Production 2: New Literacies & Popular Culture It can be hard to define new literacies in a single definition, as there are many aspects that encompass it and the studies that surround it. In the simplest terms, new literacies is a type of literacy that exists through technology, be it a video game, fan fiction, music video or some other form of storytelling that can be created or documented digitally. In comparison, traditional literacy can be found in books, texts, and other types of stories that conform to a traditional model like novels or poetry. Traditional literacy is more stagnant in a way, it can be analyzed and explored from page to page, but it does not allow a more interactive media like new literacies does through technology. In a way, new literacies can almost be seen as a subversion of the traditional literacy method. While both rely on a form of exploring stories and literature, new literacy allows the learning to be expanded to vast areas of interest. It can explore one topic, but through several different avenues, such as writing, creating comics or designing blogs, all based around it. It is only limited by the person’s imagination and ability, whereas traditional literacy often relies on a singular method of exploring a topic or several similar methods that do not allow for much variety in interpretation.
New literacies can be used in an interesting number of ways, especially when one takes into account video games. The term game literacy exists and implies that games can represent a form of literacy, “Game literacy refers not only to a game’s semiotic properties but also to its peripheral literacies, such as writing scripts, researching a backstory (the history behind the game’s plot), and walkthroughs (directions for playing the game)” (Alvermann, 2011, 8). Within video games, the player is given agency in the story; they are allowed to decide how fast or slow they want to pace the game, they can decide which ways the story can go, and even have an impact on the story if branching storylines exist. Games with decisions can give pause, and make a player explore the consequences of one choice over the other. It can change the narrative drastically and this can be valuable in a lesson. Through a game, teachers have the ability to allow students to guide how they want to explore the learning. New literacies give the opportunity to branch learning out into new, unexplored avenues.
Production 3: Critical Lenses Representation in popular culture, or rather more appropriate, misrepresentation is an all too common by-product that is prevalent in many works of media in our society today. It started out many years ago based on misconceptions and stereotypes that the general ‘mass’ population who created predominant media, and still pushes its head through to the present day with very little stride being made towards giving proper representation to various groups, such as minorities, people who are queer, or other identities or other aspects that are discriminated against because of a lack of awareness or understanding. Those people are not able to see themselves as part of the mainstream, they are pushed aside in favour of keeping the perceived ‘norm’ ready and present to influence younger viewers for generations to come. As viewers of mass media, we have consumed much of what is misrepresented, and if an awareness is not brought to this, often the belief is that these portrayals hold truth.
Appleman presents the idea that worldview is based on the “the perspectives of those who constructed it” (2009, p. 87). Mass media is centred on a singular view or perspective that comes from a place of privilege, or at least, those who participate in the media’s creation are often privileged in many ways that others are not. Our current worldview in popular culture is swayed by colonization and Western views that have been created stemming from that. A majority of what is read, watched, or interacted with, traces back to these views. The important thing to remember, is that we must always be critical of this view. Without the proper research and acknowledgement of ineffectual representations, we risk continuing to push forth these misrepresentations and allowing them to be viewed as truth.
Reel Injun brings forward the voices of Native Americans who are tired of the misrepresentation of their culture and identities, and shows how society is continually pushing against any attempts to create proper, realistic portrayals of Native American culture and identity within media and popular culture. Popular culture is more content to keep preserving the inaccurate representations of a Native American, rather than listen to Native Americans and fix the issues that keep prevailing. Educators must bring awareness to the inherent biases that exist in popular culture to the classroom and give students the opportunity to explore more accurate portrayals of Native American, along with other marginalized identities, that have been misrepresented, and give them the chance to view mass media from a critical lens.
Production 5: Critical Academic Literacies & Popular Culture The Three Pigs can be viewed as a deconstruction of what can be considered traditional or academic literature. In traditional literature, the story would follow a basic plot and adhere to a few common rules or tropes that are commonly associated with fairy tales. If it were the classic version of the Three Littles Pigs, each pig would have a certain type of how, each home would be lost from a similar action down by the wolf, the traditional villain, and a resolution would be reached that nicely tied the story together without much effort. But this story? It breaks those tired and old traditions in favours of exploring newer, fresher ones, “In the ideal, popular culture is an expression of universal human values, namely the desire and struggle for freedom from tyranny and oppression” (Morrell, 2007, p. 240).
