“In the midst of the vagaries of life, they provide us a trip to the land of goodness and fairies, of imaginations and possibilities.A childhood that wasn’t spent watching cartoons or reading comic strips, no wonder, seems too dull to imagine” .

Cartoon and animation is a major entertainment media and are the one of the most influential media content for children and young people. Animation and cartoons are also  an art to represent different societies like movies or music videos. Since the apparition of newspapers in Europe in 19th century , the role of cartoon drew on the newspaper has been “caricature” of political issues and injustice society. With the rise of post modernism and innovation in technology the animation appeared and established news values in the entertainment section.

Different cultures have different styles of animation  and drawing with elements that remind the audiences about its society. Out of all the animation , USA and Japan have a huge success in the animation’s industry.

But how and why?

 This is interesting to analyze the influence of Animation and cartoons from Japan and USA because these two countries could persuade the audience about images and values of the culture through animated stories. However the images diffused are quite different in terms of execution and pattern.  

 First of all let’s begin with the characteristic aspect : 

 In United States cartoons are mostly called comics and usually narrate the stories of superheroes which became the prominent genre in the first half of the 20th century during 1930s. In terms of illustration , the first superheroes comic “Superman” is described as a “Strong man with muscle and superpower” . The art style of comics is usually considered as “realistic cartoony” . On other hand after the Second world and the defeat of its empire , Japan began to diffuse their culture through japanese comic called “Manga” . Contrary to comics manga are printed in black and white without colors and adopt a more unique drawing style. The apparition of “Animation” and digital era make comic or manga characters become more vivid and more accessible for kids who haven’t learned to read yet. Children are easily attracted to 2D world environnement with the mindset of seeing it as “real” and no difference from reality. So this will lead us to analyze what are the effects of watching animations etc…

  When talking about animation almost everyone especially occidental culture has spent their childhood watching “Disney cartoon”! Disney is an american company which is one of the most influential cartoon studio in the world. Disney has succeeded in communicating with society by creating fantasy and dreams which create between people and its cartoon character , the main target remains children. With a lot of characters being animals who act like humans Disney could make a child become interested in its features. Everybody knows who “Micky Mouse”.  Every girls has dreamed of becoming a Disney princess during their childhood. So Walt Disney has the power of establishing news values into the audience’s mind since young age. 

For example: 

1)Beauty and the Beast takes us to the world of fantasy where the main character or the prince has been described as a beast for his appearance because of a curse. However with the power of love and the pureness of his soul , a beautiful princess fell in love with him.This story also have a moral behind it the true beauty.  

2) However there aren”t only “positive values” in Disney cartoons. A lot of time the main character in walt Disney cartoon are drew as “physically attractive”. The male character is often referred as a prince with attractive physique and charming personality. The princess in most of time wait for the prince to rescue her out of the problem. These images of the main characters make children  think that aestically and in term of lifestyle you need to be like these characters to have a good impressions to people. 

For example: Girls at young age admire the character of princess Elsa from Frozen and want to sing like her because the soundtrack “Let it go” which is very popular worldwidely. So even in the music industry Disney has a significant influence in terms of soundtrack creativity. 

 With all of these influences Disney animation became a pop culture around the world. The name of Disney characters became what we called “common sense”. The pop culture of Disney made people attracted to their product (models, dolls ,collection) and could buy those “impulsively”. Furthermore , the consumer could easily become a consumer zombie consuming Disney content because of childhood memory and brand loyalty. America is selling dreams and values to the whole world with this magical company.

 United States’s imperialism in animation industry also covered the super heroes comic adaptation and movies reflect the power of America , the country that protect the world from disaster. 

For example: All of the superheroes in Marvel or Dc universe are american. Everybody knows that the avengers’s mother base is located in the Us. There’re a lot of strong women like “Black Widow” and “Captain Marvel”lead superheroes which destroy the stereotype of dependent women in the real world which creates news value in terms of equality.It increases the credibility of Us as “world leader” and “super heroes’s home” . A lot of business aspects appeared alongside the rise of Disney and Marvel studio.

