Impacts of Media Imperialism

Blog Assignment #7

The documentary entitled "The Power of Nightmares (Part 3 - Shadow in the Cave)" by Adam Curtis was shown in class on Monday. How do you relate the information given to you in the documentary to the theory of Media Imperialism that we talked about in lecture?

Two Critical Reflection

Media imperialism can be defines as a practice when developing countries began to criticize the control developed countries through media industries. Another definition for media imperialism is when smaller countries lose their identity and dignity to the power (feeding decoy) of media from lager and powerful nations.  The power and authority came through people from a positive and optimistic perspective. They lured people into believing these ideologies. Those ideologies were bogus. People cannot believe in these words and ideologies. The video talks about two groups of people, the American non-conservatives and the radical Islamists.  They war between these two groups had caused many wars. These wars had killed many people over period of time. For instance, around the American embassy in Kenya and Tanzania two massive suicide bombs were plotted. This attack killed more than 200 people. This example states how media imperialism has a negative impact on the society.

 

The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC documentary film series, written and produced by Adam Curtis. The Documentary deals with the rise the neo-conservatives in the united states and the movement of radical Islamism. The film points to the origins and the similarities between both groups.  It states that threat from radical Islamism (al-qaeda) is evil and sinister. It shows American Neo-Conservatives in a attempt to unite and inspire their people.

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_imperialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares

Reflection on Media Culture Class:

This week I was absent, but I watched the videos from Youtube and learned the impacts of media imperialism. I think that it's a very interesting topic. The society is going through massive destruction. 

Blog assignment #6

Question: 

Using McLuhan's "Tetrad of Media" (see diagram below), choose a medium or media application or tool (e.g. newspaper, books, radio, tv, film, internet, computer games, handphone, instant messaging, blogging, online advertising, youtube, facebook etc.) and explain its media effects? Please refer to Week 9's lecture notes plus your own research to discuss this topic.

Two Critical Reflections:

1) In our society there are many media tools or application. I choose hand phone as the media application. In my notion hand phone is powerful media tool for mass communication. The hand phone was invented in the 20^th century.  It has many other capabilities that the normal phone didn’t have in hand. The hand phone enhances the usage in communication, and also other features such as SMS, Bluetooth, and Internet access, GPRS, access to computer files, and etc. The hand phone is a very resourceful tool among media application tools. It obsolesces the normal telephone that we use in everyday life. It comes in handy and easy to carry, Where as the normal telephone doesn’t have these factors.

 

2) However, I believe that ongoing usage of the hand phone retrieves the common factor of the telephone, which is communication. It is a very reliable tool that manages to fill our time. Since these hand phones are upgrading very quickly, too many people are becoming obsessed with this media tool. It has an impact on our daily lives; people are spending too much money and profit to get the new upgraded hand phone. I think that people can invest their money in many other resources.

 

Reflection on Media Culture Class

 During this week, the lecturer talked about different topics such as “the extensions of Man”, McLuhans’s theory, and hot and cold media. Some of this topic is somewhat confusing, but throughout time and research it will be easier to understand its message. 

Blog assignment #5

Obscenity, pornography and indecency: What are the differences between these terms? 

In my notion, all three terms relate to each other, but in different context and background.  The first term obscenity means the act of behaving in an offensive and inappropriate way. Pornography is the depiction of sexually explicit pictures, photos, videos, and movies (www.choicesaz.org/resources/glossary/). Indecency is an impolite or improper act; in other words, the state or degree of being disrespectful, which can be expressed in words (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/indecency).

 

Media Culture Class

Media Culture…. What can I say… I think that I am learning to appreciate and evaluate different media forms throughout this course.  Media literacy is being practiced in media culture class. Getting the chance to explore the nature of media.  

Media literacy

Two Critical Reflections:

Media literacy is the practice of admission, exploring, assessing, and producing messages in a diversity of different media forms. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy). Another definition of media literacy is the critical knowledge of the nature of the media, the methods used by them and the influence of these methods. (www.mediaawareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teaching_backgrounders/media_literacy/glossary_media_literacy.cfm).In my opinion it’s very important for a FCM student to have the knowledge of media literacy. Creative multimedia is a major that people get the chance to create and produce art; art in different forms such as movies, music, design, and etc. We learn what to expect from media and the viewers of media. Throughout the course we learn to evaluate, analyze, communicate, and produce messages using different sources of media. As a FCM student my self, this knowledge will help me to be a successful designer in the upcoming future.  

