Multiculturalism Propaganda in American Entertainment Industry: Liberals Versus Conservatives

The article analyzes various manifestations of the ideology of liberalism and conservatism in the American entertainment industry. The analysis includes such cultural products as The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The X-Men, The South Park, The Angry Birds Movie cartoon series. The author identifies various approaches to the phenomena of multiculturalism in the cultural environment, compares the propaganda of various values that affect the consciousness of children and (partially) adults.

Rethinking the ‘Supersystem’: Film Reboots and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This chapter draws upon Marsha Kinder’s (1991) theorisation of the media ‘supersystem’ – that is, an intertextual, industrialised transmedia network – to examine the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, specifically the television and film reboots produced following Nickelodeon’s acquisition of the IP in 2009. It describes the way in which the post-2009 Turtles rebooted a supersystem, one characterised by textual mutability and overlapping forms of intertextuality, to create new versions of the Turtles and provide opportunity to expand the franchise. The chapter demonstrates the ways in which rebooting creates a major ‘event’ in the serial life of a property: one that appeals to new audiences and generates fresh merchandising possibilities.

Supersystem rozrywkowy versus opowiadanie transmedialne, czyli słów kilka o terminologiczno-metodologicznym chaosie

The aim of the article is to present two concepts — the supersystem of entertainment (super-system of transmedia intertextuality) and the transmission of storytelling — in the context of the re-search problem on various examples in pop culture. The first term was introduced by Marsha Kinder in the work Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games: From Muppet Babies to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the second was by Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide. The analysis of the above terms uses knowledge in the field of archi-tecture of information (knowledge sharing and classification), internet technologies (search engine algorithms) and literature and popular culture (cultural universum). In addition, the most important mechanisms (causes and effects) of processes — cultural, media, social, economic — take place in contemporary culture.

Negotiating a Vocabulary for Urban Infrastructure, Or, The WPA Meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Though historians of technology generally work toward detailed case studies of individual machines or industries, a few voices have lately been raised in a call for broader perspectives. In a recent review essay, Josef W. Konvitz, Mark H. Rose and Joel A. Tarr urge an intellectual history of urban technologies. The discipline that treats the spinning jenny and the cotton gin must also equip itself to analyze the varied and complex technological systems present in the modern city. Only with such a broad vision will the relationships between technology and culture become clear. One helpful version of such an overview has been offered by Rosalind Williams's historical and literary meditations on underground technological environments. But Williams's focus upon nineteenth-century culture has led her to ignore the American experience almost entirely. Bound by Leo Marx's paradigmatic “machine in the garden,” Williams dismisses America in favor of Britain and France, where underground technology first entered the modern landscape. A twentieth-century focus, however, reveals a rich and complex intellectual history of urban technology within the American scene. The built environment of New York City, in particular, has dominated contemporary American expressions of the relationship between culture and technology.