Tammy Turner-Vorbeck
In the beginning it talks about how fans or readers first felt when the last book was published. It examines how the media has a big influence of how people found out about the book even weeks after. "The bookstores of Dublin overflowed into the streets, spilling out the hundreds of humans, many of them costumed, awaiting their copy of the ‘last book’ and the various and related merchandise available for point-of-purchase sale". It also explained how Pottermania was and that it seemed as though it was a celebration. Later it talks about how the many influence affect the lives of the children. The many marketing and things that advertise the books, may be overshadowing the books or in other words they might be giving the books a bad reputation.
My Response
In some aspects I agree with this article.in the Neo- Marxist perspective on the media basically says that whichever group is dominant, has most of the power over things in today’s society which in most cases is the media. As we look at Pottermania, we see that lots of corporations are manipulating children through Pottermania, yet we do not see this as being wrong. "The subject (viewer, listener, reader) is constituted by the text and power of the mass media in its ability to position the subject in such a way that their representation are taken to be reflections of everyday reality" (pg.2). This means that whatever the media puts out about Pottermania, seems to have a big impact on child culture and childhood. This impact seems natural or normal in their lives.
It also talks about the industry as a whole. Explaining how kids are being considered as profits. These things that are being in our childhood, for corporate consumers, is for the purchase of being sold. In addition to that, what constitutes childhood is being sold to these children in the public through media. Furthermore, it seems as though their identities are being manipulated. Many of these video games, toys and music often influence the behavior and identity of our youth. This also creates fetishism. Many die-hard fans are collecting the many Potter paraphernalia that can create the ideal consumer for the markets.
"If the Harry Potter books were indeed worthy of such widespread adulation, then the support for them would have naturally risen up from the readers rather than being pushed down upon them by mass media marketing"(p5 p17). It seems as though the media isn’t just trying to control children’s imagination. "When children are no longer able to sit with a book and create its images, sounds, voice, smells and sensation from their own act of reading, they have been robbed of the free use of their own minds". I think this is saying that there are so much media advertising on the book, that some people can’t enjoy the books because of their first experience so simply too much to handle, such as the marketing spin-offs.
This Pottermania has had many influences on child culture and childhood as a whole. Even if its not the books, it the media giants that influence the mindset of their minds. Sometimes human thinking becomes "Mechanized". This article has taught me that many phenomenon’s such as Pottermania can start off good, clean, fun and meaningful, but once the media, corporations, and markets get hold of it, then that is when conflict begins.
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