The Joker Myth as Mediated Stereotype in International Media Discourse

Teodora-Elena Grapă

The Joker Myth as Mediated Stereotype in International Media Discourse

Data publikacji: 28.09.2022

Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, 2022, Tom 65, Numer 3 (251), s. 19 - 41

https://doi.org/10.4467/22996362PZ.22.024.15951

Autorzy

Pobierz pełny tekst

PDF

drukuj

Tytuły

The Joker Myth as Mediated Stereotype in International Media Discourse

Abstrakt

This study is a critical mixed-methods investigation of the Joker’s ubiquity within international media discourse. The research comparatively examines the myth’s presence within The Guardian and The New York Times’ news reporting (1999–2020), and determines intermedia agenda-setting processes. Using a corpus linguistics approach, the paper also analyses news media’s deployment of the Joker as a figure of speech, with the purpose of identifying prominent news values. The results indicate a high prevalence of consonance, eliteness, proximity, negativity, and superlativeness. Moreover, the study investigates the role that user-generated media plays in perpetuating or countering dominant hegemonies, by semiotically analysing internet memes that use the myth within the r/meme subreddit community. Overall, the study finds that the Joker is a popular resource for the mediated construction of a derogatory stereotype, associated with sexist, racist and ableist myths, often in connection to political elites (Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Barack Obama), and serves as a tool for mockery, shame, and dramatization of events.

Słowa kluczowe

intermedia agenda-setting, Internet memes, news values, semiotics, stereotype

Bibliografia

Pobierz bibliografię

Abad A. (2016). Exploring Intermedia Agenda Setting Effects of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Louisiana State University [https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses; 10.06.2022].

American Psychiatric Association (no date). Mental Illness [https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness#:~:text=Mental illnesses are health conditions,Mental illness is common; 20.11.2020].

Bainbridge J. (2020). “This Land is Mine!”: Understanding the Function of Supervillains. In: L. Burke, I. Gordon, A. Ndalianis (eds.). The Superhero Symbol: Media, Culture, and Politics. Newark, NJ.

Barthes R. (1991). Mythologies. New York.

Bednarek M. (2016). Voices and values in the news: News media talk, news values and attribution. Discourse, Context and Media, vol. 11, pp. 27–37.

Bednarek M., Caple H. (2014). Why do news values matter? Towards a new methodological framework for analysing news discourse in Critical Discourse Analysis and beyond. Discourse and Society, vol. 25(2), pp. 135–158.

Bellinger C.K. (2009). The Joker Is Satan, and So Are We: Girard and The Dark Knight. Journal of Religion & Film, vol. 13(1), pp. 1–11.

Berger A.A. (2013). Media, Myth, and Society. New York.

Brodesser-Akner C. (2008). Hyping Joker – without exploiting Heath’s death. Advertising Age, 12.05.2008 [https://adage.com/article/news/hyping-joker-exploiting-heath-s-death/126981; 6.05.2021].

Brown J. (2021). A city without a hero: Joker and rethinking hegemony. New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 19(1), pp. 7–18.

Burke L., Gordon I., Ndalianis A. (2020). The Superhero Symbol: Media, Culture & Politics. New Brunswick, NJ.

Camp M.E. et al. (2010). The joker: A dark night for depictions of mental illness. Academic Psychiatry, vol. 34(2), pp. 145–149.

Campbell J. (2004). The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Commemorative Edition. XVII. Princeton.

Caple H. (2018). News Values and Newsworthiness. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication, July, pp. 1–21.

Chandler D. (2007). Semiotics: The Basics. II. New York.

Coleman L.S., Campbell C.P. (2019). Media, Myth, and Millennials: Perspectives on Race and Culture. Lanham, MD.

Coogan P. (2006). Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre. Austin.

Durham R., Wilkinson P. (2020). Joker: How “entertaining” films may affect public attitudes towards mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 216(6), p. 307.

Eliade M. (1962). Myth and Reality. Translated and edited by R.N. Anshen. New York–Evanston.

