University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Shifted perspective: creative first person journalism across media

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Shifted perspective: creative first person journalism across media

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Content SHIFTED
PERSPECTIVE:
Creative
First
Person
Journalism
Across
Media

Joshua Adams
A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the
UNIVERISTY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts in Journalism
MAY
2015

Adams
2

CONTENTS

SHIFTED
PERSPECTIVES:
CREATIVE
FIRST
PERSON
JOURNALISM
ACROSS
MEDIA

Synesthesia
Documentary
(link)
3-4

COMMENTS!
QUESTIONS?
INTERACT
:)

4-5

Causing
Static

5-18

Photography
Portfolio
18-24

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams 2
25-26

By
M A R C H 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
J O S H U A A D A M S
T H
SHIFTD PRSPCTIV
Creative First Person Journalism Across Media
CAN YOU S TH COLOR OF A MLODY, TAST WORDS
YOU SPAK, OR SOLV COMPLX MATH PROLMS Y
THIR COLOR? IF YOU CAN, YOU WR ORN WITH A
FASCINATING CONDITION CALLD SYNSTHSIA.
INTRVIWING A NUROLOGIST FROM USC’S RAIN AND
CRATIVITY INSTITUT AND TH PIANIST FOR POPULAR ‘70S
AND ROLLS ROYC, JOURNALIST JOSHUA ADAMS SKS
TO DSCRI WHAT SYNSTHSIA IS, HOW W KNOW
SYNSTHSIA DOCUMNTARY
Adams 3
AOUT IT, AND WHAT W AR STILL TRYING TO
UNDRSTAND. ALONG TH JOURNY, JOSHUA LARNS
MOR AOUT HIS OWN “LNDD SNSS” XPRINC AS
A MUSICAL SYNSTHT.
CHCK OUT TH SHORT DOCUMNTARY LOW.
Do you have synesthesia, or know someone else with the condition? What type
is it? Can you share you experience? Leave a comment on the Youtube page of
the documentary. Also, for those who still want to get a better sense of
synesthesia, check out the “Roy G Biv“ app for you smart phones. This cool
app actually lets you experience musical synesthesia in a sort of reverse way,
hearing the sound a color makes. Check it out in the video below. Record
yourself using Roy G Biv, and leave it in the comment section as well. If I get
COMMNTS! QUSTIONS?
INTRACT :)
Adams 4
enough video comments, I‘ll compile them together for another video and share
it! Thanks alot guys!
DIVRSITY IS “SAVING” TH COMIC OOK INDUSTRY, UT
CHARACTRS OF COLOR HAVN’T TRANSLATD TO TH
FILM INDUSTRY. THIS PHNOMNON RAISS A IG
QUSTION FOR FANS LIK M: CAN DIVRSITY AND
USINSS COXIST IN HOLLYWOOD?
FATUR STORY: CAUSING
STATIC
00:16
Adams 5
When I wa 7 ear old, I created m own uperhero, “Fl
o”.
My costume was a white t-shirt, a detachable grey hood with wool lining off a
coat I had, and a towel I safety pinned to my shirt as a makeshift cape (a towel).
With tighty whities and socks rounding it out, I would run around the living
room, jump off the arm-rest on to the couch, pretending I was flying through
clouds. Most of my favorite super-heroes and villains took flight (Superman,
Batman, Spiderman, Magneto, Angel, and Vision, to name a few). “Fly Boy”
soared from the mind from a kid letting his imagination roam free.
But in part, it was created out of necessity; a way to fill the void of an African-
Adams 6
American kid from the south side of Chicago who didn’t see many cartoon or
comic-book heroes that resembled him. I did have a favorite character, however,
and his name was Virgil Hawkins, better known as
Inspired by Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Static was a young, high school teenager
who could generate, control, and absorb electricity. He flew around Dakota
City on a metal disk, dipping around buildings to apprehend nefarious foes and
shock them into submission. Static was a romantic hero of sorts; a witty,
powerful (but not infallible) high-school nerd torn between being himself and
wanting the cool, mischievous kids to like him.
He was also Black.
I continued to watching cartoon as I grew older, but stopped reading comics as
much. Aside from the more typical maturations away from fantastical world
(girls, sports, school etc.), I wanted to see characters who looked like me, which
seemed too rare of an occurrence. John Stewart appeared as the Green Lantern
in the Justice League in the early 2000s, but aside from Lex Luthor in
“Superman” and Storm in the X-Men series, there weren’t many Black
characters I could regularly watch on our small living room television set, read
at my favorite bookstores, or buy at news-stands. As it turned out, “Fly Boy”
wasn’t enough to fill that void.
This may not be a big deal to most, especially to those of us who are already
well-represented in the world of science fiction. When you go see your favorite
films or turn on Saturday morning cartoons and see a variety of super-heroes
that look like you, this “issue” couldn’t be more trivial. But for those who
cannot, it’s at least a bit more serious.
Being able to see yourself in your heroes is important. It may even be the reason
why we pick the heroes we do; an empathetic projection of our story on to
theirs, recognizing in them shared vulnerabilities, but also the strength and
Static Shock.
Adams 7
courage we wish we wielded. I wanted to believe that people like me could fly
around fantastic galaxies with a team of heroes all possessing supernatural
powers, and save the universe from impending doom. It can be disheartening
when your imagination is not reflected in what artists create. Because for
whatever reason, when they imagine these amazing worlds, people who look
like me are still Earthbound.
Fast-forwarding to my 25th birthday last September.
Stan Lee, the founder of Marvel Comics, came to do a speaking event at the
University of Southern California. I was excited to see the living legend in
person. The line to enter Bovard Auditorium wrapped in a big rectangle in
front of the building, then stretched dozens of yards down campus. Fans,
noobs, and nerds alike sported Marvel t-shirts, IronMan costumes, and
Wolverine masks.
Once the show began, Lee told stories about his humble upbringing (he worked
several jobs, including one as an usher at a theatre in New York, where he
tripped right in front of a very special visitor, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt). His
witty one-liners to the moderator’s questions, and tales of how Marvel came to
be captivated the audience. At the end of the event, Lee opened the discussion
for questions from the crowd. I raced to get line as soon as I could, a few
