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ENG 104-Annotation #8

Boyd-Barrett, Oliver, et al. Hollywood and the CIA: Cinema, Defense, and Subversion. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.

Stephen J. Whitfield of Brandeis University reviews a set of novels focusing on various agencies of the US government. I will be focusing on his review over Hollywood and the CIA: Cinema, Defense, and Subversion from Oliver Boyd-Barrett, David Herrera, and Jim Baumann. These authors designed a coding instrument using certain keywords to obtain quantitative and qualitative data that they could put into their book. The book itself places an emphasis on four key questions that were to be answered throughout the story. The first focused on the significance of the CIA to the sample films presented. The second question was geared towards the political or ideological impact these films had. The third question had to do with the treatment of the CIA and whether it was favorable or not in comparison to other agencies. The final question dove into whether the portrayal of individual agents was seen as positive or negative. Despite the political viewpoints of the authors, their evidence of the CIA through many post-1960s film material is valuable along with “…the links the authors make to reported clandestine activities” (Whitfield 162). The goal behind using this source was to increase support for my argument; that being of the CIA’s involvement and influence in cinema. This source is credible because of its extensive coverage over many decades worth of films impacted by the CIA from the early 1960s to the 2000s. From as back as the early 1950s, the CIA had started to encroach on the freedoms of Hollywood filmmakers and their actions continued following the Korean War. Whitfield’s summary of Hollywood and the CIA: Cinema, Defense, and Subversion describes how the authors made “their own interpretations of movies when judging how another governmental unit, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was depicted” (Whitfield 160). I am using this source as another stepping stone for my research. This review will help back up my argument against the CIA and how they have brainwashed the American people through Hollywood cinema.

ENG 104-Research Progress Report #2

Going into my research paper, I felt as if I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write about. My father spent a majority of his summer at his childhood home In the Chicago suburb of Palatine clearing out the garage before the house could be put onto the market. If there’s one thing I remember from visiting my grandfather’s house (past the guns and swords), it was the World War 2 novels he kept in his office. I remember how the other nations looked up to the United States as one of the main superpowers that emerged from the Second World War. I will admit that our current presidency under Donald Trump and his emphasis on national security was the inspiration for why I wanted to write a research paper about denial. Once I got to an article about plausible deniability from James A. Douglass, I learned about the National Security Act of 1947 and its repercussions at the hands of the CIA throughout the Cold War. I started to rethink how I wanted to approach my research paper. I began to focus on the CIA’s negative impacts on the United States through methods of propaganda through the Hollywood film industry. Simon Wilmetts focuses on this in his article, “Quiet Americans: The CIA and Early Cold War Hollywood Cinema: Journal of American Studies.” Being that I am a Telecommunications major specializing in Video Production, I wanted to find a way to build a stronger knowledge structure of the kind of films that came of Hollywood during the early stages of the Cold War and what would become defined as the “Cultural Cold War”.

ENG 104-Annotation #7

Lennon, Elaine. “In Secrecy's Shadow: the OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941–1979.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Edinburgh University Press, Oct. 2016, web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=d1374c42-9319-4952-812c-a42f76d8c929@pdc-v-sessmgr01.

Elaine Lennon of the Edinburgh University Press reviews one of Simon Wilmetts’s most popular books “In Secrecy's Shadow: the OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941–1979” as part of Edinburgh University Press’ Traditions in America Cinema series. Lennon reinstates how Willmetts addresses the influence that government agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have had on the production of films coming out of Hollywood. The goal of this source is to show the process of how history has been concealing facts about Hollywood cinema’s portrayal of the CIA. Deception is a key factor in developing the credibility gap of the Hollywood film industry through its representation of the CIA specifically in the genre of spy cinema. Elaine Lennon is an independent scholar for the Edinburgh University Press. She got her doctorate at the School of Media, a division of the Dublin Institute of Technology where she specialized in film studies specifically in the practice of classical and contemporary Hollywood practice of screenwriting. She is a recent survivor of breast cancer and serves as a cancer advocate. I plan on using this source as a second opinion piece to bolster the credibility of Simon Wilmetts and how he helps supports my research proposal.

