bunmi Ajakaiye’s The Smart Money Woman and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2215077/">Biyi Bandele’s Half of a Yellow Sun</a>, among others. </p>
<p>The story of a missing abusive fiancé, cherished son, brother and friend with dark secret desires, opens up conversations around mental health and wellness as well as gender issues in Nigeria. </p>
<p>Blood Sisters x-rays the anguish and frustration created by gender preferences and inequality. Male children continue to enjoy preference over the girl-child and the psychological harm this inflicts on them is mirrored in the characters of Femi and Timileyin Ademola. Despite their personal struggles and effort to live up to expectation, Kola overshadows them. </p>
<p>Some stereotypes, however, persist. While Uduak Ademola’s attitude towards her daughter is untypical, we see a very stereotypical portrayal of motherhood in Uchenna Duru and of course the Igbo tribe in Mr Ifeanyi Duru. </p>
<p>Representation of the Nigerian police is equally stereotypical, although the dismissed Inspector Joe offered a ray of hope in the force.</p>
<h2>Success story</h2>
<p>Blood Sisters is an excellent first season which leaves audiences asking for more. It has been well received and <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/05/netflixs-blood-sisters-becomes-top-10-rated-in-over-30-countries/">widely acclaimed</a>. </p>
<p>Typical of <a href="https://ebonylifestudios.com/">EbonyLife Studio production</a>, it is extravagant in many respects. This includes the cast and crew ensemble, costumes, cinematography and overall technical elements. </p>
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<p>The mini-series features some of Nollywood’s finest actors. Like many other contemporary Nollywood films, Blood Sisters typifies how much filmmakers and film making in Nigeria have improved since becoming very popular in 1992. This is particularly true in terms of technical elements of film making. </p>
<p>There is yet much to do. But the coming of subscription video on demand platforms serves as a necessary and timely challenge to the industry. Beyond supporting diversity and boosting creativity, it connects filmmakers as well as audiences, bringing Africa to the world, one film at a time. </p>
<p>This new opportunity is leading to a rejuvenation of experimentation with “unconventional” genres. Examples include time-travel adventures like Akay Mason and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15149712/">Abosi Ogba’s Day of Destiny</a>, and culturally sensitive and controversial subjects, like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13149312/">Robert Peters’ Voiceless</a>. </p>
<p>Blood Sisters is also unique for being an intense and creatively unified story despite being co-created by two different directors – <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4161077/">Biyi Bandele</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5763427/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">Kenneth Gyang</a>. Experimental film making is a familiar terrain for both. </p>
<p>Bandele, a poet, novelist, playwright and filmmaker, has often creatively explored themes of oppression, violence, and corruption. This includes his acclaimed high budget adaptation of novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. The story attempts to re-imagine the hushed chaos, pain, suffering and anguish of the Nigerian civil war. </p>
<p>Experimentation makes up a great deal Bandele’s way of capturing, expressing, commenting on, as well as documenting life experiences. He, like Gyang, has continuously created and depicted strong African women undeterred by life’s challenges. </p>
<p>Gyang’s creative abilities stand out in different ways. The award-winning director continues to use every film project to challenge his creative capacity and maximise film for entertainment and education. In Blood Sisters he continues to display extraordinary skills inspired by great filmmakers. </p>
<p>Indeed for Nollywood – films, filmmakers and film making – the beautiful ones are not yet born.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ezinne Ezepue has received funding from British Council’s Chevening scholarship Tertiary Education Trust Fund for academic staff at Nigerian universities and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation postdoctoral research fund for early career researchers.
</span></em></p>Blood Sisters is untypical of Nollywood’s normal fair in a number of ways. It chooses thrill over romance and challenges taboos.Ezinne Ezepue, Lecturer, University of NigeriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1810202022-04-28T19:10:26Z2022-04-28T19:10:26ZSelling voyeurism: How companies create value from the taboo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458021/original/file-20220413-24-ffc2bx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5841%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A growing number of businesses across a wide range of industries are successfully selling voyeurism to their audiences. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/selling-voyeurism--how-companies-create-value-from-the-taboo" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>What do reality television, slum tourism, erotic webcam and mixed-martial arts have in common? They all rely on voyeurism to entertain their audiences. Voyeurism provides a glimpse into the private life of another person to give audiences a revealing and entertaining experience. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/">mixed martial arts</a> (MMA), for example, it provides a close-up look at the violence of a no-holds-barred fight. On reality television shows, like <a href="https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/"><em>Survivor</em></a> and <a href="https://www.bigbrothercanada.ca/"><em>Big Brother</em></a>, voyeurism creates the excitement, thrills and shock that entertainment-hungry consumers crave.</p>
<p>In most societies, voyeurism is taboo. Yet a growing number of businesses across a wide range of industries are successfully selling voyeurism to a growing audience. </p>
<p>As management researchers, we study the intersection of organizations and society. In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0210">recently published research</a>, we explain how businesses use two key dimensions — authenticity and transgression — to create a commercial opportunities from voyeurism. </p>
<h2>Authenticity and transgression</h2>
<p>Authenticity emerges from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1479758042000797015">seeing the “real life” of another person</a> and transgression appears from <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Voyeur_Nation.html?id=4MloAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">viewing something forbidden</a>. What differentiates erotic webcam from most pornography is the perception that the audience is getting a live and interactive glimpse into the private bedroom of the cam model. </p>
<p>Authenticity and transgression work together to generate entertaining experiences for the audience. In doing so, businesses that commodify authenticity develop devoted and returning customers. </p>
<p>Delivering value to customers based on something taboo is no easy task. The mixed emotions that draw us into the voyeuristic experience can easily overwhelm us — there is a very fine line between creating entertainment value and creating too many negative emotions (such as anxiety and guilt) that push customers away. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two blindfolded people kissing while cameras film them" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458028/original/file-20220413-16-g4rox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458028/original/file-20220413-16-g4rox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458028/original/file-20220413-16-g4rox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458028/original/file-20220413-16-g4rox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458028/original/file-20220413-16-g4rox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458028/original/file-20220413-16-g4rox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458028/original/file-20220413-16-g4rox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reality television shows, like E! Entertainment’s ‘Kiss Bang Love’ rely on the use of voyeurism to deliver entertainment value to audiences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Berenice Bautista)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It doesn’t take much to turn reality shows from a guilty pleasure to something that makes the audience feel too guilty to watch. In this way, the authenticity and transgression draw audiences in and create value, but can also push audiences away and destroy value. </p>
<p>For these businesses to be successful, they have to walk a fine line. How do they do it?</p>
<h2>Emotional optimization</h2>
<p>To successfully commercialize voyeurism, businesses engage in numerous tactics to turn down undesirable emotions, while retaining or turning up the desirable emotions for the customers. The ones that are successful know their audiences well and keep them coming back for more.</p>
<p>Businesses like MMA, reality television, slum tourism and erotic webcams use a variety of approaches to manage audiences’ emotional responses. Strategies, such as shielding audiences, de-personalizing performers and creating the impression that performers are willing participants, help balance customers’ mixed emotions.</p>
<p>For example, the use of cages in MMA — as opposed to less constraining barriers in boxing or the lack of barriers in traditional martial arts — prevents fear from overwhelming the audience. The cage acts like a protective barrier between the audience and the violence unfolding in front of them. But it also reinforces the idea that this is a no-holds-barred fight. In this way, the sense of violence and danger decreases, while desirable emotions, like excitement, are maintained.</p>
<p>However, there is no exact amount of authenticity and transgression that elicit desirable emotional responses from consumers. Because each audience member is different, the larger and more diverse an audience gets, the harder it is to find the sweet spot. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Behind a chain-link cage, an MMA fighter punches another in the stomach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458027/original/file-20220413-22-xkzgr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458027/original/file-20220413-22-xkzgr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458027/original/file-20220413-22-xkzgr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458027/original/file-20220413-22-xkzgr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458027/original/file-20220413-22-xkzgr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458027/original/file-20220413-22-xkzgr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458027/original/file-20220413-22-xkzgr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The use of cages in MMA prevents fear from overwhelming audience members by acting like a protective barrier between the audience and the violence unfolding in front of them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chase Stevens)</span></span>
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<p>When MMA was a “backstreet” activity, the smaller audience was more comfortable with higher levels of transgression and authenticity. But now, <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1614213-a-timeline-of-ufc-rules-from-no-holds-barred-to-highly-regulated">since MMA has gone mainstream, there are more restrictions to the fighting</a>. They still advertise as “no-holds-barred,” because that’s where the value is created, but they have <a href="https://www.ufc.com/unified-rules-mixed-martial-arts">implemented many rules</a> to ensure it’s not too real or too violent to watch.</p>
