Does this count as remix?

Shepard Fairey + Remix

There's been a lot of hype lately about the lawsuit between the AP and Shepard Fairey. Listen to the interview on NPR with both Fairey and Garcia (the photographer who took the original image) - Fairey makes some good points.

Apparently Lessig is speaking on a panel with Fairey tonight - I'll try to remember to check YouTube for it later.

Remix things to talk about today

What is a sharing economy?

What is a hybrid economy and what conditions are needed to make it work?

What are some examples?

How does hybrid economy help decriminalize youth?

What are the five shifts in the law that would radically improve its relation to RW creativity?

How does he suggest we reform ourselves (and why is it necessary to do so)?

Digital Liscensing Fees in Music

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/25/eminem-universal-digital-royalties-lawsuit

Evidently Eminem is about to set a precedent on digital licensing fees as he's suing his record company over them. More interesting though is that Steve Jobs is on the witness list.

All it takes is one

As we were talking about in class with regard to copyright, digital media is replicated so easily and nearly perfectly. And thus, we have U2's new album screw-up turned piracy nightmare. Seems the record company got all worked up over how torrents of the new album were spreading like wildfire, but it was the label that fumbled the ball at the 5-yard line.

Still, as TechDirt’s Mike Masnick notes, there’s a lesson to be learned here. “At some point, folks in the music industry are going to (finally) recognize a rather simple fact: it just takes one digital copy of a song/movie/whatever to get out there, and it’s everywhere. You can’t stop it. No matter how annoying it is. No matter what laws it violates. It will happen.”

Read the rest of the post over at Digital Daily.

Just for fun: DRM Self-righteousness

Remix Chapters Intro-5 RESPONSE

I found it very interesting to read the examination of the student friend of the author writing essays with quotes from established writers. This openly adopted form of literary remix with attribution had never been put into copyright context for me before. It presents an interesting notion of how cultural norms and processes are learned and applied. Why is it that literary remix is acceptable yet Girl Talk is challenged by law in their adaptation of remix with music and video? Do we hold music and video to a higher standard or value than literature? Or has the exponential growth in the last couple decades of new medias and the tools to create, publish and share content outpaced the moral adjustments of our society? I mean, let's face it the written word has been around a few thousand years. We have had plenty of time to adjust the uses of literary works.

Yet, new technologies have already begun to alter the literary landscape even today. It was announced the last few days that a Creative Commons license has been created for Twitter (yes, I have an affliction with the platform and am seeking professional assistance). You can even look at the recent brouhaha over Facebook changing the Terms of Service. The change brought into question several aspects of copyright of not just images and video but text comments and information. But after a groundswell of anger derived from a short blog posting and discourse between the company and its users, reverted to the original ToS. The heavy coverage of the issue by mainstream media also forced the quick discussion. But the issue of copyright still wasn't solved, only a continued delay in the need to address the 800-pound gorilla in the corner of the room frothing at the mouth.

There are communities in some of these mediums that embrace remix as part of their culture though. Take the electronic genre of music for example including Trance, House, Techno, Drum & Bass just to narrow it down a little. Many of the these artists including upper echelon producers create tracks that they openly allow to be remixed and altered, as long as there is credit back to the original artist. All while being done in the land of commerce for profits. For example look at Armin Van Buuren's "The Sound of Goodbye" track. One song was remixed nearly 20 times and then compiled onto an album. Each of the remixers will also be using and selling their versions of the track. But that is not counting the live remixing at performances or concerts by other artists even of the remixed versions. Most electronica shows are all about live remixing. The artists spread each other's work in order to expose more audiences to the music. Electronica tracks have typically been DRM free, save for some listed on iTunes based on the record label, in order to enable the opportunity of remix, including productions of podcasts and streaming music channels on the Internet.

While reading about the implementation of DRM to media, I reflected back to the topic we have talked about several times in class with regard to China and limiting the tools, not necessarily the content. The limitations of the DRM were an attempt to re-harness the limitations of analog content by taking away one of digital media's finest asset: exact duplication. But in limiting the tools the users of the tools, the creators, are in the end handcuffed in progressing the form and function of content. The notion of being an apprentice under the guidance of an established creator, such as the greats of art history or music, has been hamstrung for the almighty dollar. But in many instances the dollars don't even make their way to the originating artist. The mega-corporations managing all that content end up retaining the majority of it all.

In the end, until the notion of copyright and ownership are clearly defined, the legal threats and battles will continue. The copyright law has become overly restrictive and the notion of "fair use" has only gotten fuzzier. Creative Commons allows for some creators to open their works up to new futures, but many do not know of its existence. (One more hurdle of media literacy.) Or we can just wait a another decade or so for the boomers to lose their grip on control and old belief systems and re-institute the RW culture of societies past. Only, that waiting perpetuates the restraint of potential learning and exploration of a remix culture.

Outline of Remix Chapters 1-5

Introduction

• In the introduction to Remix, Lessig gives us several examples of copyright's ability to regulate everything from home movies to art installations. My favorite is his example of Stephanie Lenz's 18 month-old dancing to a distorted "Let's go Crazy" by Prince in the background. Lessig gives us these ridiculous examples of the over regulation of copyright in order to set up the theme of Remix: collateral damage. Is the current copyright law, which was written for an analog society, hindering our ability to grow and create in a democratic society? But, most importantly, making a new generation into criminals?

