Research Report

In this blog post, I will analyze the sources that I am going to use for Project 3.

CNN

Title/Author/Host: The title is "Comics that caused controversy" written by Henry Hanks on CNN.
Author: Henry Hanks works at CNN and is hired to publish articles from all the different areas of the website on CNN Digital, thus being allowed to have a broad focus where his opinion can be given on matters. He also graduated from Berry College, where he majored in Communication before getting his job at CNN.
Target Audience: The target audience is those that are interested in comics that however are not fully influenced by the actual source material. For example, most people who are familiar with the comics are aware that Spider-Man was turned into a half-Latino, half-black teenager. Also, many would be aware that the second Robin was murdered by the Joker after fans called to vote in his fate. However, many who are purely interested in the genre from the mainstream media such as the movies would not be aware of these details.
Purpose: The purpose of this is to educate the general public on the basics of what has occurred in comic book history. This can be seen in that CNN is a major news corporation and their target is to reach as many of the population as possible, and therefore the audience is more broad than just those who read the comic books. Also, Hanks citing basic comics like "The Death of Gwen Stacy" in reference to a controversy shows that he is speaking to an audience that may be familiar with Gwen Stacy after The Amazing Spider-Man films, but would not understand her comic significance.
Important Contextual Details: Henry Hanks on his public Facebook page has many references to comic books, and it is shown that he understands the world of comics based off of these references such as his cover photo for example. Another important detail is that while Hanks publishes a variety of articles, when a comic article is written for CNN, he is the ideal candidate to write the article from Spider-Woman to Wonder Woman.

Huffington Post

Title/Author/Host: The title is "'Fox & Friends' Thinks The New Captain America Hates Them" written by Todd Van Luling for The Huffington Post.
Author: Todd Van Luling is a Senior Staff Writer for The Huffington Post, and therefore has written many stories for them before and has been given promotions after starting as an Associate Editor for his good work while working for the Post. He also earned an English degree from William and Mary as well, and therefore is very well educated and fully prepared on how to write and edit articles in news.
Target Audience: The target audience is aimed to an older audience that grew up understanding the concept of Captain America, and the symbolism of what Captain America represented. This can be seen from the opening hook, where he relates to the audience making the comparison between Captain America and Fox News and noting their apparent similarities rather than their differences. He also quoted the history of Captain America, and how it was originally used as another form of patriotic expression during WWII. The audience is expected both understand these similarities and understand the previous history of the character. Therefore it is likely that this audience is designated to be older.
Purpose: The purpose of the article is to inform the audience of the recent altercation that Fox News had with Marvel Comics over the character of Captain America, and give their own bias about what had occurred in an effort to influence the reader to believe the same. This can be seen through the scathing remarks such as designating the reporter as a "'comic' expert". Also the author left the article off with a question to the audience to ponder with about whether the problem currently with America is really the lack of violence as it appears in history.
Important Contextual Details: Todd Van Luling according to his LinkedIn has had a very long history of understanding the different forms of film, and therefore has been able to see the new trend in comic book movies through a professional lense. Also for the Huffington Post he has consistently written articles about comic book films, and therefore has exposure and understanding to the recent trend of comics as well.

MSNBC

Title/Author/Host: The title is "Taking on India's rape culture - with comics" reported by Tony Dokoupil for MSNBC.
Author: He is a national reporter for MSNBC, and reports not only to a certain area but the entire country as a whole. He has a great amount of experience in order to be able to write and do the story, and exceptionally well at that. He also received his masters in American Studies from Columbia, and therefore is fully aware of different issues that effect society today, specifically in this case: rape culture.
Target Audience: The target audience, especially for such a highly experienced individual in such a public forum, is more liberal viewers all over the country. Specifically, more feminist voters. This can be seen right from the title of the article, as many liberal women are highly concerned with rape culture. Those with conservative beliefs would be less likely to care about such topics, as many question the existence of the culture itself. Another point that can be seen is that it is an article for MSNBC, which is renowned for their liberal bias as opposed to other news sources, as they feature political pundits such as Rachel Maddow rather than Bill O'Reilly.
Purpose: The purpose of the article is to highlight how individuals in other countries are dealing with the concept of rape culture, and offering possible solutions to the problem. This can be seen as the video itself focuses on the culture of India, and how the people in the country deal with most problems that they face. It also contextualized the solution and offers the possible solution as a solution to rape culture in this country as well, especially because of the context it gives to how America has updated the technology within the comics.
Important Contextual Details: The comic book features a survivor of rape as it's main heroine, and therefore it directly shows the challenges and overcoming of adversity that rape victims go through. It is also based off of a story that legitimately took place, as the author of the play took part in a protest where the victim of a local rape was blamed for walking out at night rather than the rapist being blamed. This rape culture and victim blaming inspired the comic book, and therefore is a direct correlation from the problem to the possible solution.

