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This article was downloaded by: [Stony Brook University] On: 18 October 2014, At: 09:41 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Popular Film and Television Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjpf20 “It's Just Entertainment” Perspective by Incongruity as Strategy for Media Literacy Naomi R. Rockler Published online: 02 Apr 2010. To cite this article: Naomi R. Rockler (2002) “It's Just Entertainment” Perspective by Incongruity as Strategy for Media Literacy, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 30:1, 16-22, DOI: 10.1080/01956050209605555 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01956050209605555 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: “It's Just Entertainment” Perspective by Incongruity as Strategy for Media Literacy

This article was downloaded by: [Stony Brook University]On: 18 October 2014, At: 09:41Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Popular Film and TelevisionPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjpf20

“It's Just Entertainment” Perspective by Incongruity asStrategy for Media LiteracyNaomi R. RocklerPublished online: 02 Apr 2010.

To cite this article: Naomi R. Rockler (2002) “It's Just Entertainment” Perspective by Incongruity as Strategy for MediaLiteracy, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 30:1, 16-22, DOI: 10.1080/01956050209605555

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01956050209605555

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) containedin the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of theContent. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon andshould be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable forany losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use ofthe Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: “It's Just Entertainment” Perspective by Incongruity as Strategy for Media Literacy

ov ‘ERCOMI

Ent N G 66

a l’s Just

t” Perspective by Incongruity as Strategy for Media Literacy

By NAOMI R ROCIUER

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Perspective by Incongruity 17

Abstract: Kenneth Burke’s theory of perspective by incongruity is a strate- gy media educators can use to per- suade students to analyze the media critically. The author demonstrates media educator Sut Jhally’s use of per- spective by incongruity in the docu- mentary Dreamworlds and suggests three classroom exercises that use per- spective by incongruity.

Key words: Kenneth Burke; Dream- worlds; media literacy; music videos; perspective by incongruity

ost media educators in the United States are all too M amiliar with the phrase, “But

it’s just entertainment!” What media educator has not asked his or her stu- dents to analyze a clip from a popular film, television program, or advertise- ment, only to have students incredu- lously reject the activity as pointless? In the United States, many students simply do not feel that media texts- especially those that are “entertaining” as opposed to “informative”-are le- gitimate subjects for critical analysis. To many, critical analysis is incongru- ous with popular culture.

Consider, for example, the reactions of students to critical essays on Disney films. When the editors of a critical anthology on Disney films gave the essays to their students, many reacted skeptically:

Even our own students, occupying a halfway house between film critics and mass audience, are extremely resistant to critique of Disney film. Assigned to read several essays from this collection for a class in cultural studies, our students commonly complained, “You’re reading too much into this film!” and “You can’t say that about Walt Disney!” These stu- dents consistently cite four easy pardons for their pleasurable participation in Dis- ney film and its apolitical agenda: it’s only for children, it’s only fantasy, it’s only a cartoon, and it’s just good busi- ness. These four naturalizations create a Disney text exempt from material, his- torical, and political influences. The naturalized Disney text is “pure enter- tainment,” somehow centrifuged from ideological forces. (Bell 4)

In many western countries, includ- ing Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, media education

programs have been popular from ele- mentary school through college since the 1970s (see Kubey 58-59). The rea- sons why the United States lags dis- mally behind the rest of the western world in media education are many. Kubey argued that the U.S. education- al system provides many obstacles to widespread media literacy programs, including local control of curricula that isolates schools from one another and makes national pedagogical tran- sitions difficult. Phillips argued that U.S. culture itself provides obstacles to media literacy programs. Ameri- cans, according to Phillips, are ambivalent about consumerism, vio- lence, the importance of education, and the value of youth-four rallying calls for media education that have been successful in other countries.

