writing samples
Here are some writing samples from classes I've taken at UW-Madison.
Class: Ethics of Entertainment Media
Kantian Ethics in Hotel Transylvania 2
Eliana Wasserman
Communication Arts 375
Professor Jason Lopez
October 28, 2018
Advertising is a major part of consumerism, and in this current media landscape, advertisements are truly everywhere. Ads span through many different media: from newspapers, radio and television, to a new age of advertising in the digital age. With the rise of digital media and more on-demand services, media companies have had to rethink how they use advertising. The traditional ad-breaks placed in a TV show can now be skipped, and new streaming services enable the viewer to avoid ads almost entirely. Still needing to sell products, companies have resorted to tactics such as product placement, where a specific product is placed or used in the TV show or movie as a prop. This is a tactic known as integrated advertising, and its practice raises a lot of ethical questions. Not only that, but it “challenges conventions established in the analog print and broadcast media era about the separation of commercial and noncommercial elements of media content” (Spurgeon 71). The viewer's ability to discern between advertisements and entertainment content really matters down the line. Certain groups may be able to spot a product placement ad and tune it out, but other more vulnerable demographics may not realize what is happening and fall for the message of the ad. In this paper, I will focus on a specific example of integrated advertising and product placement in the 2015 Sony Animated movie Hotel Transylvania 2 and the ethical questions as it relates to the viewers, who are predominantly children. Through a deontological lense, I will argue that this film’s use of integrated advertising is wrong.
A child watching Hotel Transylvania 2 will likely laugh along with Dracula and the rest of the characters as they navigate running a hotel and the interactions between monsters and people. What a child might not notice, however, is the name brand products that appear within the workings of the film. When Dracula is observing the zombies running the front desk at the hotel, a Sony VAIO computer is clearly and recognizably in view. Not only that, but a Sony cell phone is prominent throughout most of the film and is incorporated into the plot itself. Every time a character types or plays with the cell phone, the Sony brand is clearly in view. The products depicted in this movie are of real products that would have been on the market at the time (Sony XPERIA M2 and Sony VAIO Laptop). If a child viewer were to notice these branded products in the film, they might not think much of it. If anything, it might make them feel as though this movie universe were closer to real life, by bringing in products that might look familiar. A child might not realize that seeing a Sony computer in Hotel Transylvania 2 is actually advertising and the fact that they do not realize this is a key element in integrated advertising, an idea that Christina Spurgeon notes.
The effects of advertising achieve companies main goal - to sell more products. The ethical questions come into play because when people do not realize they are watching advertising, the idea’s and sentiment of the branded content could still enter the individual’s subconscious and therefore influence their buying preferences. Ryan and Hoerrner in The Diaper Demographic describe how companies try to promote brand recognition and loyalty in children from a young age (73). The obvious hope for these companies is for these children’s brand recognition to influence their buying choices as they grow up. Kantian ethics deal with the issue of consent and the ability to make rational choices. Gerber defines many different facets for consent, but in the context of this paper I will specifically discuss consent in terms of one’s occasion for choice and exercising independent agency in making a choice, and also the physical and mental capacity to make choices. (Gerber 57).
The issue with Hotel Transylvania 2 follows similarly within the arguments of Ryan, Hoerrner and Spurgeon. Young children might see the images of a Sony computer and cell phone within the movie and might not realize that it is product placement and in fact a piece of advertising. Whether they realize it or not, that exposure within the movie helps gain brand recognition and therefore could influence their buying behavior. This movie is rated PG, meaning that parental guidance is suggested for children 8 and younger. The children who watch this film may not be so media savvy to even understand what is happening to them when they see branded products flash across the screen in conjunction with the content they’re already viewing. This element falls within Gerber’s idea of consent, that a child, given their limited life experience and education, may not have the mental capacity to understand what is happening in an integrated advertisement. Kantian ethics focus around consent and the ability to make choices, therefore children are not able to consent when watching content like this, but especially in Hotel Transylvania 2.
