Available Free at FlowTV (6.8)

The incident at the University of Florida last week brought many issues to the forefront.  The censorship and torture of a student is only one of those issues.  Horrified as I am by the events, I am interested in the responses in mainstream media that whitewashed the event, not unlike the response to protests in the 1960s and 70s, and the refusal of University administration to take responsibility (also like the earlier protest movements).  Now, however, the event and the questions it raises have been brought inescapably to the forefront by responses in networked media, with images and sounds that refuse the simplistic and reactionary responses by established voices.  More than anything else, this event tells us that (1) protest will never be only in “new” media, and (2) that emergent media forms work through a sophisticated approach to conflict, not consensus, in which community is a process of change and contestation.

With landscape as a visual and conceptual framework, this paper discusses the ideological implications of the film franchises The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Terminator. Through a discussion of landscape theory and its implications within a larger postmodern paradigm, it will examine how imagery and narrative construct visions of politics in the United States that deviate from their (often ostensibly progressive) surface-level messages. As each trilogy is a landmark in popular and film culture, and as they attained considerable symbolic capital in both subculture and dominant culture, they are ideal entry points for a discussion of negotiated popular ideology. Moreover, as the Terminator trilogy spans twenty years from its first to its third film, and changes considerably in its politics, it provides a useful counterpoint to the massive The Matrix and Lord of the Rings productions. By discussing all three through their visual rhetoric, it is possible to navigate the often perplexing worlds of United States ideology, and the increasingly blurred lines between progressive and reactionary agendas.

International Communications Association Annual Conference, San Francisco 5/28/2007 10:30-11:45 am