ENG 104: Research Progress Report

After analyzing my research proposal, I will most likely have to realign the purpose of my research question. On the basis of what will stay the same, plausible deniability and how it has been used on various occasions by the CIA will remain as the focal points of my research paper. Being that I am a film fanatic with a fandom of Cold War history, I will use various examples of how this particular organization (the CIA) has manipulated its audience. Now some of you might be asking yourselves about why the CIA want to control us? As long as the Cold War continues, they are free to enforce militarism with a strong emphasis in national security in America. Due to immense amount of material involving the CIA and their illegal actions across the world, I will be focusing on how they have used the medium of Hollywood cinema to influence their message to the American people. I currently have six annotations and plan on having my seventh annotation help tie plausible deniability, national security, and the use of certain films together. I have currently completed a rough draft of my thesis statement and will most likely need to adjust it following the completion of my seventh annotation. My goal with this particular source is to explain the “Cultural Cold War” that influenced American Cinema and how its misleading material deceives its viewers from knowing the truth. Credibility is thrown out the window as the CIA’s coalition with Hollywood keeps the nationalistic propaganda flowing.

ENG 104-Annotation #6 for Research Paper

Willmetts, Simon. “Quiet Americans: The CIA and Early Cold War Hollywood Cinema | Journal of American Studies.” Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press, 4 July 2012, www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0021875812000060.

The CIA’s collaboration with Hollywood is explained in detail as the article dives into the power they had on the type of films allowed to be released to the public. This was referred to as the “Cultural Cold War” and it kept the studio’s legal departments on their feet. Film companies were careful to mention the CIA in screenplays including any reference that points to the CIA itself. Defamation Law plays an influential role in how Hollywood was supposed to represent branches of the US government. Scripts that both directly and indirectly made references to the CIA were removed altogether. Their public reputation is sealed off in Hollywood due to legal restraints and censorship from the industry as a whole.

The goal of this source is to explain why the CIA wanted to keep themselves from being represented in the Hollywood film industry between the years of 1947 up until the year 1961. This was due to the type of activity they were getting involved in during this period of time.

The author of this article, Simon Wilmetts is an assistant professor of Intelligence Studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs from Leiden University. Willmetts is also the author of In Secrecy’s Shadow: The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema written in 2016 to examine the collapse of the public’s trust towards the government through the cinematic perspective of post-war spy films. His field interests focus on cybersecurity and surveillance.

I plan to use this source to focus on the correlation between the CIA’s role in the Hollywood film industry. In addition, this purpose of this source is to talk about the constraints in the film community when it came to representing government organizations leading to overall censorship of these said organizations.

Research Topic: ENG 104 3/11

To my English teacher, I am sorry for submitting this later than the intended due date. I had a bit of a hectic schedule yesterday and lost track of time. Speaking of time, my research topic involves going back to the year 1947 when the National Security Act was passed. I found immediate interest in this due to how President Donald J. Trump has been cracking down on national security during his presidency in the form of the southern border wall. I remember researching President Truman back in high school for a history project and knew ahead of time that his poll rankings were low during the latter portion of his second term similar to Trump. Truman’s execution to pass NSC 10/2 gave the CIA an unprecedented amount of power to violate international law in order to spread western influence to nations outside of “Iron Curtain” of the Soviet Union. The US government used plausible deniability to cover the tracks of the autonomous CIA organization. The involvement of the US military in the Hollywood war films during the 1950s and 60′s bolstered Western propaganda in order to suppress the communist message in which Truman was trying to contain. My goal is to explain how the types of western propaganda kept us from understanding both sides of the situation at hand and why we despise socialism over capitalism.

3/1 Annotation #5: ENG 104

Hantke, Steffen. “We Own the Sky: Jet Airplanes and Cold-War Propaganda in American Cinema after the Korean War.” Taylor and Francis Online, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 8 Dec. 2017, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01956051.2017.1343794?scroll=top&needAccess=true.

