The Disneyification of Nature Andrew Joslin recently commented on the Disneyification of nature:
Yep nature metaphors are a double edged sword, you want to be able to communicate to a wide audience. At the same time the power of the metaphor can be diluted or co-opted/redirected by commercial/marketing forces. I guess that's why I think forest and nature metaphors/myths need to be reinvented and reinvigorated to stay ahead of "disneyification". (November 16, 2009). Certainly how nature is portrayed in the popular media influences how we perceive nature. In the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th the safari's in Africa by luminaries such as Ernest Hemmingway and Teddy Roosevelt popularized and glamorized the idea of the "Great White Hunter.' This accompanied the romanticism found in the journals of Robert Stanley and his search for Dr. Livingston in the heart of Africa. Fictional stories by H. Rider Haggard such as "She" and the "King Solomon's Mines" glamorized the jungle experience and in turn inspired a series of over two dozen Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Later on in the thirties to the present animated movies and cartoons by Disney and others similarly influenced our perception of the natural world. The Bambi effect for better or worse has changed the public perception of hunting. More recently explorations of the natural world by Marlin Perkins in his Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Marty Stouffer's Wild America, and Steve Irwin's Crocodile Hunter put a human face anew upon explorations of the natural world. These television programs were produced against a background of documentary films by Disney, National Geographic, and various Nova producers showing a version of nature in which humans did not play an intermediary role. Some have characterized these documentaries as the elevator music of nature programming. There is little doubt that these examples of popular media influence our collective view of the natural world. How are television, movies, and video games influencing our children's view of nature? Specifically how are trees and forests portrayed in these media formats? I am proposing a project that involves children's programming on television. Many of you have children or have close relatives with children grade school age or younger (or perhaps you can rent some.) The perception of children of these media sources is different from our perception as adults. The goal would be to compile results from surveys of what children see and interpret from depictions of trees and forests in cartoons. In general terms participants would ask their children about what examples of trees and forests they remember from cartoons, then the children would be ask to mark down and comment on what tree and forest images they see in cartoons as they watch them. It can be treated like a game rather than a homework assignment. Specific information required would be the age and gender of the child and the name of the cartoon, in addition to the comments. Preliminary Survey: Before they sit down and make notes on the cartoons as they watch them, a series of questions should be ask. 1) Do you remember any trees or forests in the cartoon shows you watch? 2) What show were they in? (Doesn't matter if the answer is wrong) 3) Were the trees part of the story or just things in the background? 4) If they were part of the story a. Did they have faces? b. Could they talk? c. Could they move their branches around? d. Could they walk around? e. Were the trees friendly or mean? f. Were they happy or sad? g. Do you know what kind of trees they were? 5) What did the trees do in the story? 6) Is there anything else they want to say about the trees (or even other plants)? The key is to not lead them into giving any particular answer, but to document their impressions. After this preliminary session, they should be given notepaper or a notebook so they can write down what they notice about trees as they watch their cartoon shows. You could even loan them a digital camera to snap photos of the television screen as they watch. Try to make it fun, a game or a contest. When these notes are completed, everyone can email them to me at [email protected] rather than post them to the discussion list, and I will compile them all into a report which I will post in a month or so. Feel free to include scans of drawings they may make as part of the processes. Edward Frank Check out my new Blog: http://nature-web-network.blogspot.com/ (and click on some of the ads) -- Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected]
