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MEDIA LITERACY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE<br />
Strategies, Debates and Good Practices<br />
<br />
en scène (everything that appears in the camera frame –actors, props,<br />
lightening, costumes), camera movements and angles, editing, image<br />
construction, sound, scripts and their arrangement in such a way to convey<br />
particular meanings.<br />
While in Empire State of Mind the music video starts with black and white shots<br />
of iconic places in New York; in this video’s opening scene the camera eye<br />
looks from the sky down at Bangkok while the Thaitanium logo stands at the<br />
centre of the frame. As the logo fades in the sky, notorious areas of the city start<br />
being captured by the camera. The famous sky train running through the<br />
Sukhumvit Road, skyscrapers, malls and fountains, the Chaopraya River that<br />
traverses the city and a colour picture of the Giant Swing are in the foreground<br />
accompanied by an orchestral rhythm. Thirty seconds later, the three singers<br />
enter in row one after the other from the right side of the frame. They are<br />
standing on the cross walk at the centre of an empty “Broadway- like” street. If<br />
we decontextualize this scene from the video, it would be hard to tell that the<br />
shooting took place in Bangkok.<br />
In these only thirty seconds, several codes from the west may be tracked<br />
through a media literacy lens. First of all, it is clear that Thaitanium appropriate<br />
the stylistic format and orchestral music genre used in Empire State of Mind.<br />
Secondly, one must question the choice of prioritizing cultural references such<br />
as skyscrapers, malls and the sky train running on the Sukhumvit Road over<br />
symbols that are better representatives of Bangkok and Thailand. Thirdly,<br />
Thaitanium’s entrance in the music video reminds us of the Beatles’ world<br />
famous Abbey Road album cover (1969). These codes appeal to people’s<br />
collective imaginaries and are commonly understood by one part of the world’s<br />
population as shared language. As Rapport and Dawson put it (1988), “the<br />
migration of information, myths, languages, and people brings even the most<br />
isolated areas into a cosmopolitan global framework of interaction” (p.10). May<br />
we consider this eastern- western interaction as intercultural dialogue? Is<br />
Bangkok City a response to the international community that ‘The Extreme<br />
Orient’ is not that far after all? In setting the scene, we immediately understand<br />
that the target audience of this video is not merely Thai people, also foreigners<br />
and westerners.<br />
In the first shot after the singers’ appearance, the camera looks up at the sky,<br />
the music slows down and the next iconic picture that appears is the Royal<br />
Palace. This is the beginning of a series of camera movements and angles that<br />
are worth analysing when pulling out meaning from Bangkok City. In the next<br />
shot the singers are all dressed in white walking one behind the other on the<br />
rooftop of a skyscraper. The leading singer raises his finger up to the sky (as<br />
Jay- Z also does in Empire State of Mind) and then opens his arms to the city.<br />
Ground and sky, earth and heaven alternate as the camera eye shifts direction.<br />
Thaitanium, ‘angel- like’ figures dressed in white and standing on the rooftop of<br />
the skyscraper overlook the city and bring homage to Bangkok – The City of<br />
Angels.<br />
Da Endorphine (the “Thai Alicia Keys”) appears in the next scene. She is<br />
dressed almost as the American pop singer in Empire State of Mind, has short<br />
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