The New York Times

Title/Author/Host: The title is "That Oxymoron, the Asian Comic Superhero" written by Umapagan Ampikaipakan for The New York Times.
Author: The author is an activist that works in all different forms of mediums where he attempts to raise awareness for minorities. He has earned 2 degrees from the University of Bristol and the University of New South Wales, and is therefore very educated from a variety of different backgrounds. He also is known as a media mole, where he is able to incorporate into a variety of different mediums from radio to television where he is spreading his message to the people.
Target Audience: The target audience is those who read comics, and are very conscious about the political and moral messages that are prescribed by these comics as well. This can be seen in that the direct references to comics that are foreign and based off the ideas of the local area, for example a Muslim woman going through the struggles in comics. It can also be seen in the direct references to both popular and unknown comics, and the audience is expected to understand the references to comics without an explanation for context.
Purpose: The purpose is to state that multiculturalism is unimportant in the comic book world. This can be seen in that he does not agree fully with why there is such an emphasis for diversity in recent years from Marvel and DC comics. He also goes on to state that while he was practicing a variety of different cultures, he was still able to look up to Spider-Man and desire to be Spider-Man despite the cultural differences between the author and Spider-Man as well.
Important Contextual Details: He also states that he understands why that people are pushing for diversity in comic books, however he believes that the message of the comics are universal and therefore the skin tone of those within the comic books is irrelevant. He also has been a part of TED as well, which shows that while his ideas are a bit more controversial than usual, he is taking seriously within the community and he is able to show intelligence and care in his ideas.

Comic Vine

Title/Author/Host: The title is "Why can't the strong females have their own movies?" for Comic Vine, which is a discussion post started by user ThunderKong and discussed by the community from the time of 3 years ago and brought up recently to the present.
Author: The author of the article is no longer an active member of the website, and therefore his specific contributions to any part of the field can not be analyzed. However, every post is written by a different member of the community. These members are all very well informed in comics, and have consistent debates based off made-up circumstances to discussing what is occurring in very specific characters through the forums. They also are all well informed of the most recent issues that have occurred in the comics through use of articles published on the home page.
Target Audience: The target audience is those that are extremely interested in comics and up to date on what are the most current comics occurring. This can be seen in that most people who use the site are users and have accounts on the site, and are therefore consistently exposed to different and new aspects that comics provide. Also in order to be able to post, it is necessary for the user to have an account as well, thus encouraging the expansion of the audience as well.
Purpose: The purpose is to communicate different ideas about the world of comics among fellow lovers of the genre, in this particular instance discussing whether or not female characters are able to have a successful movie, specifically in the action genre. They discuss various instances where female heroes did have their own movie and the outcome of what that meant. Also they discussed recent developments such as within the new DC movies that have been released, and what these movies are going to mean for the future of female heroines.
Important Contextual Details: This is not a website where everyone is able to list out their professional credentials, as it is simply a website full of enthusiasts and fans. They are not able to have the same credentials that a professional journalist talking about this issue would. However, these are the audience members that are directly effected by what occurs within comics and have the most personal stake in the issues that occur here. They are not the target audience for my project, however they would have a very big opinion on what my project means.

Women In Refrigerators

Title/Author/Host: The title is "The List" for Women In Refrigerators, written by Gail Simone.
Author: The author is Gail Simone is a comic book writer, who specifically deals with many different female heroines in the DC Universe such as Batgirl and The Birds of Prey. Gail Simone has over 15 years working professionally as a writer, specifically within the comic book companies Marvel and DC, which are the two most famous and popular comic book companies.
Target Audience: The target audience is comic book enthusiasts who also happen to be feminists, or feminists that are outraged by how women have been treated within comics as well. This can be seen by the blunt list where Gail goes on to list off women who have been mistreated as a plot device, with most of the characters followed by a scathing description of what occurred to them. This is used to incite anger on the part of the audience, at the thought of how women have been portrayed as nothing but plot devices to be victimized. Also the list of respondents shows those who are interested in these ideas what has been going on within the industry and what is being done to fix these problems.
Purpose: The purpose of Women In Refrigerators is to educate those who are interested on the problems that are within the comic industry. This can be seen as the author herself being a very prominent figure within the comic industry, and therefore is an extremely professional opinion coming out and voicing her concerns of what has occurred and what can be done to fix it. Also the responses as well show the website being used as a direct way to solve the problem as well.
Important Contextual Details: Gail Simone as the author has gone about addressing the problem and fixing it herself as well. She worked on The Birds of Prey where she was able to take the character of Barbara Gordon who had been paralyzed and raped as a plot device and wrote the character as a source of all information operating in her wheel chair. Also, after DC was rebooted, Barbara Gordon was rewritten and returned as Batgirl, thus putting the best fix possible on that character.