Chapter 1: CULTURES OF OUR PAST

• Copyright law first existed when there were no real ways to copy the tokens save performance and sheet music. However in 1906, when Sousa fought for more coverage of copyright, he was doing so in order for artists to benefit from the production of copies for commercial profit, not to stop ordinary citizens from continuing folk practices of RW culture. His main concern was the degradation of culture with the influx of new technologies or those damn “infernal machines.”

RW Culture Versus RO Culture

• RO culture has taken over popular culture from RW through the introduction of technologies and the competition between the new technologies to provide the best quality tokens. First with the piano player rolls, to phonographs, record players, radio (AM, then FM), VCR, tape players, CDs, DVD’s, etc.

• Popular culture becoming professionalized allowed access to a wide range of culture, produced a valuable economy and defined what we know as pop culture today.

Limits in Regulation

• Whereas Sousa argued for more copyright regulation, he knew that there was/is a limit. He thought amateur culture needed to be left unregulated by law because of the importance of amateur creativity in a RW society.

Chapter 2: CULTURES OF OUR FUTURE

• Lessig believes that both RO and RW cultures can survive and flourish in a “hybrid” economy.

Chapter 3: RO, EXTENDED

• When RO culture first emerged, all of its tokens were analog. It was extremely hard to copy them, and when the technology became available to do so, copies were inferior to the original. Do any of you remember making mixed tapes and if you weren’t quiet enough, you could hear background noise? The tapes on cassettes or VHS would eventually wear out the more often you played them or get completely ruined if your tape deck or VHS player decided to eat it.

Nature Remade

• Digital technology changed the nature of the RO tokens and the availability of digital technology made it possible to RW tokens again. This caused the content industry to come up with strategies to protect businesses from digital technologies. In 1997 and 98, new laws were designed to extend the life of copyright work, strengthen criminal penalties and punish the use of technology that tried to circumvent digital locks placed on digital content. The law cracked down on entities such as Napster first, then extended to ordinary citizens, even children.

Remaking Nature

• In 2003, iTunes began selling music with digital rights management software encoded in each file. This helped to appease the record industries a bit and Rhapsody and Napster followed suit. eMusic was the first to sell content without DRM software. Due to Internet and new technologies, culture is widely accessible and the costs of inventory dropping, allows more niche communities and tastes to flourish, i.e. Chris Anderson’s “longtail.”
  

Recoding Us

• With digital technology, we no longer have to conform to anyone else’s schedule; we can consume what we want, when we want it. We want access at any moment, hence the popularity of the iPhone. Lessig predicts that many devices will continue to compete to be the best in this respect, furthering technological advances in this area.

• Advertising also needs to change in order to follow digital trends. Whereas ads were shown, interrupting television programs every 18 minutes or so, the digital culture gives us an opportunity to change the way marketing and advertising is carried out. He gives he example of Amazon and its ability to monitor your purchases and searches in order to give you very specific suggestions to what they have gathered from you yourself. He suggests that this is preferable to the flip side of having to sit through commercials for advertisements in no way interesting you, think you’re a dude and a Tampax commercial comes on or you’re a lesbian sitting through a Viagra commercial.

Chapter 4: RW, REVIVED

Lessig points out that remix is something as simple as using a quote to write an essay and using old cases to make a point in a brief. If we as students had to ask for permission to quote every source, we’d get nowhere.
Writing Beyond Words

• Is quoting from a source such as film, TV or music any different than quoting from a text? Because technology makes it possible for just about anyone to sample from these tokens and include them in their own digital work, shouldn’t these forms of quoting be democratized just as text has?

• Here's Girl Talk for those of you unfamiliar.
  

Remixed Text

• The proliferation of blogs gave ordinary people a venue to be heard and other ordinary people a way to comment and interact by tagging and rating blogs. Aggregators like Technorati allow us to see in real time the most popular blogs on the Net. Even if a blog is bad, it still has democratic value.

Remixed Media

• In Lessig’s opinion, a mix of images and sounds makes its point far more powerfully than and 800 word essay in the New York Times because the tokens used to remix images, film, and music have emotional meaning to us. In our visual culture, it’s hard to disagree with him.

The Significance of Remix

• Remix builds community with remixers and it is a valuable tool for education. Just like the kids writing for the “Daily Prophet,” remix artists learn more from the act of doing and participating and getting constructive feedback, then the individualized hierarchy of most classroom based learning.

• This video clip of McCain being Barack Rolled stresses the significance of community. There are several instances on YouTube of fake videos, ones where you think you are about to watch one thing, but it suddenly cuts to Rick Astley singing Never Going to Give You Up. Most people wouldn't get the joke, this video is more about showing off.

Chapter 5: CULTURES COMPARED

Differences in Value-and “Values”

• RO culture is made by professionals to be consumed only. RW is amateur and asks more of the audience, learning by practicing.

Differences in Value (As in $)

• RW also has economic value. Lessig talks about people buying content for their iPods. He also says that the most valuable contribution to our economy comes from connectivity, not content.

Differences in Value (as in “Is it any good?”)

• Lessig agrees that a lot of remix is crap, but thinks that value also comes from the participation and practice of rewriting culture.

Differences in Law (Is it Allowed)

• The current copyright law was written before the advent of digital technologies. The technology is the only thing that has changed, but since the architecture of copyright law is such that it includes any copy made, virtually all of us are guilty of breaking copyright law now. A new form of copyright law should be enacted to reflect our changing society, something like Creative Commons

• I recently began following Lessig on Twitter and found out that there is currently a case against Shepard Fairey for his possible use of an image by the AP.