For example : Disneyland which attracts tourists around the world with the concept of representing Disney and superheroes’s world into an amusement park. The two-step flow theory could explain the success of Disney because even influencers or opinion leaders could easily a consumer zombie of Disney’s cartoon and product so they would automatically promote the brand. This is the hyperreality.

  Others genre of  american cartoons also have a success around the globe. The Simpson is a remarkable case study for its caricature of the real world’s society. We can notice  post modernism elements in the show. This cartoon also reflects the freedom of expression in the US without the censorship and 

For example :  When Homer and Marge visit the Springfield Art Museum. Homer takes a nap in the gallery and has a nightmare of various paintings and artists attacking him. 

Given that art of the 20th century has redefined visual art form The Simpsons is postmodern art because it rejected the traditional values and politically conservative assumptions of its predecessors and utilizes postmodernist techniques such as intertextuality and metafiction.

      Even if Us animation and comics have created brand loyalty and precious experience for the world , there’s still a country that can compete with them. The anime and manga from the lands of the rising sun , Japan. Manga has become a major cultural representation of the country after the fall of the empire in 1940 s. This is a japanese comic. Manga cover various genres and types : action , comedy , romance , horror , slice of life etc… If the US has Disney and Marvel Japan could compete these companies with Shonen Jump and its uniqueness of its anime’s world. Shonen Jump is a weekly magazine with differents manga’s story generally action and comedy. The japanese cartoons have more genres and are usually in black and white. The creative aspect and image of Japan presented in the Manga are prominent. 

     If Disney has created significant cartoon character then Shonen Jump has succeeded the same process. For example : Doraemon is a popular fictional cartoon character from the manga’s Doraemon , this is a story about a robot who possesses magical objects and tools to help a boy who is good for nothing named Nobita to improve his ways of life. The story happened during the second half of 20th century, the shows reflect the life of japanese people during the 20th century. Doraemon is also very popular in Thailand and influences Thai’s people childhood.

  Furthermore , with the apparition of Animation , Japan succeeded in integrating this industry with its own style of animation called “anime” . Usually they do the anime adaptation of mangas and their novels. The action anime from Japan could be compared to superheroes comics of Marvel and Dc universe. Japan also take advantage of its culture to create a popular animated series as “Naruto” which talk about “ninjas” (assasin or spy in the Japan) but with supernatural elements which make it unique and become world widely recognizable and could get the attention of all age of people around the world. Naruto has sold over 250 millions of copies(mangas)internationally. Shonen Jump is the publishing magazine known for its action mangas which are turned into anime. Japanese cartoons also have morals behind the story and value “friendship” or encourage people to follow their goals (shonen genre = young boy targeted). 

   But there’s a lot of stereotypes in the anime universe . For example : there’s what is called “fan service” to captivate older audiences and male audiences so sometimes women or female characters could be sexually be objectified which could create a negative impact among adult audiences. Even if there’re various genres or types there’re similar events or stereotypes in the story. 

For example : In slice of life or comedy anime (Toradora , My teen romantic comedy , Amagami ss)    the set up would be highschool life and the audience would become familiar with Japan’s education , school event , seasonal festival (hanabi =  firework during summer , yukata wearing , cultural event). The romance plotline in anime usually has a stereotype that the main character who is good for nothing but with his kindness he achieves to make female characters fall in love with him. This is a negative step of fanservice in order to fulfill the dream of certains type of audience because Japan has a lot of depressed individuals due to competitive society.

  Japanese language reaches the whole world audience because in seasonal anime series there’re only anime in japanese and subtitle english with a huge international fanbase the audience watch anime in japanese and learn the ways of how characters react or speak. Anime also has the post modern aspect in it. 

For example : Gintama is a shonen anime with parody elements and intertextuality about real world issues or parody of others anime to critique the stereotype etc…

 In terms of business aspect Anime has succeeded in selling products like toys , models or decoration because internationally it becomes a pop culture and has implemented a fraction of Japanese culture on the consumer’s mind. However there would always be a negative impact to this. Consumer zombie who’s addicted to anime world or watching it lost the sense of reality and react or act like they’re the virtual character this kind of anormal attitude is called “otaku”(anime geek). The hyperreality takes over the consumer’s mind and makes them reject the real world norm and issues. The Akihabara district become famous around the world because there’re a lot of shop selling anime product and services with anime concept.