Logo

Title/Author/Host: The title is "Perry Moore asks, 'Who cares about the death of a gay superhero anyway?'" written by Lyle Masaki for Logo.
Author: There is not much information that can be focused on within the life of Lyle Masaki, as they do not have a major presence on social media as the other authors of other sources do and therefore their credibility is more difficult to gauge. However, they consistently write about recent television shows, and also have written other articles that focus on how homosexuals are represented within the media, highlighting his interest in the area.
Target Audience: The website is designated for younger readers such as teenagers, and this can be seen obviously in 2 ways. The article itself directly correlates with media and how homosexuality is tolerated, something that the millennials and the youth are overwhelmingly concerned about and desire change for to allow for more equality as the article suggests. Also the website features many articles featuring recent music awards and results, similar to a website like MTV.
Purpose: The purpose of the article is to try and get the younger audience to want equal and respectable representation within comics. This can be seen by the lists that he made and also by the ending questions to the audience, both leading to inciting aggressive emotions in the audience. They hope to use it as a call to action for the audience to go out and demand change.
Important Contextual Details: The website is not a very reliable source in terms of news. Most of the article cites another list previously written by Perry Moore where he listed off characters that were both homosexual and treated terribly. They also did not handle this article as a source and was more of a regurgitation of Moore published for a different audience, especially because the story will fit their target audience.

The Killing Joke

Title/Author/Host: The title is "The Killing Joke", written by Alan Moore for the general comic book community, as it was published as a graphic novel rather than a legitimate article for a news source.
Author: Alan Moore is a graphic novel writer, and is known to be one of the greatest graphic novel writers in the genre. He has written other pieces such as Watchmen and V for Vendetta, which were both adapted into popular movies. He is therefore extremely influential, and his work has been revered as some of the most important in a character's history.
Target Audience: The target audience is for a much more adult audience, as the themes addressed in his work are able to be addressed on a college level an examined due to their level of influence. Also the events that take place in the work are extremely dark and violent, with the paralysis and rape of a staple character occurring nearly halfway through the graphic novel.
Purpose: The purpose is out of pure entertainment to the more adult readers that would be interested in this level of darker work. The themes within The Killing Joke do not truly relate to that of a serious topic outside of the work, it was simply meant for the audience to take in and enjoy, and it was commercially and critically successful in this purpose as well.
Important Contextual Details: The Killing Joke according to many, including famous actors such as Mark Hamill, is the best story featuring the Joker that has ever been told. It is meant to be extremely dark and graphic, and changed the history of Batman comics up until the relaunch where everything was restarted fresh and new.

VH1

Title/Author/Host: The title is "Michael B. Jordan, Fantastic Four, and the Racial Ignorance that Just Won't Die" written by Celeste Durvey for VH1.
Author: Celeste Durvey works as an author, and was therefore a member of the general audience and was able to see what the audience saw in the casting of Jordan as the Human Torch. She also does not have much history in terms of what she has published previously to this, and does not work for VH1 as a employee. However, this only means that she was not biased by any other opinion and was able to take the position member of an outsider and have it published in the work it was consumed for.
Target Audience: The audience is that of a younger audience who was exposed to the casting of Michael B. Jordan, and may have been on the social media sites voicing their opinion one way or the other. This can be seen in the VH1 website, where it is very apparent that their goals are similar to that of Logo or MTV, where they are working to publish gossip-like material that the younger audience will click on and read. Also the article itself has many different references to reactions on Twitter, which also shows that they are going for a younger demographic that will relate.
Purpose: The purpose is to note all of the bigotry surrounding the casting of Jordan and calling it out for what it is. Much of her article is hyperlinking to another source, where they go on to summarize the bigotry that even Jimmy Kimmel was showing Jordan in regards to this casting. She then goes on to call out all of these posts as nothing but racial ignorance over a fictional character, and that this bigotry must be put to an end.
Important Contextual Details: The author does not highlight her professional credibility, linking us to her Twitter where she does not have the ideal profile picture or description to show off a professional author. Also VH1 is not the most credible news site as evidenced by their website, and the content published in that website is not meant for hard news and is simply meant as "click bait" for teenagers. However, this does not render the points raised in the article invalid.

Daily Dot

Title/Author/Host: The title is "DC Comics asks artists to show their skill at killing off naked woman" written by Aja Romano for Daily Dot.
Author: Aja Romano works as a reporter for the Daily Dot where she explores geek culture and fandom and helps navigate them and reports back to those interested in various sites on a way in which to operate in different mediums. She also has earned a degree from Indiana University, Bloomington showing that she is not only a random individual who writes occasionally but has also been educated as well.
Target Audience: The target audience is specifically those interested in comics, as well as those who would be outraged at the rape culture that persists within the company, DC. This can be seen as the article was published under fandom, where many users go to learn about different things that may be considered geeky but they are passionate about. Also the headline alone grabs the readers attention and acts as a hook for itself, ensuring that the audience click the link and learn more as it almost seems too unbelievable.
Purpose: The purpose of the article is to ensure that those who read this article are well informed and take action to ensure such events do not happen again. It highlighted various aspects of those promising to boycott anything from DC Comics after what had occurred. It also highlighted that this has happened at DC before as the writers of Batwoman left the project after the creators refused to let the lesbian lead marry her fiance.
Important Contextual Details: DC Comics did apologize for the work, and did state that the drawing was taken out of context. Also, those at DC did not intentionally mean for any harm to legitimately come to the character and the panel was purely satirical.

Tim Wils - English 109H

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Research Report

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