Lessons About Cultures

• Both cultures are important and valuable; the current law needs to be changed in order to be up to date with current technology.

Questions:

Are remix artists such as Girl Talk making valuable contributions to our society or merely piggy backing on the success of others?

Do you agree with Lessig that the negatives caused by our current copyright laws outweigh the benefits?

Is the democratic act of blogging worth all of the “crap” that is stacking up on the Internet?
Should RW based learning be incorporated into our schools?

What are your thoughts on the future of advertising as suggested by Lessig’s Amazon example? Does it go too far?

Do you think the issues of copyright and “free use” would be different now if Congress would have decriminalized P2P file sharing by enacting various licensing proposals?

Do you think Creative Commons is the way to go?

Sample Lit Reviews

At long last here are a few sample introductions with lit reviews that you can model your own after.

Hope this helps.

Mimi Ito's intro to the book Personal, Portable, Pedestrian .

And my intro to International Blogging.

Post Revisted: Ms Peachez vs. Oil (For Leo)

I agree with Leo's thoughts that identity and representation within hip hop in not explored in mainstream media. What has given this idea a little burn was the whole Don Imus controversy and him blaming hip-hop for his usage of the phrase “nappy headed hoes.” Don Imus brought to the forefront the issue that because something is acceptable in black culture and in music, why can’t other cultures use the same phrases? Which leads to conversations of the n-word today in mainstream media and the re-purposing of the word in black circles. Whoopi Goldberg recently discussed the n-word and does a pretty good reasoning of its usage and context today versus the past.

Many hip-hop artists have to battle with themselves to figure out if they want to and can provide social commentary regarding issues within black culture or if they would like to get spins on the radio and have their videos played on mainstream outlets like MTV, BET, and VH1. In order to get noticed they fall on misogynist imagery within songs and video. BET (Black Entertainment Television) does not necessarily represent black people in a positive light. In fact, BET was supposed to be a reflection of black culture and issues given a space or public sphere to be discussed and instead it has segued into culture that plays upon the minstrel showand the exploitation of black stereotypes. Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder often discusses BET in his comic strips and in his television show. Has BET has become a network that is more concerned with the bottom line and just giving the people what they want? Yes, it is no longer considered a reputable forum for black issues....it rarely showcases news stories leading many to go online and to other networks for information on black issues, which is also the case with other main media sources. Recently, BET came out with a exploration of Hip-Hop vs. America. Spike Lee discusses this idea that media is giving the people what they want in the movie Bamboozled where he explores the ideas of looking at black people as buffoons here for entertaining the masses.



In different environments we all play different roles and show different aspects of our personalities. Like we discussed in class in regards to Barack Obama, he had to maintain himself as a non-threatening black male and still maintain his blackness within his own culture to remain relevant and a viable candidate. Often a subset within black cultural discussion of Obama falls into the idea that he is not black enough or whether he will remember black issues when it counts the most. There is also the thought that Obama should not do anything to embarrass the black community although many rappers do this consciously or unconsciously according to NY O.I.L. The rappers in many respects are playing multiple roles and exploring duality in rap and hip-hop culture. There are rappers that cater to the demographic that love hip-hop dances , objectifying women, violence, and battling amongst themselves. So how do they get “message songs” heard such as NY O.I.L.'s tactical media video? Some artists use mainstream attention as a means of grabbing the ear of consumers so they buy their cd and then listen to others songs that have more inspirational content on the disc. The use of alternative media finds many hip-hop artists taking to the internet to discuss issues that they care about and want to draw attention to them. The message has to go underground and be heard through alternative media sources .


NY O.I.L. is not commenting on something new in regards to the continual perpetuation of negative black stereotypes that continue to run under the radar in mainstream media and culture. The issue is do black people have to fall back to the vestiges of minstrel show tactics in order to be heard? Is commercial rap music able to function outside of minstrel show tactics and still get the attention of popular culture? Is main steam commercial rap a form of tactical media itself? NY O.I.L. sees it as embarrassing that rappers would stoop to exploiting stereotypes to make money and fall in line with bling, bling culture and materialism. There is unspoken motto of “embarrass me, embarrass yourself.” Black women, particularly video-ho-professionals (video models), allow themselves to be seen as only sexual beings that do not have any value other than their bodies as tools of advancement but there are not that many representations of black women on television that counter-act this ideal. NY O.I.L’s images play upon this in his video.

Another video , made by BET, that circulated the Internet falls into the category of tactical getting the attention of CNN.



The Mz. Peachez video, in my opinion, is more than just an ignorant representation of media. I think of it as a form of tactical media used to give light to the uneducated who do not necessarily see themselves as exploited in a video showcasing a love of chicken. Mz. Peachez is a man in drag playing the role of a matriarch taking care of children eating fried chicken. I often think that black men dress in drag to make them less abrasive and intimidating.

The video is meant to be shocking and open up discussion. As appalling as the video may be in other circles, there is still entertaining qualities seen in it by other black people. The issues are do they know better or are they a product of the failing education system in America unable to critically analyze the message in the video?

