As I write this, I'm sitting on my couch, with my girlfriend, watching the Emmy pre-show on. The actual show is going to start in 4 minutes. I'm excited, for some odd reason. We did this same thing for the VMAs, the Academy Awards, and all the others.
The weird thing is, I can't stand most of the "popular" movies, shows, and music in today's culture. I like weird music that not many people have heard before. I'm not a big movie person, and I have a handful of TV shows I watch.
But I, along with millions of other people, watch these awards shows every year. Why? What draws us into these shows? (update: just spent 20 minutes watching the opening ceremony. back to homework.)
I think people watch these awards shows for the same reasons that people love the media. Stuart Hall's Circuit of Culture is a great way to look at the media. To really understand culture, we must look at it from as many angles as possible. (I have probably already gone over 3oo words, so I can't talk about all five aspects.) Here are three that I think are the most relevant:
1. Production: The popular media in today's culture is produced and created by (for the most part) people completely different than you and I. They make millions of dollars, live in fancy houses, and drive cool cars. They don't deal with the stuff we deal with, yet we can relate to them. The media reflects either who we are, or who we wish we were.
2. Consumption: Media is everywhere you look. It's harder to find a place without media than a place with media. It is advertised to us in every way possible; and we eat it up.
3. Presentation/Representation: The media signifies our culture. It reflects the things that we deal with, our dreams, our lives, and the things we wish we could be. The media reflects both the best of our culture and the worst of our culture. There are portions of all aspects of the media that we can relate to.
Awards shows are a weird thing. They argue us into many "positions." In my opinion, the one thing they argue us towards the most is a longing to be a part of it. The expensive clothes, the jewelry, the famous friends, etc. Awards shows are a place for the people who make the media to show off how much money they have, and cause us to think how much easier our lives would be if we had the same amount of money and fame.
I could be wrong in my "reading" of the media. I could be right. That's the great thing about Cultural Studies - I don't have to be right! Feel free to give me your opinions in the comments.
Now (almost two hours after starting this post) I will return to watching the show. You wouldn't believe how distracting it is.
How relevant and current! It's true, most popular media demands (and gets) loads more attention than it deserves. I think as Americans, we love to turn our brains off and be visually stimulated. Even if we have no real interest in what we're watching, more often than not, we watch it. Good point about how media makes us want to be a part of it. Oh, the glamor! Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Award shows are a weird thing. I usually only ever tune in to them in order to see the red carpet and the fancy dresses. One of the interesting things about awards shows like the Oscars or the Emmy's is the assumption that it is making about the types of media that people like to consume. They broadcast in to the supposed millions of people they assume want to see the red carpet interviews and the bad jokes. Even more so, it promotes an idea in our society that gives undue recognition and attention to people like actors and celebrities until we start to view them as examples or ideals and we put them on pedestals as if these are the types of people we should idolize and celebrate. And, ironically, we are watching these paragons of media essentially celebrate THEMSELVES. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is made up of actors, people who work in the industry and entertainment moguls...not even close to the millions of people they are broadcasting to and the people who are consuming this as..entertainment. Ironic that the Academy Awards never used to be public at all because the Academy was founded as a union-busting body. Hmm.
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