   Japan with a lot of anime studio and manga publishing industry has influence in world entertainment and managed to convey their culture into it smoothly. 

  United States and Japan have created a large industry of cartoon and animation in their own country with values and social reflection in it. They succeed in responding the need of audience with their entertainment and creative ideas. 

Blog social issue

Introduction:

Disable or handicap aren’t only qualified as impairment but mainly “social problem”

– 3 Different categories of barrier a disability may face in daily life

• Physical barriers = chronic fatigue or chronic pain. For example when a building has steps, my wheelchair cannot access it and they’re therefore disabled but they’re enable if there are lift or ramps
• Attitudinal barriers = Behaviors of other non-disable citizens and lack of patience (for example from the article when I roll up the London bus sometimes the driver feel overwhelmed at the need to press a button to activate the ramp when their attitude is around my needs being additional difficulty , I am disabled

• Organization barriers = they could be refused from some organization due to physical limit and by the “reasonable adjustments” (as part of the Disability discrimination Act)

However with more media involvement in these social issues “disable participatory” is created (Ways of approaching and defining disability vary, but here we take a social, cultural and political approach that is influenced by critical disability studies, as well as media and cultural studies , sociology, and science and technology studies

A lot of media organization has been founded to encourage disable people’s role in society especially in Australia like –   Radio for the Print Handicapped, or organizations that caption television with subtitles or describe it with audio (the former Australian Captioning Centre was one of these), or lobby, research and advocacy groups such as the Australian organization Media Access or a long-standing coalition of groups who have worked on telecommunications, mobile and internet and disability (Access to media, enabled through technology, empowers people of all abilities to be more independent, to gain knowledge, make their own informed choices, and be active members of our society.)

On the other to strengthen disable participation in media the rise of alternative media (are media that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production, or distribution. Alternative media take many forms including print, audio, video, and Internet and street art.) .

These are new ways ‘to author, communicate, consume, and exchange in their preferred medium or media. Whether the use of internet radio and audio blogging by Blind people, or video and sign language blogging by Deaf people, text blogging by people with Autism, or many other kinds of blogs that allow for different styles of communication and for disability to be represented in different ways.

So we will have to look further and learn which platform allow disable people to post their blog or artwork.

Politic of disability participation:

In the arc of these developments, the use of blogs, websites and associated online platforms by mainstream organizations has played a unique, pivotal role, and merits dedicated examination. In particular, the sites Ouch! (BBC) and Ramp up (ABC) bring together content from across the media platforms of their public broadcasters with op-ed pieces posted by editors and disability writers.

Here we will focus especially on ABC ramp up website and its efficiency.

Ramp Up was established by the ABC in 2010 as a participatory media space where people with disability could share ‘stories … truths [and] resources … to ramp up the conversation about disability in Australia’ (Young, 2010). It was envisaged as a place where people with disability could finally have their say in a largely unsympathetic media environment. Founding Editor Stella Young urged Australians with disability to consider the site their space and to help shape a new disability media agenda.

Who is Stella Young?

Young was born in 1982 at Stawell, Victoria. She was born with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease, is a group of genetic disorders that mainly affect the bones. It results in bones that break easily.), and used a wheelchair for most of her life. At the age of 14 she audited the accessibility of the main street businesses of her hometown. She was an Australian comedian, journalist and disability rights activist. She had also worked as an educator in public programs at Melbourne Museum, and hosted eight seasons of “No Limits”, a disable culture program on community television station channel 31. She was known especially for her famous quote in TEDxSydney talk in 2014. During the speech she deconstructed society habit of turning disabled people into what she called “inspiration porn” (the portrayal of people with disabilities as inspirational solely or in part on the basis of their disability), she said “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much”.

