#popresearch

[sassysabtown-blog]

In Catching the K-Pop Wave: Globality in the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of South Korean Popular Music, Sarah Leung explores the growth of the K-Pop phenomenon in the US and other countries. This article explains the production of Korean culture, but specifically looks at how K-Pop groups are created, produced, and managed. Leung wants to discover “the ways in which a small niche of cultural production has managed to gain such a widespread popularity and global appeal”(4). She conducts quantitative research to determine what countries were streaming K-Pop music videos on YouTube. Her research demonstrates music videos are more popular in countries such as the United States, Japan, Peru, Chili compared to countries like India, Russia, Algeria, and Egypt. Finding these demographics were easier than comparing sales statistics because most people have access to YouTube. If Leung were to look at music sales, she would have to take into consideration the accessibility to the albums internationally, and the amount of illegal downloads that occur. Leung finds that most K-Pop groups have a large international popularity due to their ability to relate to fans in other countries. This connection is achieved because most groups have a few members from countries other than Korea, and members are also able to speak multiple languages. When looking for members to create a group, companies often have specific qualifications. Besides having good looks and the ability to sing and dance, companies also look  for members from countries other than Korea. This automatically gives the group a connection to that specific country. These groups are also able to relate and connect with fans based on their music and performance. The article goes into depth about how “the industry actively seeks to make K-Pop stylistically acceptable to global audiences through that reinforcement of ‘strangeness’ with a certain amount of familiarity”(44). The “familiarity” mentioned is often created through dance performances, videos with universal themes, and even having English lyrics mixed into songs. This article demonstrates the production of famous K-Pop idol groups. Using quantitative research methods as well as other published articles, Sarah Leung was able to come to the conclusion that the industry has learned to take advantage of the growth of technology and mass media to promote K-Pop groups internationally. Creating songs and videos with universal themes, and recognizable English lyrics, is crucial to connecting with fans on a global scale.

[flamingpie40-blog]

“Age, Gender, and Compensation: A Study of Hollywood Movie Stars” by De Pater, Judge, and Scott (2014)

Looking at the intersection of gender and age shows the reasons why older female stars will earn less money than their male counterparts on the silver screen. In a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Management Inquiry, De Pater, Judge, and Scott (2014) have found that “average earnings per film of female movie stars increase until the age of 34 but decrease rapidly thereafter. Male movie stars’ average earnings per film reach the maximum at age 51 and remain stable after that”. The authors acknowledge the gender-wage gap and employment differences in predominately male arenas, citing that in 2010, median earnings of full-time working women were still 81% to that of men (De Pater et al 2014). While this doesn’t comment on racial differences in wage earning, it is found that as women get older, they earn less than men of their same age group (younger people have a smaller wage gap). While the authors also acknowledge that any movie has risk of failure and casting the most sought-after actor doesn’t guarantee success (see also Ch. 6 in ‘Mix It Up’ by David Grazian), they find that actors salaries reflect their market value (with older men earning more than older women as they age). There is a double standard for aging, with women entering the industry on average 6 years younger than men, winning awards at younger ages, and facing less-than-attractive role opportunities as they age (De Pater et al 2014). They find that age has different social meanings for men, who’s “well-worn faces convey maturity, character, and experience” while a woman’s face is “valued for appearing young” (2014). 

Using age, gender, number of awards and nominations, and earnings for their most recent films, they authors find that ageism is very much alive for women in Hollywood. While some might be skeptical of the research methods for this study (finding the information on websites like IMDb.com), I trust these findings because they utilize historical gender wage gap information and connect it to ageism. The study comments not only on the Hollywood wage gap, but also on how getting older is seen as a privilege or an obstacle, depending on one’s gender.