An additional obstacle to media lit- eracy in the United States appears to be the unwillingness of many Ameri- cans to consider popular film, televi- sion, and other entertainment media to be legitimate forms for critical analy- sis. Evidence suggests this is a wide- spread phenomenon. For example, in their 1990 cross-cultural analyses of Dallas viewers, Liebes and Katz found that when asked to criticize the “mes- sages” in Dallas, Americans were the most reticent of all the groups in the study to do so because they perceived the program to be innocuous entertain- ment (120). In a study of soap opera newsgroup users, Scodari found that when occasional users analyzed the programs critically and discussed issues such as race, gender, and age representation, other users quickly told them to stop and sometimes insulted them. In a study of college women viewers of the program Bever- ly Hills, 90210, I found that the stu- dents’ insistence that the program was unrealistic constrained them from evaluating the program in a more ide- ological manner (Rockler). Similarly, when critics critically analyze popular culture in the popular press, they often meet with derision. For example, in 1994, when a psychologist analyzed race and gender roles in The Lion King (see Newberger), newspaper colum- nists throughout the United States

mocked her and rejected the legitima- cy of her arguments (see, for example, Andersen, Snow, Thompson). In 1998, when Latin American groups criti- cized a Taco Bell ad campaign that featured a Spanish-speaking Chi- huahua, they similarly were mocked (see, for example, Beatts, Close).

The political and pedagogical implications of Americans’ refusal to critically analyze popular culture are disturbing. If Americans reject critical analysis of popular culture and other media texts, they reject analysis of a significant portion of their life activity. In 1996, according to Nielsen Media Research data, the average U.S. house- hold consumed almost fifty-one hours of television per week, and the average individual consumed almost twenty- eight hours-an average of almost four hours per day and over a day’s worth of television per week (Head and Sterling 296-97). Furthermore, the sources of the messages that occu- py this portion of Americans’ life activity are increasingly oligopolistic media corporations. According to Bagdikian’s 2000 version of The Media Monopoly, only six corpora- tions own the vast majority of media outlets in the United Statesdown from fifty in 1983. In addition, Ameri- cans’ resistance to critical analysis of entertaining media texts has serious implications for the media literacy movement in the United States and may provide a difficult barrier to the introduction of widespread media lit- eracy classes. Why teach classes on the media, after all, if the media are “just entertainment”?

Although it is inviting to sit back and bemoan the difficulties of teach- ing resistant students to critically ana- lyze the media, a more productive task is to try to find solutions. What strate- gies can media educators use to per- suade U.S. students that critical analy- sis is not incongruous with popular film, television, and other forms of popular culture? As one possible start- ing point, I propose that media educa- tors look to Kenneth Burke’s theory of perspective by incongruity as a strate- gy to teach students that popular cul- ture is indeed congruous with critical

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analysis. In Permanence and Change, Burke argued that it is difficult to per- suade people to question critically their most valued assumptions about everyday life. Burke called these val- ued assumptions “pieties,” or “the sense of what properly goes with what” (74). Traditional logic often is not an effective tool to argue against pious assumptions because people often hegemonically refuse to question deeply held cultural assumptions. To persuade people to question their pieties, a rhetor needs to adapt a more complicated strategy than traditional logic.

In other words, people may become angry and upset when a rhetor chal- lenges the assumptions that help bind together their symbolic understanding of the world. A Christian may become upset when it is suggested that the Santa Claus myth promotes blind obe- dience to a paternal figure; to this indi- vidual, Chnstmas is congruous with joy, not patriarchy, and to suggest oth- erwise may be emotionally disturbing, regardless of the logic of the argu- ment. A meat-eater may become upset when it is suggested that her everyday eating habits contribute to the destruc- tion of the rain forests; to the meat- eater, the hamburger is congruous with sustenance, not destruction. Similarly, students who reject the legitimacy of popular culture criticism believe that critical analysis and popular culture are incongruous. To many students, popular culture is congruous with fun, entertainment, and escape. To argue that popular culture texts represent race, gender, sexual orientation, and class in significant ways, or that the popular culture texts reflect and pro- mote dominant ideology, is incongru- ous with how most Americans view the role of popular culture.

In lieu of traditional logic, Burke argues that a rhetor can better chal- lenge pieties through perspective by incongruity. This strategy involves the use of imaginative metaphors to exem- plify “relationships between objects which our customary rational vocabu- lary has heretofore ignored” (90). To argue against a piety, a rhetor must invent a creative way to compare two

concepts that seem unrelated; A and B, which previously seemed incongru- ous, strategically must be compared so that they seem alike. Perspective by incongruity is powerful because, if successful, it jars people into new per- ceptions about the way reality can be constructed and may encourage people to question their pieties. Perspective by incongruity encourages people to reclassify their outlook on the social world; as Burke argued,