<h2>What can voyeurism teach us?</h2>
<p>The successful commercialization of voyeurism challenges how we think of both authenticity and transgression. Authenticity is assumed to be beneficial for value creation. In fact, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2019/06/20/why-brands-should-make-authenticity-a-business-imperative/?sh=541c6dd121fd">authenticity is used in an exponential number of industries to create value.</a> Transgression, on the other hand, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2008.27752775">assumed to be detrimental for value creation</a>, since audiences risk social disapproval for participating. </p>
<p>In the practice of voyeurism, however, the extreme authenticity can repel audiences if the experience feels “too real,” while the transgressiveness may appeal to audiences seeking a taboo experience.</p>
<p>In erotic webcam, for example, viewers look into the bedrooms of cam models as they perform sexual acts, while their personal lives are kept private. This strategy depersonalizes models so that audience members do not feel too much empathy for them, which can interrupt the “entertainment value.” </p>
<p>Our research shows that authenticity and transgression are not inherently good or bad, it’s the emotions that matters for value creation. From a business perspective, effectively managing the emotional responses is the core task that facilitates value creation. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1524&context=faculty_scholarship">ethics of voyeurism are widely debated</a> for good reason. However, understanding how voyeurism creates value is an issue that cannot be ignored, regardless of one’s views on the ethics. We need to understand how and why it creates value if we are to have conversations about what should and should not be allowed.</p>
<p>Instead of arguments exclusively about <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/53026">whether voyeurism is ethical or not</a>, we should explore <em>why</em> we are drawn to voyeurism in the first place and where the limits should be for this taboo, yet incredibly prevalent practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeline Toubiana has received funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxim Voronov, Sean Buchanan, and Trish Ruebottom do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Voyeurism provides a glimpse into the private life of another person to give audiences a revealing and entertaining experience.Trish Ruebottom, Associate Professor of HR and Management, McMaster UniversityMadeline Toubiana, Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship and Organization, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaMaxim Voronov, Professor of Organization Studies and Sustainability, York University, CanadaSean Buchanan, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1699682021-10-15T14:46:45Z2021-10-15T14:46:45ZSquid Game: why you shouldn’t be too hard on translators<p>Squid Game has recently become Netflix’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/13/squid-game-is-netflixs-biggest-debut-hit-reaching-111m-viewers-worldwide">biggest debut ever</a>, but the show has sparked controversy due to its <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58787264">English subtitles</a>. This occurred after a Korean-speaking viewer <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-06/squid-game-translation-controversy-netflix-korean-english/100514482">took to Twitter and TikTok</a> to criticise the subtitles for providing a “botched” translation, claiming: “If you don’t understand Korean you didn’t really watch the same show.”</p>
<p>Only this year, Squid Game, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lupin-introducing-anglophone-audiences-to-a-more-socially-conscious-gentleman-thief-154316">Lupin</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/netflixs-money-heist-is-top-tv-show-in-the-world-2021-9?r=US&IR=T">Money Heist</a> – all non-English originals – have consistently been at the top of Netflix’s most-watched shows globally. This growing popularity of productions in languages other than English and <a href="https://www.ibc.org/trends/local-content-hits-home-for-svods/7560.article">streaming platforms investing more in them</a> has led to an increase in the visibility of the work of translators.</p>
<p>When it comes to translating films and series, subtitling and dubbing are the most common forms of translation. Subtitles show the dialogue translated into text displayed at the bottom of the screen; while in dubbing, the original voices of the characters are replaced with voices in a new language.</p>
<p>Translation is not new to viewers, but the instant, almost frictionless access to different language versions of the same film or show definitely is. Streaming platforms allow viewers to swiftly change from watching a film with subtitles to listening to the dubbed version or the original. This creates an opportunity for viewers to compare the different versions.</p>
<h2>Why do originals and translations differ?</h2>
<p>Just because the translation doesn’t say exactly the same as the original, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Films and TV series are packed with cultural references, wordplay and jokes that require changes and adaptation to make sure what’s said and seen on screen makes sense across languages. </p>
<p>Making allowances and adapting what’s said are common practices in translation because, otherwise, the translators would need to include detailed notes to explain cultural differences. </p>
<p>Consider the representations of <em>washoku</em> (<a href="https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/hayao-miyazaki-movies-animated-food-porn">traditional Japanese cuisine</a>) which are so beautifully embedded in <a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/36294/1/all-the-studio-ghibli-food-wed-love-to-eat-what-it-means">Studio Ghibli films</a>. While additional explanations about the significance of harmony, kinship and care represented in the bowls of ramen in Ponyo or the soft steaming red bean buns in Spirited Away could be interesting, they might get in the way of a viewer who just wants to enjoy the production.</p>
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<p>Professional translators analyse the source content, understand the context, and consider the needs of the variety of viewers who will be watching. They then look for translation solutions that create an immersive experience for viewers who cannot fully access the original. Translators, similarly to screenwriters and filmmakers, need to make sure they provide good, engaging storytelling; sometimes that implies compromises.</p>
<p>For instance, some original dialogue from season two of Money Heist uses the expression “<em>somanta de hostias</em>”. Literally, <em>“hostia”</em> means host – as in the sacramental bread which is taken during communion at a church service. But it is also Spanish religious slang used as an expletive.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Original: <em>Alberto, como baje del coche, te voy a dar una somanta de hostias que no te vas ni a mantener en pie</em>.</p>
<p>Literal translation: Alberto, if I get out the car, I’m going to give you such a hell (<em>hostia</em>) of a beating that you won’t be able to stay on your feet.</p>
<p>Dubbed version: If I have to get out of the car, I’m gonna beat you so hard you don’t know what day it is.</p>
<p>Subtitles: Alberto, if I get out of the car, I’ll beat you senseless.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The dubbed version of the dialogue adopts the English expression “to beat someone”. The subtitled version uses the same expression but offers a shorter sentence. The difference between the two renderings reflects the constraints of each form of translation.</p>
<p>In dubbing, if the lip movements don’t match the sound, viewers often feel disconnected from the content. Equally, if subtitles are too wordy or poorly timed, viewers could become frustrated when reading them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/squid-game-the-real-debt-crisis-shaking-south-korea-that-inspired-the-hit-tv-show-169401">Squid Game: the real debt crisis shaking South Korea that inspired the hit TV show</a>
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<p>Dubbing needs to match the duration of the original dialogue, follow the same delivery to fit the gesticulations of the characters, and adjust to the lip movements of the actors on the screen. Subtitles, on the other hand, need to be read quickly to keep up with the pace of the film. We talk faster than we can read, so subtitles rarely include all the spoken words. The longer the subtitle, the longer the viewer will take to read it and the less time they will have to watch. According to <a href="https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/219375728-Timed-Text-Style-Guide-Subtitle-Templates">Netflix</a> policies, for example, subtitles can’t have more than two lines and 42 characters, and shouldn’t stay on the screen for longer than seven seconds.</p>
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<p>Additionally, in the above example, the translations do not reflect the reference to religious slang, typical of Spanish culture. Rather than fixating on this reference and assuming it is an essential part of the dialogue, a good translator would consider what an English-speaking character would say in this context and find a suitable alternative that will sound natural and make sense to the viewer.</p>
<h2>New rules of engagement</h2>
<p>It is encouraging to see that some viewers are so devoted to the content they watch: foreign films and TV shows help promote <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371314.001.0001/acprof-9780195371314">cultural understanding and empathy</a>. But not all viewers act in the same way and the solutions provided by the translators need to cater to everyone who decides to watch the show.</p>
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<p>This leads to different viewing experiences, but it only reflects the reality of watching any culturally charged product, even in our own languages. In English, for instance, consider all the references and nuances that a British viewer could miss when watching an English-language film produced in South Africa, Jamaica or Pakistan.</p>
<p>Translators do not blindly look for literal translations. On the contrary, in the translation profession, hints of literal translation often signal low-quality work. Translators focus on meaning and, in the case of films and series, will endeavour to provide viewers with a product that will create a similar experience to the original.</p>