Here’s a link to the full article: (Located in Sage Journals, free viewing for USF-affiliated persons) 

Here is an illustration of the Hollywood wage gap based on gender and age (visual not from peer-reviewed article) (dadaviz.com)

[mediaculturemina-blog]

By: Monica Anderson and Paul Hitlin

On August 15, 2016 the Pew Research Center released an article entitled “Social Media Conversations: How Social Media Users See, Share and Discuss Race and the Rise of Hashtags Like #BlackLivesMatter,” which examines how “hashtag activism” impacts social media by specifically looking on how that impact differs among Black and White social media users. In order find this out researchers conducted a phone survey of 3,769 adults. In addition, they also analyzed 995 million tweets about race that were publicly available and posted between January 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016. Sixty-eight percent of Black users surveyed said that at least some of the posts they see in their feeds are about race, versus 54 percent of Latinos and 35 percent of Whites. When it came to posting and sharing items, 27 percent of Blacks report that they write and share posts that centrally focus on race, versus 20 percent of Latinos and 8 percent of Whites. Furthermore, researchers also conducted a case study on the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. They found that it was used about 12 million times from July 12, 2013, to March 31, 2016. Researchers also examined how pervasive the #AllLivesMatter hashtag is, compared to #BlackLivesMatter, and found that *BlackLivesMatt has been tweeted eight times more often. This peer reviewed research article from the Pew Research Center gives a great insight into today’s prevalent social concern especially amongst the black community on Twitter. People use social media as a form to get their beliefs, views, and values heard. The fact that conversation on this topic has grown so much since its initial creation then indicates to me that that’s why it is becoming so much more prevalent in popular culture. This social movement is unlike any other before its time because of how it is being quickly spread throughout different forms of media.

[michelle-cackling]

Employing Speech Codes Theory (Philipsen et al. in Theorizing about intercultural communication. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2005) as my theoretical framework, I examine communicative practices and beliefs as to what it means to speak like a drag queen as

This piece of research may be interesting to some. In this essay Nathaniel Simmons examines (and tries to make sense of) the speech patterns of the contestants of season four of Drag Race. Simmons first examines the speech used by the queens to identify themselves as a group, then he contextualizes Drag Race itself. Finally he discusses how Speech Codes Theory serves as an appropriate theoretical lens for the study. To collect his data Simmons “viewed each episode and transcribed moments in which contestants seemed to indicate culturally specific ways of speaking”. He then pulled out a few choice phrases (”fishy”, hungry” “family” etc) and takes a closer look at them.  This data is pretty accurate, if a bit lacking. What the author did go over, he covered thoroughly and very accurately. I can be sure of that because the way he broke down the meaning of the words/phrases is in line with how my friends and I use them with each other when we are talking this way. However, I feel that by not including “Untucked” (the “behind the scenes” after show) he missed a lot of the meaningful interactions between the queens where the conversations are more open. 

[verygiverreview-blog]

The survey on Halloween events in Japan

  A beer Japanese beer company, Sapporo, conducted survey in August, 2015. The targets of the survey were over 20-year-old and the total number of subject was 73,182. These people were those who subscribed e-mail magazine by Sapporo. There were 7 questions in the quantitative research. For instance, “What do you want to do on Halloween this year?”, “With whom would you want to spend the day?”, and “Where would you want to spend the day?” and so forth. The findings of the research were that more than 60% of people answered that they want to enjoy the event in some ways and the events are widely hold and became popular throughout Japan regardless regions. Also, many people from little children to the people in the older generation enjoy the Halloween events. As the number of the subject was large and many options were prepared as answer in each multiple choice question, the findings of this research seems to be reliable. What I found interested is that people in the younger generation tend to wear special costume as I had assumed, and the more common ways to celebrate Halloween in foreign countries, such as distributing snacks/candies and cooking seasonal foods with pumpkin, are not so much popular in Japan. From these facts, it can be said that the way people in Japan celebrate Halloween is somehow original and people in different generations enjoy the event in many different ways.

 Data from http://www.sapporobeer.jp/news_release/0000021178/index.html

In the graph, the vertical line shows the percentage, the horizontal line shows the ages. The question is “What would you want to don on Halloween?”  The answers to choose from are nothing, decorating, wearing costume, holding halloween parties, purchasing halloween goods, anything else, cooking with pumpkins and distributing snacks/candies from the above.

In the second graph, the horizontal line shows nine main region in Japan. From the result, we can know the difference of the number of people who enjoy the halloween events depending on different regions. 