When a philosopher invents a new approach to reality, he [sic] promptly finds that his predecessors saw some- thing as a unit which he can subdivide, or that they accepted distinctions which his system can name as unities. The uni- verse would be appear to be something like a cheese; it can be sliced in an infi- nite number of ways-and when one has chosen his own pattern of slicing, he finds that other men’s cuts fall at the wrong places. (103)

Thus, perspective by incongruity is a strategy that can be used to look at aspects of the social world in new ways. For example, Bostdorff argued that political cartoonists used perspec- tive by incongruity to critique the anti-environmental actions of Interior Secretary James Watt; one cartoon portrayed a James Watt ‘‘ national for- est” filled not with the congruent image of trees but with the incongru- ent image of oil drills (45). Dow argued that AIDS activist Larry Kramer successfully used perspective by incongruity to persuade gays that gay identity was congruous with polit- ical action. Demo argued that the Guerilla Girls, a group of feminist artists, used perspective by incon- gruity to jar art patrons into new ways of thinking about the lack of art by women on display at museums.

To persuade students that popular culture is congruous with critical analysis, then, media educators should consider using creative metaphors to jar students into looking at popular culture in new ways. Simple logical approaches to the problem, such as presenting students with statistics of the number of hours people spend watching television and discussing with students the political imperative of analyzing the products of oligopo-

listic media corporations, may per- suade some students. However, because deeply held assumptions hegemonically resist logic, perspective by incongruity may provide a more effective strategy. Sut Jhally’s Dream- worlds: Desire/Sex/Power in Rock video is an example of a documentary that strategically employs perspective by incongruity to persuade students that popular culture-in this case, music videos-is congruous with crit- ical analysis.

Dreamworlds and Media Criticism Similar to the Disney anthology edi-

tors who were frustrated by their stu- dents’ reactions to their essays, Uni- versity of Massachusetts professor Sut Jhally found himself frustrated when, in 1989, he tried to argue to his stu- dents that music videos resembled rape imagery. When Jhally played videos in his classroom and tried to discuss them, students sang along with the videos and enjoyed watching them (see Kaplan and Rosenberg). To the students, music videos were congru- ous only with entertainment and pleas- ure. To persuade his students that music videos were congruous with critical analysis and, indeed, rape imagery, Jhally created a documentary called Dreamworlds: Desire/Sex/ Power in Rock video and distributed it to professors at other institutions. The documentary became a widespread success (generated in part by publicity after MTV threatened to sue Jhally) and led to the creation of the Universi- ty of Massachusetts Media Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that produces a series of popular media education documentaries. In 1995, Jhally created an updated ver- sion of Dreamworlds that featured newer videos.

Dreamworld’s main argument, that music videos resemble rape imagery, is incongruous with how many stu- dents perceive music videos. Thus, Jhally strategically employed perspec- tive by incongruity throughout the documentary to persuade the audience to consider this previously incongru- ous metaphor. First, to discourage stu- dents from singing along with the

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videos, Jhally spliced together images of music videos throughout the docu- mentary, but he removed the rock music and replaced it with somber background music. By decontextualiz- ing the images from the music that usually is congruent to the images, the students were encouraged to think of the images out of their natural con- text-as something to critically ana- lyze, as opposed to something that merely is entertaining.

Jhally does not begin his documen- tary by presenting to the audience his incongruous metaphor comparing music video to rape imagery; this metaphor is not introduced overtly until the end of the documentary. Rather, along with the decontextual- ized music video images, Jhally strate- gically engages in a complex, induc- tive argument about the images designed to make the metaphor seem more congruous to the audience when it is finally presented to them. Throughout the documentary, Jhally encourages students to step out of their familiar relationship with music videos as passive consumers, and he progressively encourages them to take on the incongruent role of music video critic.

Early in the documentary, Jhally guides audience members through a simple analysis of the nymphomania- cal roles that women play in music videos. Imagds of nymphomaniacal behavior are juxtaposed: A woman with her shoulders falling out of a dress summons a man into a woman’s bathroom; large groups of women crawl over men at parties, at which there are few men to go around for the many women. This segment of the analysis is pleasurable, as Jhally invokes humor by mocking the inane images of nymphomania. For exam- ple, Jhally mocks images where lonely women, desperate to find sexual part- ners, find “substitutes” by fondling bedposts and bananas. Jhally also pokes fun at rock musicians; he calls the Beach Boys “the geriatrics of rock,” and awards the title of “King of Sleaze” to Rod Stewart in the first ver- sion of the documentary and later to Prince in the updated version.