<p>The case of Squid Game has been instrumental in bringing discussions about translation to the fore. Of course there are good and bad translations, but the main gain here is the opportunity to debate what determines this. Through such discussions, viewers are becoming more aware of the role and complexities of translation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Orrego-Carmona receives funding from The British Academy and the South African National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>Subtitles need to be read quickly and dubbing needs to match lips. It’s not an easy feat.David Orrego-Carmona, Lecturer in Translation Studies, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1629152021-07-27T12:00:47Z2021-07-27T12:00:47ZNew school planned by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine seeks to teach blend of skills to prepare students for real-world jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412294/original/file-20210720-19-jfyzqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2991%2C2425&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's new school will focus on teaching students about science and the music industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/record-producers-dr-dre-and-jimmy-iovine-attend-the-news-photo/700080180?adppopup=true">David Livingston/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Music producers Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine have announced <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/dr-dre-and-jimmy-iovine-are-opening-a-new-high-school-in-la-2970784">plans to open a Los Angeles high school</a> that will focus on, among other things, inspiring students to become entrepreneurs. The public school, which will be part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is set to open in fall of 2022 with 124 students and eventually grow to serve 250. Here, two hip-hop scholars – and one career and technical education scholar – weigh in on what the proposed school could mean for the American high school experience.</em></p>
<h2>Edmund Adjapong, assistant professor of STEM education, Seton Hall University</h2>
<p>When I look at the academy proposed by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, two things stand out – the location and the approach.</p>
<p>They plan to open the school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school district in the nation. The <a href="https://laraec.net/los-angeles-unified-school-district/#:%7E:text=The%20ethnic%20composition%20of%20the,04%25">district serves</a> a population that is 74% Latino and 10% Black.</p>
<p>More specifically in terms of location, Dre and Iovine plan to launch the academy in Leimert Park, the <a href="https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/things-to-do/discover-leimert-park-in-los-angeles">Black cultural hub in Los Angeles</a>. Leimert Park is a predominately Black community with 72% of the population identifying as African American and about 16% identifying as Latino.</p>
<p>The decision to open the school in Leimert Park demonstrates a need to provide innovative educational opportunities and experiences for all students, but specifically Black and Latino youth. Further, the academy, which will be a part of Los Angeles Unified School District, demonstrates a commitment to supporting <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/">groups that have been marginalized in education</a>. Statistics show that <a href="http://laschoolreport.com/sullivan-unless-we-act-now-the-students-most-disadvantaged-by-school-closures-will-be-even-more-so-when-schools-reopen/">80% of students currently live at or below the poverty line</a>. The academy will be positioned to enroll students who may have limited access to quality school experiences as a result of their social status. </p>
<p>Most schools tend to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-teachers-shouldnt-work-in-isolation-kids-need-a-team/2017/07">teach subjects in isolation</a>. This approach doesn’t encourage students to see connections between various content areas. The proposed school in Los Angeles will be interdisciplinary, much like hip-hop itself. </p>
<p>Hip-hop has five creative elements (MC, break dancing, graffiti art, DJ and knowledge of self) that capture various disciplines and create a culture that has real-life applications that young people participate in, interrogate and experience.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young girl uses a soundboard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412207/original/file-20210720-27-kdw2jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Incorporating music into science can help students understand science’s real-life applications.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/side-view-of-young-woman-sitting-at-mixing-desk-in-royalty-free-image/578458229?adppopup=true">Peter Muller/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>For instance, students can engage in science and mathematics applications of music production. They <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-14/dr-dre-jimmy-iovine-hated-school-now-seeking-change-they-are-launching-one-in-south-l-a">might study certain principles behind recording music</a>, such as amplitude and frequency, and how altering those two things can change the entire sound of the song. Adding entrepreneurship provides a way for students to make a living based on their understanding and experiences with music.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=v4O8idE9UAUC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Repko+(2009)+interdisciplinary&ots=xTXLVbIfaT&sig=I1P1jO5a66FCMyMUx4lFDuBaaf0#v=onepage&q=Repko%20(2009)%20interdisciplinary&f=false">Educational benefits</a> to interdisciplinary teaching include gains in the ability to recognize bias, think critically and tolerate ambiguity, as well as acknowledge and appreciate ethical concerns.</p>
<p>I envision the school providing opportunities for students to imagine themselves as entrepreneurs who have the skills and knowledge to innovate and create solutions to advance their local and global communities. In a <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/innovation-key-to-competing-the-global-economy">global economy</a> where innovation and critical thinking are essential, I think Dre and Iovine’s proposed school could potentially become an exemplary school for other high schools throughout the U.S.</p>
<h2>Shaun Dougherty, associate professor of public policy & education, Vanderbilt University</h2>
<p>When students learn and do things in high school that they can apply in real life, it keeps them more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.06.007">interested in school</a> and makes them <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w28790">more likely to graduate</a>. It also helps students develop job skills that can improve their chances of finding rewarding employment and earning a good salary. </p>
<p>One of the best things about the proposed school is that it has a focus on a few areas of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-15/dr-dre-jimmy-iovine-vow-to-create-a-new-l-a-high-school">applied learning, such as business and design, with direct connections to industries</a> that have a strong presence in Los Angeles, such as entertainment-related mutimedia design and business.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four people stand before a school building while confetti is blasted around them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412005/original/file-20210719-27-58k4t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5725%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412005/original/file-20210719-27-58k4t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412005/original/file-20210719-27-58k4t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412005/original/file-20210719-27-58k4t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412005/original/file-20210719-27-58k4t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412005/original/file-20210719-27-58k4t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412005/original/file-20210719-27-58k4t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy will be a model for the high school the two artists plan to build.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/erica-muhl-andre-young-aka-dr-dre-jimmy-iovine-and-carol-l-news-photo/1178653721?adppopup=true">Robin L Marshall/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>This is not Dre and Iovine’s first foray into education. Back in 2013, they donated US$70 million to establish the <a href="https://iovine-young.usc.edu/">Iovine & Young Academy</a> at the University of Southern California. The academy takes its name from Iovine and Dre, whose legal name is Andre Young. Current plans indicate that the new high school will have a focus <a href="https://achieve.lausd.net/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&ModuleInstanceID=4466&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=107397&PageID=1&Comments=true">similar</a> to the USC Academy – <a href="https://iovine-young.usc.edu/">which focuses on arts and design, engineering and computer science, business and venture management, and communication</a>.</p>
<p>By focusing on information technology, or IT, as well as coding and communication, this school could provide access to things that students might not otherwise get.</p>
<p>Ideally, local industry leaders will <a href="https://www.acteonline.org/professional-development/high-quality-cte-tools/business-and-community-partnerships/">partner</a> with the school to provide rich work-based learning experiences, such as job shadowing or even paid for-credit internships. Such partnerships not only can help students build skills that will help get them jobs and <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED533873">college credit</a>, but also help broaden awareness of <a href="https://www.jff.org/what-we-do/impact-stories/center-for-apprenticeship-and-work-based-learning/benefits-work-based-learning/">college options and the kinds of jobs they can get</a>.</p>
<h2>Nolan Jones, associate adjunct professor, Mills College</h2>
<p>Iovine and Dre’s proposed high school appears to embody <a href="https://www.thebreakreate.com/knowledge-hip-hop-cultures-fifth-element/">knowledge</a> and <a href="https://thetempleofhiphop.wordpress.com/the-9-elements/streett-entrepreneurialism/">entrepreneurialism</a>, which are <a href="https://www.hiphopisgreen.com/10th-element/10th-element-of-hip-hop">considered two elements</a> of hip-hop culture.</p>
<p>The school is set to provide multidisciplinary education. If this is successful, it is a great way to help students uncover their potential and hidden talents through experience and formal education. It is also a possible way to provide education that can be applied in the real world. </p>
<p>With one of the founders being a hip-hop icon, and since hip-hop continues to be a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ogdenpayne/2018/05/24/3-areas-of-society-hip-hop-culture-will-dominate-by-2020/?sh=3633f6c1a149">dominant force in popular entertainment and youth culture</a>, I also see the school as an avenue to foster <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40429877/hip-hop-is-a-huge-equalizer-young-entrepreneurs-get-business-inspiration-from-the-music-industry">entrepreneurialism</a>.</p>
<p>Entrepreneurialism taps into the creative and inventive parts of hip-hop. It encourages self-employment, self-education, business management and practices of fair trade, such as receiving fair payment for work produced.</p>
<p>Given the nature of Iovine and Dre’s proposed school, it will likely speak to the <a href="https://share.america.gov/hip-hop-reshaping-youth-culture-worldwide/">interests of potential hip-hop creatives</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun M. Dougherty receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences in the US Department of Education . </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edmund Adjapong and Nolan Jones do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new school proposed by music moguls Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine seeks to provide students with practical skills they can apply in entertainment and other fields. Is this a new model for education?Edmund Adjapong, Assistant Professor of STEM Education, Seton Hall UniversityNolan Jones, Associate Adjunct Professor, Mills CollegeShaun M. Dougherty, Associate Professor of Public Policy & Education, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1628142021-06-17T12:51:41Z2021-06-17T12:51:41ZAmazons and warrior princesses on screen – the legacy of Xena 20 years on<p>Xena the warrior princess, played by Lucy Lawless, captivated audiences around the world for six series with her high kicks, sword skills and distinctive war cry. The series followed her as she fought her way through armies, monsters and gods, alongside her soul mate and moral compass, Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor). </p>
