Week 11: Mobilising

This weeks reading 'Noise, Now: Listening to Networks', begins with discussing the noise regulations of the pre-information technology era. Crawford then compares the noise pollution that came with the industrialised era, with the digital noise that we are subjected to every day as users of social media and new technologies.

Crawford presents the question of weather social-media and new technologies are overwhelming us and abstracting our relationships with others, she puts the arguments into two camps:

• 'Information Overloaders' – people who believe that the new forms of social-media and technologies are unbalancing and unnatural.

• 'Information Self-Reformers' – people who believe that if your are overloaded by too much media it is your need to manage your tools better.

I personally take a middle-ground opinion, I believe that during different parts of our life’s we are all Information Overloaders and Self-Reformers. I will use myself as an example, In 2006 I worked for the State-Revenue Office for 2 years, during my teenier as a white collar worker I found myself becoming highly dependant on social-media, to stay in contact with friends while I worked long hours, and to pass the time in such a repetitive environment. However, at the beginning of this year, my best friend passed away, with that I fell out of contact with many old friends, and poored as much time as possible into work and study, I even got rid of my my phone because I wanted to spend some time in social isolation.
During periods where I am not using social-media I do not feel a 'need' to use it, nor do I feel any form of obligation. By the same token, I do not resent and loath it like so many others do, I feel that social-media is a good tool, and will use it again when I am ready.

Week 10: Networking

(An old internet meme titled 'How to be Emo')

This weeks reading, 'Rereading Fandom: Myspace Character Personas and Narrative Identification' deals largely with the emergence of 'new media' and the ways in which new media allows us to interact with existing media. For instance, the way which people create and moderate fake profiles of television show characters, the reading then looks at how this relates to previously established media-fan relationship theories.

The reading then discusses theories of Mayfield (2007) who insists that internet persona's create two types of identity, your real-world and simulated or your lived and written, the idea of this is that people will skew how they portray themselves online, Mayfield likens a myspace page to a teenagers bedroom wall where they can slap up images and videos.

However, this is all elementary human nature. If you look at any other circumstance that humans are given to express themselves, we always present what we want people to see. For instance, clothing we only dress the way we want people to perceive us, musical taste, home decor, formal work attire, we as humans understand that every one of these things is interpreted by other humans and vague judgements are made on those perceptions. The world has always worked like this and the advent of new facility's to personalise how we present ourselves (social media), is only going to strengthen our perceptions of difference and identity.

Week 09: Othering

For the reading this week I chose “White Thumbs, Black Bodies: Race, Violence, and Neoliberal Fantasies in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I mainly chose this article because I was a video game reviewer for 5 years. I have worked with several magazines as well as several websites, and have an thorough knowledge of the Rockstar development studio (the studio that designed GTA: SA) as well as a good understanding of the GTA series and its satirical intentions.

P. Barrett makes some good arguments as to the objectification of African Americans in GTA: SA, however the writer fails to point out that all of the GTA games are based off complex, and specific sub-culture satire.
For instance, the first GTA game of the San Andreas generation was GTA 3, a game that set out to recreate New York City as fictional “Liberty City”, In the game you play a voiceless italian Mafioso, and spend most of your time conversing with other typical Italian Mafioso types. This leads to complex genre satire including missions that are recreations of scenes from movie's, characters that a direct homage to their film originals.

The follow-up game GTA: Vice City was pretty much, just a video game re-creation of the 1983 film Scarface. As you can see from the screenshot above, taken during a game-mission that re-creates the infamous bathroom-chainsaw scene. The chracters in Vice City are direct re-creations of many Scarface as well as other famous miami-drug themed media (for instance, the game is littered with Miami-Vice reference’s)

(Real life rapper 'Biggie Smalls' and video-game gangster 'Big Smoke')

GTA SA, is no different, Barret hints at this as describing SA as a interactive 'Boyz n the Hood' (a popular 90's film about African American youths living in South Central Los Angeles), however what I feel the writer fails to grasp is that the entire game is pop-culture satire. From the very first mission, the mission names and scenarios are constantly references to moves and even popular rap music. The main characters 2 main friends are direct re-creations of 2 famous deceased rappers, 'Biggie Smalls', and 'Eazy-E' as you can see from the photo comparisons above and below.

(Real life rapper 'Eazy-E' and video game gangster 'Ryder')

In conclusion, I agree that the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas may objectify African Americans and negatively portray them as living in a culture of materialism and violence, but this is only because this is how popular rap-culture portrays itself, the characters are re-creations of real-life people, and the characters retain their personalities and viewpoints. I find, to isolate GTA SA as portraying negative racial/cultural stereotypes, as racist, the games that preceded it stared white main characters, living in white cultures, but are just as violent and objectifying. However, because the players are predominately white, and the playable-character is white, it is seen as 'ok', I find that more offensive than anything.