After introducing students to the incongruous role of music television critic, Jhally progresses into a more complicated semiotic analysis of music videos. In this segment, Jhally analyzes music videos step by step and demonstrates camera techniques that objectify women not as individuals with subjectivities but rather as sexual objects. Jhally demonstrates specific ways that camera angles are used to portray women as “passive things that can be used and explored at will.” He demonstrates how music videos pan women’s bodies in detail, as if they were landscapes or other such objects. “Panoramic shots of women’s bodies replace panoramic shots of landscapes or objects,” he explains. “The assump- tion is that is perfectly legitimate to watch women in this way.” Jhally demonstrates camera angles that film women from below, as if looking up a woman’s dress, and camera angles shot between women’s legs. Jhally demonstrates one scene in which a musician, framed by an anonymous woman’s legs, thrusts a microphone upward into her crotch. In addition, Jhally demonstrates how music videos fragment women, so that they are shown as assorted images of legs, breasts, buttocks, and other body parts, as opposed to “whole” human beings. In other words, argues Jhally, music videos are filmed in such a way as to suggest that women’s bodies are there to be looked at and that, in fact, the nymphomaniacal women in the videos want to be looked at. The women of the videos are ascribed no unique characteristics; rather, they are filmed as a collection of body parts on dis- play. Jhally shows several videos in which images of different women’s bodies are quickly juxtaposed, sug- gesting interchangeability and lack of subjectivity.

After progressively encouraging students to take on the incongruous role of music video critic, Jhally pre- sents them with the unsettling meta- phor comparing music videos to rape imagery. Jhally asks, “The disturbing question is, what happens if men act upon these assumptions that govern the Dreamworld in the real world?”

The documentary cuts to a rape scene from the film The Accused, a 1989 film based on the true story of a gang rape. Jhally does not yet identify what this scene is, and the audience, without warning, suddenly is watching a gang rape. For approximately ten minutes, objectifying images of women in mu- sic videos are juxtaposed with the rape scene. The videos, previously removed from their original musical context and played to the incongruous sound of somber background music, are now removed from music entirely and are placed to the incongruous background noises of the rape. Several sounds from the rape are played repeatedly. “Hold her down!” one man screams, as others cry, “Make her moan,” “Come on, she’s loving it,” and “Is she ready to come yet?” Jhally removes narration altogether, and for ten min- utes allows the audience members to reflect on the images for themselves.

The choice of The Accused in this sequence is important. This rape scene focuses heavily on the rape specta- tors-a large group of men at the bar who watch the rape and gleefully encourage the rapists to continue. The audience members are placed in a pre- carious position of spectatorship. They watch the men watch the rape. At the same time, they watch the familiar images from music videos that in their normal context seem pleasurable. In this sequence, the images of women in music videos are compared to rape imagery through their juxtaposition. The music video spectator, thus, is incongruously compared to the rape spectator. Watching music videos is equated with watching a rape. The audience members watch themselves watch music videos-and at the same time, they watch themselves meta- phorically as rape spectators.

At the end of the rape sequence, sev- eral segments of music videos are shown, and for the first time, they are shown with their original music. The audience has now viewed an argument that, through perspective by incon- gruity, has compared music videos to rape imagery and music video specta- torship to rape spectatorship. Students are now asked to watch these videos

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not just as popular culture consumers but to also assume the previously incongruent role of popular culture critic.

Classroom Exercises in Perspective by Incongruity

How, then, does one apply perspec- tive by incongruity in the media edu- cation classroom? Creativity is essen- tial in developing exercises that encourage students to think metaphor- ically about aspects of the media and media spectatorship in new ways. I have included three suggested exercis- es that incorporate perspective by incongruity. These exercises have been designed with the college classroom in mind; however, they could easily be adapted for high school students or younger.

TelevisiodFilm Parodic Reversal

Parodic reversal is a type of parody that satirizes a common, hegemonic social practice by reversing gender, race, class, or other roles to illuminate the problematic and socially construct- ed nature of those roles. For example, Campbell argued that Gloria Stein- em’s essay “If Men Could Menstru- ate” is an example of parodic reversal. In Steinem’s humorous essay, men- struation hypothetically becomes a symbol of manliness and braggery, as opposed to the embarrassing “curse” it is for women. Parodic reversal is a powerful rhetorical strategy because, as Campbell argued, it raises “con- sciousness by calling received wisdom into question” ( 1 14). Menstruation is a personal, private experience for wom- en, and most do not consider that the shame and embarrassment women as- sociate with their periods is a gendered response that women share as a class. Steinem’s essay subtly points out that if women were not in a subservient position in society, women would not feel ashamed of their normal body functions; in fact, if women were like men, they might brag about it.

