A Reflection on the Work of My Peers

Today’s new media, such as blogs, allows individuals to express their opinions publicly in

ways they would not have been able to in the past. This increased accessibility results in a lot of

people writing a lot of crap, crap that is often not properly researched. Our assignment to make a

blog forced me to think a lot about the validity of opinion pieces written on the internet. I have

really enjoyed reading the well thought out, well informed and well-researched blogs of my

peers. One assignment that was of particular interest to me was our first, to write about whether

the media involvement during the Cholera outbreak in Haiti was beneficial or detrimental to the

country.

Two peer blog entries stuck out to me, Kathryn Abeysekea’s for her social commentary

on the situation as it relates to us and Jessica Sellers’s for her critical, opinionated analysis of

exactly what was going on in Haiti.

Abeyseka critiqued Westerners for their lack of interest and commented on the emphasis

of the situation compared to other “more interesting” events in Canadian and American media.

She expressed her outrage at the Western world for not making it a priority in our lives,

providing concrete examples to back up her opinions. She took the situation and brought it into

context in our immediate lives.

Sellers took a different approach, examining and critiquing what was going on in Haiti.

While Abeyseka said the problem was Canadians not being interested enough, Sellers looked at

issues like infrastructure in Haiti and the safety of aid workers.

Both blogs brought in a variety of contemporary media sources, that are easily accessible,

yet reliable sources of information. Abeyseka made her entry accessible by forcing us to examine

ourselves. Sellers made hers relatable by referencing familiar sources, such as the New Yorker.

Radio and Community

Dennis Allen’s film, CBQM, and Danny Kaplan’s article, “The Song of the Siren”

illustrate two very different examples of how radio can bring people together when it’s

impossible for them to actually be together.

Radio is a particularly uniting force for several reasons: 1) Radio is in real time.

Everyone listens to a broadcast together, right when it happens, whereas other forms of media

such as newspapers and the internet can be accessed at one’s own leisure. There is not the same

sense of real time with a newspaper, which you can choose to read days, even weeks after it’s

printed. 2) Radio is interactive. Calling into radio shows is common practice. Calling into

television shows is less common; and commenting on internet sites is less personal. 3) Radio is

portable. Portable radios and radios in cars are easily accessible worldwide. Radio is the only

form of media which can be accessed while driving.

It would be nearly impossible for the elderly inhabitants of Fort McPherson to venture

from their homes during the harsh Winter to spend time together. CBQM radio unites the

community by broadcasting Bingo games. Individuals feel connected to the radio station,

because they can call in and speak on the air and personal messages are broadcast. The local

government uses the radio to communicate pressing legal issues, such as teenagers throwing eggs

at houses.

Radio in Israel also helps to bring the community together in times when it would be

physically impossible to do so. While people in Fort McPherson are confined to their homes

listening to the radio because it’s cold outside, and there is nothing better to do, the radio in Israel

played an important role during the Gulf War when, “ Israeli citizens were confined to their

homes every night in anticipation of Iraqi missile attacks” (Allen). In times of instability, radio

was used to keep everyone informed, giving real time updates of conflict. Newspapers would

report things too late, and television was not as reliable or accessible.

Radio was used in Fort McPherson to keep everyone from being bored to death, radio in

Israel prevented people from being blown up. Entire communities sat hulled up in their

individual homes, listening to the radio, with nowhere else they could go and became united.

Works Cited

Allen, D (Director). (2009). CBQM

Kaplan, Danny. The songs of the siren: engineering national time on

israeli radio.

Volver: A New Approach to Feminism

Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), the protagonist of Pedro Almodovar’s film, Volver is

beautiful and is seen cooking, cleaning, crying and caring for others throughout the film. Based

on this description, one might not jump to classify Volver as a feminist film.

Many feminist films celebrate the strength of women by having them fill stereotypically

“male” roles. Mulan offers a strong female role model to traditional Disney princesses when she

disguises herself as a man and joins the Chinese army. She becomes a war hero, and is exposed

as a woman during a ceremony in her honor. Everyone was appalled at first, but they eventually

came to her senses and decided to recognize her for her actions. The more “feminine” women,

who are beautiful and domestic and want to raise families are portrayed as weaker. Mulan was

only able to get respect by abandoning her female identity, becoming totally desexed and filling

the stereotypical “male, war-hero tough guy” role.