We, as consumers and members of a capitalist society, might like to think that we have free and ultimately control and choice in what products we chose to interact with, buy, and even wear. Although there is not yet extensive research on the influence of advertising on children and their choices later on, studies have shown that preschoolers are able to identify brands and associate brands with quality (Slate.com). The ability to recognize brands is a clear result of the sheer exposure that children have to brands in general. This is seen in Hotel Transylvania 2 but also in other forms of media. The landscape of media brands makes it seem like we have choice, but we do not. The constant aspect of advertising and the association of name brands with quality subtly influence us to make certain decisions. We are being fed a false impression of our choice, that is actually taken away from us as a result of integrated advertisements. When being marketed to though media ads, children are “simply being used as a means to increase a corporation's consumer base, promote brand recognition or pad the production company's bottom line” (Ryan & Hoerner 76). Whether sony intentionally decided to put real products into Hotel Transylvania 2 to increase their consumer base or not, the effect is still that of brand recognition, which does aid towards the same result: brand recognition.
By being exposed to integrated advertising through product placement, childrens choice is being limited in a meaningful way because they might not realize that their choice later on to buy or consume a product may have already been shaped. That is a very clear example of what Kant would consider not morally just. In addition, this element also plays into Gerbers idea of consent, because a child in this scenario, they are not exercising their independent agency in choosing to consume a product.
The ideas from Ryan and Hoerrner in The Diaper Demographic concerning companies’ desire to market to children to ultimately create brand recognition and future sales relates to the Slate article about children recognizing brands at a high rate and associating those brands with positive things and quality. Thus, the synthesis of these two ideas along with the pervasiveness of advertisements through integrated advertising leads me to believe that the use of branded products in Hotel Transylvania is wrong. It is wrong, from a deontological standpoint, because the children watching the movie might not realize that they are being marketed to, and they might not be able to discern the advertisement (through product placement) from the actual movie itself. This is a situation in which their consent is being violated. Additionally Kantian ethics might also say that the child viewer’s choices are being limited in a meaningful way, because through these integrated advertisements, they associate that specific brand with positive things, and might therefore be in a position to choose that brand over others.
The electronics used in Hotel Transylvania 2 do more than make a movie feel relatable, but it promotes brand recognition and associates the brand with the good time and smiles of watching the movie itself. The ethics of the use of branded products in Hotel Transylvania 2 are not generalized to apply to all content with integrated advertising, but it is an interesting example. Through this paper I have argued that a Kantian view of Hotel Transylvania 2 proves to be unethical because the advertisements influence children in such a way that their consent is violated, and it also limits their choice in a meaningful way. The product placement in this movie raises questions about children as a marketable demographic and how non traditional advertising like what is shown in this movie may have an effect on their choice as consumers.
Works Cited
Bbngaabn, Aklear. “All of Sony's Product Placements in Hotel Transylvania 2.” YouTube,
YouTube, 6 Dec. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GBykUBK0u0.
Dell'Antonia, KJ. “Preschoolers Know All About Brands.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 2 Apr. 2010,
slate.com/human-interest/2010/04/study-shows-that-preschoolers-can-recognize-brand-na
Mes.html.
Gerber, David A. Violation and Valorization in the Analysis of ‘Careers’ of People Exhibited in
Freak Shows. Buffalo NY. 1992.
Ryan, Erin L., & Hoerrner, Kiesha L. The Diaper Demographic... 2010.
Spurgeon, Christina. Regulating Integrated Advertising. 2013.
Class: Gen&WS 523: Framing Fatness
Eliana Wasserman
Media Literacy Paper
Gen&WS 523 - Professor Katherine Phelps
2 April 2020
Eliana Wasserman
Media Literacy Paper
Gen&WS 523 - Professor Katherine Phelps
2 April 2020
Mukbang and Fatness
Fatness is so tied to food consumption, a sentiment heard in the medical world and in entertainment media. Consumers are simultaneously told to eat the most amazing foods and eat as much as they want, all while maintaining a slim figure. Mukbang responds to this desire. Mukbang is a virtual eating show that originated in South Korea. In these videos, people consume copious amounts of food in one sitting. Mukbang videos draw millions of views on Youtube and other platforms, and major news sites from USA Today, TIME and The Guardian have dedicated articles explaining this phenomena. Understanding Mukbang through the lense of critical fat studies can provide an interesting analysis of our culture's values of consumption and thinness. In this paper I will explore Mukbang in terms of excess and the thin ideal.