beating me to the front. Still, I got to ask the father of modern comics a
question pinned in my mind since I was a little kid reenacting cartoon action
sequences in our living room.
“What importance does Marvel place into diversity, and what are some of the
new things Marvel is doing to promote diversity within its comics?”
Lee replied that diversity has always been an important part of Marvel. He
Adams 8
mentioned well-known Black characters like Storm, Black Panther, and Captain
America’s sidekick, Falcon. He also mentioned a more obscure example of a
comic with a band of soldiers that included Black, Jewish, and Irish men fight
in a world war. He did not mention what Marvel is currently doing specifically.
The response was the “safe” PR response I expected, but still insightful. When I
reached to shake his hand to thank him for coming, he reached out and gave
me a fist pound. Though he was unclear on of Marvel’s level of conviction to
diversify its fantastic film worlds, hearing the icon speak on diversity rekindled
my interests in buying comics again, and a quick Google search for comic stores
in L.A. lead me to Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood.
Adams 9
Golden Apple Comics is the oldest comic book shop in Los Angeles. Known for
its extensive back-issue collection, movie stars such as Samuel L. Jackson
frequent the shop to collect their comics. As I perused the graphic novel section
of the store, clerks Joe and Pablo were having a discussion about whether or not
there are any Hispanic super heroes.
“There are no Hispanic superheroes,” laughed Pablo.
“There’s a couple,” returned Joe, as the two quickly debate about “The Blue
Adams 10
Beetle”. This superhero is kid from El Paso, Texas named Jaime Reyes, who is
imbued with arcane powers from an ancient artifact scarab he found.
Both say that sometimes customers come in with all kinds of specific requests:
different Superman series, all the comic series with Magneto in them, alternate
Batman comics, etc. Many patrons also have distinct demographic requests.
Comics featuring LGBTQ, Black, and female heroes and villains are the most
common sort of inquiries. This may be indicative of a wider trend in the comic
book industry, as fans, artists, and distributors alike are acknowledging that
people of , and would like to see themselves
represented. Some comic experts say diversity is “saving” the industry. Joe has
more than enough knowledge to point customers in the right direction. I asked
him if the shop has enough resources to fulfill these requests.
“Yes and no,” replies Joe, “We have a ton of information to tell people ‘read this
guy, that guy, that girl’…There is a lot, but some of the time it’s stuff we don’t
have in the inventory. I can rattle off a million great old back issue stories, but
we may not have them in stock, so I can’t sell them to you.”
One reason these back issues may not be in stock is because the demand for
minority characters is often filled with the same few mainstream popular
characters. For example, while some consider Storm to be the most iconic Black
character, she is . In fact, stars
Kamala Khana, a Muslim teen who becomes Ms. Marvel. So there are others
characters of color out there, but they often don’t find their way into the shops,
or stay for long. This type of “A-listing” may a trickle down from the film
industry.
all genders and race love comics
far from the only one Marvel’s top digital seller
Adams 11
Though we have seen more Black main characters in recent years, the actors or
actresses tend to be the same people casted in the same roles in each new
Hollywood science fiction blockbusters. Of the Top 100 most successful
science-fiction movies, . Of the
eight, Will Smith has played six. Very few question Smith’s acting acumen, but
his mega-stardom may allow Hollywood an easy (albeit profitable) way out of
diversity concerns.
Zoe Saldana is becoming the female Will Smith of science fiction films, starring
in both Star Trek films, Avatar, and 2014 blockbuster Guardian of The Galaxy,
which has a sequel set to come out in May of 2017. In almost all of these films,
Saldana is a secondary protagonist paired with a white male love interest. This
trend of recasting people of color in the same type of roles seems to fit in the
business of model of Tinseltown.
“The superhero and comics have really become a dominant force in America”,
says Loyola Marymount University professor Adilifu Nama, the author of Super
Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes, explainings the role of the
Black super-hero in Marvel Comics. “And certainly that raises issues of diversity,
what type of representation are we going to have, or is this medium merely
going ?”
The business of comic-book adaptations has been booming over the last decade.
The top one hundred comic book adaptation films have
. Disney bought Marvel, Inc. for $4 billion amidst the box office success,.
Driven by ticket sales, Hollywood tends to go with established stars, producers,
and directors over new ones, which often leaves out people of color.
only eight casted a person of color as the lead
replay what we have seen
grossed over $14
billion
Adams 12
“There have been all of these super hero adaptations, and we really haven’t had
any of the mainstream black characters be adapted for a film,” Nama continues.
But recent developments might change the trend of the same actors in the same
archetypal roles.
Adams 13
Marvel announced the production of a “Black Panther” film, set to release in
November of 2017. The story follows T’Challa (the Black Panther), the ruler of
an Afrofuturistic country called Wakanda endowed with superhuman strength
and agility. Starring Chadwick Boseman (who played in 42 as Jackie Robinson,
the first African American to integrate into major league baseball), this will be
the first time Marvel Studios has made a super-hero film with a Black lead since
its conception in 1993.
Another development was the character, Miles Morales, being voiced by
in Disney’s “Ultimate Spider-Man”. While
Morales wasn’t the lead Spider-Man, a bi-racial web-slinger helps change some
of the conceptions of what one of America’s most popular super-heroes can look
like. But it didn’t come without controversy.
In 2008, Glover, an actor on the NBC show Community, screenwriter for 30
Rock, stand-up comedian, and rapper-musician known by the moniker
