Theresa Senft: Search Tips

Acting, Technology Reality:
Using the Web to Search a for a Lens

JOB NUMBER ONE: NARROW YOUR SEARCH!

When you are researching pop culture phenomena on the Web, you are going to get a TON of information. What you need to do is narrow the search. Typing in the word "celebrities" or "models" or "wrestling" isn't going to do what you need. Neither is typing in an epic phrase like "images of the mid-east in the news". You need links to material that treats your subject matter (ie infomercials, models, etc) in a way that is ANALYTICAL.

Here is a little primer on how I normally operate. First, I go to Google, (http://www.google.com), which I think is the best search engine on the Web. There is one other one that is often useful for things like magazine articles and stuff, called Northern Light. It is at http://www.northernlight.com

One tried-and-true approach is to start typing in specific phrases and combinations of words we've used in class combined with your topic. Here are some ideas. Type in (your topic) AND:

feminism and/or feminist	voyeurism	exhibitionism
commodity	fetish	consumerism
mise en scene	race	spectacle
marxism and/or marxist	class	panopticon
gender and/or sexuality	mimesis	surveillance
colonialism	globalism	mimicry
simulation and/or simulacra	editing	lighting and/or sound
camera angle	aspect ratio	reality

Obviously, some words from class are going to fit more comfortably into your topic than others. Check your vocabulary lists from class and your class notes for more ideas.

Now I will give you two examples of how I found two possible lenses, for two different paper topics.

AARON's NINTENDO WRESTLING PAPER

Aaron had mentioned in class that part of the pleasure of the Nintendo wrestling game for him was watching a "bad copy" of himself transposed onto the animated wrestling dudes.

Trying to build an analytical lens for Aaron, I tried "wrestling" AND "bad copy" I looked through about 10 matches, but didn't get anything interesting.

So I thought maybe the word I want instead of "bad copy" is "simulacra"? I typed in "wrestling" AND "simulacra"

VOILA.

About seven choices down there was this URL for an essay called "Sport as Apocalypse" At first I didnt think this would be up my alley, because it goes on a LONG time without getting to wrestling. But then I did a search for the word "wrestling" within the web page itself and I got to these juicy quotes:

With cable or satellite audiences in every continent, the WWF may be, after the Olympics and the football World Cup, the closest thing to a genuinely global sport. Except, of course, that it is not a sport. The outcome is determined and the action is reh earsed in advance - which is why no one will take a bet on a WWF match. ..

Ironically, the WWF and its imitator s build on - and ultimately displace - a wide variety of indigenous and traditional combat-based entertainments. Only a generation ago the wrestler Dara Singh was a hero to children and adults alike across north India. Today he would have to sign up with Macmahon or Turner or one of their global competitors if he wanted to reach even his own home audience.

The rebirth of this fairground entertainment through the medium of a globalised economy and technology - and its funhouse mirror image of modern sport - is testimony not merely to the enduring popular taste for blood and thunder, but also to the increasi ng reduction of modern sport to an endless parade of packaged simulacra. The signifiers of modern sport have been detached from lived experience to float in a 'virtual' reality owned and designed by a private corporation.

When Macmahon barred television advertisements for 'Beyond the Mat', a documentary account of life behind the scenes in the WWF, he argued that the film made unlicensed use of the WWF logo; he also claimed to be the sole proprietor of the public images of a number of individuals interv iewed in the film (including his wrestlers and himself). Undoubtedly, he was also disturbed at the film's candid expose of the serious risks taken by the WWF stars in pursuit of TV ratings.

Simply by making clear that the televised spectacle had some harsh consequences in real life, the film became subversive. In response, Macmahon sought to reclaim exclusive corporate ownership of the realities depicted in the film.

Now, Aaron's central questions for his paper concern his pleasure playing the WWF video game, which he considers to be a "simulation of a simulation" of "real" wrestling. But this essay, which talks how global corporate power dazzles us enough to forget about the local risks, dangerous and pleasures of "real" wrestling, might fit into Aaron's work in ways he hasn't even thought about yet. That, of course, will be up to Aaron. Nevertheless, it is certainly a possible lens.

ALYSSA's ROMANCE NOVEL PROJECT

I was thinking about Alyssa's interest in romance novels as a guilty pleasure for women. I figured, hey, who would probably be thinking on guilty pleasures for women? Probably feminists, right?

So Iwent to Google and typed "romance novels" AND "feminism" which yielded me some good urls to investigate. From there, I stumbled on this essay called The Politics of Writing Romance Novels.

As I quickly scanned the essay, I realized that it probably wasn't right for Alyssa's project (though it is entertaining.) After all, the politics of WRITING women's romance books isn't really the same as the politics of READING them. But then, midway into scanning the article, I came across a quote that seemed uncannily like what ALYSSA had said herself in class:

As Helen Taylor writes in her article, "The Romance Reader," Romantic fiction is believed to be read mainly by women and it is therefore crucial for feminists to examine its success and appeal for women readers ...

Feminist debates about romance have all acknowledged the existence and significance of these women readers, either self-consciously and with some embarrassment, or with scholarly enthusiasm and utter seriousness. As many critics have observed, it is other people who read romances -- your grandmother, mother, friend, you as a teenager. I know of no feminist critic who compulsively reads romances on a scale romantic publishers claim (4-5 a week) though many of us are now dedicating ourselves to such reading -- with of course, knees together and pencil in hand to make scholarly notes. (Carr 59, italics mine)

To me, this sounded great. Now I wanted to find this essay, discussed above, but I realized it which probably wouldn't be on the Web. Luckily, there is a citation at the end of this quote, above. The essay we want is in some book from Carr, page 59.

Now, If we're lucky, the writer of this web essay have a bibliogaphy at the end of her piece, and we'll find out who this Carr person is. Will we get lucky?

SCORE! Here is the book we want (and remember, we're only looking at ONE essay in this book.)

Carr, Helelen. From My Guy to Sci-Fi: Genre and Women's Writing in the Postmodern World. London: Pandora, 1989.

Next step is to head to Bobcat on the Web and see if the book is there. If it is, and Alyssa feels like the article has some good stuff, SHE HAS HER LENS.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Are you starting to see the method to this madness? Finding a lens is as simple (and as time-consuming) as that.

Think of it as doing backwards detective work. And give a shout if you are struggling. I'm here to help.

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