I went to OneSearch and found an important article having to do with Cold War propaganda through American cinema. The invention of the jet plane would lead to its heavy use in numerous Hollywood films throughout the early 1950s and mid 1960s. The jet pilot would become a common protagonist in Hollywood war films with actors such as John Wayne covering the lead role in the 1957 Cold War adventure-romance film Jet Pilot. A majority of these types of films took place during the Korean War since the jet plane was first used throughout this particular war. Since a majority of these war films were produced with support from the US military, it feels as if their role was these types of films function as propaganda to increase the discipline of American citizens trusting the military. Joyce Evans states that the films, “were labelled Cold War propaganda tracts because of their glorification of the competence of the military as an organization and their portrayal of individual military heroes” (Evans 47). Increasing our dependence on the military would help bolster funds into national security despite the fact that the films were made after the Korean War concluded. The amount of work put into the historical context of these films is very lackluster and should not be seen as a method to inform the public. They should be seen purely as articles of entertainment.

The goal of this source is to inform the public about the art of cinema can be used as a powerful form of propaganda to enforce military dependence.

This source is credible because Steffen Hantke has published numerous essays on contemporary film, literature, and culture in journals in both the U.S. and Germany. He is known as the author of Conspiracy and Paranoia in Contemporary Culture (1994) and editor of Horror, a special topics issue of Paradox (2002). One of his most popular works is Horror Film: Creating and Marketing Fear published in 2004. Steffen is a professor of English at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea.

I plan to use this source to explain the significance of Hollywood war films during the 1950s and how their funding by the support of the United States Air Force led to a cinema-based impact on militarization in the United States. In addition, I will explain why these films were classified as Cold War propaganda.

2/25 ENG 104 Blog Post

Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, national security has become a hot button issue. While it is not out of the norm to emphasize the importance of securing our borders, it is also worth mentioning that being unable to construct a border wall should not be a reputable reason to call a national emergency. Whenever the media finds one of his many obvious lies from his tweets, Donald Trump does what his father trained him to do and that’s DENY DENY DENY. (I never said he was very good at it.) It is because of actions like these that motivated me to look back on our past mistakes during the Cold War era. My grandfather always had his bookshelves filled with stories about the Second World War. Similar to my grandfather, I also found interest in war-related matters; however I became more interested in the negative impacts of national security during the Cold War. It started with President Truman enforcing the philosophy of containment to keep communist viewpoints from entering the United States. It was once Truman passed the National Security Act of 1947 that his National Security Council approved of NSC 10/2. This gave the CIA an unwarranted amount of power allowing them to bypass international law in order to complete their mission. Because of the influence of the CIA, they became powerful enough to become autonomous and control the decision of future presidents. That is, of course, if they were willing to cooperate with the CIA. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was not the type of person to abide by what the CIA believed was best for the country. His attempt to establish peace with the Soviet Union and end the Cold War at an earlier point in time would be shot down. JFK would be assassinated and the blame would be pinned on the Soviet Union. Overall I want to learn more about what influenced the US government to make destructive decisions during the Cold War era.

2/22 ENG 104-Annotation #4

Feinberg, Melissa. “Cold War Propaganda: the Truth Belonged to No One Country – Melissa Feinberg | Aeon Essays.” Aeon, Aeon, 11 Dec. 2017, aeon.co/essays/cold-war-propaganda-the-truth-belonged-to-no-one-country.

President Truman once claimed that, “If we could mobilize world opinion among all men who walk the Earth…there would never be another war.” It is through the creation of Radio Free Europe that they were able to influence their viewership to believe in messages promoted by Western culture. This medium fought against communism by using the power of “truth”. Radio Free Europe (RFE) was a radio station established in 1950 and it would broadcast to those in eastern Europe. Despite the organization’s purpose to rely on donations from US citizens, RFE was mostly funded by the CIA.

The goal of this source is to help advise the American people that the journalists of Radio Free Europe could never fully understand Communist societies. They brought in rumors and prevented its analysts from checking their own sources. This sounds similar to the fake news we’ve been hearing about recently.