Parodic reversal is a form of per- spective by incongruity. Satirically, it places representations of members of demographic groups (men, women, whites, heterosexuals, etc.) into roles

that usually are seen as incongruous to them. In the media studies classroom, parodic reversal of popular television and film can be used to jar students into new ways of thinking about the social constructness of roles and stereotypes in television and film- and, correspondingly, in the “real world” as well. For example, a media studies instructor may show the class an episode of a game show such as The Price Is Right, in which the male game show host patriarchally orchestrates the program while women models in revealing clothing display the prizes. Students might be asked to image the program if the roles were reversed-if a woman were in charge of the pro- gram, and male models in skimpy out- fits modeled diamond jewelry, refrig- erators, and cars. Because the “reversed” image seems bizarre, the social constructness of the “normal” image becomes more apparent.

The parodic reversal exercise may take many forms. Instructors might show a particular program, film, or advertisement that they want the stu- dents to parody. They may also ask students to bring in their own exam- ples or to generate ideas of media texts to parody in class discussion. In a media production class, students can produce their parodies. Students might also act out parodies in the classroom setting or turn in parodies in script form as an assignment. More simply, the instructor may ask the students to think of reversals during class or small-group discussions.

As in the game show example, par- odic reversal exercises are especially effective in discussions about gender and the media (and might be incorpo- rated into a women’s studies class- room). For example, an instructor might discuss the program Ally McBeal, a popular program about a Harvard-educated but thoroughly neu- rotic young lawyer. Like all the women on the program, Ally McBeal is highly sexualized, and in addition, she is infantilized in her dress and demeanor. After watching a few scenes or an episode of Ally McBeal, students may be asked to create their own “A1 McBeal” episode in which a

young male lawyer is portrayed in similar scenes as insecure, sexualized (he could wear inappropriately sexy clothing to the office, as the women of Ally McBeal do), and infantilized (with similarly pouty expressions and reactions to everyday stress). As anoth- er example, an instructor might show students examples of the stereotypical working-class buffoon-husband, wise- woman couple (The Honeymooners, The Simpsons, The Flintstones, etc.) and ask students to role-play opposite gender roles. Any media text in which rigid gender roles pervade-soap operas, advertisements, action flicks- would lend itself well to this exercise.

Representations of race might be examined in this way as well. An instructor might use this exercise to encourage students to examine norma- tive categories that seem invisible to many of them, such as whiteness. For example, an instructor might show stu- dents advertisements in which token minority characters, outnumbered by white characters, are relegated to the side of the screen or in other marginal- ized ways. Students may design hypo- thetical commercials in which white characters are portrayed in this man- ner. This version of the parodic rever- sal may be used to encourage white students to see how whiteness often is portrayed as a race-neutral “norm” that minorities are expected to identify with, while whites often do not even perceive portrayals of whites as having “race.” In a similar exercise, an in- structor might simply have students design a program, such as Friends, in which all the characters are white and replace the white characters with minorities. The students can then dis- cuss how whites often perceive shows like Friends as being race-neutral.

Parodic reversal also may be used to discuss representations of sexual ori- entation. An instructor might show students a representation of gay teen- agers, such as on the program Daw- son’s Creek, and discuss how these representations are portrayed in “prob- lem-of-the-week” style. Students may be asked to act out a heterosexual rela- tionship portrayed in the same way, as if the couple’s identity as heterosexu-

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Perspective by Incongruity 21

als were the basis for the plot line itself. Students can act out traumatic scenes in which they come out as het- erosexuals and discuss how heterosex- uality is portrayed as the norm by which other sexual identities are mea- sured. Representations of relationships between homosexuals and heterosexu- als might be interrogated this way as well, particularly the trendy gay male-straight woman “couple.” An in- structor might show an episode of Will and Grace, for example, which fea- tures a neurotic heterosexual woman helplessly dependent on her gay male friend, and replace the couple with a neurotic heterosexual man helplessly dependent on his lesbian friend. Paro- dic reversal exercises can be a great deal of fun. The inherent humor in this exercise can ease the discomfort of discussing issues of representation and can encourage students to develop their creativity.