Raimunda, on the other hand, is established as a woman, in the very traditional sense,

from the very beginning. The film opens with a shot of widows sweeping graves in a village in

spain, where she cleans the grave of her parents with her daughter and sister. Her husband stays

home watching futbol and drinking beer, it is expected that she does the cooking and cleaning.

She wears low-cut shirts and struts around in heels. She always looks nice and well put together,

she wears a full face of makeup at her job as a cleaning woman. Feminist film theorists often

criticize films for their use of the “male gaze,” for making women look to sexy, to appear too

much like objects. Almodovar celebrates Cruz’s beauty and plays up her sex appeal.

Beatrix Kiddo, (Uma Thurman) the female assassin in Kill Bill, goes on a killing spree to

take revenge on those who wronged her. Unlike Mulan, she is not desexed, Kiddo is very sexy;

sexy enough for “Buck” to make a business of selling her comatose body. Kiddo is seen as strong

because she is vengeful, tough and violent. In Volver, the values of maternal love and forgiveness

are celebrated. Raimunda was raped by her father, resulting in the conception of her daughter,

Paula (Yohana Cobo). Hurt, and angry at her mother for being oblivious to the abuse, she moves

to Madrid to marry Paco (Antonio De La Torre) who raises Paula as his own. As Paula reaches

adolescence, Paco sexually assaults her and she kills him with a kitchen knife in self-defense.

Paula is seriously disturbed by the incident and it is not implied for one moment that killing him

was the “strong” thing to do. Raimunda appears as the “strong” character in the situation when

she comforts her daughter and forgives her mother. Their tears and hugging and love are

celebrated as they put the violent acts behind them .

In contrast, Suzanne (Julie Vincent), the female protagonist in A Scream From Silence is

very in tune with her femininity, she lets it define her. The film deals with her rape and her

attempt to find and persecute the culprit. Her humiliation from the incident couple with her

frustration with the “male dominated system” and its inability to help her, slowly destroy her and

she commits suicide. While A Scream From Silence demands sympathy and vengeance for

women who have been violated, focusing on putting the blame on men, the women in Volver are

able to grow stronger from negative experiences. Rather than dwelling on the past and blaming

others, they support one another and move forward. Volver is a feminist film, not because it turns

women into men, but because it celebrates them for being women.

Works Cited:

Almodovar, P (Director). (2006). Volver [DVD].

Bancroft, T (Director). (1998). Mulan [DVD].

Gray, G. (2010). Cinema: a visual anthropology (film theory).

Poirier, PA (Director). (1979). A Scream From Silence [DVD].

Use and Reuse

With globalization and technology’s reduction of relative space, more media from more

places becomes more accessible. Advances in technology also make media easier to create;

youtube is flooded with amateur covers of songs, re-edits of films, parodies of films, remixes of

songs. In a world where anything from anywhere is accessible anytime, truly original content is

virtually impossible to find.

Nobody’s going to argue with amateur parodies and remakes, it’s a great way to learn and

be creative. Some might be really awful, such as a “Call of Duty” parody of Britney Spears’s

recent single, “Hold it Against Me.” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEd9gg3sw3Y) My film production classmates have made excellent use of sampling and parodying for class exercises. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyuPwh79-Ks “Picard Practice” Ian Von Hollidayʼs re-edit of Star Trek to “Soccer Practice” by Johnny McGovern. Neither the song nor the footage was Hollidayʼs work, but the first comment my professor made was, “that was very original.” After watching these videos, it is hard to take the originals seriously.