<p>Xena travelled across space and time, taking us from ancient Greece to Rome, Egypt, Britain, China, India, Scandinavia and finally to Japan, where it all came to an end 20 years ago on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwsIUZELIJM">June 18 2001</a>. </p>
<p>Starting life as an antagonist of Hercules in three episodes of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111999/">Hercules: The Legendary Journeys</a>, Xena was so popular as a character that she was given her spin-off series that ran from 1995 to 2001. At the time, Xena: Warrior Princess was considered groundbreaking as it started a strong female action heroine and was the only popular adventure, action, science fiction or fantasy show that featured female leads without male counterparts. </p>
<p>On the 20th anniversary of the final episode, it worth revisiting this great show and exploring why it was loved by a truly broad spectrum of viewers, from young girls drawn in by an active female role model and ancient history buffs to sci-fi fans and the LGBTQ community.</p>
<h2>Xena and the Amazons</h2>
<p>A reformed warlord from ancient Greece, Xena was not an Amazon but a friend to the tribes of warrior women. To ancient Greek writers, the <a href="https://thersites-journal.de/index.php/thr/article/view/85">Amazons</a> were women who fought and behaved like men and were unnatural barbarians. They have since been adopted as <a href="https://aaia.sydney.edu.au/amazons-ancient-warrior-women-as-powerful-role-models-for-women-today/">positive female role models</a> who break with misogynistic stereotypes of womanhood – they live in a self-sufficient, female-dominated society as warriors and intellects. The term <a href="https://beingfeministblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/amazon-feminism-erasing-biology-as-a-barrier-to-equality/">Amazon feminism</a> is now used to describe a branch of feminism that promotes female physical prowess as a way to achieve gender equality.</p>
<p>Before Xena, the Amazons featured in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRo4SJ2ck_s">1970s Wonder Woman series</a>. Not quite the feminist icons we expect today, these women wore pastel-coloured negligees as they adopted a peaceful life without men on Paradise Island.</p>
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<p>In Xena, while the Amazons may also have been attired in revealing costumes made of furs and skins, their separatist society values martial as well as academic skills. An Amazon tells Gabrielle that the Amazon world is based on “truth and an individual woman’s strength”. </p>
<p>The Amazons from Greek mythology lived apart from men, at the edge of the known world, and fought bravely against male heroes such as Hercules, Theseus and Achilles. In Xena, the Amazons also live in a matriarchal society and are skilled fighters who can hold their own against men. </p>
<p>The Amazons in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9IYZrF4Eo8">Wonder Woman (2017)</a> can be seen as Xena’s big-screen descendants. The costumes and fighting prowess of Penthesilea (Nina Milner) in the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/KSHHQYyjN5tStwhBqZgLWn/penthesilea">BBC drama Troy: Fall of a City (2018)</a> has tinges of Xena. While the leadership ability of the immortal Amazon Andy (Charlize Theron) in the Netflix film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK-X2d0lJ_s">The Old Guard</a>, can also be seen as inspired by Xena.</p>
<p>But while Troy: Fall of a City and The Old Guard are aimed at older audiences, Xena was popular <a href="https://ew.com/article/1997/03/07/xena-warrior-princess-actions-new-heroine/">across all age groups</a>. For instance, episodes of Xena were broadcast in the UK on Channel Five’s Milkshake! Saturday morning slot in the 90s and early noughties for young viewers. This led many young girls to adopt Xena as their role model.</p>
<h2>The Xena subtext</h2>
<p>Xena was also popular with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWPmtV8ifFM">gay and lesbian viewers</a>. In the 1990s, openly gay relationships were mostly missing from popular US television series. However, Xena’s relationship with Gabrielle was interpreted as much as that of hero and sidekick as it was friends and lovers. Series producers began to play with this idea, for example, putting Xena and Gabrielle together in a sexy bath in season two <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqMnCHSe3ig">fan-favourite episode</a> A Day in the Life, so that for many, the subtext became the main text.</p>
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<p>Although a lot of fans were dismayed that Xena died in the final episode they were treated to a long goodbye kiss between Gabrielle and Xena’s ghost. Series producers never openly made <a href="https://screenrant.com/xena-gabrielle-lesbians-couple-no-why/">Xena and Gabrielle a lesbian couple</a>. But LGBTQ+ fans championed their relationship, which is believed to have <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061019015939/http://www.afterellen.com/TV/xena.html">paved the way for openly gay relationships</a> we see in television series today.</p>
<p>One of the joys of looking back at Xena 20 years on is its playfulness when compared with dark fantasy sci-fi fantasies like Game of Thrones. It features seriously badass female characters, and at times offers a serious message about female solidarity and feminism, but doesn’t take itself too seriously. Some of the special effects may now seem dated, but the storylines still ring true and the characters of Xena and Gabrielle can continue to be inspirational for a new generation of young female viewers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Potter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From its strong female lead who could take down anything in her path to its LGBT undertones, Xena: Warrior Princess stole the hearts of a truly diverse audience.Amanda Potter, Visiting Research Fellow, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1610642021-05-27T12:06:08Z2021-05-27T12:06:08Z‘WandaVision’ echoes myths of Isis, Orpheus and Kisa Gotami to explain how grief and love persevere<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402879/original/file-20210526-15-v4yroz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3834%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What is Marvel if not mythology persevering?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dmedmedia.disney.com/disney-plus/wandavision/images">WandaVision Images/Disney Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During a flashback scene in Marvel’s Disney Plus show “<a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/series/wandavision/4SrN28ZjDLwH">WandaVision</a>,” the <a href="https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Vision">superpowered android Vision</a> comforts his wife, Wanda Maximoff, after the death of her twin brother. “But what is grief,” he tells her, “if not love persevering?” </p>
<p>The line has become famous among Marvel fans and inspired <a href="https://junkee.com/wandavision-vision-grief-meme/289488">an internet meme</a>. But it also neatly summarizes the events of the show. Later, distraught over Vision’s death after battling the <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Thanos_(Earth-616)">villain Thanos</a>, Wanda uses her magic powers to bring a version of him back to life. He becomes her husband in a sitcom fantasy world of her own creation. In order to establish this dream world, Wanda pulls an entire town of people into her magic bubble to play roles of her choosing.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://variety.com/vip/wandavision-audience-bigger-than-netflixs-bridgerton-in-january-data-suggests-1234913691/">success of “WandaVision”</a> continues <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/31/the-13-highest-grossing-film-franchises-at-the-box-office.html">Marvel’s impressive record</a>. But besides extending the studio’s string of box office hits into television, “WandaVision” also continues another familiar pattern from Marvel: echoing much older stories from world mythologies.</p>
<h2>Marvel and mythology</h2>
<p>As I show in my recent book, “<a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/religion-and-myth-in-the-marvel-cinematic-universe/">Religion and Myth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe</a>,” examples of that pattern are not hard to find. </p>
<p>The origin stories where Marvel heroes discover their powers often resemble initiation rituals found around the world. In those rituals, the hero often dies – literally or symbolically – and achieves a new status upon coming back to life.</p>
<p>For instance, it shows up frequently in stories of shamans from around the globe, where individuals grow very sick or even briefly die, then return with supernatural powers. Similarly, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Black Panther all gain their powers after near-death experiences.</p>
<p>In some cases, as when the Avengers battle one another – such as in 2016’s “<a href="https://www.marvel.com/movies/captain-america-civil-war">Captain America: Civil War</a>” – the tragic battle between heroes resembles the scale and savagery of Achilles fighting Hector in the Greek “<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-homers-iliad-80968">Iliad</a>” or Arjuna battling Karna in the Hindu “<a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-indian-epic-mahabharata-imparts-a-dark-nuanced-moral-vision">Mahabharata</a>.” Among the Avengers, when it is revealed that Captain America hid knowledge of who killed Iron Man’s parents, it results in a similarly vicious battle between the two heroes. </p>
<p>And when the Avengers battle monsters and villains, those antagonists often mirror the giants, dragons and beasts of much older stories. Think, for instance, of the <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Emil_Blonsky_(Earth-616)">Abomination</a> and <a href="https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Skull">Red Skull</a>, who resemble ogres found in stories like the <a href="http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ar-Be/Beowulf.html">Norse myth “Beowulf”</a> or the Chinese folk tale “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-39728636">Journey to the West</a>.”</p>
<p>The primary villains also have mythic connections. <a href="https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Thanos_(Earth-616)">Thanos</a>, whose name means “death” in Greek, has similarities to mythic figures of death from around the world. Like the Greek god <a href="https://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Hades/hades.html">Hades</a>, at times he appears regal, surrounded by servants and followers, sitting in a throne while wearing armor and a crown. Other times he is like <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/the-demon-mara-449981">Mara</a>, the god of death in Buddhism, who assumes monstrous forms and commands an army of frightening and misshapen creatures. </p>