Erigha M. (2015). Race, Gender, Hollywood: Representation in Cultural Production and Digital Media’s Potential for Change. Sociology Compass, vol. 9(1), pp. 78–89.

Grapă T.-E. (2020). Joker in News Media Discourse. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Ephemerides, vol. 65(2), p. 41–65.

Hall S. (1997a). Representation, Meaning and Language. In: S. Hall. Representation: Cultural Representation & Signifying Practices (pp. 1–47). London.

Hall S. (1997b). The Spectacle of the “Other”. In: S. Hall. Representation: Cultural Representation & Signifying Practices. London.

Hall S. (1997c). The Word of Representasion. In: S. Hall. Representation: Cultural Representation & Signifying Practices (pp. 15–71). London.

Hall S. (2003). The whites of their eyes: Racist ideologies and the media. In: G. Dines, J.M. Humez (eds.). Gender, Race, and Class in Media (pp. 18–22). Thousand Oaks.

Harder R.A., Sevenans J., Van Aelst P. (2017). Intermedia Agenda Setting in the Social Media Age: How Traditional Players Dominate the News Agenda in Election Times. International Journal of Press/Politics, vol. 22(3), pp. 275–293.

Harris A.C. (1997). Trickster in American pop culture: A semio-discursive analysis of Batman and the Joker in the Hollywood Batman film. American Journal of Semiotics, vol. 14 (1), pp. 57–78.

Higuchi K. (2016). KH Coder 3 Reference Manual [https://khcoder.net/en/; 6.05.2021].

Hulatt I. (2020). Joker distorts the link between mental illness and violence. Nursing Standard, vol. 35(1), p. 38.

Hyler S.E., Gabbard G.O., Schneider I. (1991). Homicidal Maniacs and Narcissistic Parasites: Stigmatization of Mentally Ill Persons in the Movies. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, vol. 42(10), pp. 1044–1048.

Jenkins H. (2020). “What Else Can You Do With Them?”: Superheroes and the Civic Imagination. In: L. Burke, I. Gordon, A. Ndalianis (eds.). The Superhero Symbol: Media, Culture, and Politics. Newark.

Kavka M. (2021). A tale of two masculinities: Joaquin Phoenix, Todd Phillips, and Joker’s double can(n)on. New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 19(1), pp. 30–40.

Kellner D. (2003). Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern. London.

Kellner D. (2020). Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics in the Contemporary Moment. London.

Kellner D., Share J. (2019). Representation of Class. In: R. Hobbs, P. Mihailidis (eds.). The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy (pp. 1–6). Hoboken, NJ.

Kerins M. (2021). Hearing reality in Joker. New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 19(1), pp. 89–100.

Knafo D. (2020). Film, psychotherapy, and the taming of rage at the mother. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Doi: 10.1002/jclp.23003.

https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23003.

Langley T. (2012). Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight. London.

Lewis P. (1997). The killing jokes of the American eighties. Humor, vol. 10(3), pp. 251–283.

Luo H., Zhang L. (2020). Scandal, Social Movement, and Change: Evidence from #MeToo in Hollywood [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/26/few-women-lead-large-u-s-companies-despite-modest-gains-over-past-; 6.05.2021].

Markovits A.S., Hayden R.S. (1980). “Holocaust” before and after the Event: Reactions in West Germany. New German Critique, vol. 19, pp. 53–80.

Mathijs E. (2021). Ace in the hole: media panics, muted voices, and anxieties of consumption in the reception of Joker. New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 19(1), pp. 101–111.

McCombs M.E., Shaw D.L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 36(2), pp. 176–187.

McKay Ch. (2017). The Lego Batman Movie. USA: Warner Bros.

McLuhan M. (1959). Myth and Mass Media. Daedalus, vol. 88(2), pp. 339–348.

Mizsei-Ward R. (2012). Politics, Race, and Political Fly-Billing: Barack Obama as ‘The Joker’. Comparative American Studies: An International Journal, vol. 10(2), pp. 177–187.

Moore A. et al. (1988). The Killing Joke. DC Comics Inc. Edited by D. O’Neil. New York.