In the third graph, the horizontal line shows the ages of the subjects. The question was with whom do you want to spend the day. The possible answers to choose from were husband/wife, children, boyfriend/girlfriend, friends, coworkers, and others from the bottom.

[popinsoc-blog]

Racism consists of both prejudice and discrimination based on the perceptions of biological differences between people. Racism since history has been a huge social issue and still continues to be one today as it is now a much more globalised affair.

This article looked at the concept of racism in the fashion industry and what those in the fashion industry consider to be “racist”. This was not done by examining what the word “racist” in a denotative fashion, but rather by doing a quantitive analysis of how often African American models were used on the cover of Vogue (the often agreed upon fashion Bible), and a qualitative analysis of the poses and outfits worn by those models of color who are photographed.

There were a few key findings. The first was that models are often placed within certain roles: women are made to be hyper-sexualized and shown in an animalistic and “tribal” style (such as animal print and bones), while men are made to look large and hyper-masculine. This is in clear alignment with Patricia Hill Collin’s article on Controlling Images. 

The research also found that those models who do manage to make it onto Vogue are very unlikely to earn a full page placement, and when they do are often tokenized by being the one person of color in a sea of white models. 

Finally, the reading points out that models are often made to look more white in their covers. They receive photoshop treatments and dye their hair in order to look more anglo, all the while losing the aspects that make them strong people of color. 

The article ends by discussing the Balance Diversity movement, which aims to have better representation for models of all colors. It also concludes by stating that many designers have claimed that they are aware of the problem of representation (or the lack thereof), and that they are working (and often, improving) for a better runway future. 

This article is important because it helps put into context what I have been saying about representation being necessary for better appropriation. If designers are going to be inspired and take from other cultures (as they should be for creative purposes), then they also need to make sure that there are real discussions happening around what good representation looks like, there have to be fair voices at the table and all the voices need to be equal. 

Moreover, we need to accept that there are many cultures that can be unfairly appropriated. This article focuses almost entirely on African American representation, but there are many other cultures that need to be represented. 

[institutional-reality]

