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official-michael-afton · 4 years ago

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Wait what's the recent event and news things?

Let me not only explain but also give an initial reaction to things!

Tw: US Politics, mentions of transphobia, homophobia, and racism

WHAT WE KNOW: A few hours ago, today (June 10, 2021), a tweet was released explaining that Scott Cawthon had donated thousands of dollars to various Republican parties including Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell prior to the 2020 US Presidential Election. You can find the tweet here.

This source can be accessed here

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THIS INFORMATION: While not 100% certain this is our Scott Cawthon, it's safe to assume so. The location and occupations line up. This site also appears to be legitimate, though I cannot confirm with certainty. But considering it's a whole database and not just a screenshot, I think it's safe to assume it's a legitimate source unless proven otherwise.

This is the facts, from this point on I will give some advice on how to handle this.

WHY THIS IS A BAD THING: To many people, this seems like a non-issue. People have the right to their political beliefs and I will forever argue that cancel culture is absurdly toxic. However, when ones political beliefs actively harm minorities, they're more than just "beliefs".

Many of the people that Scott has financially supported have pushed anti-LGBT bills and have pushed homophobic and transphobic ideologies. Many of these people have also pushed bills for voter suppression(often in largely democratic and/or POC communities) and pushed racist ideologies as well. Unfortunately, by financially supporting these candidates, one is actively causing harm to minority groups.

Scott has the right to use his personal money how he wants, but there's no denying that FNaF is a major source of income for him. And he likely used a lot of his profits to support these parties. It hurts to say it, but it's very likely that by financially supporting fnaf, we gave him the funds to support the very people trying to hurt us. Thats where the problem is.

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

I encourage people to take some time to deal with this news. Because it's big and it's heavy. We shouldn't form parasocial relationships, absolutely, but it's very reasonable to feel hurt by this. I've supported Scott since I was a teenager, since 2014, and to know that, while this whole time I've realized I was a man and started transitioning and everything... I've been giving my money to someone who likely used that money to support the same people who fight against my right to exist. I'm sure you can understand why that's painful. Many people grew up on this series and many of us are POC, LGBT, and/or other minority groups that have been harmed by far right political parties.

So take some time to comes to terms with this, find out what this means for you, and how you want to move forward, there is no right answer.

That being said, this is very new news. There may be more that gets revealed, so I encourage waiting to hear more. I want to wait until I hear a statement from Scott or enough time passes that- he just won't. The biggest problem with cancel culture is the idea of dropping someone like a hot potato without even knowing why- so take the time to find out more if you can.

DO NOT. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. HARASS ANYONE IN THE FNAF COMMUNITY FOR STILL LIKING FNAF. It does no good for anyone. People have been in this fandom for literal years, and to expect people to just ditch it is not only unreasonable, it's unproductive. People are still allowed to like this series, own merch, make content, etc. Your mutuals are not the enemy.

SHOULD I STILL LIKE FNAF?

I have 2 points I want to make about this question

I encourage you to stop financially supporting official fnaf stuff. Again, knowing that my money is quite possibly being used to support the people who want to harm people like me and my mutuals, I can't in good conscience continue to give my money to Scott. I won't harass anyone over this, but I encourage you to do the same. I recommend instead, if you have the money, to support fan creators! Commissions, fan merch, etc- that way your money goes to supporting minority creators instead! (If you already own merch, there's no point in throwing it out. I mean you won't get your money back so it doesn't make a difference one way or another)

That being said, I personally believe that you are still allowed to enjoy the fnaf series. The series doesn't push any problematic ideologies(the worst is an insensitive joke here or there, but that's literally every media ever), so I believe you're not doing any harm by liking it still. It's like how people can still like Harry Potter as a series, but refuse to give any support to JK Rowling.

Honestly if you still want to consume new content/games, I recommend watching a let's play or something where you're not spending any money. *Puts on Camp Counselor Voice* And remember kids, don't ever p*rate things, that's bad *wink wink*

Again, this is all very new, so take your time to deal with it, okay?