The hip-hop artist Nas has used his records as a space to discuss controversial topics and issues that plague Black Americans. He deals with dualities within his personality all the time. Which brings in the idea that people change their priorities and messages as they get older. Nas has always been a street poet but he also has songs that objectify women. This does not dismiss his relevance as a commentator on social issues and black cultures. He has a song titled “These are our Heroes,” which talks about the same issues as NY O.I.L. There is a call for responsibility for so called black role models because in a sense they represent all black people, which is unfair but true. Nas recently wanted to name his record Nigger but faced the product not being distributed, so in order to have his message heard he changed the name to N and used the album cover to make a statement. So in honor of Mz. Peachez here is another song politicizing the love of fried chicken.



Other Nas songs worth a listen:

N.I.G.G.E.R.- Master and Slave

Sly Fox


So where is the responsibility within hip-hop? And can black people play more than one role in a medium that only wants one-dimensional caricatures of black identity? Recently, Bill Cosby provided commentary about the vestiges of institutional slavery and stating that black people need to take responsibility for their circumstances and not changing them. The problem was no him speaking out but taking the topic outside “a black community” discourse. Bill Cosby is more than just a comedienne.

NY O.I.L. is commenting on the responsibilities of rappers to stop dumbing and watering down information and demeaning a culture that has come so far and fought so hard for the ability to be taken seriously. Yet there is always another aspect of artistic expression and the music as an extension of that expression and creativity. It comes down to the hip-hop artist personal choice and what message they want to be remembered by. So here is an additional question: Where is the growth in hip-hop and its soul ?

Response: Fan Fiction/Alt. Media As Literacy Catalyst

In the realm of media literacy, one of the big challenges to greater/egalitarian mastery of media is the under representation/stereotypical representation of certain groups. How can we expect members of such neglected cultural segments to gain literacy and mastery of both media message and delivery technology, when the only images portrayed to them are either of type cast stereotypes or middle to upper class white male dominance? It seems that this is indeed an important aspect to teachers in the media literacy sector. However, is it possible that participation in various facets of the fan community may be more affective in allowing students to co-opt characters and plot lines to create more accurate representations than those originally offered?

Aaliyah writes about the many powerful benefits of allowing younger fans to further explore and create new characters/stories within their fandom. One specific instance came to mind when Henry Jenkins writes about some feminists’ response to J.K. Rowling’s character Hermione as pandering to chauvinist depictions of women as dependent and nurturing. (Jenkins 2006, 175) When fan writers take such characters and alter them to be independent and capable of any role (nurturing or otherwise), it is possible that these depictions open up the canon to those left out. That is, the canon/alternative textual worlds of the media and alternative means of production are made more open to individuals who are part of under represented groups. Such possibilities seem evident from the fan fiction quotations Jenkins uses in the “Why Heather Can Write” chapter. (Ibid.)

This could hold true across all of the cultural landscape, obscured by mainstream media imagery. Consider Harry Potter slash fiction and how it could empower fans in the GLBT community with a positive representation, contrasting the stereotypes:



Also, consider how cultural aesthetics can influence fan texts, such as Wizzard Rap, which is clearly borrowing from the hip-hop vernacular:



Consider how complex social problems are often ignored/white-washed by mainstream culture. Fan fiction has allowed individuals to produce media addressing these images as well:

“…Annette Potter came from the ghettos of Long Beach, California. She and her five older brothers lived with their drunken mother and step-father, just trying to get by on a daily basis. They attended the run down public school just down the street from their brick complex apartment building. They walked everywhere they went because they couldn’t afford a car and couldn’t even afford to take the bus sometimes.” (WhtChoc, 2008)

Fan fiction/participatory production can thus be utilized as a powerful tool to re-create media portrayals in a positive way. This results in the empowering of individuals, the creation of a deeply diverse, transmedial text and the improved literacy of underrepresented cultural segments by the inclusiveness of alternative media.

Notes:
Jenkins, Henry Convergence Culture, New York: New York University Press, 2006.
WhtChoc, "Runaway Love" (2008) http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3327786/1/Runaway_Love (accessed February 16, 2009).

AALIYAH”S GROUP LEADER DISCUSSION FOR 2/17 CONVERGENCE CULTURE:

INTERACTIVITY WITHIN FAN COMMUNITES AND THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA LITERACY LEADING TO PARTICIPATION ON A LARGER SCALE

Henry Jenkins illustrates the importance of fan communities on the Internet as a means of education and media literacy by looking at the fandoms of Harry Potter. In the exploration of the different Potter communities there rises an issue of collective intelligence as a mode of learning. The emotional connection that Potter fans experience leads them to further explore the text, while improving their writing skills and the ability to understand themselves and others by engaging the Potter Text. This community created its own “knowledge culture” to evaluate the characters of the story and also allowed students to develop an emotional attachment to the text and their interaction in the community. In a sense the text creates a sense of authorship and ownership in the participants within the online community. Illustrating inter-connectivity, this case leads to larger issues of media literacy and the idea of intellectual property and the fair use of content on the web.

Literacy’s definition has to be expanded to include media literacy and how print is used within digital media. The print is used on the web to create a community where boundaries are broken down and people are able to function anonymously. Also it creates a place where many dynamics of culture and society intertwine: participatory culture, education, religion, corporate media, and producers. Students are given the opportunity to help teach each other within the context of transparency and interaction that does necessarily happen in real world classrooms. Also, these same students create and define the rules online versus real life where they do not have the power the boundaries of learning and writing.