People watch Mukbang videos for various reasons. For some, watching people consume enormous amounts of food on camera helps with their own relationship to food. One commenter on “MOST UNHEALTHY MUKBANGERS ON YOUTUBE, Compilation” with 1,118,615 views wrote: “I don’t know if this is just a weird thing I do and no one else does. But does anyone else watch these videos while dieting to keep themselves motivated” garnering over 400 thumbs up (yourGorl Snapped). Every individual in this video is American and visibly overweight. In this video, fatness is constructed as unhealthy and a clear consequence of doing the Mukbang videos.
Interestingly though, the top 10 Mukbang Youtube channels are all visibly skinny individuals (Ranker). Not only that, but 9 of the 10 top Youtube Mukbangers according to this website are all young, thin, Asian women. It is worth analyzing why viewers are drawn to Mukbangers who share the intersecting traits of being young, thin, Asian women. These women maintain the thin ideal and demonstrate an ability to maintain that thin ideal while eating enormous portions of food. These women uphold standards of thinness all while eating extraordinary amounts of food for a global audience. The skinny and fat mukbangers perform the same thing and eat the same types and amounts of foods, but the viewership mostly edges away from those whose bodies seemingly reflect the food they eat.
A background of consumption in the modern era is helpful in understanding the popularity of Mukbang today. Erdman Farrell in Fat Modernity and the Problem of Excess describes how changing economics and modes of production allowed more people to have more access to food, and the average person gained access to the excess food that once was available only to an elite few. Pop culture responded by “mocking middle-class white fat people for too excessively indulging in the pleasures and freedoms that had been ushered in during the advent of the modern era” (Erdman Farrell, 41). This background shows why videos of people excessively indulging in the pleasures and freedoms of the modern era (food) are popular. Viewers of Mukbang can take awe and feel satisfaction from that consumption without having to do that consumption for themselves.
The viewer’s experience and entertainment derived from watching a Mukbang can be understood partially by the Erdman Farrell reading, which provides a historical background and response to excess and consumption. Also helpful in understanding how fatness is constructed in Mukbangs is Bailey’s Supersizing America reading. The film Super Size Me shares similarities to Mukbang as a genre, and shares some of the same critique. Bailey writes about the film’s corruption of the American Dream: “although late capitalism has blessed us with abundant goods and convenient services, it has also made it possible for us to consume without limits, a process that heralds our destruction” (Bailey, 446). Watching Mukbangs done by skinny people defies Bailey’s point. Mukbangs depict abundant goods and endless consumption, but the inevitable destruction does not come in these cases. By maintaining the thin ideal, the Mukbangers demonstrate endless consumption without destruction: the consequences for eating that way are not seen (at least not shown on camera). Using Bailey’s argument, the preference for skinny Mukbangers actually shows a desire to maintain the American dream: endless consumption without consequences. The flip of this lies in the unhealthy eating Mukbang compilation consisting of mostly white Americans. These fat Mukbangers expose consequences of over consumption and remove the entertainment and wonder out of watching Mukbang, leaving pity and disgust (according to the comments).
Any viewer theoretically could indulge themselves to the same copious amounts of food that the Mukbanger does, but they don't. They do not have to because that desire is satisfied through watching someone else doing it. Representations of fat Mukbangers prompt responses such as ending up in a “most unhealthy Mukbanger compliation” and get ranked lower in Mukbanger popularity. Fat Mukbangers garner responses from commenters saying that they watch the videos as inspiration to hit the gym, and in this way, fatness is constructed as a warning against excess consumption. For eating the same amount and types of food, fat people are branded as unhealthy and all the negative stereotypes of fatness are implicitly embedded in the videos. Fat Mukbangers both represent a natural consequence to excess consumption, but also a failure to the American dream: the ideal of limitless consumption. Mukbang as a genre attracts massive audiences from around the world and is an important pop culture artifact to analyze, especially in its representations of fatness.
Work Cited
Bailey, Courtney. Supersizing America: Fatness and Post-9/11Cultural Anxieties.