Qualitative Research of Racism in Reality Television

One of the easiest reality shows to evaluate institutionalized racism in is MTV’s The Real World which aired for the first time in 1992. The idea of “seven strangers” living together in a house entered the homes of millions and is still watched today in 2016. In 2014, Cary O’Dell from popmatters.com published an article entitled “Reality TV’s Enduring Racism (and Other Proclivities). The article breaks down the usual framework of the participants on The Real World, the role of the gay guy, Southern Belle, “Hot White Guy #1”, “Secondary White Hunk”, “the one black guy”, “the one black girl” and “various ‘other’ ethnicities [that] will round out the group.” Looking at television as the institution in what I am analyzing, racism is clear in this basic framework that reality shows use to cast their seasons. The placing of an African-American individual in the same house as a supposed racist from the South is mentioned to fuel a fire between the participants and draw in audience members. As opposed to using this platform to further combat racism and racial tensions, the conflict between these two characters or other characters with different racial and ethnic make-ups, is disgustingly what attracts the audience to the show, even without the audience knowing. Clifford Geertz, an American anthropologist, once wrote that we all approach our racial backgrounds primordially, possibly without even noticing. When encountering a conflict or situation occurring on the basis of race, we often “protect our own” (43) Geertz states. If this is the case, when watching a reality show that has a character or participant with the same racial background as ours, we often will inherently “root” for that person. It is best to analyze the role of race in reality television with a qualitative research lens as opposed to quantitatively. Qualitative research highlights the why and how things happen within a study whereas quantitative research focuses on the statistical and numerical analysis of the meanings within a study or field of research. Rebecca Pardo, from the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Anthropology published an article entitled “Reality Television and the Metapragmatics of Racism” in which she qualitatively analyzes scenes and episodes of reality shows and hypothesizes that “the reality television genre has a unique engagement with tropes of authenticity and intentionality that exploits this dynamic of suspicion” (2013:65). In other words, Pardo wants to understand why and how reality shows emphasize conflict between racial groups and the authenticity behind it. Pardo also notes that reality television is “an especially rich site for studying the continuous formulation and circulation of racial ideologies” (2013:66), particularly in the United States. She uses a unit of analysis of episodes, interviews and scenes from popular reality shows such as Survivor and notes the influences of “casting, production, and editorial practices” (2013:65). In her research, Pardo finds that “African-American cast members avoid accusations of racism” (2013:66) against their White cast-counterparts in an effort to avoid accusation of using the “race card” (2013:66). Within reality shows, producers will often stage conflict between cast members on the basis of racial tension. Depending on the participants on the given show, this racial tension may or may not play out but will usually conclude with the White participant being labeled racist and the African-American participant as being overly dramatic and using the “race card” as an excuse for his/her actions. Pardo finds by qualitatively studying other sociological frameworks relating to reality television and race that within the United States, it is “no longer socially acceptable among many Americans” (2013:66) to be racist and instead micro aggressions build between various racial groups, especially when fueled by producers and audience ratings. Secondly, Professor Pardo finds, as she hypothesized, that “…reality TV’s casting and narrative requirements highlight racial conflict and rely on and reinforce common linguistic and racial ideologies, and that the genre’s engagement with tropes of authenticity and interiority compounds the reflexive suspicion about intentionality that already plagues many conversations about racism in the United States” (2013:66). This indicates that indeed production plays a vital role in the racial tension that plays out in reality television. Going back to Geertz, production and casting directors will intentionally enlist participants that will stay true to their racial stereotypes and ideally grapple with them throughout the season. Because the concept of “real” reality television is difficult to provide, producers have continually tried to feed into “the fascination” with seeing the “depiction of the activities of apparently ordinary, everyday people…” (2013:68). Pardo attributes this inauthenticity to the “highly constructed rendering of the experience of individuals who are skilled at performing heightened versions of their ordinary selves” (2013:68). Consequently, this fact shows that participants of reality television are casted primarily for their over reactions to certain mundane situations. For example, using Pardo’s qualitative analysis I can deduce that in The Real Housewives of New York City, this past season, Bethanny Frankel was given information pertaining to Luann’s boyfriend’s alleged affair on the grounds of her delivering the news and photo evidence with the most dramatic response. This example as well as the information Pardo found proves her hypothesis that casting and production does skew authenticity to heighten drama and ensure viewers attention. In regards to institutional racism within reality television, Professor Pardo notes that in her findings that “interpersonal conflicts make up a significant portion of storylines on many reality shows and racial conflicts are frequent” (2013:69). She also notes that casting tends to enlist participants who will adhere to “these role categories” and “create participation frameworks most conducive to such conflict” (2013:69-70). This further explains why and how institutionalized racism is often overlooked within reality television, because the intention of making it believable and casting participants who will stick to their racial stereotypes will create tension. Because the agenda is overshadowed by the dramatization of these conflicts, this “downplays [the] structural aspects of racism and suggest that its solution is to be found in the education of ignorant individuals” (2013:70). In other words, as opposed to reality television as a show or production company being blamed as the institution responsible for the racism, it often diverts audience attention to the structural and personal beliefs of the individual participant, such as, education (or lack thereof), family dynamics and socio-economic backgrounds. In conclusion, Rebecca Pardo’s qualitative research study affirms the fact that reality television uses casting, editing, and inauthenticity to promote racial tensions between participants, which are absorbed by the greater population. The only authentic aspect of reality television remains the everyday activities that these participants do on a larger stage which draws in the audience and makes us feel connected. But, the hidden agenda of production, as Pardo found, is that conflict is intended and the stereotypical roles of participants needs to be harvested in order for that to play out. 

                            Works Cited Geertz, Clifford. n.d. “Primordial Ties” 40-44.

O'Dell, Cary. 2014. “Reality TV's Enduring Racism (and Other Proclivities) .” Pop Matters. Retrieved (http://www.popmatters.com/post/183178-realitys-enduring-racism-and-other-proclivities/).

Pardo, Rebecca. 2013. “Reality Television and the Metapragmatics of Racism.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 23(1):65–81.