This source is credible due to Melissa Feinberg’s status at Rutgers University. As a professor of history and European historian, her focus is on Eastern Europe, the history of human rights, political culture, and the history of feminism. Feinberg is responsible for writing Curtain of Lies: The Battle over Truth in Stalinist Eastern Europe published in 2017.

I plan to use this source to express the significance of Radio Free Europe and its impact on eastern Europeans during the Cold War. I intend for this source to inform my audience about the role of exiles in Eastern Europe on the basis of building Western knowledge about the Soviet bloc nations.

2/18 ENG 104 Monday Blog: My Research Topic

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been looking for annotations that would fit my research topic which focused on denial. Shortly following the completion of my third annotation, I learned about the origin of plausible deniability and its impact during the Cold War. The website showcased a book titled “JFK and the Unspeakable” written by Christian theologian James W. Douglass. It summarized how the passing of NSC 10/2 would give the CIA proper clearance to bypass international law. They used the tactic of lying as a cover to execute their missions. It was during the Cold War era that plausible deniability became the cover of both the autonomous CIA as well as how the US government kept themselves from getting involved in the influx of international influence. It was because of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s decision to make amends with Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union to end the Cold War and his decision to not cooperate with the nuclear demands of the CIA that they planned his assassination. Their coup was silent and the deceptive use of propaganda against the Soviets was enough to keep the American people from knowing the truth behind JFK’s death. I only hope that we do not make a mistake of this proportion ever again.

ENG 104-Annotation #3

Douglass, James W. “The U.S. National Security Act of 1947, the Origin of ‘Plausible Deniability’ and the Assassination of JFK.” The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, Serendipity, 22 Feb. 2017, www.serendipity.li/nsa_1947.htm.

Shortly following the Second World War, the United States had a new enemy on their heels: The Soviet Union. With President Harry S. Truman leading the charge against the spread of communism, he gave the Central Intelligence Agency, in the words of Secretary of State George Marshall, an “almost unlimited” scope of power when the foundation was laid for The National Security Act of 1947. In addition, the top-secret NSC 10/2 was approved by Truman on June 18, 1948. This would allow the CIA to perform a broad range of activities including having the power to bypass violations of international law. They would use plausible deniability as their cover while the US government could deny responsibility for them if they were to fail their mission. Lying and hypocrisy became crucial components of plausible deniability and the only person who was unwilling to cooperate with the currently autonomous CIA was John F. Kennedy. His assassination was a scheme planned by the CIA to keep him from promoting peaceful relations with Russia and putting an end the Cold War.

The goal of this source is to show that even the US government is responsible for putting its citizens in danger in order to enforce a fear tactic in communism; much like the Red Scare and McCarthyism.

This source is credible because of the peaceful background of the author. James Douglass is a Christian theologian and was a professor at the University of Hawaii. Douglass was a pacifist who was involved in the civil disobedience protest demonstrations against the Vietnam War. He established the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Washington and Mary’s House in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to writing JFK: The Unspeakable in 2008, he is known for writing a number of books dealing with anti-violence in the 1960s such as The Non-Violent Cross: A Theology of Revolution (1968) and Peace and The Human Revolution: A Search for Wholeness (1969).

I plan on using this source to display plausible deniability and the kind of detrimental effects it had on the United States during the Cold War era.

