Rockler Analysis
In this article, Rockler
interviewed a variety of college students and analyzed their responses to the
childhood classic, The Lion King. Rockler criticizes The Lion King for having controversial ideologies pertaining to
race, gender, and social class. Alex, a
student, argues that “[The Average Joe] will probably see a bunch of animals
running around the screen, enduring the difficulties of life” (Rockler, 2001, p.
12). This is an example of what Rockler
refers to as the Transmission Paradigm, a linear form of communication where
the messages from a Sender must be
explicit and intentional to be understood by the Receiver (Rockler, 2001).
Rockler counters that the student’s defensive
reactions are due to an ignorance of the effect of convoluted ideology on
American culture. Idea expanded, the
effects of movies like The Lion King
are “ideological, [and] not immediate” (Rockler, 2001, p. 12). Similar to the evolution argument, the
general population believes that ideology (or genetic change) must be
explicitly visible to have an effect on a culture (or species, to follow the
analogy.)
I genuinely do agree with Rockler’s
analysis of the students however I find her analysis has an unintentional bias
as she wrote it. While using transcripts
is an effective route to convey your point, a quote of an 18-year-old undergrad
never sounds as good as something written down, read over, and edited by an
older college graduate. So no matter
what, the student’s sound like idiots with all of the spoken grammatical errors
which sways the perspective of the reader.
Nevertheless, her subjects were undergrads and I believe that
Rockler found the data she was looking for.
-Christopher DeLuca
Rockler, N. (2001). Messages between
the Lions: The Dominance of the Transmission Paradigm in Student
Interpretations of the Lion King. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 25(6),
12-12.
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