The online community also gives children an opportunity to mobilize online to fight back against corporate media and the constraints that are placed upon them. This is also illustrated through Harry Potter, which contests the idea that children are helpless and not able to defend themselves. Jenkins makes the case that the community functions as a grassroots movement that only needs to be threatened in order to take action in society and it also fosters an environment where children engage with media to create a more collective idea of society and its participants. Heather Lawver used The Daily Prophet to help mobilize different Potter communities against Warner Bros. to broaden their rights of the fandoms and the use of Potter characters.


Jenkins explores the idea of “affinity spaces” and the draw of people to communities that spring up out of pop culture.

• Why do people learn when participating more actively in pop culture (emotional investment)?

• Can affinity spaces be translated to school? What would make it effective? Often fandoms have do not constrain themselves to a strict hierarchy but there is an established hierarchy in the classroom, are schools locked into an autonomous culture and power dynamics between students and teacher?

• Will affinity spaces discourage school and the rigid structure of school?

REALITY VS FICTION AND FANTASY

Parody and satire force people and analyze information and decide what is reality and what is not fact. It also creates an environment where participants are analyzing sources to define the truth. As seen in fandoms, there is an added dimension in which people define their own truth within the community. This leads to the development and mastering of critical analysis skills. Jenkins contents that participants are being flooded with so much information that there has to be a way to figure out what is valuable.

• In the context of fandoms and Harry Potter, there is an issue of whether not online interaction in fantasy world is a valid way of learning because it leads to another problem of whether fact and fiction can be differentiated.

• In regards to children, if the participant is so immersed in fantasy why would they want to participate in the “real world” or school?

CORPORATE MEDIA’S NEED TO REORGANIZE PARTICIPATION

Jenkins visualizes a dynamic role between corporate media and participants within media: they both need each other to survive and thrive in a knowledge culture. Corporate media is motivated by profit and are looking for ways to gage pop culture and participants’ consumption of media. At the same time participants want the attention of corporate media to reach people that may not look online for different information. This was the goal of the True Majority Action and The Apprentice parody. True Majority Action’s founders also used the guise of talking about ice cream to draw attention to a Frisbee outlining the federal budget.



On the other hand, Fandoms create an environment where fans are contributing to the expansion and popularity of a pop culture phenomenon but Corporations want to control how and to what extent this is allowed to happen. Jenkins contend that companies are entitled to protect their rights against commercial competitors but they need to distinguish what is true fan interaction.

• Do the participants in role-playing and fan fiction have some stake ownership in their work? Or are they allowed to use the characters in the story online as a form of expression? Can they publish their work? Do they want to?

• Is fair-use dead in terms of media on the net?

Applications of fan participation/ fan communities in the real world:

• Can media literacy and the model of the fandom translate to classrooms?

• Who participates online in fan communities?

• How does transparency help people to participate online while maintaining their anonymity? Do people need anonymity to truly be honest online?

• Is the Harry Potter community a form of “adhocracy”? Is this is where we are headed online?

PARTICIPATION AS A GOVERNING CONCEPT

Consumers participate on their own terms and Jenkins explores how participants impact current politics and their interaction with politics. Participation rests on audience investment and the emotional ties of media culture.

There are different forms of participation from fan communities taking on real world issues, like the HP Alliance, who use the loose context of Harry Potter searching for the truth and Justice and applying that to current global concerns. Participation can also include forwarding of clips that entertain but open up discourse and the search for more information creating a movement and community of people thinking and interacting together.

Participation has led to the movement away from the concept of the “informed citizen” to the more “monitorial citizen” who sits back and takes in all of the information and
decides the moment to participate in greater culture and in the knowledge culture.
Furthermore, participation allows consumers to contextualize mainstream media and add on to the ideas of others.

Redefining the informed citizen:

• For democracy to exist Jenkins states “ there needs to be a social contract between participants and a sense that their actions have consequences within the community”(239). Does this begin with children and arming students with the ability and skills to engage in different communities? If we want children to vote do we have to change the process by which they are socialized into citizenship?

NEW DEFINITIONS OF GRASSROOTS AND THE CONTEXT OF MEDIA

Historically, grassroots may be seen as coming together as a community and eventually taking a stake in an issue and trying to change the situation. Henry Jenkins sees grassroots beginning online and then impacting real world issues. The use of pop culture furthers Henry Jenkins idea that people are more willing to participate if they have some type of interest or emotional connection to an issue. Pop culture plays upon interest and eventually draws individuals in emotionally and it creates a means of mobilization by bringing people together to form communities. Not only has pop culture influenced political campaigns helping to court voters but it also shaped how the public analyzes political conversations, as seen in The Daily Show. Photoshop added to the political conversations by becoming a grassroots interpretation of political cartoons.

Jenkins believes that new media has changed the nature of the debate and why youth is more engaged in information. Blogging adds to this idea because participants on blogs often look up information and investigate thus intervening in the democratic process.

• “ Pierre Levy describes a world where grassroots communication is not a momentary disruption of the corporate signal, but the routine way the system operates." (226)
  
• Is blogging an expansion of “culture jamming” or is it a completely separate aspect of convergence culture?
  

Would you give up freedoms for safety?

Happened upon this article via the NY Times' Twitter feed today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/weekinreview/15markoff.html

Basically, it discusses the security flaws in the current iteration of the Internet and that some are expressing concern that we must scrap the entire network and start over. And in addition to starting over, abandon the ability to be anonymous for the sake of security and safety. In some respects, it's seems similar to the debate on national ID cards in an effort to stem terrorism and illegal immigrants.