The “villain” as Narrator

This exercise is designed to help students examine popular film, televi- sion, and other media texts on an ide- ological level and to look critically at the “stories” told through popular cul- ture. In this exercise, students are asked to rewrite the script of a popular culture text through the narrative per- spective of the story’s “villain.” This form of perspective by incongruity asks the students to imagine a popular culture text incongruously through a different framework and may encour- age students to look at popular culture as ideological.

Disney films lend themselves well to this exercise, as they have well- defined “good guys” and “bad guys.” Consider The Lion King. This popular animated film is about Simba, the lion prince who is destined to be king. Simba’s father, King Mufasa, rules over the Pridelands, which is filled with other species of animals (whom the lions sometimes eat). Outside the Pridelands, in a desolate, dark land void of food, live the hyenas. The hye- nas are portrayed as evil, inarticulate scavengers who are chased out of the Pridelands whenever they invade and poach food. Scar, the king’s evil broth-

er, befriends the hyenas and persuades them to help him murder his brother. Scar and the hyena kill the king and persuade Simba that it is his fault; Simba goes into exile, and Scar be- comes the king. In exchange for their help, Scar integrates the hyenas into the Pridelands. As a result, the scav- enger hyenas deplete all the resources in the Pridelands, and the land falls apart. Meanwhile, Simba’s childhood friend Nala finds him and persuades him to assume his rightful place in the Pridelands. He defeats Scar and drives the hyenas out, and the Pridelands are restored to their majestic beauty. The surface-level moral of The Lion King is that one must take responsibility for one’s rightful place in “the circle of life,” a phrase repeated throughout the film. Nala, with help from a visit from Simba’s dead father, persuades Simba to fight for the kingdom.

Imagine, though, that an instructor asks students to imagine the story from the hyenas’ point of view. Imag- ine a young hyena cub. Unlike Simba, she is not predestined for greatness. Her place in the “circle of life” is to be poor and hungry, and she knows it. She asks her parents why the wealthy lions nearby will not help them out of their poverty. Her parents laugh and tell her that the lions hate the hyenas and refuse to help the hyenas out of their predicament. They will not let the hyenas immigrate to the Pridelands and try to build a better life. As an ado- lescent, the young hyena joins the Hyena Revolution and helps Scar overthrow Mufasa, whom she has come to see as the oppressor responsi- ble for her family’s troubles. The hye- nas are integrated into the Prideland, but the lions never give them a chance. The Pridelands fall apart because the lions are not willing to negotiate with the hyenas and adapt the system in such a way as to accommodate every- one. When Simba returns to fight Scar, the young hyena fights the son of the oppressive Mufasa, but she dies a vio- lent death in the battle. From this per- spective, The Lion King is no longer about responsibility: It is about oppression, segregation, and racism. This exercise might lead students to

discuss the ideology of The Lion King in new ways.

This exercise may be effective in any media in which there is a well- defined villain, such as in action flicks or soap operas. It also can be effective as a way to analyze news stories, which sometimes demonize “charac- ters.” For example, an instructor might show a news report about police offi- cers toughening up on inner-city gangs that portrays the police officers as heroes and the gang members as vil- lains. The instructor could ask the stu- dents to imagine the news report from the perspective of an inner-city gang member. How does the gang member perceive the police and their behavior? Like the parodic reversal exercise, instructors can assign this exercise in a number of ways: Scenes may be acted out in class, produced as part of a video production class, or written in script or story form as an individual or group assignment.

Totalitarian Govemment/Media Monopoly System

A primary topic of many media education classes is the oligopolistic media system in the United States. In 2001, six massive media corporations owned over 90 percent of the media in the United Statesaown from fifty corporations in 1983 (see Bagdikian). Persuading students that this is a potential threat to democracy can be a challenge in a culture in which stu- dents have grown up watching com- mercials and shopping at malls and have been thoroughly saturated by the products of a consumeristic, corporate culture. Many Americans simply are not as frightened of corporate power than they are of government power. Thus, perspective by incongruity can be used by asking students to imagine the incongruous image of the govern- ment controlling the media in the United States.