“Childish Gambino”, lead a #DonaldForSpiderman T witter campaign to secure
an audition for the Spider-Man reboot. During the campaign, Glover received
an enormous amount of support, but also hefty helping of with racist trolling,
demonizing him for wanting to play Peter Parker, an originally white super-
renaissance man Donald Glover
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Adams 14
hero. Ironically, Glover said that the hateful comments and N-bombs on his
T witter timeline were not what upset him the most.
“The thing that got me…and it was written really nice, obviously the guy was
trying not to ruffle any feathers,” said Glover during an interview with
, “was he said ‘the thing about it is, there’s no Black kids like
Peter Parker.’ And that infuriated me.”
It upset me as well. The idea that some can’t see a Black kid as an awkward,
science nerds with a crush on the high school popular girl in New York is very
disheartening. Who we see in our fiction is a good indicator of the way we view
reality. We can’t super-humanize anyone we can’t humanize first.
“In order to change the world, you got to be able to imagine other possibilities,”
said Henry Jenkins, a journalist and Provost Professor of Communication,
Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at USC. “You got to imagine what another
world would look like.”
Jenkins about how a “new generation of Americans
are tapping into the mythology of superheroes”, using Superman’s “illegal alien”
status as a metaphor for the lives of many Mexican-American immigrants.
Comic book lovers of all races and classes draw inspiration from their favorite
characters to fight for progressive causes in the real world. A multi-colored
coalition of heroes means people cannot draw inspiration from multiple,
inclusive iconography.
But maybe our cultural imagination isn’t necessary limited, but selective. A
Hardknock TV
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Highlights from our first storytelling series. Thank you to
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XPLOR MY WORK CATGORY
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Hightlight
Adams 15
recent example is Exodus: Gods & Kings. Depicting the story of Moses, the film
has garnered much backlash for it’s mostly Caucasian casting of Biblical
characters. When asked about why he didn’t have a historically accurate cast,
“I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to
rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so
from such-and-such…I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question
doesn’t even come up.” Fox CEO Rupart Murdoch poured gasoline on the
controversy by tweeting “since when were Egyptians not white?”
One perception of Hollywood is that the big production companies are hesitant
to cast lead characters of color, for fear that it will isolate America’s majority
white audiences. Though diversity is a progressive choice, it also is a financial
risk in local markets. When Hollywood decisions are made in bottom-line
fashion, bigotry, discrimination, or sound business practices all have the same
limiting effect on the opportunities of artists, writers, and actors of color. If
diversity is more a business calculation than a social issue of representation,
where does that leave fans of color? Probably wishing The Black Panther good
luck at the box office in 2017, or hoping Idris Elba decides to take the role
whenever Hollywood decides to re-up “The Green Lantern” as John Stewart,
the African American Green Lantern.
Progress will be slow as long as diversity needs to be marketable, but there are
still calls for optimism. In the last weekend of March, the animated-film Home
debuted in the , cashing in about $54 million. The film about
a young Caribbean immigrant (voiced by music icon Rihanna) who encounters
an alien, was the third-largest non-sequel opening for DreamWorks Animation.
It was a much needed boost for the animation company, which lost almost
$160 million on its films since 2012. Home’s success shows that diversity can
bring in the large audiences - if you give it a chance.
director Ridley Scott said
top box office slot
Adams 16
Once a rare occurrence, more Black characters in super-hero fantasy films are
on the horizon, and overall, diversity in the realm of science fiction has
continued to increase over the years. It has been the answer to a wish I made as
a kid transfixed on our family small television, dreaming to see more
superheroes that looked like me. But there is still ample room for improvement.
But I’m just crossing my fingers for a Static Shock movie.
Adams 17
Below is a short portfolio of my photography during my two years as a
journalism graduate student at the University of Southern California. Each
photo tells a different story, showing events I’ve covered for publications (like
Coachella 2014 for ) and places I’ve travelled through two of USC’s
educational and immersive journalism programs.
In the summer of 2014, I was a part of group or eight students who lived in
PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO
Ebony.com
Adams 18
South Africa. While residing in Cape Town, we each were placed into
internships at different media outlets, and also took a class on South African
culture and politics through its transition from Apartheid to democracy. The
following year, I travelled to Indonesia for an immersive religion reporting trip
with a collective of students, professors, and professional journalists. In Jakarta
and Yogyakarta, we spoke to scholars, politicians, activists, sex workers, religious
leaders, students, and everyday people to investigate issues of Islam and
democracy, rights of religious minorities, the intersections of religion, gender,
and sexuality, and Indonesian economics and development. The stories from
this trip will be posted through Global Post.
(click photo to enlarge)
Adams 19
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Bibliography
Abad-Santos, Alex. “Marvel is realizing straight white guys aren't the only ones who
can save the world.” Vox. Last updated May 2, 2014,
http://www.vox.com/2014/5/2/5672328/marvel-tk
“Comic Boo Adaptation.” Box Office Mojo, Accessed April 16, 2015.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=comicbookadaptation.htm
Foundas,
Scott.
“‘Exodus:
Gods
and
Kings’
Director
Ridley
Scott
on
Creating
His