Nichols M. (2011). “I Think You and I Are Destined to Do This Forever”: A Reading of the Batman/Joker Comic and Film Tradition through the Combat Myth. The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, vol. 23(2), pp. 236–250.

Nolan Ch. (2008). The Dark Knight. USA/UK: Warner Bros.; Legendary Entertainment; Syncopy; DC Comics.

Peaslee R.M., Weiner R.G. (2015). The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime. Jackson.

Pirkis J. et al. (2006). On-screen portrayals of mental illness: Extent, nature, and impacts. Journal of Health Communication, vol. 11(5), pp. 523–541.

Redmond S. (2021). The loneliness of Joker. New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 19(1), pp. 65–77.

Richardson J.E. (2007). Social Practices: Journalism and the Material World. In: J.E. Richardson. Analysing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis (pp. 114–118). London.

Rogers E.M. (2002). Intermedia Processes and Powerful Media Effects. In: J. Bryant, D. Zillmann (eds.). Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (pp. 199–214). New York.

Scarf D. et al. (2020). Association of Viewing the Films Joker or Terminator: Dark Fate with Prejudice Toward Individuals with Mental Illness. JAMA Network Open, vol. 3(4). Doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3423.

https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3423.

Scheufele D.A. (1999). Framing as Media Effects Framing as a Theory of Media Effects. Journal of Communication, vol. 49, pp. 103–122.

Silvers H.R. (2016). Occupying the margins: Masks, microcultures and the mainstream media. Postmedieval, vol. 7(1), pp. 43–54.

Skryabin V.Y. (2021). Analysing Joker: an attempt to establish diagnosis for a film icon. BJPsych Bulletin, vol. 45(6), pp. 329–332.

Soroka S.N. (2000). Schindler’s List’s Intermedia Influence: Exploring the Role of “Entertainment” in Media Agenda-Setting. Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 25(2). Doi: 10.22230/cjc.2000v25n2a1152.

https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2000v25n2a1152.

The Joker: A History (2019). Documentary / Video Essay, YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9U9sjDmYYY; 6.05.2021].

Tyree J.M. (2009). American heroes. Film Quarterly, vol. 62(3), pp. 28–34.

Tyree J.M. (2020). Is it OK to talk about Joker now? Film International, vol. 18(2), pp. 133–137.

Van Dijk T.A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, vol. 4(2), pp. 249–283.

Vliegenthart R., Walgrave S. (2008). The Contingency of Intermedia Agenda Setting: A Longitudinal Study in Belgium. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 85(4), pp. 860–877.

Wahl O.F., Lefkowits J. (1989). Impact of a television film on attitudes toward mental illness. American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 17(4), pp. 521–528.

Wahl-Jorgensen K. (2018). Media coverage of shifting emotional regimes: Donald Trump’s angry populism. Media, Culture and Society, vol. 40(5), pp. 766–778.

Wiggins, B.E. (2019). The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture. New York.

Wiggins B.E., Bowers G.B. (2015). Memes as genre: A structurational analysis of the memescape. New Media and Society, vol. 17(11), pp. 1886–1906.

Žižek S. (2019). More on Joker: From Apolitical Nihilism to a New Left, or Why Trump Is No Joker. The Philosophical Salon [https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/more-on-joker-from-apolitical-nihilism-to-a-new-left-or-why-trump-is-no-joker/; 2.05.2021]

Informacje

Informacje: Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, 2022, Tom 65, Numer 3 (251), s. 19 - 41

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/22996362PZ.22.024.15951

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Tytuły:

Polski:

The Joker Myth as Mediated Stereotype in International Media Discourse

Angielski:

The Joker Myth as Mediated Stereotype in International Media Discourse

Autorzy

Teodora-Elena Grapă

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0810-9097

Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

Publikacja: 28.09.2022

Status artykułu: Otwarte

Licencja: CC BY

Udział procentowy autorów:

Teodora-Elena Grapă (Autor) - 100%

Korekty artykułu:

Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Liczba wyświetleń: 843

Liczba pobrań: 960

<p> The Joker Myth as Mediated Stereotype in International Media Discourse</p>

Pobierz xml