While nobody in the Western world is really going to be too concerned about Star Trek,

or the work of Britney Spears losing artistic or cultural value. One might begin to take issue with

parodies when the subject has not established the same iconic success and respect. In his article,

“Cosmopolitanism, Remediation and the Ghost World of Bollywood,” Novak explains how

people in the US view Bollywood as kitschy and our use and references to it sort of poke fun at it

rather than respect it. Many people (young people especially) in the Western world, such as Enid,

in Ghost World, are familiar with Bollywood films but only because they find them funny or

novel; many might critique them for not having a genuine appreciation, or for undermining their

artistic value. One such example is the YouTube clip, “Benny Lava.3” User, “kbhurosah” added

his own English subtitles to a song and dance sequence from an Indian movie. In my high school

one of our top varsity football players had the nickname “Chubbs.” He got the nickname on his

grade six football team and it stuck, most teachers even used it. Nobody ever questioned the

name and it never phased him because he was considered “cool” and was respected by the

general masses. Give a similar nickname to an insecure immigrant with a thyroid condition and it

might not go over so well.

Free speech is a sign of progress, people need to push the envelope to move forward. The

creators of South Park received death threats from a radical Islam group after a particularly

offensive episode; do they sometimes take their parodies too far? Yes. Should they stop? No.

Everyone can laugh together when you make fun of Jacob Goldstein for being cheap and having

a big nose, but make a holocaust joke, everyone will fall silent and glare at you.

Novak criticizes Bollywood for making direct copies of American movies. Most people

would say Bollywood copying western films is wrong, but they love the American version of The

Office. The bottom line is, the American versions of the films wouldn’t work in India, just like

the British version of The Office didn’t work in the US. With remakes and sampling, nothing can

really be done in this day and age. “Imitation is the greatest form of praise.” Any publicity is

good publicity, just look at Rebecca Black. She is earning roughly 30,000 a week, at thirteen

years old, for singing “the worst song ever.”

Tag, You're it: Public Anonymity

In an increasingly online world, people are able to speak their mind freely without having to worry about repercussions. On Xbox live, boys who are timid in the real world, dish out vulgar insults like there is no tomorrow, people criticize everyone from politicians to chefs on online discussion boards, even if they are not qualified to do so. Making semi-anonymous statements on the internet for the public to see is a relatively new phenomena, anonymously writing political statements in public areas has been happening for hundreds of years, there has been evidence of graffiti found in ancient Roman ruins. Graffiti is an art form that allows the artist to get his or her name or message out and well known while still maintaing a sense of anonymity. Anonymity in graffiti is not only important because the nature of the statements that can be made, but also because graffiti is considered vandalism and is illegal. The illegality of it also ads to its appeal.

Graffiti from particular artists is generally recognizable, tagging is when an artist quickly puts his or her logo or signature on something.

Tags, especially in their larger and more elaborate 'throw-up' versions, became the initial focus of stylistic and social organizational innovation. Graffiti writers developed new stylistic techniques to distinguish their tags from the myriad graffiti competing for public space and attention. The tag became the unit of production and the basic measure of a writer's fame. Artistic quality overrode quantity for a minority of graffiti writers, culminating in murals which covered full subway cars and incorporated a variety of styles developed for tags and throw-ups. (Ferrell, 1993)

Graffiti artists can become famous without ever having their identity revealed.

Banksy is one of the best known graffiti artists in the world. Despite having won awards for his films and published books, his identity remains unknown to the public. In his film, Exit Through The Gift Shop, his identity is not revealed. His face is blurred out in interviews and his voice is disguised. He did not come out with the fact that he was the director after the Sundance film festival. The film was recently nominated for an Oscar, the debate of whether Banksy could accept the award became an issue. The Academy decided that they did not want to allow Banksy to accept the award in disguise or to accept the award without revealing his identity. They fear he may come on stage wearing his usual disguise of a monkey mask. Banksy has made it clear that he does not want his identity revealed, he made no appearances at Sundance but left graffiti around Park City during the festival. If his identity were revealed, his graffiti would no longer have the same meaning.

Works Cited

Ferrel, J. (1993). Crimes of style: urban graffiti and the politics of criminality. Journal of Justice and Popular Culture.