<p>The Avengers’ final attempt to defeat Thanos also parallels quests to overcome death found in stories like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">Mesopotamian epic “Gilgamesh</a>” or the <a href="https://1baikal.ru/en/istoriya/bezzhalostnye-dukhi-buryatskogo-shamanizma">tales of Siberian shamans</a>. Like those ancient heroes, the Avengers undertake a great journey to acquire magical objects – in their case, the Infinity Stones – to overcome death.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The android superhero Vision and Wanda Maximoff in the Marvel TV series 'WandaVision'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402888/original/file-20210526-15-1vu5xn0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The suburban newlyweds share similarities with Isis and Osiris from Egyptian mythology.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dmedmedia.disney.com/disney-plus/wandavision/images">WandaVision Images/Disney Plus</a></span>
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<h2>Wanda’s grief</h2>
<p>In the case of “WandaVision,” its portrayal of grief and loss brings to mind many famous world myths. In Egyptian mythology, the goddess Isis searches for the dismembered body parts of <a href="https://www.laits.utexas.edu/cairo/teachers/osiris.pdf">her murdered husband Osiris</a>. After Isis reassembles Osiris, the couple have a son, Horus. Similarly, when Wanda cannot put Vision’s destroyed body back together, she recreates it out of magic and goes on to have twins with him.</p>
<p>Wanda’s actions also bring to mind <a href="https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thig/thig.10.01.than.html">a famous tale</a> from the Buddhist tradition. In that story, a woman named Kisa Gotami is heartbroken when her only child dies. She begs the Buddha to bring the child back to life. The Buddha tells her to bring him a mustard seed from a house where no one has died. Going from house to house, Kisa Gotami discovers there is no family that has not experienced death, grief and loss. In the end, she comes to terms with her sorrow and joins the Buddhist path.</p>
<p>Interestingly, “WandaVision” arrives at a similar ending. For most of the series, Wanda clings to the idea that she can keep Vision alive and live happily ever after with him. But she eventually realizes it is wrong to keep her fantasy family alive at the cost of imprisoning an entire town. Like Kisa Gotami, she ultimately acknowledges the reality of death and lets Vision and their children go by ending the spell that animates them. </p>
<p>As Wanda watches Vision slowly vanish before her eyes, viewers may be reminded of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/orpheus-and-eurydice-review-a-bold-reimagining-through-circus-and-opera-124004">myth of Orpheus</a>, a Greek hero, and his wife, Eurydice. After Eurydice dies from a snakebite, Orpheus persuades Hades to release her from the underworld. Unfortunately, on the journey back, Orpheus breaks the one rule Hades gave him: Do not look at her before reaching the surface. When he does, he watches Eurydice disappear all over again.</p>
<h2>Timeless lessons</h2>
<p>It’s possible that these parallels between the Marvel stories and ancient myths are part of their ongoing popularity. Both genres tap into fundamental questions that people have been trying to answer for thousands of years. What is worth fighting for? How do I live my best life? Why do we have to die?</p>
<p>“WandaVision,” meanwhile, is all about grief, but – like many myths before it – there is a sprinkle of hope. As Vision begins to disappear, he tells Wanda, “I have been a voice with no body, a body but not human, and now, a memory made real. Who knows what I might be next? We have said goodbye before, so it stands to reason, we’ll say hello again.”</p>
<p>Those words capture the same ache felt by Isis, Orpheus, Kisa Gotami and any person – ancient or modern – who has ever lost a loved one. The mythological tales remain relevant across time and across cultures, reappearing in these Marvel stories. That fact makes me wonder if we can alter Vision’s famous words just a bit: “What is Marvel, if not mythology persevering?”</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Nichols does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘WandaVision’ reimagines stories from Egyptian and Greek mythology, as well as Buddhist tradition.Michael Nichols, Professor of Religious Studies, Martin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1599682021-05-06T12:43:44Z2021-05-06T12:43:44ZWhy it’s time the UK took wrestling seriously<p>British professional wrestling has its share of iconic figures, many of whom remain household names to this day, including Big Daddy, Adrian Street and Giant Haystacks. Mentioning these wrestling luminaries is almost a given in any discussion of British professional wrestling.</p>
<p>Although wildly popular <a href="https://www.itvwrestling.co.uk/ratings.html">among television audiences</a> in the 1960s and 70s, lately British wrestling has been treated as something of an oddity or an anachronism. In the popular imagination, British wrestling has been considered the bleak, run-down antithesis to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/mar/03/simon-cowell-professional-wrestling-back-british-tv">“well groomed and slick”</a> product of American companies like WWE. </p>
<p>Despite its dwindling popularity compared with its heyday, British professional wrestling has seen something of a resurgence over the last decade. Companies such as Revolution Pro Wrestling, EVE – Riot Grrrls of Wrestling, and Wrestling Resurgence have showcased the best of homegrown and international wrestling talent, putting on dynamic, exciting performances that have celebrated <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-real-female-wrestler-activists-are-better-and-badder-than-glows-could-ever-be-80643">progressive politics</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/W_Resurgence/status/1267508767006109696">diversity</a>. </p>
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<p>British wrestling’s revival is not limited to critical acclaim alone. In 2018, Progress Wrestling put on the <a href="https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/wwe/news/14203/11507982/british-company-progress-set-for-huge-wembley-arena-show">biggest wrestling show England has seen in 30 years</a> at Wembley Arena. And in 2016, Insane Championship Wrestling hosted over 6,000 attendees at the Glasgow SEC Centre, the biggest wrestling event held in Europe since the early 1980s. Global market leader WWE recognised the commercial value of British wrestling, in 2016 establishing their own wrestling brand <a href="https://www.wwe.com/shows/nxtuk">exclusive</a> to the UK. </p>
<p>Acknowledgement of the commercial success of British wrestling has come in the form of an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on wrestling. The APPG recently <a href="https://www.alexdaviesjones.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/833/2021/04/Final-APPG-Wrestling-April-2021_compressed.pdf">published a report</a> on the preliminary results of an inquiry into the status of the industry, its cultural and economic contributions to Britain, and the impact of the pandemic. </p>
<p>While the report found that there are significant areas where Britain could be considered a global leader (especially considering the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/apr/12/king-of-the-ring-meet-drew-mcintyre-britains-larger-than-life-wrestler">international success</a> of <a href="https://www.njpw1972.com/94653">British wrestlers</a> in recent years), it showed that the industry is suffering because regulation is lacking. During a recent <a href="https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/0acd32d8-1b90-4f71-a8cc-2d8688235a09?in=17:00:00&out=17:29:05">parliamentary debate</a> on the issue, Conservative MP Mark Fletcher noted that although “wrestling does an awful lot of good”, there are major prevailing issues. </p>
<h2>#SpeakingOut</h2>
<p>It’s clear that there’s a toxic culture within wrestling. Widespread awareness of this stems from the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/54180329">#SpeakingOut movement</a>, wrestling’s equivalent of #MeToo. In the summer of 2020, allegations were put forward via social media alleging numerous cases of emotional, physical and sexual abuse within the industry, with alleged perpetrators including wrestlers, promoters, crew and journalists. The #SpeakingOut social movement became a way for victims of abuse to share their stories and raise awareness about rampant abuse within the wrestling industry at large.</p>
<p>This culture of misconduct has been aided by a lack of regulation, which has in part arisen because of widespread unease in categorising wrestling as anything but a low-brow form of entertainment. Though wrestling requires athleticism and is performed by professionally trained people, its sporting credentials are undermined by the predetermined, non-competitive nature of the spectacle. </p>
<p>From as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Wrestling-in-Britain-Sporting-Entertainments-Celebrity-and-Audiences/Litherland/p/book/9780367894085#">early as the 1920s</a>, wrestling evolved as a result of a desire to entertain audiences. However, the guarded nature of wrestlers and promoters meant that the fictional aspects of wrestling were concealed from fans. This fiction came to be known as “kayfabe”. Derived from carnival speak, maintaining kayfabe requires wrestlers to uphold the fiction of the competitive nature of the sport, adhere to storylines, and portray their professional persona as “genuine”. </p>
<p>Fans were <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119237211.ch14">happy to participate</a> in this shared fiction. Through cheering heroes and booing villains, fans also actively help to construct kayfabe. Despite this, debates over wrestling’s true nature continue. In the 1980s, to evade US state regulation, WWE declared that wrestling was <a href="https://deadspin.com/thirty-years-ago-wwe-admitted-it-wasnt-a-sport-to-try-1832640826">not a sport</a>. Without a similar watershed moment in the British industry, the debate over wrestling’s legitimacy has been allowed to continue. Falling somewhere between sport and theatre – but not quite either – regulation for wrestling has not been forthcoming. </p>
<h2>Reviving British wrestling</h2>
<p>The APPG report represents the first attempt to address these issues in a meaningful way. One of the recommendations is to resolve the question of what wrestling is, with the suggestion that wrestling training schools should be considered “sporting”, and that wrestling performances should be considered “theatrical”. Though it sounds like a surface organisational distinction, in practice it would allow for better governmental support, a common approach to standards, and the development of greater avenues of success for performers and promoters alike. The report also considers the need for safeguarding protocols to combat abuse, robust health and safety guidelines, and more stable employment. </p>