Erdman Farrell. Fat Modernity and the Problem of Excess
Ranker. The Best Mukbang YouTubers. January 24, 2020.
https://www.ranker.com/list/best-mukbang-youtube-channels/youtuber
yourGorl Snapped. “MOST UNHEALTHY MUKBANGERS ON YOUTUBE, Compilation”
Youtube. Apr 11, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veOszSsqk6I
Class: English 461 - E-Colonialism
Eliana Wasserman
Final Paper Proposal
English 461 - Professor Christine Goding-Doty
8 March 2020
Reaction GIFs and Oppression
In social media and online spaces, our language of communication has been enhanced by ‘reaction GIFs’. These short looping scenes provide examples of moods, physical reactions, facial expressions amongst others. With the tap and scroll through the ‘GIF’ widget, any tweet, imessage text, blog post, can be enhanced by the seemingly universal emotions expressed in reaction gifs. GIPHY is one of the largest curatorial and providing websites for GIFs, and half of the top 10 most used GIFs of 2019 depicted black people. Of the remainder, two depicted white people, one of a Mexican man, and the other two are cartoon hearts (Moser). As consumers of media, white people therefore are consumers of these GIFs. White people’s usage of GIFS depicting people of color has been criticized. This phenomenon of white people’s usage of GIFs, memes, avatar images that depict people of color has been described as “Digital Blackface” by the writer Naomi Day. In this paper I will analyze the popular GIF and viral meme “Ain’t nobody got time for that” and connect Naomi Day’s application of “Digital Blackface” to post colonial theory. By delving into the history of this GIF and its problematic applications I will argue that this GIF perpetuates racial inequalities through the Spectacle of the Other and the Thingification of the Colonized. Viewing this GIF through a post-colonial lens allows for a theoretical examination of its problematic use.
The phrase “aint nobody got time for that” has become synonymous with internet lingo and pop culture. People of any race could attach that GIF to an activity from doing chores to waiting in line in traffic. The real situation behind this phrase was far different than its common usages. Kimberly "Sweet Brown'' Wilkins survived an apartment fire and gave an interview to a local news channel, at one point saying this phrase. Her interview quickly went viral, and with it Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins became reduced to that one phrase: “Aint nobody got time for that.” At its peak, Wilkins’ interview was reaching millions of people and being shared on shows like SNL and Tosh.0. Notably, a remix of the interview complete with autotune and electronic hooks, was released later in 2012 and has since amassed over 66 million views. T
The significance of the huge popularity of this phrase and subsequent GIF and meme status can be explained with the same understanding of earlier Internet communication tools, such as emoticons. Patrick Davidson notes that emoticons help transmit information by framing content as positive or negative, serious or joking or just simply as entertainment (Davidson, 125). Reaction GIFs such as “Aint nobody got time for that” function in a similar way, and give emphasis to content that is easily understandable and recognizable as a meme. The GIF may seem harmless, neutral and accessible for everyone, however white people’s usage of this GIF and others depicting black people warrants criticism and requires historical contextualization.
Wilkin’s interview catchphrase-turned-GIF is not the playful, neutral or funny communication tool that white people use it as. Its usage by white people actually perpetuates racist stereotypes, and given a historical contextualization, could constitute Digital Blackface. Naomi Day of One Zero writes: “GIFs can be useful digital replacements for our expressions when we communicate online. But they can also reduce the people in the images into a single representation that blocks nuanced understanding of the groups those people come from” (Day).
Day describes how portrayals of black people through GIFs forces an exaggerated, caricatured single story. This reproduces historically oppressive stereotypes, such as the Black women as lazy and poor. Furthermore, white people’s usage of these images constitutes Digital Blackface, and “reduces Black people to stereotypes and enables non-Black people to use these stereotypes for their own amusement” just as was done in racist Blackface entertainment of the 19th century (Day). Although there is already scholarship and commentary about the problematic usage of reaction GIFs of black people, I bring a new argument by showing its relation to post colonial theory.