What do you think? Are freedoms or safety more important?

I think that, just as is the case with freedom of speech, some will abuse freedoms at the harm of others. But everyone must learn to expect going into the arena of freedom there is an ever present possibility of being on the receiving end of another person's freedoms in the form of venom. I don't think you will be able to have complete discourse with barriers of protection. Imagine how stifled forms of tactical media and parody would be.

Does the Internet need to be improved? Absolutely. Even if the network evolved into a world of true identities and security, there would be a newly developed element of rouges and evil doers.

Fan Commercials?

Since we have been talking about fan fiction and different types of advertising. I thought this fan commercial for Trader Joe's was very clever. Maybe commercials would be more effective if done in this style.

Is the old media sustaining the old politics?

Somehow I found this link to a really interesting video from the Bill Moyers Journal program. I think it was on Twitter, but I can't remember. Too many RSS and Twitter feeds anymore to keep them straight, really.

The video isn't embeddable, regrettably. But it features NYU journalism professor and PressThink blogger Jay Rosen and political journalist and Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald discussing how the media and the politics of Washington are still going to be the same old game, despite the hopes of "change" from a new administration. There is some great insight and explainations of how much of a fixture the Washington Press Corps is and how they maintain the direction of the narrative.

I really reccomend watching this half-hour show.

Charging for Access to News Online?

Walter Isaacson, Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of TIME magazine, was on the daily show discussing the article "How to Save Your Newspaper," appearing in TIME magazine. He thinks that newspapers have got it all wrong by giving away the news "for free" online. He proposes creating a system similar to iTunes but for news distribution. I've added the video.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Walter Isaacson

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Ashley's Parody Response

I found it really interesting to note how much effort is put into breaking down the concepts of parody, or play for the purposes of this chapter when, these thing are in fact, inherent to human nature. As Brenda rightly pointed out, parody and satire have a long and well established history with human behavior. What is also interesting is a parallel history of humans needing to side line, or bracket satire as particular, or even sub-culture mechanism, when, in fact, it seems to be the medium we are most receptive to.

Consider all the way back to Shakespeare, considered perhaps one the greatest authors of all time. There is almost no work of his which does not contain some black humor, or biting wit which brings the situation home. More important than that content, is its source; in Shakespeare's case, this role is virtually always assigned to the 'fool' or jester. The best example can be found in the Henrys' where the character of Falstaff is known to contain the greatest pearls of wisdom from the audience's perspective, yet is sidelined by both the author and the actors as a minor phenomenon, not worthy of too much attention.

This tradition seems to carry through into the present, with media and tactical media being its newest iterations. In this chapter the author cites how efforts like "Revolution USA" stir up all this energy and people taking on parody and satire and generating a mass of content centered around it, yet still feels the need to ultimately ask the question 'does it work?' Yes one can always play devil's advocate and draw on the point that if W. was reelected then the tactic doesn't work, however, we should really be looking at the intent of satire and using that to assess before we pass judgment.

From Shakespeare all the way up to Denny Crane on Boston Legal and Stephen Colbert, satire is tone, or mode of delivery that is used to alter the mainstream flow of thought. Perhaps it suddenly shifts to camera angle to a view or dark corner which had previously been given no light and little examination. It is lease a vehicle to impact direct change, than it is to deliver a swift, sharp shock... get them laughing then slip the knife in between their ribs. If that is the scale we chose to measure parody in tactical media by, then it is truly thriving. As Graham Meikle’s comments suggest, tactical media can communicate ideas to the wider public, draw attention to issues and raise important questions, and all because it is adopting a slightly different tone than the mainstream, and because we the public have been largely programmed to regard the data from those sources as non-threatening.

On that note I'd like to briefly revisit an example used in a previous class and mate it with another, satirical delivery. The Fox interview of Christopher Hitchens highlights some very harsh coments towards the reverend Falwell. Whatever one's belief's about Falwell are, there is a certain instantaneous reaction to what Hitchens says, and the way the whole format was set up. On the other hand, a comedian named Lewis Black routinely incorporates comments about Fawell into his set. Watch Hitchens, then watch Black and question, are they really saying anything different, yet whose message am I more apt to recieve, and does it leave me with any questions or concerns. This example is, I feel, at the very heart of a parody discussion.

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Lewis Black - Jerry Falwell

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Tactical media and Proposition 8

Found this article in the NY Times this morning to be pretty interesting and representative of what we have been talking about in class. The article discusses how these new forms of media and technology in combination with laws for open governing are highlighting a double-edged sword.

Eightmaps.com is the latest, most striking example of how information collected through disclosure laws intended to increase the transparency of the political process, magnified by the powerful lens of the Web, may be undermining the same democratic values that the regulations were to promote.

With tools like eightmaps — and there are bound to be more of them — strident political partisans can challenge their opponents directly, one voter at a time. The results, some activists fear, could discourage people from participating in the political process altogether.

That is why the soundtrack to eightmaps.com is a loud gnashing of teeth among civil libertarians, privacy advocates and people supporting open government. The site pits their cherished values against each other: political transparency and untarnished democracy versus privacy and freedom of speech.

“When I see those maps, it does leave me with a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, which has advocated for open democracy. “This is not really the intention of voter disclosure laws. But that’s the thing about technology. You don’t really know where it is going to take you.”