Week 08: Gazing

This weeks reading is by Debra Merskin and concerns the 'pornographic gaze' in American fashion advertising. Merskin first outlines her definition of pornography as 'Material that depicts men and women as sexual beings with the purpose of arousing mostly male desires in a way that reflects and helps maintain the subordination of women.

She then discuses how women in advertising relate to women in pornography, the women in pornography are presented as open and willing to succumb to the male gaze, however advertising depicting women, is often aimed at women, creating sexual ambiguity in our society where women are watching and judging themselves, a mirror-gaze.

Merskin uses the infamous add of Brooke Shields that can be seen above. The photograph was taken when she was 15 and still in high school, the pose she is in, they way her shirt is almost being blown off her, the way her hair is blown back and most of all her eyes, all indicate that she is open, avalable and an object that is to be desired.
This photo, taken in the 80's is also an early example of a fairly common phenoninom in advertising, that is the sexualisation of children. Being only 15 years old, having a chest and stomoch that are a centeral visual point, but no visible cleavage. This as well as her make-up wich is applied in a very adult manner is a microcosm of age in advertising. Sheilds as a young woman is made to look older by the use of make-up and an adult pose and seductive look.

A good example of how this is used the other way is when teen Porn-Star Sasha Grey went on the Tyra Banks show and made her removed her makup and wear clothing that made her look significantly younger, to make it seem like she is being exploited by the porn industry.

The origional interview can be seen here:

Sasha Grey's response to the broadcast cut of the interview can be seen here:

Week 07: Watching

The reading this week is Michael Foucault 'Discipline and Punish', which covers the idea of Panopticism or the use of social structures (workplaces, schools ect.) as surveillance and conditioning facilities to the general population. He analogises his theories by describing a Panopticon, now a common sight in prisons and detention centres. A Panopticon is a prison facility in a circular shape with one large tower in the middle housing the guards and cells lining the outside walls, allowing prisoners to see nothing but their keepers tower at all times.

However, these ideas have made it far from the prisons cells. At my High School, Camberwell High they built a new art facility, and placed the teachers offices in a large glass-walled room in the very centre of the building with the classrooms surrounding it. We where openly told by school staff that this design was based of prisons and it was to keep a better eye on the students.

This has led me to believe that the ideas of Panoptcism aren’t as vindictive as they seem, but merely a automatic method that society develops to cohesively ingratiate people to the rules and norms of said society.

A good example of how this can be seen before post-industrial society, is the rights of passage ancient cultures took part in. Many ancient cultures would not allow their young to participate in daily activities (hunting ect.) until they had reached an age of significance and completed some kind of right of passage. This was partly due to early-man's miss-conceptions about the divine and spiritual but also as a form of cultural ingratiation. The young where not allowed to participate until they are ready to fully become a member of that society. Often by learning ancient stories and rituals that give context and order to the divine and every-day life, thus conditioning them to becoming cohesive members of society. Much the same can be said about our current educations systems.

Week 06: Speaking & Listening

(Protesters in Libya are aware of the effect that global communications and influence media has on western opinion, clearly using western (Obama) influenced political posters)

This weeks reading 'The virtual sphere: The internet as a public sphere' deals primarily with the ramifications of political activism on the internet, the decline of political participation, and the role the internet serves as a political tool.
The reading then goes into how the internet may not be the saviour of public political participation as many think, but may fragment political communities to the point where you have many splinter groups that hold little relevance or political capital.

However I would disagree, I think that the fragmentation of politics is a positive thing. History has proven that a two party system is inevitable in many democracy’s. This (naturally) forces one to take the right wing (conservative) standpoint on issues, while the other takes a left wing (liberal) standpoint. This duel system forces there to be no alternatives in politics but 'yes' and 'no'.
A fragmentation of standpoints and issues brings more opinions to the public sphere, more alternatives. It is important to consider that the internet and many of its communities are still in their infancy, however events like the cascade of revolutionary protest that are sweeping through North Africa, The Middle East and the Arab States right now prove the importance and strength of globalised communications and media via the Internet.

Week 05: Mediating

This weeks reading deals with text, media and society (like most weeks). It starts by analysing about the similarities between the attacks on the world trade towers of September 11, and the imagery found in a blockbuster Hollywood film. The writer lists of all the films they can think of with visceral scenes of cities and buildings being destroyed.
The writer then goes on to talk about the differences, concentrating mainly on the fact that one is fiction and one is reality. The writer discusses how film-makers use techniques like 'shaking camera' and 'awkward zooms', to impose the quality of realism.
The writer then goes into great detail on how the media manipulates their images to look more film-like and how film-makers manipulate their images to look more news-like.