Give a very short basic explanation of what media stereotype is? (Keep it short please!) From your personal experience, what other media stereotype (besides the example from the article) you have seen either on TV or in the movies?

http://web.media.mit.edu/~ayah/MediaTheories/

Reflection on media culture

 Media class is getting very interesting. I think that I am learning and being exposed to many different issues that we experience in our daily life and how the society reacts. These issues come by and we just pass them by. We have to think critical and be active towards reacting to these issues. With people’s unification many things can change. 

 

Topic 3 : Media Stereotype

TWO Critical Reflections: 

In my notion media stereotype is a fixed idea towards members of class, ethnic, race, culture, age, and sex that contribute to particular characteristics throughout different sources of media (T.V, radio, news paper). In the article,
“That's all Sheikh: Arab representation in U.S. cartoons”, we see how the author tries to explain racial, ethnicity, cultural stereotype in media particularly in U.S. cartoons.  Ayah Bdeir mentions about how these racial stereotypes were imposed and reasons behind it throughout different time period during the 20^th century.  These cartoons were used as tool for propaganda and it was targeted to audiences, especially children; these cartoons influence the way children think, and they have the tendency to grow up with these beliefs. Some of the reasons behind implying these types of images are the U.S. audiences negative feeing about these different groups for its relation with these groups and the hate and abhorrence between them.  The author focused more on stereotypical towards the Arabs. The U.S. media removed all stereotypical images from other ethnic and culture groups except the Arabs. The reason behind it, is the relation between the west and east, and the September 11 incident and its impact on people’s view.

 

Personally speaking, I have not only seen these stereotypical not jus in cartoons, but also movies. I have seen many movies that portray this fact. One of these movies was the movie, “you don’t mess with the zohan. I mean by watching this movie you can clearly see that how different ethnic groups such as the Arabs and the Jews are represented. This movie isn’t the only movie that depicts many racial and cultural stereotypical images. As days go by, media is producing these types of movie. People go to theater and watch these movies. To me, I think that the response of these people plays an important role. They act in a way that there kind of use to the idea of stereotypical images in movies and they have no problem regarding to these images, so the media keeps producing and showing these type movies on air. Generally speaking, I think people have important part in the way that media is produced and takes place. 

Reflection on media culture

Another interesting thing about media culture class is learning about the fact that how media embraces and has an impact on religion, race, class, community, and community. also, how media can take control of people's behavior.

TOPIC 2

Do you often take what is on the Internet as truth without thinking much about it? If yes, why? If no, why? Discuss this in your own words.

Two critical reflections: 

Based on the comic strip that I just read and also from personal experiences I know for a fact that you cannot rely on the Internet. There are people out there that have access to websites, and they post things on the net that is not always true.  I always try to search about different topics or news from relevant websites.

 

For example, I had a personal experience with irrelevant websites. About a year ago I had done a research on a science project, and I had searched about the topic through the Internet. When I consulted my research with my teacher, he said that some of the information from research are not based on fact. When he brought a relevant article on my topic, I noticed that information mentioned in the article was some how different from one mentioned in the website. From that day on I told my self that I would always check and make sure that the websites that I visit are reliable networks.

 

Social Media video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE

My Reflection on Media Culture Class

I think media culture class is interesting ways. Students get to explore about the different ways of communication throughout the mass media. The world of technology has brought many opportunities for people across the world. Being able to interact with people around the world is one of these opportunities. 

Media Culture- Social Media

Two Critical Discussions:

The Video entitled “social Media” reflects on our personal lives in many ways. I would describe social media as a tool of communication.  As human beans we al need to communicate. We want to be involved and interact with other humans with communication.  Humans have the tendency to communicate through the sequence of thoughts, feelings, and ideas.  Social media has created a network of social groups through out the world.  For instance we all know about social media applications such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.  Personally I use these social network groups to communicate with different people around the world.  I want to learn about different cultures, heritages, and backgrounds. This way I have the ability to improve my knowledge about different people and what to expect from them.  

In the video entitled “Social Media” we see social media not just as a tool of communication, but also advertising.  The director seeks to explain the concept of social media in community called “Scoop Ville.” In the video we see that the people living in Scoop Ville got to explore the ice cream machine. In my notion the ice cream machine was a tool for creating a social group, which is also connected to advertising.  The people had the chance to explore different flavors of ice cream. This was an opportunity for the people to meet with different people and also gain profit.  Generally speaking, I think that the generation that we live in now has the potential to communicate in many different ways. Communication can be resourceful for us. For me, I have the opportunity to post my ideas and creativity (art/music) throughout the social network and get feed back from different people who also seek the same goals in life.