Audiences Negotiate meaning
There can be many different responses that people can have for a piece of media. The people that see the piece of media are called the audience. Often times, different audiences negotiate the meaning of a piece of media. This can be based off of religion, ethnicity, interests, etc.
One example is the Academy Award winning film, Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire is about a young boy named Jamal Malik from the Slums of Mumbai, India that gets a chance to take part in the game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Jamal Malik wins the gameshow, along with 20 million Rupees. While Jamal is waiting to answer the 20 million rupee question, he asks the host, "Are you nervous?" This is a key quote in the film because the host makes fun of Malik on the show because he is a slum dweller, and when he asks this question, it shows that Jamal is a strong young man. When the movie was released, the North American audience thought that the movie was fantastic, and it made millions at the box office. In India, however, the feedback was not so great. The Indian people felt that their nation was being shown in a negative way, with the slums and police corruption being major parts of the film. At Indian cinemas, only 25 to 50% of the seats were occupied. The Indian people were mad about the way that their nation was being portrayed in this movie, because North American and other audiences would think of the negative connotations in the film, when they heard about the slums and India. |
"OK. So there's filth and crime in India, but there's much more too." - Jaspreet Dua, Indian businessman Another reason that the Indian people were mad at the makers of this movie is because of the exploitation of some of the actors in the movie. Characters such as Jamal Malik as a child were played by actual people from the slums of India, and they were underpaid for their work by the film companies. This caused an outrage about fair pay, as the producers and other famous people involved with the movie, got paid obscene amounts of money. Also, some Slum Dwellers in India marched to one of the actors' homes and held up signs that said messages such as "We are not dogs", referring to the use of the derogatory term "slumdog" in the title of the movie. My personal view on this issue is mixed. I enjoy the movie very much, and I think that the cast, crew and story are fantastic. However, I do not stand for exploitation and the use of derogatory terms towards a specific group of people. I believe that the movie does shed a somewhat negative light on India by showing the police corruption and the slums, but it also is informative, in the sense that people in other nations will realize how much more fortunate they may be compared to people living in slums. Time Magazine Article on Slumdog Millionaire Controversy: http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1873926,00.html |