White people’s usage of the “Aint nobody got time for that '' GIF and other GIFs depicting black people is an example of color blind racism. Colorblind racism online is the idea that seeing the internet as a completely idealized race neutral space actually perpetuates racism. Although the people depicted in these viral GIFs are obviously people of color, something about the platform or function of GIFs reduces them to a raceless form of entertainment, just as the other popular GIFs, of dancing cartoon hearts function. White people’s use of this media shows a lack of awareness about how race prevails in those GIFs. Jessie Daniels describes how color blind racism operates online and in internet technology. Daniels further connects Stuart Hall’s “Spectacle of the Other” to the Internet, in that the powerful in situations of inequalities perpetuate inequality by gazing at representations of racialized others, thus creating “us/normal” and “them/others'' (Daniels, 1384). White people’s usage of Wilkins’ interview GIF turns Wilkins into a spectacle, an object of consumption. In this GIF, her story, personality and identity is flattened into the aforementioned controlling image, and also is used as entertainment. This example further illustrates Daniel’s argument that race cannot be separated from the Internet, and the internet. The shadow of colonialism looms on the internet.
When white people use reaction GIFs of black people, they engage in an act adjacent to our racist colonial past. This is done not only by engaging with black people through stereotypes, as shown in Day’s digital blackface argument, but also through “Thingification.” Thingification of the colonized is when colonized people become objects, property and a reinvention of the colonized (Césaire p. 42). In colonial times the colonizer would reinvent the colonized people as though their pre colonial civilizations were nothing, and then they would be reduced to property. This practice created institutional power structures that favor the colonizer, and that has not gone away even in our post colonial era. This practice of thingification is dehumanizing and white’s use of these GIFs participates in upholding those power structures. Thingification takes place by reducing the people in the GIFs into simple stereotyped images, and white’s use of them is for their own entertainment or consumption. This upholds power relations, and claiming for the GIFs to be neutral racless forms of entertainment would be to ignore historical traditions of blackface, racist stereotypes and the prevailing racial inequality.
When composing a relatable tweet and looking for the perfect GIF to highlight their point, white people may choose the “Aint nobody got time for that” reaction GIF or any other GIF depicting a person of color. White people may see their chosen GIF as neutral, relatable, unproblematic and race free, but theoretical and historical analysis suggest otherwise. The “Aint nobody got time for that” reaction GIF and its widespread usage by white people demonstrate the spectacle of the other and the prevailing hegemonic relationship of power that has remained in our postcolonial Internet era. Seeing this reaction GIF as Digital Blackface helps frame it in a postcolonial framework. Through colorblind racism, the Spectacle of the Other and the Thingification of the Colonized, white people’s use of “Aint nobody got time for that'' reaction GIF and other GIFs depicting people of color perpetuate racial inequalities. In the post colonial period, the Internet and its subsequent cultural productions are not devoid of race. Racial inequalities are systems of power that are reproduced in instances such as when white people use reaction GIFs of people of color.
For my future paper, I would like to further address the ways in which white people’s consumption of content created by, for and of black people is harmful and an example of coloniality. Specifically, I want to look into phrases like “Slay” and “on fleek” that have been created by black individuals but have been co-opted as “internet slang”. I think that these elements will enhance my current argument with the reaction memes by providing further evidence of white people’s use of black culture for their own entertainment and credit.
Works Cited
Césaire, Aimé. “Discourse on Colonialism.” Monthly Review Press, New York. 1950.
Daniels, Jessie. “My Brain Database Doesn’t See Skin Color”: Color-Blind Racism in the
Technology Industry and in Theorizing the Web.” American Behavioral Scientist. 59(11)
1377-1393. SAGE Publications, 2015.
Davidson, Patrick. “The Language of Internet Memes.” The Social Media Reader p. 120-133)
Edited by Michael Mandiberg. New York, 2012.
Day, Naomi. “Reaction GIFs of Black People Are More Problematic Than You Think.” Medium,
OneZero, 5 Jan. 2020, https://onezero.medium.com/stop-sending-reaction-gifs-of-black-people-if-youre-not-black-b1b200244924
Moser, Andy. “Top 10 Most Popular GIFs of 2019, According to Giphy.” Mashable, Mashable, 4
Dec. 2019, mashable.com/article/top-most-used-gifs-of-2019/.