The pigs break forth from the confinements of their existence that is shackled to the pages all because the wolf blows one quite literally out of the page. It is such a simple idea, but it allows the pigs the ability to interact with their own story in a new manner, and go on a journey to explore other stories as well. The words in sentences are interacted with and the pigs move letters around to create entirely new ones. This places the power of storytelling in the characters, and not simply in the plot itself. Often, stories use the plot to advance the story or keep the characters in certain tropes to allow for a degree of familiarity and this can allow readers who are familiar with these types of tropes to be able to predict where the stories can end. This type of story could be seen as breaking the mold of traditional literature and often times, stories like these are ignored in favour of what is familiar, “…literacies exist outside of the world of the classroom and can and should be included in academic instruction” (Morrell, 2007, p. 235).
But instead, the pigs run into other stories and save a dragon, a creature that is seen as a traditional villain, the ability to escape danger and become saved. The knight in that story becomes the villain for attempting to defeat or kill the dragon simply because of its existence. This opens the avenue for other forms of representation. It takes what is common, and allows a new view to be inserted, “The consumption, production, and distribution of print and new media texts by….marginalized populations…promoting individual freedom and expression” (Morrell, 2007, p. 241). The three pigs and the dragon are seen as equals, and not one holding power over the other. Stories like these are key, because they allow tropes and traditional forms of literacy to be changed and explored in new ways that offer other representations or forms of storytelling.
Production 6: From Toys to Video Games to Music Videos When one first thinks of video games, the common associated player is often a boy. However, gamers come in all forms, and half of gamers in the current day are girls, or older women. Society still presents gamers as male because they have been seen to be the predominant member of that culture for years. In no our game is this more visible than in the Pokemon video game series. Pokemon is a very simple game, you as the player, much capture as many Pokemon as possible, battle other trainers and come out victorious. It’s a formula that has existed from the first game and has carried over the ten years or so of games that have come out since then, “Toys that are associated with children’s popular animated films or television programs encourage children to play and replay familiar scripts and character roles” (Wohlwend, 2009, p. 59). The Pokemon video games now often allow the player to choose between playing as a boy or girl. However, the first few games only allowed the player to choose a boy, until the introduction of Pokemon Crystal, where a female character was finally added.
Pokemon creatures are often designed in two ways: to either be adorable and appealing, or odd and monstrous. There is no clear defining pattern when Pokemon are created, as they are made to meet demand and fill up slots in a game to expand the existent population of creatures in the game and entice new gamers to collect each one. The games, are however, clearly made to appeal to young boys. As seen whenever the game is advertised, the main player character is always male, and the players in those ads are young boys themselves. It has only been in more recent years that advertisements have been including players of different ages and backgrounds, dipping into the nostalgia factor to garner a larger player base, but the majority of players are still presented as being male, “characterizations convey more subtle narratives about identity and status that relate to global markets and societal beliefs about gender and childhood” (Wohlwend, 2009, p. 59).
There is a stigma that exists around ‘girl gamers’. A girl, who also happens to play video games, is never simply considered a gamer. Her gender is inherently tacked onto her status as a gamer and as such, the gaming society expects a girl to jump through hoops and over hurdles just to prove her worth as being a gamer. A boy, or young male, does not have to do such. He is considered a gamer by default, regardless if he is skilled at playing video games or not. A girl could be quite skilled, even reaching high rankings on a scoreboard, but there is always skepticism based solely on her gender, “Products that invite identification with familiar media characters and communicate gendered expectations about…how they should play” (Wohlwend, 2009, p. 57). This is more often seen with players of older ages, but is still quite common in younger players. Other games have made strides to include not only girls in gaming, but many other players as a whole, but there is still much that must be done to break the stigma and start anew.
Production 7: Graphic Narratives & Popular Culture