In Abc Ramp up website’s display we get to see that articles are rather written by psychologist or disable people and is divided into “news”, “opinion”, “ audio” and “blogs” by having the audio’s option the site allow blind people to listen to news and articles which were recorded by

– Presenter: Lynne Malcolm

– Producer: Diane Dean

– Sound Engineer: Andrei Shabunov

  In the news categories we could discover a lot of news which are considered as “support” and “encouraging” to those who have difficult conditions living in society for example:

Probe ordered into claim school restrained student with autism in small plywood room

Central Queensland rugby league players find careers as disability support workers

Birthday surprise for young man with a muscular dystrophy

Lifestyle Solutions: Disability service provider being monitored in NSW amid management concerns

Furthermore in the the blog section we could see several articles posted and written by Stella Young herself before she passed away in 2014. The stories she told reveal the deep issues of disable people who are socially and physically excluded. Being disabled herself she could understand better than anyone.  For example there is an article in blog section called   “Dancing like everyone is watching” telling the moment when Stella went out during the night and attend to a party. She expressed her struggle by saying

“I dance because it’s fun. But I also dance because it’s political.

Just as I am aware of my body in those moments, the way my muscles feel as I move, I’m equally aware of the able-bodied gaze. Heck, I’m aware of it when I’m in the supermarket, on a tram or wheeling through the streets. But there’s something extra at play on the dance floor, and people not only look, they comment”

Also she criticize the fact that non-disable people tend to judge every moves of disable people as “meaningful” , “inspirational” .

“It is not uncommon for someone to stop me while I’m dancing, and tell me what great exercise it must be for “someone like me”. One woman recently commented that it must be “better than rehab”. Because anything physical I do with my body must have a therapeutic or ‘healing’ purpose. I couldn’t possibly just move my body for the sheer joy of it. There’s often a subtle assumption that we disabled folk don’t do things with the same motivations as non-disabled people, as though Normal People Things would not be important or meaningful to me.”

Stella said in her article

“I mostly dance for all the same reasons anyone else does. Because it heals my spirit and fills me with joy”

  In most of her articles she would support the idea of “social equality” and “body issues aspect” (sexually discriminate). Stella also writes guideline for disable people within her blogs with article such as “Practicing Pride in the face of exclusion” which said “Genuine inclusion of people with disabilities will never be achieved while we continue to ignore the most basic of access requirements”. Moreover the editor has been political in several articles on the blogs section:

–Stella Young remains opposed to legalizing assisted death in any form

-Support the funding of NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) by doing a petition to government

-Making the Disability Support Pension easier to get with her article “we’re damned by discrimination not the DSP” by telling a story of a young disabled man she met often who didn’t get the jobs he wants

Another section on the website is “opinions” where there are a lot of different people sharing their “opinion” throughout a personal experience or share a guideline on how to handle issues in daily life for example a lot of articles are about “mental health issues” or “intellectual disabilities”. There social article such as “Mental illness doesn’t discriminate, so when it comes to athletes why do we?” or “This is what actually happen with special needs kid in a mainstream class”.

    Unfortunately it was announced in the Federal government budget that funding for ABC’s disability news and opinion website, Ramp Up, was discontinued. (The budget paper said, “The government will achieve savings of $1.7m over four years by reducing the number of human rights commissioners by one.) On Twitter UNICEF Australia described the decision as a “devastating outcome” for all Australians.

Disable have to find another ways to get support and paid in a different community platform.  How will the site be funded? Should the editorial process be collaborative? Will authors be paid? How much? Should each member’s opinion hold the same weight?

In a sign of the times, a crowd-funding campaign was launched on 10 August 2014 as a way to save the platform and retain control of the media output that people with disabilities helped to create through the ABC’s Ramp Up. However, the campaign fell $7000 short of its target.

The community faced another setback when news hit that Stella Young had passed away at the age of 32 in December 2014.

Harmer also took the opportunity to criticize the ABC for not representing 20 per cent of the Australian community. She argued that a site such as Ramp Up should not be forced to seek out crowd-funding, given that the ABC charter mandates that it must ‘contribute to a sense of national identity’ (Harmer, 2014).

https://www.abc.net.au/rampup/