2/11 Monday Blog ENG 104: Researching within my Fandom

Before I explain how I research within my main fandom, I just want to state for the record that I rarely use social media, Tumblr, Reddit, etc. to get my information for this specific fandom. The fandom I am referring to is, of course, Avatar the Last Airbender and specifically ATLA-based research through the television series and the graphic novels. (I find some discrepancies with the story arc and character development of Korra.) One of the main things I remember from my Media Criticism course was to watch a film up to three times in order to obtain a clearer understanding of the material. In the case of ATLA, I watched it a total of eight times. I look into the subtle details of how each character develops from Aang, Katara, and Sokka to antagonists like Zuko, Mai, and Ty-Lee. From what I took notice of throughout the series, the main reason for a character to be seen as truly evil had to do with their willingness to change. Those who were able to separate from their irrational self such as Iroh were able to enlighten themselves and others to follow their path. On the opposite hand, you had his younger brother, Fire Lord Ozai, who manipulated and later killed his own father to severe Iroh’s birthright after the death of his son. It is due to Ozai’s lack of temperament that he was forced by the Avatar into a prison cell. It is because of Azula’s mental illness that she was sent to an institution where she finds joy in killing her mother. Change is the ultimate key to success in ATLA and it is through perseverance instead of natural selection that define the greatness within the characters willing to change for the better of themselves and their peers.

#change #peace #prosperity

ENG 104 Annotation #2

Dunlap, Riley E. “Climate Change Skepticism and Denial: An Introduction.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, American Behavioral Scientist, 22 Feb. 2013, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0002764213477097.

It should come across as no secret that the widely accepted scientific concept of global warming has become a topic of debate throughout Congress. Oil and coal are still seen as the primary fuel sources in the United States despite our advancements in solar and hydroelectric power. Because of the potential impact that global warming could have on an economic standpoint, a group of conservative foundations and a coalition of fossil fuel companies are trying to cover up the idea of climate change’s existence through the help of persuasive politicians and the influence of the conservative media. As Dunlap describes them in his article about skepticism towards climate change, “…the denial machine and its…operatives succeeded in masking their efforts as legitimate scientific debate…” The mass media has allowed outlier voices to have a significant impact on public opinion ruining the idea of a rational discussion to deal with global warming. People like Alex Jones make global warming seem like a joke.

The goal of this source is to explain how conservative media outlets use tactics of skepticism and denial in their campaigns to fight against the existence of global warming.

This source is credible because of the highly extensive research done by the author Riley E. Dunlap. For over four decades, Dunlap has been studying environmental concern trends in public opinion towards environmental issues along with the issues that arise between public opinion and policy decision making. His research is mostly comprised of analyses of public opinion towards climate change. According to Dunlap’s bio from the University of Oklahoma, he “has been very active in the development of the field of environmental sociology, serving as Chair of the American Sociological Association's Section on Environmental Sociology, the Rural Sociological Society's Natural Resources Research Group and the Society for the Study of Social Problems' Environmental Problems Division. Most recently he served as President (1994-98) of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Environment and Society.” Riley has been very active developing the field of environmental sociology

I plan to use this source to show how far the conservative media is willing to go to deny the worsening conditions of global warming through their specialized media outlets and think-tanks. In turn, I will explain how they have encroached their viewpoints onto the American people and how they have manipulated us by forcing our minds to believe that our carbon footprint is very minimal and/or nonexistent.

ATLA Fandom-Application to the Real World

(Before I explain what I am about to talk about, this discussion is simply to fulfill the requirements of a college-level English course.)

Despite being a fanatic for binge watching Avatar the Last Airbender, I have been relatively inactive in the fandom. For someone who feels like he knows almost everything there is to know about the series, I would still classify myself outside of being what most would consider to be a “true fan”. I cannot say that I’ve kept myself from using ATLA-based references in political circumstances such as the potential construction of the wall in the southern border. (No joke it got over 2,000 likes on Instagram.) I am continually using ATLA material as inspiration for writing screenplays when I find the free time to do so; however I rarely express my love and passion for the show because of how certain people will react to my post. Fandoms are a hostile environment filled with very opinionated individuals who will not hesitate to roast you for making a minor mistake. Even in the most peaceful conditions, there will always be that nasty Internet troll, both literally and metaphorically, who is simply looking for attention. This can lead to uncomfortable situations that make fans like myself reconsider the idea of being a part of a fandom. Like food and water, humans have used to Internet to gain popularity. In many cases, platforms such as the Internet and social media have been used to abuse people such as myself for not being “qualified enough” to be talking about a certain topic. Instead of trying to fuel the rage and desire of these incompetent human beings, I just let the fire subside. I see no reason to quarrel with people who think they know what they’re talking about. Similar to the concept of marriage for men, being right still means you’re wrong in the eyes of your spouse. It’s like how certain politicians think they know everything about a certain topic or a certain geographic location; yet they actually know absolutely nothing. They are lying to our faces because we are too easy to manipulate. Mass consumerism through the Engineering of Consent is only part of how we the people have been forced to abide by those in power. Those above us. Those with leverage. I hope we as Americans can catch on to these petty attention hogs before they cloud our minds with a lack of judgment and intuition to fight back.