Pond, Steve. (n.d.). Oscars want elusive banksy to stay out of sight. The Wrap, Retrieved from http://www.thewrap.com/awards/ column-post/academy-grapples-banksy-problem-24563? page=0,0

Slumdog Millionaire Here and There

These four YouTube videos illustrate the reduction of the relative distance between India and the Western world, specifically the United States. Walter Benjamin criticizes the recreation of art because reproductions lose the “aura” of the original art pieces. These recreations of “Jai Ho” not only lose the aura of the original setting, but also create a more watered down, homogenized version of Indian culture. In the article, “Global Ethnoscapes,” Arjun Appadurai points out that globalization and the accessibility of other cultures broadens people’s imaginations. Prior to globalization, a boy from the slums in India probably would have never imagined life beyond his existence. However, the growing influence of media allows for the expansion of people’s imaginations. Western culture has a growing influence on India and vice versa, the character of Jamal in Slumdog Millionaire idolizes an Indian movie star, there is a gret deal of Western influence in his movies. People dream of striking it rich on the Indian version of the American television show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

The Pussycat Dolls sample the song from the movie, but they change it’s meaning; the term, “Jai Ho” means “be victorious” but the Pussycat Dolls implied that it means “you are my destiny.” The influence of Bollywood style song and dance is seen in the music video and they dance in the train station, just as was done in the film. The fusion of the two cultures reduces the relative distance between here and India, allowing westerners to imagine life there.

The performance of the song and dance by a dance troop in Tampa also illustrates how the relative distance between India and the West has been reduced. The dancers appear to be of Indian decent, but have likely never been to India and are much more assimilated to Western culture than their parents. Because Indian culture has become more engrained into Western culture, and because the popularity of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, this dance was likely much more appreciated by Westerners than it would have been if it had been performed in a less globalized world.

While Walter Benjamin would criticize the movie Slumdog Millionaire for taking away from the true value of traditional Indian culture, and these recreations of the dance number for taking away the aura of the original, I feel as though they are positive. These videos illustrate how the world has become more connected. They illustrate how people in the West can imagine what life is like in India and how people in India can imagine what life is like in the West and how globalization allows for a greater overall understanding of the world we live in.

Self Representation: Has it Gone too Far

ANTH 378 Blog Assignment #2

Self-Representation: Has it Gone too Far?

Globalization, technology and the growing importance of media have increased our accessibility to other cultures. According to Mazzarella, the representation of one’s own culture through the media increases their awareness of their own culture, this causes people to become more aware of how they are unique in the world. The increase in accessibility of culture has caused a fetishization for “true” or “unique” culture. In an age where self representation is playing an increasingly important role, people can take advantage of the desire of audiences’ wants to see that which is different. One example of this is Snookie, star oft he MTV reality show, The Jersey Shore, who has made a career of overplaying her “guido” persona on television. Self-representation also plays in increasingly important role in an increasingly online world. Anyone anywhere in the world can make a whole new persona of themselves online, bringing mediation to a whole new level.

One key point made by Mazzarella was the fetishization of unique culture. With growing access to different cultures, people have to growing desire to see and learn about the most “real,” the most “local,” the most “unique.” Reality television is one example of how self-representation plays a role in the media today. Shows such as No Reservations, on the Travel Network, highlight the best local foods in cities around the world, but instead of visiting five star restaurants, the host visits hole-in-the-wall restaurants and food stands to get a taste of the “real” local culture. Another famous reality TV show is The Jersey Shore, where eight Italian-American young adults shamelessly illustrate how self-representation makes one aware of one’s own culture. Early on they became aware that they were trashy “guidos” and the show became increasingly popular as their behavior became increasingly ridiculous and stereotypical. Nicole Polizzi, “Snooki” has had the most success making a career out of the role.

Self-representation and increased self-awareness becomes increasingly important as the internet plays an increasingly important role in our perception of reality. Mainstream media such as newspapers, television and radio are diminishing in importance while new media such as blogs are increasing in significance. People can now debate important issues online, and many people become to develop an online identity which is much more bold than who they are in real life. Because the online world is disconnected from reality, people can say and do more than they can in real life because the internet provides a sense of anonymity.

Self-representation is playing an increasingly important role in the process of mediation with the decline of the importance of traditional forms of mediation and the increase of new forms of media such as blogs and reality television. The increased importance of self-representation in society causes people to become increasingly aware of themselves. People can take advantage of this, and begin to represent themselves in a more extreme manner in order to get attention.