TL; DR- It's extremely likely that Scott Cawthon has financially supported far-right Republican parties such as Trump, McConnell, etc. Supporting these parties does active harm to minority groups- especially POC and/or LGBT+ communities. This is all very new, so I encourage you to take your time in reacting to this. I encourage you to stop financially supporting Scott, and instead support fan creators instead(if you're able to of course). I believe it's still okay to continue to enjoy FNaF though, and encourage you to support your mutuals instead of dropping the series like a hot potato, if you can.

Remember to practice self care, and please don't discourse on this post. This is just the facts and how I believe we should react to this in the most productive way we can. Love you! 💜

#discourse tw #long post #us politics tw #transphobia mention #racism mention #homophobia mention #ask to tag #sorry for the heavy shite guys but we'll be okay!

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sr15txbrock-blog · 6 years ago

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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #1

In the course so far we have dealt with three main ideas, in the first week we discussed the history and the concept of the audience alongside Livingstone’s article about the critical role of the interview in the history of audience research. Week 2 dove into the effects of media messages with Brown’s article on the four processes of audience involvement with media personae and last week was about public opinion and audience citizenship where we read Neubaum’s article which discussed the expected sanctions for expressing minority opinions online and offline. I will address all three of these weeks and give the first example of an audience experience that comes to mind with each topic.

It’s obvious that the history of audience research is key when thinking and discussing audiences and the experiences they bring/create. Livingstone spokethe importance of knowing your audience andof interviewing audiences as a way to open up new forms of analysis, (ethnographic research, if you will) he states “…it helped explain why the universalistic claims of media effects theories only ever apply contingently, for media influence always depends on the context. In short, drawing on a rich mixture of semiotic theory, cultural critique, anthropological methods, and the feminist revalorization of the ‘‘everyday,’’ audience reception studies, accompanied by audience ethnographies, launched a successful challenge to hitherto dominant theories of mass communication.”(Livingstone,2010, P.568). Figuring out what audiences think and understand is crucial to being able to use an audience to your advantage. We can use a Trump rally as an example of an audience experience for this topic. It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has expressed many (questionable) opinions to his audience, which is not only the United States but him becoming president has become such a strange and shocking moment in history that his presidency and unfortunately his ideologies have been expressed internationally through the media. His rallies are a good example of interviewing audiences to use them to his advantage because at these rally’s he interacts with different, large groups of people, majority of whom support him and his opinions (however negative and problematic they may me), but by interacting with them and meeting them it allows him to receive positive and negative feedback. He learns about what they agree with and like and what they don’t like, he seems how far he can push boundaries and ultimately learns what to do to become the highlight in the media thus bringing him more publicity and once again becoming a hot topic of conversation. In lecture for this week, we spoke of the Trump inauguration crowd photos which had been edited to show fewer amount of people present – we also touched on the “plaid shirt guy” who was removed from one of Trumps rallies due to his lack of enthusiasm. Things like this go viral, and going viral means you are now being spoken about and discussed internationally through media. “Outcome sees people as being acted upon by media. Typically, it reflects a concern about the power of media to produce detrimental effects on individuals, and by implication on society as a whole” (Sullivan) These Trump rallies created many viral videos and photos that were spoken of endlessly. CNN compiled a list of the most outrageous things Trump has said during his rallies and I will share the link to prove how absurd some of the things he has said to a mass audience has been. But his interviewing audience skills are so well that the people who back him up and support him will in return defend his honour against the rest of the world that thinks he’s a bit of a knob. One of the quotes from the CNN link show that Trump had said “We're building the wall. It's going up." – In relation to immigrants and not allowing them into the USA. He creates these negative ideologies and feeds them to his audience and since he knows that his audience accepts it, they just eat it up and all it does is create a mass audience of negativity and it’s scary. But that just goes to show the power of knowing your audience and knowing what to say to reach them.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/03/politics/donald-trump-mississippi-speech-christine-blasey-ford/index.html

