The Producer

The Power of The Producer
Messages are interpreted in many different ways; it all depends on the person. In media texts, the messages the producers want to deliver are sometimes perceived differently from its audience. The political satire comedy movie The Interview produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg brought a lot of attention and became a huge controversy internationally. The plot focuses on two men, who were producer and host of a celebrity show, who landed an exclusive interview with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Knowing that, the CIA contacted them and gave them a mission to assassinate the North Korean dictator. When the trailers were out, the North Korean government was not happy, and they threatened the U.S with “merciless …show more content…
We could understand as to why the North Korean government were unhappy with the movie; no country leader would be amused if there were a movie made about their assassination. But the North Koreans took it so personally that they had brought the fictional movie to a whole new level to the point that they threatened the country. Apparently, what’s more interesting is that it was not only the North Korean governments or Kim Jong-un’s ‘fans’ that disliked the movie, but North Korean defectors did not enjoy it as well. North Korean defectors were people who escaped the country. Unlike the country’s official, they did not “adore” the leader; on the contrary, they were the people who wished he was dead. Even so, the defectors still view it as an insult and humiliation rather than a comedy. DongHyun Kim in the article “North Korean Defectors Say 'The Interview ' Isn 't Funny” said that the North Korean defectors did not understand why foreigners laugh and think that the movie is funny. “To see Kim portrayed as an object of ridicule -- rather than the infallible, all-powerful leader depicted in state propaganda -- would be nothing short of a revelation for most North Koreans”, Park Sang-hak, a North Korean who defected to the South said (Kim). It turns out, the North Koreans did not find any humor in the movie because they were not …show more content…
So, ultimately who has the power to produce meaning? For this movie, I would say it 's the producer who has the power. Even though there were lots of fuss and barriers for the film to be released, the movie eventually was still released and still got a good amount of positive feedback. The audience was not only the North Koreans but also the entire world. The movie is still perceived as a comedy to the Americans as well as a greater audience around the world. The people who hold the oppositional view, which in this case is the North Koreans, are only a small percentage of the greater population audience. Sony had to postpone and changed the release of the movie due to the threats and the hacks. However, with all the fuss, Barack Obama still supported the producer. Obama even expressed disappointment when the film was suspended saying that freedom of speech has been curbed. In the article “North Korea lambasts U.S. over 'The Interview’ says Obama is the 'culprit’” published by CNN, Holly Yan quoted Obama saying, “We cannot have a society in which some dictators someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States because if somebody is able to intimidate us out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing once they see a documentary that they don 't like or news reports that they don 't like. This furthers support that producers ultimately have more power and