Brenda’s Group Discussion Piece

Satire as Counter-Hegemonic Critique

While satire and parody permeate present-day techno-cultural production, they are not merely contemporary phenomena. Both have been utilized throughout history and across cultures to offer polemical critique of literature, music, media, and politics through imitation, exaggeration, sarcasm, irony, and humor. Modern usage of these terms can often be vague and imprecise. By definition, parody is a cultural practice that imitates the characteristic style of another cultural practice or piece for comic effect or ridicule. Satire is also a humorous cultural practice, but ultimately, it uses sarcastic wit to critically attack oppositional ideologies and narratives to expose the weaknesses of those in power. What characterizes satire best is its quality of irony or sarcasm, as it often professes to approve of that which it intends to deconstruct. The Colbert Report exemplifies well contemporary American satire in that it ridicules celebrity pundit shows such as The O’Reilly Factor. The show ultimately reveals conservative media’s hypocrisies by taking their assumptions to the extreme through the portrayal of Stephen Colbert as an exaggerated conservative political pundit. Another good example of satire is the following video that parodies Obama's Yes We Can video.



Political satire has become widely popular due to the shared frustrations and perceptions that news media is failing democracy. It has become a powerful weapon of the weak that can be wielded by the average citizen to expose the contradictions and lies of politicians. Due to the fact that satirical representations are so powerful, combining anger with humor, they can be disturbing to those who misunderstand their intent or aren’t “in on the joke.” An example of this occurred in 2008 when the July cover of the New Yorker magazine portrayed Barack and Michelle Obama as militant Islamic terrorists. The editor David Remnick explained that the illustration was a satirical response to ungrounded suspicion about Obama’s religious background, but nevertheless many, including the Democratic Party, denounced the cover as tasteless. Another example of misconceptions surrounding contemporary satire is the negative feedback received by the fake news publication The Onion. Sometimes, disgruntled readers write angry letters to the editors if they poke fun at issues that are too close to home, despite the fact that they understand the satirical undercurrent. Editor Chet Clem describes this phenomena in an interview with Wikinews. Despite the occasional heat they feel, satirists can often get away with speaking the unspeakable simply because of their status as comedians and jesters.

Tactical Media and Satire: Expressive Activism

Graham Meikle’s chapter Whacking Bush, which refers to the mash-up video that decontextualizes George W's words, highlights themes central to both satirical media and tactical media, and draws connections between the two practices. Meikle argues that, “While not every tactical media project could be best described as satirical, satire is almost always an element.” (Ibid. 375) Certainly, the two practices seek to accomplish many of the same goals, such as intervening in dominant discourse, exploring mechanisms of symbolic power, exposing unequal power relations, and disrupting the status quo. Further, some of the most heralded tactical media projects have used satire as part of their intervention. Just as satire is a slippery term, tactical media tends to escape definition. However, Meikle pins down four components of tactical media: 1) convergence of new and old technologies; 2) remixing of found texts; 3) satire; and 4) temporariness and mobility. He uses identifies these four components in “Revolution: USA,” a tactical media project that offered up video and music clips to the public preceding the 2004 presidential campaign. One of the pieces that came out of that project was "World of Evil" by TV Sheriff, which aired on MTV.



Meikle suggests that tactical media interventions are productive as expressive activism because they communicate ideas to the wider public, draw attention to issues and raise important questions. They create space for community, generate public debate, and challenge complacency. In this way, they are artistic and revolutionary, borrowing from strategies of Situationist détourner. Détourner or detournement is a politics of subversive quotation, of turning familiar signs into question marks. These interventions repurpose texts and work to subvert found material, sampling media from one context and embedding them in a new one. Their objective is to cease to view these texts through a hegemonic lens and, instead, to situate the individual at the center. Jon Stewart describes this process of “reversal of perspective” when he talks about representing the center, the subjective experience. He says his comedy comes from “the distracted center” where individuals feel displaced from society because they are not in charge. He gives voice to this disenfranchised center. (Ibid. 389) In essence, tactical media are productive because they target the public, not the policymakers, government, or corporations.

“Truthiness”

Parody offers a lens through which to see the world that is often much less clouded by bias than mainstream media. Boler and Turpin’s chapter on Jon Stewart argues that parody such as The Daily Show offers a critique that is “much more in line with the experience of many Americans” than mainstream media (Ibid. 383) Their analysis of Jon Stewart as “court-jester” is an elaboration of Sutton-Smith’s concept of play as frivolous in that Stewart enacts playful protest against the established order. He is the archetypal trickster who “speaks truth to power” by using the words of those in power against them and revealing truth by reformulating their statements. (Ibid. 391). The Daily Show is also an example of play as identity in that it is a cultural text that allows for bonding and community formation, and reaffirms the solidarity and power of the audience. It is a vehicle that sustains a community’s ideology. While the show may not “work” in that it may not effect direct social change, it does however “play,” meeting many of the objectives of expressive activism. It is a creative collaboration between the audience and the producers that uses humor as a powerful tactic to address issues and raise questions.



