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).