Professional Documents
Culture Documents
cc1 Essay
cc1 Essay
Introduction
Meaning is not fixed, it can be said without hesitation, after all how can it be? But the bigger
question is why is it not fixed? How can the meaning of an image, sound, language be different
than it's intended message? How can that context change over time? This is the overall question of
this essay and that is what I aim to show. I will be consulting the theories from various academic
thinkers from different realms of study, such as media scholar Henry Jenkins, post-modernist,
Jean-Francois Lyotard, semiotician, Roland Barthes and political theorists Antonio Gramsci, and
Karl Marx. Using the theories and thoughts of post-modernism such as remixing and repurposing
images, semiology, and marxist critical theory, including hegemonic ideals I attempt to answer this
question, using the depiction of two American presidents, President Kennedy and President
Obama as my main examples, using semiology to uncover how Kennedy was depicted and show
how it has changed over time through repurposed and remixed images of Obama.
Hegemony
The President of the United States is supposed to be the figurehead of American societal values.
Someone to be looked towards in times of crisis. This can certainly be said of presidents such as
John F. Kennedy, whose quick and decisive measures during the Cuban Missile Crisis helped avert
a possible nuclear holocaust. Antonio Gramsci offers the theory of Hegemony. Through which
process, dominant ideologies kept social control, where values became “common sense.” (ibid,
p54.)
Student ID - 189195
Hegemonic views could certainly be applied to Kennedy, because of his reputation as one of the
most charismatic Presidents in the history of the country, but Presidents that lacked in their
leadership qualities or cleverness such as George Bush would become subjects of ridicule and
criticism through remixing and repurposing. Appendix A is an example of the “hegemonic”
Kennedy, addressing his audience with confidence, the American flag in the background as a
symbol of his patriotism. The connotative being that he has plans for the future and prosperity of
the country and wishes to pledge this to his “fellow Americans.”
For example, I took an image of the Lincoln Memorial Statue, juxtaposed with the America flag to
which I “painted” signs that would make you think of The Joker from Batman. My intention was to
have fun, the result is the banner for my blog pages. However, other's may see this as a criticism
of American social values. Here I introduce the ways of a meaning changing due to context,
reappropriation or repurposing and remixing.
This image was open it imitation and parody, as all images are, and there are a wide array of
different examples of this, from more depictions of The Joker to criticisms of Colonel Gaddafi etc.
The most simple repurpose is by adding the word “No” consequently collapsing the context of the
original message. (Appendix C)
Conclusion
The meaning of an image, sound, or language is most certainly not fixed. We can see this is so
simply through our own personal engagement and interpretation. Not everyone will take the same
reading or position on an image. Stuart Hall's audience theories lead to our understanding of this
however it is also common sense. Through Barthes and semiotic analysis, we are able to decode
the meaning of an image in a structuralist way through signs and symbols, as well as understand
the basic levels of connotation and denotation. Through developments in society, ideals and
authority have become negotiated. Kennedy represented the hegemonic ideal of the President,
with the vast majority sharing the hegemonic/dominant image. Barrack Obama represents how
now, power and authority is questioned, images are repurposed for critical reasons by some
parties, but also used as entertainment and personal enjoyment.
Student ID - 189195
References
Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. 2001. Practices of Looking, A Guide to Visual Culture. Oxford
University Press, New York.
Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. 2009. Practices of Looking, A Guide to Visual Culture, Second
Edition. Oxford University Press, New York.
Lyotard, J.F. 1979. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester: University
Press, 1984. [Online] Available from: http://experiment.iitalia.com/librarysplit2/Lyotard,%20Jean-
Francois%20-%20The%20Postmodern%20Condition%20-%20A%20report.pdf
Appendix D: Obama
Socialism poster, 2009
Student ID - 189195
Bibliography
Lyotard - The Postmodern Condition - University of Minnesota Press, 1984
http://experiment.iitalia.com/librarysplit2/Lyotard,%20Jean-Francois%20-%20The%20Postmodern
%20Condition%20-%20A%20report.pdf
Written by Lyotard, documenting his views and opinions of the modernistic ideas of the grand
narrative, how they are becoming negotiated. Useful as my background for my grand narrative
argument.
I thought that perhaps Barthes theories on mythologies might contrast well with Gramsci's theory
of hegemony. I decided to not pursue this idea in the end because I was content with what I had
without this concept.
Sturken and Cartwright - Practices of Looking Second Edition, Oxford Press 2009
The core text(s) for both the course and this essay. Using the ideas of Stuart Hall and audience
readings, Barthes and his semiotics as well as Gramsci's theory of Hegemony, forming much of
the basis for my argument.
Giddens - Conversations with Anthony Giddens: Making Sense of Modernity, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, California, 1998
I toyed with the idea of exploring modernistic ways of thinking towards depictions of Presidents of
America. In a sense I did do this (hegemonic depiction being a modernistic concept) but I did not
need to reference Giddens or use his work. Perhaps I could have done so to contrast with
Lyotard's grand narrative theory but I might have started to try and cram too much into the word
limit and lose my argument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnfB-
pUm3eI&feature=PlayList&p=872405DBCBDFF922&index=0&playnext=1
Both the television series broadcast in 1972 and the adapted book may have come in handy if I
were answering a different question. Because it explores how an images context changes
depending on where it is viewed and the surrounding environment. Not what I was trying to answer
in this essay.
Student ID - 189195
Phillips's research was very useful in analysing the meaning and production of the Socialist Joker
poster that I spoke about in the essay. I was able to use her research in order to show how images
are remixed to create new meaning.
Henry Jenkins - Confessions of an Aca-Fan - DIY Video 2010: Political Remix (Part One)
http://henryjenkins.org/2010/11/political_remix_video_can_empo.html
More contribution to how remixing images change an image's context, this time from Jenkins
himself. He is an authority on remix culture and I instantly thought he could be referenced in some
manner or another to show the purposes of remixing.
Just a website full of different examples of remix culture videos and images that I could have used
semiology to analyse but I had enough examples to further my argument.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony#cite_ref-0
I consulted this wikipedia article in the hopes of trying to better understand Gramsci's theories on
cultural hegemony, I was unsuccessful, but it led me to Gramsci's published notes on the subject.
Antonio Gramsci, edited by Joseph A. Buttigieg, The Prison Notebooks, Columbia University
Press, New York, 1975
The Prison Notebooks is a publication of Gramsci's notes while he was imprisoned. Here he
discusses cultural hegemony as a means of capitalist control. I attempted to look through this
publication to see if it was the source of Gramsci's theory that hegemonic values were “common
sense.” It can actually be found in Practices of Looking 2001.
Christopher L. Pines - Ideology and False Consciousness Marx and his historical progenitors,
State University of New York Press, Albany. 1993
One of the concepts I had hoped to use in my essay was Marx's false consciousness idea, through
reading sections of this book, I discovered that the theory comes from Engels but is accredited to
Marx. The goal was to show that hegemonic depictions form a false consciousness.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/False_consciousness.aspx
More information about false consciousness but it had a nice, simple description of what the idea
is in a single sentence, which is what I was looking for in the previous entry of this bibliography.
Student ID - 189195
This image is my attempt at remix culture that I briefly mention in the essay. It shows an example
remix culture being done purely for amusement, but to others may had a different meaning.