In my opinion this is another inevitable side-effect of out times. fiction writers often seek to replicate reality. This way you become more invested and the images you see have more of an impact on the viewer. By the same token, the media is always trying to portray the world in a film-like manor. To prove this, one needs only look at the pattern of stories during a news program.

• The program will usually start with local news (establishing setting, much like the beginning of films where the character is often comfortable in a familiar place).

• As the program reaches the mid-point the more 'heavy' news stories feature (the climax, the action at the centre of the film that grips you to the end).

• Then finally news programs end on sport and a human interest story (the ending on a human interest story, is like the end of a film when the character comes back home after a harrowing journey and finally gets to smile).

Week 04: Writing

This weeks reading concerns the nature in which we write and thus the nature of what the reader reads. A large potion of the reading concerns the creative aspects of writing and how creative writing is seen as separate from academic.

I feel as if the writer of this reading has only disproved the point they wished to prove, that academic writing can be creative and eloquent. I found the use of creative language and the lack of formality to the writing made it completely distracting. I found myself re-reading paragraphs, scrambling to identity a argument or point in the text amongst all the imaginative imagery. I even found myself 'googling' terms the text was supposed to be explaining, because I found it extremely hard to coax a definition out of the text.
Creative writing is whimsical because it is only trying to impart a story of events upon the reader, where vague non-essential knowledge can be compensated for by our great imaginations (ie. How a character looks, what a room in a scene looks like). However academic writing, requires the transfer of specific and specialised concepts and theory, it requires a sharper use of language and a formal style of writing to best impart the knowledge and not distract from the essential information.

Week 03: Reading

This weeks reading deals largely with reading into text and analysing structure and narrative form. The reading begins by explaining the different forms of narrative structure:

Fragmented narratives; are mainly defined by non-sequential time-frames, and non-unified multi-narratives.

Multi-strand narratives; also have multiple narrative lines, but 'multi-strand' narratives are typically more related to one another, but are usually told in a disordered manner.

Classical narration; refers to the classical style of film making typically found in Hollywood films from around 1917 – 1960, where cause-effect plays a driving force behind the narrative and the protagonists narration is hidden in the narrative itself.

Canonical story structure; a consistent format of narration with three acts, introduction, complication and resolution.

The reading then goes into the foundation of Structuralism, structuralism suggests that at the core of every narrative is organised around binary oppositions which are typically centred around typical oppositions (evil-good, race, gender ect.).

The reading then uses this technique of identifying binary oppositions to analyse the film Natural Born Killers, I will apply this process to the Star Wars films, comparing the Empire (the antagonistic ruling faction from the first three films) to the Rebels (protagonists):

Empire (Antagonist)	Rebels (Protagonist)
Seeks control through power	Seeks order through enlightenment
Large and cumbersome	Small and tactical
Arrogant	Humble
Almost exclusively made up of Human-looking characters, and display border-line racist / prejudices mentality	Contains cultural and species diversity, indicating greater acceptance of differences, reinforced by precocity to use indigenous creatures for help
Almost all characters from the empires ruling class have English accents	All have either American accents or speak in alien languages
Space ships are typically grey with red lasers	Space ships are typically white with blue or green lasers

Week 02: Looking

This reading deals largely with NVC (Non Verbal Communication) and outlines the technical used when crafting the mis en scene to convey certain ideas and implant specific connotation about the image. The reading then goes onto outline different techniques and technical terminology used in film and photography. I will now use the material in the ready to analyse the promotional poster for the movie “Never Say Never” staring Justin Bieber

by pointing out a denotation and identifying its connotation:

• The camera is from a low angle relative to Bieber's eye-level.

  • This indicates Bieber is in a position of authority, probably not in a position of literal authority in the text, but he is the authority figure simply by being the central figure of the text.

• The two worlds on either side of him and the bight light under.

  • The “suburbia” image on the left indicates Biebers humble beginnings (also through the social norm that westerners read from left to right),

  • The city image on the right indicates that Bieber is destined for greater things, in comparison with his cold (because of the snow), grey (use of Black and white on the suburb image but not on the city) suburb beginnings.

  • Finally the light can be interpreted in several ways,

    • It can be seen as an indication that Bieber will achieve greatness at the conclusion of his journey, this is further enforced by the light being at the end of the road Bieber is standing on, framed by the suburbs (past) and city (future).

    • It could be seen to imply religious implications upon Bieber, crediting him with some kind of messiah-like status, since religious imagery has strong connotations for most Westerners.

    • Finally it could be interpreted as an indication of Biebers status as a pre-teen sex icon, the technique of selling sex to children who don’t truly understand the subtlety’s of advertising is well established and I wouldn’t doubt if the bright light was placed there to serve all three of these NVC purposes.

• The way he has his hands in his pockets, with his thumbs subtly pointing towards his crouch, is again another indication of Biebers status as a sex symbol.