Vision
of
Moses.”
Variety,
Last
updated
on
November
25,
2014,

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/ridley-‐scott-‐exodus-‐gods-‐and-‐kings-‐
christian-‐bale-‐1201363668/

Glover,
Donald.
“Childish
Gambino
AKA
Donald
Glover
Talks
Black
Spiderman,
Asian

Girls,
Nerds,
Community
+
More.”
HardknockTV,
Accessed
on
April
16,
2015,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgko-‐xReFSs

Hamedy,
Saba.
“Home'
tops
box
office
in
debut;
'Get
Hard'
launches
in
second.”

LATimes,
Last
updated
on
March
29,
2015

Lee,
Stan.
“Stan
Lee
at
USC:
A
Marvelous
Mind”.
(USC
Speaker’s
Committee,

September
23,
2014)

Jenkins,
Henry.
“Important
reminder:
Superman
was
an
undocumented
immigrant.”

Fusion.net,
Origin
Stories,
Last
updated
March
15,
2015,

http://fusion.net/video/103908/superheroes-‐are-‐undocumented-‐
immigrants-‐and-‐the-‐other-‐way-‐around/

Low, Jason. “Where’s the diversity, Hollywood? Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blockbusters
overwhelmingly white, male”. Lee and Low Books, Last updated on July 24,
2014. http://blog.leeandlow.com/2014/07/29/wheres-the-diversity-hollywood-sci-
fi-and-fantasy-blockbusters-overwhelmingly-white-male/
MacDonald, Heidi. “Ms. Marvel is Marvel’s ‘#1 Digital Seller’.” The Beat, Last updated
Adams 25
November 4, 2014, http://www.comicsbeat.com/ms-marvel-is-marvels-1-digital-
seller/
Adams 26

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Asset Metadata

Creator Adams, Joshua (author)

Core Title Shifted perspective: creative first person journalism across media

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism

Publication Date 05/04/2015

Defense Date 05/03/2015

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag comic books,diversity,OAI-PMH Harvest,shifted perspective,static shock,synesthesia

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Birman, Daniel H. (committee chair), Chao, Megan (committee member), Tolan, Sandy (committee member)

Creator Email adamsjc@usc.edu,joshuacad22@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-567007

Unique identifier UC11299494

Identifier etd-AdamsJoshu-3434.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-567007 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-AdamsJoshu-3434.pdf

Dmrecord 567007

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Adams, Joshua

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA