Post #8: Media-Centered Perspectives

Hey Arnold! is a cartoon that was on Nickelodeon. It follows a fourth grader named Arnold, who ends up solving or helping someone with a problem. The show was episodic, so each episode would cover a different problem some being more realistic and some being a little far-fetched, but the show would use it cast of characters to best of it abilities to show problems that people can relate to, but to also give the characters life. With that being said, for a kid’s cartoon it teaches a good amount of life lessons that is easy for kids to pick up on. Looking at the episode, “Arnold Betrays Iggy” and how it demonstrates the moral that you can’t please everyone. Using narrative perspective to help bring the moral of the story to the surface and using the media-centered perspectives and the parasocial relationship the show uses to make the viewer understand the moral.

Narrative Perspective

Narrative perspective is used to examine ideological arguments through storytelling. The moral is ideological argument proposed directly or indirectly about how we ought to or ought not to believe or behave. This is done by breaking the story setting, character, the way the story is told, the events and how event has a cause and effect from each one, and also who the target audience is. The setting is Hillwood the city where everyone lives in Hey Arnold! The plot for the episode is Arnold see Iggy (the cool kid) in bunny pajamas and promise that he won’t tell anyone what he saw. When two of Arnold friends find out what Arnold was laughing about they tell everyone at school what Arnold saw. Arnold then spends the rest of the episode doing anything to have Iggy forgive him from doing course or finally at the end of the episode putting on bunny pajamas himself and publicly humiliates himself only for Iggy to ask Arnold what he needs to do to make up for having put Arnold though it. Now this is a kid’s show so the episode is linear and the character themselves are flat. You know what the characters are going to do because they are predictable. This is fine for a kid’s show because for that age group the story doesn’t need to be complex to make the viewer have to find the moral it simple and to the point. From the accident of other kids finding out about Iggy secret to Arnold humiliating himself to try and please Iggy. The moral is that you can’t always please everyone and hope that the other person understands.

Media-Centered Perspective

Media-Centered perspective is to help demonstrate the unique ways in which the medium itself influences people and society. Using the Parasoical relationship theory which is a one-sided relationship where one party know a great deal about the other party. In this instance the viewer relationship with Arnold. It creates this bond of intimacy because the viewer beings to feel for Arnold even though Arnold is a frication character. This is because of two things, one is realism how believable is the characters and their encounters are perceived. Arnold is a nine-year-old kid, who promise to keep a secret only for it to be found out and he tries to makes amends with Iggy. Having a promise break or secret revel is normal issue that people deal with one a normal base. The second part is privacy the viewers is allowed to know the characters more personally because they can see them in the privacy of their own home. At one point of the episode Arnold is in his room talking to his grandfather about his problem and how he should fix it. The viewer can tell that Arnold does care about how he messes up and is trying to fix it, and also allow them to feel more attach to Arnold and his struggles.

Conclusion and implication

In the episode, “Arnold betrays Iggy” the viewers learn that is that you can’t always please anyone and are you can do is ask for forgiveness and hope the other person understands. Kids can relate to Arnold because he fits in their age range and the setting is realistic to real life making it easier for the message to come across to them then a fantasy setting and characters.

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3 Responses to Post #8: Media-Centered Perspectives

  1. Amber Thomas says:

    I really like that you paired the Narrative Perspective with the Parasocial Relationship Theory! I think you did a great job of using these perspectives to show how Hey Arnold! functions rhetorical. I especially enjoyed how you broke down your logic behind the intimate bond between viewers and characters by explaining the realism and privacy of the show.

  2. Glenn Spencer says:

    I like your post and a lot that you have to say shows clear and deep thinking on the subject. However, I feel that your conclusion is pretty weak and that you might need to strengthen it before claims like “the setting [being] realistic … making it easier for the message to come across to them th[a]n a fantasy setting.” Fantasy as a genre has for a long time been used to educate children and be a place to illustrate societal issues big and small. In fact using the media centered perspective might be a good thing to use in comparing Arnold’s more realistic setting to other popular children’s shows that are moral heavy with a fantasy setting such as Avatar the Last Airbender

  3. Sara Holdsworth says:

    I really liked that you picked a kids show for this since the target audience of the show is so impressionable. And it’s interesting that the lesson it’s something as easy to understand as “you can do anything!” Or “be nice to everyone!” The show is introducing the realty that you can’t do something (in this case, please everyone). If you were to use this as your essay 2 paper topic, you could expand on why the show isn’t teaching a completely positive lesson.

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