Analysis of a Converged Media Text

Captain America

When Captain America was introduced in 1941, he represented a “patriotic ideal” that related to the consumer, its target audience either aspiring young men or soldiers of war. “A hero emblazoned in stars and stripes was never going to be an easy sell” (Lupoi, 2012), yet he became the symbol of an “idealised freedom fighter” during World War II, branded with a costume modelled on the American Flag. He represented Liberty during the “Golden Age” of America. “The fact that many readers would soon find themselves in that… army helped ensure ‘Cap’s’ popularity; the new soldiers remained comic book fans, and they, too, hoped to be heroes in disguise.” (Abrams, 1991, [Online]) His popularity meant Captain America became a “leading patriot”; an “artefact” of popular culture through “old” and “new” media convergence.

The Graphic Novel was very much a diachronic para-text that converged on content. A material object designed for personal consumption, it provoked active participation through “photographed reality”. It communicated a political ideology and was created as a “response to a political need and a political crisis” (Williams, 1974, Page 22). Captain America was a tool of personal liberation. Consumers bought into its political discourse, extending the popularity of a “… nostalgically remembered past against the new market order” (Curran and Seaton, 2010, Page 267). Customer Loyalty and Fan Investment meant the franchise became a cultural commodity, leaving it vulnerable to exploitation, with the “ruling class” setting the agenda for further commercialisation of the text and its effects.  It was a highly flexible medium, adapting well to social change as “the duo fought Nazi’s in Europe and then after the assault on Pearl Harbour, took on the Japanese” (Brevoort, 2012) bringing with it an element of “post-war glamour” that made it even more appealing to the masses.

Cinema, as a medium of entertainment, actively interprets the harsh, urbanised imagery imagined by the Graphic Novel, leading to passive participation from the consumer. “Film relies on recognisable codes and conventions to narrate story information and we understand these conventions partly because they can draw upon specific, shared ways of understanding the world” (Long and Wall, 2009, page 65). The constructed narrative is unravelled before their eyes, rather than relying on the text to produce meaning. This “emphasised elements of passivity, a cultural and psychological inadequacy…” (Williams, 1974, Page 12) Here, the audience are led to be “mindlessly entertained” through this secondary medium by what Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) describes as “winning consent”, with senders using the power of persuasion  to entice the audience into investing in this new technology.

Cinema as a “spectacle” led to a change in the way we consume the text, with an “appointment per view” event designed for communal consumption. It becomes the central medium, with the populism of the public viewing experience.  A change in the “Flow” (Raymond Williams, 1974) of information is altered as comics become “extinct”, with consumers less likely to invest in the old product for the price of “cheap entertainment”. “Far more people are reached by the moving picture… the moving picture we see complete” (Gorman and Mclean, 2009, Page 27). Film then acts as an extension of the text, brought about by new inventions and leading to wider social change. Going to the cinema becomes a social practise that appeals to a person’s common sense and therefore becomes “naturalised” in the modern world.

The technology of film sees the story of Captain America “come to life” through the new, converged medium of cinema. With this new idea, came new possibilities as “the form of a medium is a product not only of what is technically possible, but also of the material and economic circumstances of its creation” (Lister, 2009, Page 177). First animated in 1966, comic book frames were used to convey the war hero’s escapades on screen, with the recent invention of the television enticing the audience into a new state of reality. According to Technological Determinist Raymond Williams “its power and inherent properties as an electronic medium altered our basic perceptions of reality…” (Williams, 1974, Page 11).

The dominance of American film introduced a new way of thinking, with the role of Captain America in the “promotion of violence and immortality”.  He is the epitome of Nietzsche’s “Superman”; the liberal hero “which can model the man of the future by means of discipline…” (Russell, 1996, Page 690). He is rational and fights for a noble cause, with the depiction “violence and cunning in war”. People aspire to his lack of fear, linking back to the earlier Graphic Novel where “Cap was seen on the cover, punching out Adolf Hitler and leading an assault against the Nazi threat” (Brevoort, 2012). This blurring of boundaries engulfs the consumer in a state of hyper reality, with its hegemonic reading (Gramsci) that has diluted the political ideologies surrounding the comics and instead focussing more on the consumer’s aesthetic for entertainment.

Early cinema was designed to unite the bourgeoisie and the proletariat during “wartime”, drawing upon a common shared experience whilst creating the “illusion” of participation. “Film provided these people with an affordable and easily understood escape from the reality of their harsh lives.” (Gorman and McLean, 2009, Page 29). The 2011 film “Captain America: The First Avenger”, though highly synchronic, is reminiscent of this shared experience. Set in World War II, we are allowed a glimpse into a “nostalgically remembered past” through the depiction of true events, the syuzhet acting as a kind of propaganda through the characters it manipulates. This is reflective of an American Imperialist ideology by “having a profound influence upon the mental and moral outlook of millions… an influence more subtle in that it is subconsciously exercised” (Gorman and McLean, 2009, Page 40) with the audience being put through a process of “Americanisation”.

Cinema then becomes, according to Michael Kackman (2011), a commodity based on existing power relations with “business organisations… now creating new standards that only their own products could interpret.” (Lister, 2009, Page 177). The market seeks to extend Captain America, as a product of Marvel Comics, for profit, with the film being a product of Marvel Studios. From a Political Economist viewpoint, this power shift in ownership represents the exploitation of goods and services by appealing to the mass market of audience desire. The intertextuality of other Marvel brands, along with “Free advertising” in the form of merchandise, also acts as an extension of the brand, satisfying the material needs of the public and leading to further investment from the consumer.

Derived from the old medium of Graphic Novels, Captain America’s popularity saw him “come to life” through the new, converged medium of cinema. Both the “new” and “old” mediums enhanced elements of the text, with it becoming materialised through new ideas and new inventions. Applying Herman and Chomsky’s “propaganda model”, it conforms to the US Capitalist Ideology of audience control. With the new social form of film, came new forms of knowledge as to its effects. “Mass media… renew Capitalist ideology and relegate us, the audience… to the status of mere message consumers…” (Balnaves, 2009, Page 87). Its popularity in the postmodern condition leads to an extension of the idea, with Captain America becoming symbolic through the intertextuality of his brand, integrated into the everyday lives of the people as a converged media text.