This exercise might be used at the beginning of a media course or unit to get students to think about the problems inherent in a media system controlled by one group of powerful people with similar interests. The instructor may ask students to imagine a nation that

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Page 8: “It's Just Entertainment” Perspective by Incongruity as Strategy for Media Literacy

22 JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television

has a powerful government whose power frequently is not questioned by the people. The students then can be asked to imagine what this media sys- tem would look like or to discuss some of the problems inherent in this media system. Students may be broken into groups, or the class may discuss this as a whole. Students may be asked ques- tions such as these:

1. If the government controlled most of the media, would the media reflect diverse topics and interests?

2. If the government controlled most of the media, is it possible that the interests of the government might sometimes interfere with freedom of speech? What are some circumstances in which this might occur and why?

3. Is there information or are there topics the government would prefer not be discussed in the news or enter- tainment media? If the government controlled the media, do you think it would prevent these topics from hav- ing a voice? How?

4. Is it preferable that a diverse aggregate of people and organizations, with a variety of interests and back- grounds, control different aspects of the media? Why?

After students have generated some of the problems that might occur if the government controlled the media, the instructor can ask students to imagine what would happen if corporations controlled the media. The instructor can then explain that, in the United States, this indeed is the case and that many of the same problems related to free speech and diversity do occur in a system in which corporations have a monopoly on the media.

Conclusion In a culture in which the media,

especially entertainment-oriented me- dia, are perceived by many students as nothing more than innocuous enter- tainment, creative strategies are need- ed to jar students into new ways of thinking about the media. Perspective by incongruity is one tool that instruc- tors can use to persuade students that the media are congruous with critical analysis and not merely with entertain- ment and escape. Further research is needed to help media educators learn exactly why media education in the United States is startlingly insufficient and how they can work through these obstacles and create a more media-lit- erate culture.

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Bagdikian, Ben H. The Media Monopoly. 6th ed. New York Beacon, 2000.

Beatts, Anne. “Why All the Howling over the Taco Bell Dog?’ Los Angeles Rmes Mar. 29, 1998: E10.

Bell, Elizabeth, ed. From Mouse to Mer- maid: The Politics of Film, Gender; and Culture. Bloomington: U of Indiana P, 1995.

Bostdorff, Denise M. “Making Light of James Watt: A Burkean Approach to the Form and Attitude of Political Car- toons.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 73

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Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. “Inventing Women: From Amaterasu to Virginia Wolff.” Women’s Studies in Communi- cation 21 (1998): 11 1-26.

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Demo, Anne Teresa. “The Guerrilla Girls’ Comic Politics of Subversion.” Women’s Studies in Communication 22 (2000):

Dow, Bonnie J. “AIDS, Perspective by Incongruity, and Gay Identity in Larry Kramer’s ‘1,112 and Counting.’ ” Com- munication Studies 45 (1 994): 225-40.

Head, Sidney, and Christopher Sterling. Broadcasting in America: A Survey of Electronic Media. 8th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

Kaplan, David A., and Debra Rosenberg. “They Want Their MTV Back: Using Copyright Law to Stifle Criticism.” Newsweek May 20, 1991: 88.

Kubey, Robert. “Obstacles to the Develop- ment of Media Literacy in the United States.” Journal of Communication 48 (1998): 58-69.

Liebes, Tamar, and Elihu Katz. The Export of Meaning: Cross-cultural Readings of Dallas. New York Oxford UP, 1990.

Newberger, Carolyn. “Intolerance Is the Real Message of The Lion King.” Boston Globe July 27, 1998: 11.

Phillips, J. Melissa. “Media Education in the United States: A Check under the Gestalt Hood.” The New Jersey Journal of Communication 6 (1998): 109-22.

Rockler, Naomi R. “From Magic Bullets to Shooting Blanks: Reality, Criticism, and Beverly Hills, 90210.” Western Journal of Communication 63 (1999): 72-94.

Scodari, Christine. “ ‘No Politics Here’: Age and Gender in Soap Opera ‘Cyper- fandom.’ ” Women’s Studies in Commu- nication 21(1998): 168-87.

Snow, Tony. “PC Wars: Lion King Critics Need to Get a Life.” Detroit News Aug. 1, 1994: A7.

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NAOMI R. ROCKLER is a visiting assis- tant professor in the Department of Com- munication Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College. Her interests include ideological analysis of popular culture audiences, media, literacy, and representations of marginalized groups in the media.

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