<p>Though it’s still in the early stages, the government’s intervention is much needed and has largely been welcomed by the wrestling industry and its fans. The APPG report and recommendations have provided hope that this “<a href="https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/spandex-screw-jobs-and-cheap-pops">peculiarly and particular British leisure pursuit</a>” might finally be given a degree of legitimacy; allowing the late Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks to be respected once more and for the contemporary industry to be recognised as a significant contributor to Britain’s cultural output.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Phillips does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The sport has seen a revival in recent years. But it will take regulation to remove its reputation as a low-brow form of entertainmentTom Phillips, Lecturer in Humanities, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1566292021-04-07T12:27:48Z2021-04-07T12:27:48ZNetflix’s big bet on foreign content and international viewers could upend the global mediascape – and change how people see the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393669/original/file-20210406-15-13jt0pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C130%2C2820%2C1849&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">TV and movies are one way we understand people and places we've never had direct contact with – and maybe never will.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/lonely-kid-watching-tv-in-a-dark-room-education-royalty-free-image/1271102479?adppopup=true">iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a kid growing up in Italy, I remember watching the American TV series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070992/">Happy Days</a>,” which chronicled the 1950s-era Midwestern adventures of the Fonz, Richie Cunningham and other local teenagers. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Poster featuring the cast of 'Happy Days'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393258/original/file-20210402-21-1v4xype.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1109&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘Happy Days’ ran on ABC from 1974 to 1984.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzEzOGJhZGEtODA0Zi00NTZiLTkwYjgtNmVmZjk4MjBjNjdiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzY5MTE3OTQ@._V1_.jpg">IMDB</a></span>
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<p>The show, combined with other American entertainment widely available in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, shaped my perception of the United States long before I ever set foot in the country. Today, I call the U.S. home, and I have developed my own understanding of its complexities. I am able to see “Happy Days” as a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/16097">nostalgic revival of an ideal, conflict-free American small town</a>.</p>
<p>“Happy Days” was a product of Hollywood, which is arguably still the epicenter of the global entertainment industry. So recent news that the streaming service <a href="https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/netflix-italy-office-2021-originals-1234903855/">Netflix is opening an Italian office</a> and will begin massively funding original local content with the intent of distributing it <a href="https://jobs.netflix.com/location?slug=rome-italy">globally on its platform</a> – following a strategy already launched in other European countries – struck me. </p>
<p>This could be a potentially game-changing move in global entertainment. And it might even change how the world perceives, well, the world.</p>
<h2>Learning by watching</h2>
<p>I have explored the <a href="https://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/paolo-sigismondi">global media landscape</a> from the privileged vantage point of Los Angeles for the past 15 years.</p>
<p>TV and movies are one way that people, as we go through life, make sense of the world, building on the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-00742-003">archive of our personal experiences and opinions of other places</a>.</p>
<p>Absent direct experience with a people or nation, we speculate on what we do not know. This process involves a variety of sources, including reading, Googling and accounts from somebody we trust. But often it is media that exposes people to other cultures, above and beyond our own. </p>
<p>TV and movies fill the knowledge gaps with powerful images and stories that inform the way we think about different cultures. If the media’s messages have consistency over time, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12128">we may come to understand these as facts</a>. </p>
<p>But media portrayals may well be inaccurate. Certainly, they are incomplete. That’s because movies and TV series aren’t necessarily meant to depict reality; they are designed for entertainment. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Angelina Jolie in a boat in a Venice canal, surrounded by crew members" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393260/original/file-20210402-23-nofjgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Actor Angelina Jolie filming ‘The Tourist’ in Venice, Italy, in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actress-angelina-jolie-is-seen-on-location-at-the-arsenale-news-photo/97870212?adppopup=true">Barbara Zanon/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As a result, they can be misleading, if not biased, based on and perpetuating stereotypes. </p>
<p>For example, there is no shortage of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-is-the-godfather-effect-83473971/">Italian and Italian American stereotypes in American entertainment</a>. From the award-winning “Godfather” saga to the less critically acclaimed “Jersey Shore” TV series, Italians are often depicted as tasteless, uneducated, linked to organized crime – or all three.</p>
<h2>Media is a window to the world</h2>
<p>But the way people are exposed to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/World-Entertainment-Media-Global-Regional-and-Local-Perspectives/Sigismondi/p/book/9781138094024">media entertainment</a> is changing. Today streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Disney+ collectively have <a href="https://www.rapidtvnews.com/2020061258639/tv-streaming-accounts-to-break-billion-barrier-in-2020.html?utm_campaign=tv-streaming-accounts-to-break-billion-barrier-in-2020&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_2443#axzz6PAJp7Ich">1 billion subscribers globally</a>.</p>
<p>Being a relative newcomer in producing original content, Netflix cannot rely on a large library of proprietary content to feed its <a href="https://ir.netflix.net/investor-news-and-events/financial-releases/press-release-details/2021/Netflix-to-Announce-First-Quarter-2021-Financial-Results/default.aspx">204 million paid members in over 190 countries</a>, as legacy Hollywood players can. So it is increasingly creating original productions, including a number of <a href="https://ir.netflix.net/ir-overview/long-term-view/default.aspx">non-English language originals</a> from places such as Mexico, France, Italy, Japan and Brazil.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot of Netflix homepage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393257/original/file-20210402-13-1iwupqz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A snippet of Netflix’s international lineup on April 2, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.Netflix.com">Screenshot, Netflix.com</a></span>
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<p>We might call this an example of “<a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461409076">glocalization of entertainment</a>” – a company operating globally, adapting its content to meet the expectations of locally situated audiences across the world. </p>
<p>This is already the modus operandi, for example, of <a href="https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/3302/NECSUS_3_1_2014_319-325_Kooijman_Globalisation_television_formats.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">many popular reality TV shows</a>. “American Idol” is an American adaptation of Europe’s “Pop Idol.” “The X Factor,” “Big Brother” and “Dancing with the Stars” have similarly international origins.</p>
<p>Now, however, glocalization comes with a twist: Netflix intends to distribute its localized content internationally, beyond the local markets.</p>
<p>It is not the global reach of Netflix’s platform per se that would break down old stereotypes. French critics panned the American-produced, internationally distributed Netlix series “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/embarrassing-netflixs-emily-in-paris-blasted-by-french-critics">Emily in Paris</a>” for its cliched, romanticized portrayal of the city.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p4Okq1Wdpg0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Emily in Paris’ was an American take on Paris, and French critics hated it.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Foreign TV executives must create shows for Netflix that both appeal to local audiences and have international potential, while remaining authentic in their portrayal of their country. If Netflix’s Italian team thinks “The Godfather” is what international audiences expect from Italy, international audiences may tune in – but Italians won’t. </p>
<p>To become truly international, Netflix would also have to foster the development of original local ideas not only in European countries with well-developed cultural industries but also in smaller countries and those with emerging entertainment industries, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/netflix-will-first-african-series-launch-a-new-chapter-in-african-filmmaking/a-52528867">such as African nations</a>.</p>
<h2>Netflix’s opportunity – and challenge</h2>
<p>A side effect of this strategy could be that Netflix upends the traditional way that media informs our understanding of foreign people and lands by more accurately representing these places. </p>
<p>But that’s a tall order, and it’s not, of course, guaranteed.</p>
<p>Netflix’s transformative potential comes from allowing local creatives to tell stories about their own cultures and then distributing them truly internationally. It will depend on the company’s willingness to implement this strategy in a consistent, sustained, inclusive and thoughtful fashion. </p>
<p>Over time, widespread exposure to a diverse array of international media content might change the way people in the U.S. and worldwide think and feel about other cultures they have never, and may never, come into direct contact with. </p>
<p>All it takes is one click – one choice to watch, perhaps even unknowingly, a foreign-produced series.</p>
<p>The way Netflix works, using <a href="https://help.netflix.com/en/node/100639">algorithms to suggest content</a> as viewers make selections, can prolong an initial exposure to and interest in foreign content. Artificial intelligence meant to feed us more of what we like may end up a surprising force for change, making us rethink what we thought we knew.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156629/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paolo Sigismondi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An Italian media scholar raised on American TV assesses Netflix’s ambitious strategy to create original productions in Italy, Japan, Brazil and beyond – and distribute them globally.Paolo Sigismondi, Clinical Professor of Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and JournalismLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1563832021-03-11T16:26:33Z2021-03-11T16:26:33ZWhy Indian films are popular in Ghana – and have been for decades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388007/original/file-20210305-21-3gz9eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children watching an old Hindi film at a video centre in Tamale in Ghana in 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Katie Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past ten years, Indian television series have become a feature in many households across Ghana as they’ve become available on cable and satellite channels.</p>
<p>Indian television series, including romantic dramas (such as <em>Til the End of Time</em>) and historical dramas (such as <em>Razia Sultan</em>), have gained popularity. One show loosely based on Jane Austen’s classic novel <em>Sense and Sensibility</em> called <em>Kumkum Bhagya</em> has even been <a href="http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/22658">dubbed in Twi</a>, an Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana. Based on the success of the show, the stars of <em>Kumkum Bhagya</em> <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/Kumkum-Bhagya-stars-speak-Twi-in-their-first-live-interview-601733">travelled to Ghana</a> for a tour in 2017. </p>
<p>The history of Indian media in Ghana – the subject of my <a href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/hindi-film-songs-and-musical-life-in-tamale-northern-ghana-1957present(2658bd9b-8170-484d-8322-2f251778256d).html">PhD thesis</a> as well as a recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13696815.2020.1868291">academic paper</a> – extends back to the mid-1950s. At that time, Sindhi and Lebanese film distributors and cinema owners circulated Hindi films throughout the country, screened in cinema halls in most major urban centres. </p>
<p>The films were popular among all Ghanaians during the postcolonial period. In the intervening decades they have remained popular within Ghana’s majority Muslim communities. These include majority Muslim cities in the north, such as Tamale. It also includes zongos, neighbourhoods that tend to be majority Muslim communities found in nearly every urban setting. Zongos developed as settlements of foreign traders. Each has its own <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54821647e4b06b6dbd9d843b/t/5487790be4b0f57918c1f0d6/1418164491976/Understanding+the+Zongo_Emily+Anne+Williamson.pdf">complex history of colonial segregation</a>, with many zongos dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s.</p>
<p>The popularity of Hindi films in zongo communities came through vividly in an interview I conducted with one of Ghana’s former cinema owners. They recalled that at one point during the 1960s, Kumasi’s Rex Cinema, located near a zongo neighbourhood, played the Hindi film <em>Albela</em> (1951) every Friday night for a year, selling out its 2,000-seat capacity each week. </p>
<p>The postcolonial circulation of Hindi films in Ghana reveals the early cosmopolitan engagement that Ghanaian viewers had with South Asian popular media during the time of independence in both countries. In cities like Tamale, the popularity of Hindi films has continued to grow over time. </p>
<h2>The case of Tamale</h2>
<p>In Tamale – where I conducted two years of ethnographic research – I found that older Hindi films spanning the postcolonial period are still viewed by residents in their homes and in neighbourhood video centres. Popular films include <em>Albela</em> (1951), <em>Love in Tokyo</em> (1966), <em>Noorie</em> (1979) and <em>Andha Kanoon</em> (1983). </p>
<p>Hundreds of Hindi films from the postcolonial period are still available for sale in Tamale’s central market at speciality DVD shops. Sellers receive new shipments of older Hindi films each week. </p>
<p>But my research showed that the circulation of Indian films in Tamale was not indiscriminate. India’s most well-known film export – Bollywood – has had little success in the city. Older Dagbamba viewers were unimpressed by the Bollywood films that entered Tamale’s market in the mid 1990s. Many expressed concern about the cultural and moral shifts. Of particular concern was the perceived Americanisation of the films. </p>
<p>As a result, distributors, shop owners and cultural authorities in Tamale intervened in the circulation of Bollywood in the city. For example, many DVD shop owners do not sell newer Bollywood films, while owners of neighbourhood video centres make an active decision not to screen newer Bollywood films. </p>
<p>The older films have remained popular in Tamale for several reasons. </p>
<p>One is their melodramatic form. This includes a clear <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230247642">moral universe</a> that reaffirms the importance of community and extended intergenerational families over individuality and consumption.</p>
<p>There’s also a clear delineation between ‘evil’ and ‘good’, ‘individuality’ and ‘community’, and ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’ practices. This might explain why Tamale’s older generations encourage young people to watch the films in their homes today. </p>
<p>The ‘Alarikah family’ – a community that developed out of an Indian film song radio show at Justice FM in Tamale – has gone as far as to screen Hindi films at Chief palaces in the city, as a way to “save youth from immoral behaviour”.</p>
<p>Tamale’s Muslim viewers also note depictions of Muslim life in certain Hindi films. This is because many Hindi films circulating in Tamale feature modest costumes, as well as recognisable architecture including mosques. </p>
<p>Many older Hindi films include Arabic loan words such as <em>ishq</em> (passion) or <em>duniya</em> (world). In West Africa, many Muslim viewers recognise Arabic loan words heard in Hindi films, as the same loan words are found in their own languages such as Wolof, Fulani, Serer, Hausa and Dagbani. </p>
<h2>Synergies between films and series</h2>
<p>In Tamale, recent Indian television series are a welcome addition to the continued circulation of older Hindi films in the city. My research showed that Dagbamba viewers accustomed to older Hindi films found similarities between new Indian television series and older films. These included the use of certain modest Indian fashions (including sarees and kameez) in series that parallel costumery in postcolonial Hindi films. </p>
<p>Tamale viewers also found parallels between religious aspects of certain Indian television series and elements of their Muslim faith, akin to earlier patterns of Hindi film viewership in the city. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-grassroots-video-is-building-a-film-industry-in-zimbabwe-143836">How grassroots video is building a film industry in Zimbabwe</a>
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<p>Recent Indian television series also parallel the melodramatic moral universe of earlier Hindi films. For example, plot lines focus on multigenerational Indian families that live together and collectively negotiate issues of love, class and marriage.</p>
<p>For over 70 years, Hindi films and film songs, and more recently Indian television series, have circulated in Ghana. With this in mind, seemingly “new” trends – such as the arrival of <em>Kumkum Bhagya</em>‘s cast in Ghana in 2017 – are part of a much broader, extended history of Indian media circulation in the country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Depictions of Indian life in cinema and soap operas have found particular affinity with communities in Northern Ghana.Katie Young, Post Doctoral Researcher, Mary Immaculate College, University of LimerickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541472021-01-29T13:24:33Z2021-01-29T13:24:33ZWhy binge-watching TV might not replace weekly instalments<p>Netflix is known for unleashing a whole series in one go, often provoking a mass entertainment feeding frenzy as people binge-watch entire seasons in one sitting. Think about the period drama <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80232398">Bridgerton</a>, dished out on a single online viewing plate (quite aptly) on Christmas Day, 2020. All good for viewing figures.</p>
<p>But does a quick and intense experience necessarily leave a lasting mark? Or do audiences simply move onto the next new thing, the show and its discussions quickly forgotten amongst the internet clutter of words and memes? Shows like Disney’s <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/welcome/the-mandalorian?cid=DSS-Search-Google-71700000064846107-&s_kwcid=AL!8468!3!494249264395!e!!g!!mandalorian&&cid=DSS-Search-Google-71700000064846107-&s_kwcid=AL!8468!3!494249264395!e!!g!!mandalorian&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3smABhCjARIsAKtrg6IKhnAf9Ypz03m2rjJXy-Fj-q81pNbPz5awFZM3CoIR4puK0zVtNC4aAh3QEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">The Mandalorian</a> have proved that delivering episodes to an entertainment-hungry nation in small tantalising viewing snacks is equally as effective as the all-you-can-watch feast. Audiences want to be tickled and teased.</p>
<p>Which strategy is best for a TV show’s durability and the audience’s viewing experience is up for debate.</p>
<h2>When do we want it? Now!</h2>
<p>From the first farming tools to high-speed broadband, society has always used technology to make life more convenient and enjoyable. And speed is very much a part of that. In today’s world governed by platform services and synchronised technologies, we not only want but expect to consume media instantly (streaming services), continuously (multiple devices), frequently (social media updates) and in a way that’s personalised (recommended on-demand programming). We want more and faster each time.</p>
<p>Decades before Netflix was a service, in 1948 <a href="https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-history.html">McDonald’s Speedee Service System</a> demonstrated the profitable advantage gained from systematically speeding up consumption and consumer culture. Our current entertainment culture continues down this fast track with viewing figures riding upon society’s insatiable love for consuming the immediate. In this sense, Netflix did not really create a <a href="https://www.24i.com/articles/us-now-binge-watching-streaming-multitasking-nation">binge-watching world</a> but merely exploited what had long been our penchant for instant gratification.</p>
<p>Releasing an entire TV series like <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80025678">The Crown</a> in bulk not only strategically scratches that immediate consumer itch but also ensures that people share their viewing experiences online. The very process of binge-watching has become an integral part of how people talk about a given TV show. Social media posts mentioning #bingewatching signal the addictive nature of a show and are a social validation of its watch-worthiness. </p>
<p>The unbroken devouring of a full series also encourages an intensive and immersive experience into a TV show’s fictional world. This can even <a href="https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/emotional-health/binge-watching">fuel addiction-like behaviour</a>, with many people claiming to have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/10/one-in-five-tv-viewers-have-rung-in-sick-to-binge-watch-a-show">called in sick so they could stay home and binge-watch</a>. </p>
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<p>Our society now consumes instantly and intensely, compressing time and emotion into one. Under these conditions, it’s understandable that some might believe that “dumping” a series online is a necessity. </p>
<h2>Good things come to those who wait</h2>
<p>But are we really just pleasure-seeking audiences looking for that instant hit of media indulgence? As the effects of lockdown and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-video-chats-are-so-exhausting">zoom fatigue</a> have exposed, society seems to be increasingly experiencing media fatigue. </p>
<p>We have a renewed desire to “slow down” and more people are undertaking <a href="https://www.digitaldetox.com/">digital detoxes</a>. We now wish to resist the immediate, and consciously search for the pleasures of waiting, anticipation and longevity. </p>
<p>Some are <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2015/11/18/why-im-sick-binge-watching">sick of</a> the <a href="https://www.dailyo.in/arts/netflix-streaming-tv-shows-amazon-prime-video-narcos-game-of-thrones-house-of-cards/story/1/28470.html">stress of binge-watching</a>. For others, it has become yet another digital task to be endured as they succumb to the online world of peer pressure, fear of missing out (FOMO), fear of spoilers and aggressive targeted advertising – all of which enforce a universal fast pace for TV-watching.</p>
