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BLACK PANTHER - MEDIA INDUSTRIES - Coggle Diagram
BLACK PANTHER - MEDIA INDUSTRIES
historical context
from the 15th-20th century, European powers colonised African countries and exploited the continent for both resources and slave labour
africans were branded 'savages' by the European invaders, their cultures dismisses as 'primitive'
during the early 20th century, African-Americans attempted to establish a new black cultural identity with movements like Harlem Renaissance
the
black panther party
(October 1966-82) was a political activist group established initially to provide armed monitoring of police behaviour and prevent police brutality in the US. it was controversial, with many panthers being arrested or killed in confrontations with police
cultural context
science fiction blockbuster an superhero genres have traditionally been dominated by white, male characters
in the 90s, actors like Will Smith and Wesley Snipes did break ground playing black characters, but recent action films and especially superhero films have rarely featured African-American actors in lead roles
last 15 years, marvel films have topped the box office
though this regularly featured non-white characters, they were often sidekicks
there has also been very few superhero films with a female lead(wonder woman and captain marvel being exceptions)
black cinema has traditionally consisted of issues-based social realism or have been 'arthouse'/'prestige' pictures
blade is one of the few superhero films to have a black main character
2016 - the #oscarssowhite meme drew attention to the lack of diversity in the films nominated
US/European news media tends to portray Africa as an underprivileged, developing country, focusing on civil wars, famine and terrorism
the victorian branding of Africa as 'the dark continent' has not evolved very far. very few feature films from Africa reach the western mainstream, and films like Blood Diamond, through featuring sympathetic African characters, still portray Africa as a dangerous and barbaric place
economic and political contexts
Barack Obama created many initiatives that aided minority and women's groups: from universal healthcare, to college and entrepreneurship access funs for the underprivileged
Donald trump has vowed to reverse many of these, winning support from mostly white, right wing Americans who consider such initiatives unfair
in addition, trump has insulted other countries and refused to condemn violent racist attacks in American cities
worrying statistics about the amount of unarmed 'people of colour' shot by US police led to the #blacklivesmatter campaign, which has utilised social media to raise awareness of an issue that has often been ignored by mainstream media
significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification
Black panther produced by Marvel studios, who became a subsidiary of Disney in 2008
they are also the films distributor = vertical integration
Marvel has histrocially sold options on individual characters or comic book titles e.g. Spiderman to Tv and then to Paramount
black panther was one of those owned full by Marvel - in 2009 a new team began developing T'Challa and lesser known characters
early 2000s, marvel studios began to produce films like Blade and x-men
when Disney bough Marve, they agreed to minimal creative influence over Marvel products
how media organisations maintain, through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally and globally
disney (the distributor) adopted a '360 degree consumer experience' to their marketing (wherever you look, there's black panther)
the concept was to make the film into a 'cultural event' across a variety of media and platforms and raising it profile from being 'another superhero' film into something more politically resonant
black panther's taser trailers were shown between NBA games and a special collaboration with Lexus called 'long live the king' that was shown during the superbowl
the films release also harnessed a political element to add gravitas
crowd funding projects to buy underprivileged children a tickets won support from celebrities - the film was released during black history month - plus Coogler, the stars, costume, hair and makeup and production designers all gave detailed interviews about how the film celebrates African culture
was a 'welcome to Wakanda' catwalk in NY fashion week + features in numerous fashion magazines (on opening weekend, 33% of ticket buyers were female)
Disney are adept at identifying nuanced demographic groups and strategies for targeting them
many of their products are 'intercultural' e.g. they strongly represent one cultural tradition, but in a way that resonates with audiences from other cultural/national/ethnic backgrounds
Disney has used recent Nielson research to challenge conventional ideas about the ethnic diversity in mainstream America
53% of Americans live in a multicultural or 'blended' household
67% indicated they were enthusiastic about encountering and experimenting with 'diverse cultures'
the regulatory framework of contemporary media in the UK and the role of regulation in global production, distribution and circulation
the BBFC classifies film and video releases in the UK
however, local councils have the power to overrule BBFC decisions and rate films differently
the theatrical release poster of black panther gained a 12a certificate
the film, like many marvel films, features very little romantic drama and no sex or nudity
it is fairly violent but the combat is fantastical (hard to imitate) and there is a strong moral code to most of the conflict
the film was classified as PG-13 in USA, and similarly in other territories
the process of production, distribution and circulation and the impact of digitally convergent platforms
the teaser trailer was released in June 2017 by Disney's sister channel ABC, during NBA finals
within 24horus it had been viewed 89 million times on YT
just before release, black panther was the most-tweeted about film on 2018 with more than 5million tweets globally
in mid March 2018, it became the most tweeted film ever with 35 million tweets