#freedom #balance #equality

Annotation #1: ENG 104

Basch, Michael Franz. “The Annual of Psychoanalysis.” PEP Web - Mustang: Learning From Experience, Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, 1983, www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=AOP.011.0125A.

In an excerpt of his book The Perception of Reality and the Disavowal of Meaning, Michael Basch reviews over Sigmund Freud’s essay titled, “Project for a Scientific Psychology” and how people perceive reality. It is mentioned in the article that human beings must develop defense mechanisms such as avoiding overstimulation and traumatic experiences if they plan on overcoming stress or anxiety. Another word that can be used to describe disavowal is denial and it should come as no surprise if you have made an attempt to deny access of your personal thoughts and feelings to another person. Basch states that, “Should a striving for drive gratification threaten unpleasure, its access to motor discharge or secondary-process thought can be blocked by repression…” (Basch, 1983).

The goal of this source is to simply advise the public about coping mechanisms used for dealing with stressful situations. It also explains how gratification can be nullified through the repression of further expression.

This source is credible because of the fact that Michael Franz Basch served as the training and supervising analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. His interest in the field of psychotherapy was acute and He was the author of four highly reputable books: Doing Psychotherapy, Understanding Psychotherapy, Practicing Psychotherapy, and Doing Brief Psychotherapy. He died shortly after the fourth book was published on January 24, 1996 at the age of 66.

I plan to use this source to explain how the power of perception is capable of increasing potential deception towards members of a modern society.

Stranger Things Fandom Blog

I am doing a podcast project for a college-level Literature class where I have to talk about the fandom of the topic chosen for the project. I am writing about my experience with fandom from the Netflix series Stranger Things. For anyone wanting to know how much experience I have with this fandom, it is very little. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know much about the fandom for Avatar the Last Airbender outside the insane amount of shipping between the main characters of the series. I could talk about a number of different fan theories, but nothing breaks the ice more than talking about what happened to Barbara Holland “Barb” in Season 1 of the series. I know a lot of fans believed that Barb survived sparking the oversaturated meme #Justice4Barb. It should come as no surprise that many fans were confused about whether Barb survived despite seeing her dead body rotting in the Upside Down. I doubt anyone expected Barb to die considering the common television/film trope of killing off the girl who decided to have sex; in this case Nancy. It is truly strange how this series can leave viewers with more questions to be answered than with answers to be revealed and I, for one, cannot wait to see what Season 3 holds for the growing Stranger Things community.

#college #stranger things #netflix and kill

ATLA: The Ultimate Atlas

I can’t really say that I have been a part of many fandoms. Personally I am not usually one to post material on the Internet knowing that I will receive certain types of negative backlash for my beliefs. My intent for this blog is to use it for educational or essay-related purposes. Despite this detail, I see no reason to not talk about my admiration for the Avatar The Last Airbender series. I have watched and rewatched this series over eight times in less than half a decade. I own every single graphic novel released to the public eye. I would eventually get to learn about what happened to Zuko’s mother. In comparison to many of its predecessors including its sequel in the Legend of Korra, I have found that this series has aged extremely well. I still find it difficult to not shed a tear when I hear “Leaves from the Vine” from Season 2. The atlas that is ATLA guided me in a direction where I wanted to develop a television series of my own. I have continually been inspired from their passionate and soul-driven characters to where I want to create something just as magical and mysterious. I can only hope the live-action remake of the series won’t make me rethink my prior statements. Until then, may the brave soldier boy come marching home one day.

#atla #avatar aang #leavesfromthevine

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