In “The National Entertainment State,” Rebecca MacKinnon
finds solace from media conglomerates in Internet companies that foster
self-expression. Do companies like
Facebook, Google, and Yahoo! offer more diversity than Comcast, Disney, and
Fox? And has much changed since this
2006 analysis?
Can companies designed for profit really foster diversity and self-expression when their main purpose is to make money? Or are they just cashing in on popular social movements in hopes to make money off it? Let’s take Facebook for example. Facebook brands itself as somewhat socially liberal and its company is more casual than say, an accounting office. Yet Facebook has been known to take down radically left posts/pages and leave posts about white supremacy and sexism alone. Mark Zuckerberg who “created” Facebook recently spoke out against Trump’s Muslim ban which many people praised him for. Yet the same Mark Zuckerberg wants to force Native Hawaiians to sell off their land in order to build a private resort himself and sees nothing wrong with his plans of neocolonialism. Twitter has been known to take down accounts of ISIS extremists yet leave alone the accounts of overt white supremacists despite both encouraging terrorism.
ReplyDeleteI would say things have changed since 2006 for the companies mentioned like Disney and Fox. Disney has been trying to promote stories past their usual fall in love at first sight plots. Take Brave for example. It is a Disney movie about the bond between a mother and her daughter and finding your own way in the world. Disney’s newest movie, Moana, also does not feature a love story and instead focuses on the heroic journey of the protagonist Moana. There have been some shows featured on Fox that are a stark contrast to their news shows. Fox features shows like Bob’s Burgers which makes subtle comments about sexism and class issues; and then there’s Brooklyn 99 which is about, granted, a straight white male protagonist but features characters like Captain Holt who is an unashamed black gay man and Amy who is a Latina nerd.
I don’t trust for-profit companies to encourage social change especially when it’s in their interest to make money off a political movement. No company is completely innocent in their desire to push diversity. But since social movements have really taken off thanks to social media, companies are capitalizing off the movements which mean more diverse and complex shows for us. So they don’t have the best intentions but it’s still a relatively good outcome for viewers.
Rachael M