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<p>As if in response, TV shows like <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/series/wandavision/4SrN28ZjDLwH">WandaVision</a> or <a href="https://www.cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/">Star Trek: Discovery</a> have resisted the Netflix “series dump” model, opting to tease audiences through slow-release instalments. In the case of WandaVision, <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/wandavision-baby-yoda-changed-once-143431377.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKNmTyFZKKQyy7Dwc8yCUhvPUUsqvcuDc2ew1HRCqF3Al43UVaUSpigqI7OHSRkgMtIHeyWKSDiCara-686krbVZgzL0P9txBezpSioB40ZzmhzQ0rvmIUR5aDwReYJJ8EJJwOQgwGAM5wYwKxkDS3t3dRaJRKKSKpjo594p4LgO">Disney decided to take this route</a> because its experience with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/30/the-mandalorian-season-two-review-tv-coolest-dad-star-wars-baby-yoda">The Mandalorian </a> demonstrated audiences will not only endure waiting for each episode but will also be excited by it, in the meantime creating new memes as they discuss where the plot might go next. This strategy also provides the golden one-time experience of watching episodes in synchrony with everyone else. Once all episodes go out, binge-watching can happen, but never the other way around. </p>
<p>All these experiences increase viewing figures as well as providing free viral marketing propelled. This can prolong the shelf-life of a show by ensuring discussions remain fresh, based on the new content. If enough streaming services take this view, perhaps the era of binge-watching as the normal way to consume TV could even <a href="https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a35317345/binge-watching-box-set/">come to an end</a>.</p>
<p>Post-pandemic, to survive life in the 2020s, many of those who can live between two worlds. We must use technology for convenience, safety, access and control. But we may also acknowledge the need to step away from that world to be able to enjoy anticipation again, like a child before Christmas.</p>
<p>Streaming services are perhaps listening. What is emerging now is a more flexible approach to releasing TV shows, one that combines the two strategies. For example, the BBC’s new crime drama <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08zh4ts">The Serpent</a> or Channel 4’s It’s a Sin are available all online but are also being aired in weekly instalments on TV. Netflix’s <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80994082">Lupin</a> is being released in two five-episode parts. </p>
<p>Such strategies take the best of both worlds, offering a choice: they can satisfy the desire for the substantial immediate – enough to trigger that immersive need – but can also bubble up the thrill of anticipation through prolonged bursts of audience engagement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154147/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Esperanza Miyake does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Audiences have a growing appetite for slow weekly released TV.Esperanza Miyake, Chancellor's Fellow - Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1527962021-01-13T13:05:31Z2021-01-13T13:05:31ZThis is why you can’t stop watching ‘bad’ TV<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378564/original/file-20210113-17-wgrmad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>TV viewing has become more important during the pandemic, but a sense of shame still lingers around it. Even TV scholars still use the term “guilty pleasures” to describe their enjoyment of reality TV or series which attract some of the biggest viewing audiences, such as I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, The Voice or Dancing With the Stars. </p>
<p>Some even call comforting, escapist dramas like Death in Paradise or Bridgerton their “guilty pleasures”. Such television still attracts the same negative labels (“unchallenging”, “low brow”) that were given to its antecedents in the 1950s. </p>
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<img alt="Ballroom contestants pose on Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378301/original/file-20210112-23-60z535.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378301/original/file-20210112-23-60z535.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378301/original/file-20210112-23-60z535.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378301/original/file-20210112-23-60z535.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378301/original/file-20210112-23-60z535.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378301/original/file-20210112-23-60z535.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378301/original/file-20210112-23-60z535.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Strictly, I’m A Celebrity and Bake Off drew in their best audiences in years towards the end of 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC Pictures</span></span>
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<p>I remember the pleasure my father took in 1950s gameshows like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2015.1062647">Double Your Money</a> which featured ordinary people like him taking on minor tasks in a good natured way. His life was not an easy one, marked by a childhood spent mostly in an isolation hospital for tuberculosis patients which left him with a permanent disability. So as I child I understood the consolation and inclusion that such programmes brought him. They were a source of comfort precisely because they were “unchallenging” for someone whose everyday life brought plenty enough challenges.</p>
<h2>The allure of purposelessness</h2>
<p>“Consolatory entertainment” is a better term for such programming. There is consolation in the simple pleasures of ordinary conversation, shared enjoyment and of laughing together that underpins the success of panel games, quiz shows and even celebrity chat shows.</p>
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<img alt="Hand in focus holding remote with a blurred TV in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378300/original/file-20210112-17-c5iebe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378300/original/file-20210112-17-c5iebe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378300/original/file-20210112-17-c5iebe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378300/original/file-20210112-17-c5iebe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378300/original/file-20210112-17-c5iebe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378300/original/file-20210112-17-c5iebe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378300/original/file-20210112-17-c5iebe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The importance of this form of television lies in its very purposelessness, which marks it out from entertainment that seeks to challenge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hand-holding-tv-remote-while-watching-1368793937">Said Marroun/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This is what the theorist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/016344389011002002">Paddy Scannell identified</a> as being purposeless entertainment which is “relaxed and sociable, shareable and accessible, non-exclusive, equally talkable about in principle and practice by everyone”.</p>
<p>The importance of consolatory entertainment lies in its very purposelessness, which marks it out from the entertainment that seeks to challenge. It exists to confirm our common humanity, our ability to share a joke, to chat about trivia, to get on with each other. In the isolating times of the pandemic, it is scarcely surprising that shows like Strictly Come Dancing, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and The Great British Bake Off drew in their <a href="https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/ratings/feelgood-favourites-on-a-high/5155802.article">“best audiences in years”</a> in the UK. Consolatory entertainment confirms the commonalities that hold us together in opposition to the often raucous and divisive forums of social media.</p>
<p>It is time to shed the sense of guilt around such programming and begin to understand it for what it is, and how it works. </p>
<h2>The reality TV recipe</h2>
<p>Beyond the panel games and chat shows, consolatory entertainment formats often feature people facing challenges which enable them to discover everyday talents they didn’t know they had, for dancing or baking, or trading in antiques. Often framed as competitions, who wins is less important than the togetherness and mutual support shown through the process, and the unlikely friendships that result.</p>
<p>There is a strong ritualistic aspect to consolatory entertainment programmes. The format is nearly the same every week, with the same narrative inevitability (a contestant will be eliminated, for example) and the same flourishes (repeated music stings and catchphrases). There is a thriving international market for such formats, which are remade according to the same basic pattern but featuring citizens of each country. The sense of connection and locality provide an intimate connection between viewers and the people on the screen.</p>
<p>Each format is a theme and each episode is a variation on that theme. In classical music, theme and variation is an important feature, but for consolatory TV, repetitive forms are precisely what lead to its low estimation. </p>
<p>Perhaps it is the amount of time that is required to “get into” the format and appreciate each variation. This does not appeal to those with busy target-driven lives, but for many others it is the means by which sharing and discussion can take place. Programmes like these are not unlike football in this respect: the form is the same, but what matters are the details – the things that, to the uninitiated, seem like minutiae. Football’s rituals and repetitions are more acceptable in our culture than those of consolatory TV. Football serves the same purpose of asserting sociality whilst avoiding conflict, providing excitement and a largely good natured tribalism around an essentially purposeless activity. Yet unlike football, a taste (let alone a need) for consolatory TV has not yet shaken off its moral opprobrium.</p>
<p>This may be because not all consolatory TV is cosy and reassuring. The equivalent of football hooligans exists in consolatory TV too. Some reality TV borders on the broadcast version of morally dubious freak shows. Some people find consolation in the misfortunes of others. There may be a legitimate consolation in the hubris of the over-confident, but some reality shows go far beyond that. The public shaming associated with shows like Jerry Springer or Jeremy Kyle or the humiliations that can be meted out to contestants on Love Island, provide the simple spectacle of the suffering of others. There are those who, especially at times of stress, find consolation in the shaming and suffering of others. </p>
<p>But overall, the importance of consolatory TV lies in its affirmation of social connection and togetherness and its reassertion of the familiar and everyday. During the pandemic, this has become an even more important resource for many people. The reaffirmation of social connection is the true purpose behind this genre of TV’s seeming purposelessness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:john.ellis@rhul.ac.uk">john.ellis@rhul.ac.uk</a> received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and European Research Council (ERC)</span></em></p>Instead of feeling ashamed about our guilty pleasures, it is time to understand how they really workJohn Ellis, Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway University of London, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.