Now, I’m going to use the same audience experience for week 2 and 3 because I have a lot to say about it as it was HUGE in the media and is still continuing to be relevant. “Cooley was one of the first intellectuals to link the development of individuals’ psyches and worldviews with their immediate surroundings, including social feedback from peers, parents, and other authority figures; and messages carried by communications media via print, telegraph, telephones, to name a few” (Sullivan, p. 27). These two weeks dealt with a common theme of public opinion, the effects of media messages and the overall power of an audience when it comes to expressing opinions. Brown’s article touched on the influence that well-known people (such as celebrities) can have on audiences and the emotional and psychological participation these audiences share with these personae’s. He examined four main ideas:Transportationwhich Brown describes as “the involvement in a story and involvement with the characters of a story, noting that attachment to characters may play a critical role in narrative-based belief change” (Brown, 2015, P. 262). He also used the phrase “transportation into a narrative world”. Parasocial Interactionwhich he describes as a “self-defined one-way relationship” in a self-made imaginary interaction created between the audience member and the personae they admire. Identificationis what Brown describes as “the internalization of the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the object of identification by the person who is being influenced”. And finally, worship which he says is “the most recently conceptualized and most intense form of involvement with media personae is identified as worship. Focusing on audience involvement with celebrities and how media consumers tend to idolize celebrity personae, even to degree that they consider such involvement to emulate worship”. (Brown, 2015, P. 266).

In Neubaum’s article about expressing minority opinions in offline and online communities, he discusses the fear people may have in expressing a minority opinion across social media or in social situations and the fear people have in general of voicing their opinions. Surely by this point we have all heard about the #MeToo movement. The Me-Too movement started as a hashtag on social media in late 2017 which was used to create a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. People would share their personal stories of struggle and abuse and overcoming and would hashtag #MeToo. It went viral and before you knew it, it had millions of people backing it and contributing – as well as celebrities. It became a support system for people who have shared these experiences and were brave enough to come forward and speak about it. A lot of the people coming forward were of minority groups – including LGBT, women of colour and women in general which is how I connected it to week 3’s theme of public opinion and minority opinions expressed online and in the media. The Me Too movement recieved a lot of back lash from anti-liberals, sexists, racists and I hate to say it but unfortunately a lot of them were men who didn’t see the point in this movement. So, some of these victims might have been afraid to come forward and spread their stories online hashtagging #MeToo because it was so viral that someone who might already be sensitive to cruel words and has already dealt with a lot of struggle and abuse in their life would get the courage to tell their story only to have it be scrutinized online by some internet trolls. I understand the fear in being vulnerable, however, there were more people being positive about the Me-Too movement then there were people being negative. Since many celebrities (Lady Gaga, Sophia Bush, Rosario Dawson…to name a few) had come forward with their stories and their support of the Me Too movement online, a lot of their audience had seen that as inspiring and helped themselves come forward as well. This connects to week 2’s idea of media messages, media personae and audience involvement. Lady Gaga was a huge member of this movement and did a lot of great things to help inspire and support #MeToo. Lady Gaga also has an incredibly large following, he fans are so devout and loyal, they even have a specific name – they call themselves her “Monsters”. Her fans, or her “monsters” are an excellent example of Brown’s four processes of audience involvement, specifically worshipand identification because her fans treat Lady Gaga like their lord and savior and whatever she does, they do. She has that much power and she uses the power she has over her audience for good and promoting postivie things such as the Me Too movement.

https://metoomvmt.org

https://www.avclub.com/an-incomplete-depressingly-long-list-of-celebrities-se-1819628519

These audience experiences connected well to the readings and the lectures. It’s clear that there are many example of audience experiences for each topic we’ve covered so far in class – however these were the two that I thought of as soon as I heard about this assignment.

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