ABSTRACT
This is an abstract. Wowzers.
Media theory
In the field of communication studies, there is a large focus on the effects media has on an audience. Scholars ask the question as to how people encode certain messages in to media and then transmit them to an audience to be decoded. As a result, we can learn many things from media and extract various meanings.
"Traditionally, mass-communications research has conceptualized the process of communication in terms of a circulation or loop. This model has been criticized for its linearity - sender/message/receiver - for its concentration on the level of message exchange and for the absence of a structured concetpion of the different moments as a complex struction of relations. But it is also possible (and useful) to think of this process in terms of a structure produced and sustained through the articulation of linked but distinctive moments - production, circulation, distribution/consumption, reproduction." [1]
Here, Stuart Hall is explaining just how encoding and decoding works in media: the messenger produces a message that they want to portray to an audience (ie. they encode a message to be deciphered) and then throws it into circulation. Following, the audience consumes the media and interprets, or decodes, the message based on their own culture, beliefs, ideas, and biases.
We see this evidented all around us but most notably in advertising. Take this VICKS Dayquil/Nyquil commercial for example:
In the video, the advertisers are trying to portray the message that moms cannot afford to take a sick day because of their children and if you take their medicine, you won't have to. However, many audience members misinterpreted the commerical and got a message saying that fathers are useless and unfit for parenting and children need their mother because she is the only one who can do it right.
Once we have a grasp on this system, we can easily begin to draw connections and see how our media can act as a massive teacher. Reflect for a moment on some of your favourite childhood programs: perhaps you loved Barney or Sesame Street, the kinds of shows directed towards young children that aims to educate. Or perhaps you are like me and loved The Last Airbender, a show that does not aim to educate but still does through use of religious influences. It is easy to make impressions on children; when a child sees something they think is 'cool' on a telivion show, they want to imitate it and live it. This very thing is why there is such a debate on the effect violence has on youth.
Positive influence
Although The Last Airbender is not meant to teach its audience anything, there are many different positive messages for the viewers to take away. When going online, you can find many different blog posts and websites featuring people discussing how The Last Airbender has impacted their lives in a positive way because of the lessons the characters learn on their journey.
To exemplify this, let us analyze the main protagonist, Aang. Aang's personality and beliefs are influenced by Buddhist monks who believe in calmness and non-violence. Aang often approaches situations calmy and usually does not allow his emotions cloud his judgement. Instead of getting angry and screaming at everyone, Aang tries to compose himself through meditation so that he can tackle conflicts level-headed. Moreover, Aang often tries to see the good in people instead of just assuming they are evil, like how after two seasons of trying to kill him, Aang still found it in himself to forgive Zuko and even wound becoming close friends with him. Even further, Aang continually strove for a way to stop the main antagonist without violence because he would not resort to killing.
From the website Quora, Andy Searles talks about what the different characters represent and what he's taken away from them. For example, from Zuko, Searles honour and determination:
"Zuko represents honor and determination. Zuko is the only other character that is more interesting than his Uncle Iroh. From the beginning Zuko is on a hunt to retrieve his honor by capturing the avatar, he uses determination to keep trying despite his constant failures. In the end of the series he learns that he makes his own honor and is determined to help the Aang take down his father, despite the groups apprehension, he gained their trust through his determination." [2]
From Zuko's character and journey, we can see how we each have to make our destiny that makes us happy instead of following what people expect of us.
These lessons, and the many others that are present in The Last Airbender influence the children that watch it. When a child watches it and sees how Aang handles a difficult situation through reasoning and not anger, that child may try and do the same thing to emulate something he looks up to. Although it is unintentional on the creators' behalf, the show does indeed influence children positively because of the characters' actions.
Misguidance
Very often, media is used to mislead an audience or to shape their thoughts in such a way that is beneficial to the creator. We see this all of the time in political campaigning, where one party attempts to discredit another so as to sway votes to their side (a perfect example of this was Stephen Harper's "He's just not ready" campaign against Justin Trudeau).
But while media can mislead its audience, I do not believe Avatar: The Last Airbender necessarily does this. This is because The Last Airbender never directly tries to educate its audience on Eastern religions, despite the copious amounts of borrowing it does from them. It gives us an insight on what the lifestyle of Buddhists monks is like through the Air Nomads but they never specifically state that they are Buddhist so it is hard to say that they mislead the audience when they stray from the base material.
Even when looking at someone like Combustion Man, it is hard to fault the creators: Combustion Man is based on the Hindu god Shiva but the difference is that Combustion Man destroys maliciously whereas Shiva uses his third eye to purify the earth and allow new things to grow. Combustion Man would mislead an audience into believing that the Hindu god is evil if the creators stated this was Shiva or a representation of Shiva but they have not so again, it is hard to fault them for it.
Of course, misleading an audience still happens regardless of whether or not there is an intent to do it but I think that only people who are educated in Eastern religions would find The Last Airbender misleading because I do not believe the core audience has enough knowledge of the religions to even realize that they are the base material.
[1] Hall, Stuart. "Encoding/Decoding." Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse. Birmingham [England: Centre for Cultural Studies, U of Birmingham, 1973. 128-138. Print.
[2] Searles, Andy. "Life Lessons: What Has Avatar the Last Airbender Taught You?" Quora. Web.