Mainstream media has begun to morph with its burgeoning acceptance of alternative and satirical media perspectives. Jon Stewart’s famous appearance on Crossfire and Stephen Colbert’s keynote at the White House Press Correspondent’s Dinner in 2006 are examples of such media interventions within the dominant media sphere. Tim O'Reilly even came face to face with his alter ego, Stephen Colbert, on his own show (seen in the clip above). This media convergence blurs the boundaries between satire, spectacle, and mainstream news. It also fulfils the public’s desire for truthfulness and accountability by allowing for “an ambiguity of meaning that resonates with our lived experience of hypercontradiction.” (Ibid. 391). Furthermore, the fact that events such as these were viewed online as much as they were on television and that extensive online discussion ensued around them points to the formation of counterpublics. The popularity of satirists is sustained to a large extent by these online communities. It is through participatory media culture that the public seeks out truth. Ironically, it is satire that has effectively brought to light the constructed and biased nature of all media narratives, demonstrating perhaps that all the world’s a stage.

Discussion Questions:

It’s been argued that a good tactic is one that people enjoy. Does the entertainment value of satire make it a good tactic? What can satire as a tactic accomplish that other tactics cannot? This satirical music video (mentioned above) is enjoyable, but what does it ultimately accomplish? View

Megan Boler suggests that the premise of the news “telling the truth” has lost all credibility given the complex and contradictory discourses of truths and lies. What can we make then of the increasing appeal of “fake news” and political satire? Should comedians be expected to take on the work of serious journalists? Can the truth sometimes only be spoken and heard through comedy? Where is journalism headed when comedians are given press passes, as highlighted in this video. View

More and more, our culture is experiencing a convergence of new and old media, and "straight" and satirical journalism. Is there danger in satirical media converging with MSM? What are the consequences of poaching? This clip shows the ways in which satire can be co-opted by the mainstream and manipulated to meet another agenda. View

Meikle describes the Situationists’ aim of undermining the “spectacle,” the integrated, commercialized cultural space where lived realities move away into representation. Do tactical media perpetuate the spectacle by focusing on symbolic representation? Do they displace energy that could be better used for grassroots organization? Another one of Revolution: USA's projects was "Where Is My Mind?" Even though it is tactical, is it merely a spectacle? View

Meikle mentions that social movement scholars differentiate between instrumental and expressive activism. The former works to achieve tangible goals, while the latter values the creative process in and of itself. Is one strategy more effective than the other, or are they most effective when they work in tandem? Can satire ever be considered true activism? The following piece about the Battle in Seattle is both instrumental (it was action effected in the real world) and expressive (through music and imagery it communicates a particular subcultural ideology), but perhaps there is no room left for humor in real world activism? View

In what ways do Brian Sutton-Smith's discourses of play open up possibilities for considering tactical media and their impact? What are some examples of play as progress, play as power, or play as identity? The original Coldcut project used clips from the UK 2002 election to allow participants to communicate their own creative message. Is the following piece, constructed from that project, an example of play as progress in that it educates the public using hands-on media tools? Is this artistic revolution? View

Meikle affirms that satire is inherently subversive and undermines the power of the status quo. If this is true, is a conservative satire even possible? On the flip side, now that previously fringe social movements are becoming part of the mainstream, as demonstrated through the Obama campaign, what will liberal satirists poke fun at now? In what ways could Obama be funny? Will he ever be as funny as Bush? This piece from The Onion meets all of Meikle's requirements for tactical media (old/new media, remix, satire, and novelty). But how does it play? View

Journalism and Objectivity outdone by Letterman?

David Letterman took former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich to task on his show the other night. A blogger at a Tampa Bay newspaper was able to point out something that we have been talking about: Journalists having to hide behind the veil of objectivity.

"I've said this before about Jon Stewart; the power of non-journalists in these situations is that they don't have to pretend they don't have a point of view, and they can ask questions where the answer is almost beside the point. Letterman is essentially saying over and over to Blago, "I think you're a weasel," in a way that few traditional news anchors could manage without serious criticism."

Eric Deggans

Pretty interesting to see this bubbling up more and more in the journalism world.

Read the rest here.

Contested Spaces -- Peachez vs. Oil

As I mentioned in class, about a year and a half ago I was in production on a documentary about a rapper named Ms. Peachez when the Jena 6 incident occurred. As a result of that injustice the hip hop community around the world spoke up. I wanted to post a few interesting, nearly simultaneous situations.

The Shreveport, LA rapper Ms. Peachez reaches the height of her popularity in the local hip hop community. Peachez was fascinating to me because she in and of herself represented a tangle of contested spaces. Despite Shreveport's/the South's tendency for homophobia, she always performs in drag. At the time I was on an assignment to make a documentary, so I was wildly interested in the GLBT issues that this persona brought up. Also, Ms. Peachez had a unique way of playing on/reifying southern black stereotypes. This infuriated some people, but others seemingly faced the reality that many of these stereotypes were often found/confirmed within our region due to poverty, policies of inequality and general racism. Personally, I viewed the stereotype exploitation as a desperate attempt to make brevity of a bad situation, to celebrate a continuing cultural phenomena, which in many instances was born in oppression. When I interviewed Peachez' producer several things made the picture even more interesting. My first question of real value to him was, "What impact do you think Ms. Peachez is having on the view of the local GLBT community?" Of course, I was somewhat naive, expecting some great answer about uniting oppressed individuals in their own struggles. I had actually insulted the producer, who had never intended to even bring up such questions. Peachez then moved into a ground of spectacle for good or bad. I had mixed feelings for the rest of the documentary and eventually lost touch with the contacts. The other thing I found interesting about interviewing this producer was the grass roots authorship, which he employed. These same ideas of cheaper/lower learning curve/faster technologies allows a large hip hop community to flourish, even in a small town in North West Louisiana. This in turn empowers a community, which would otherwise get very little positive media attention.

Here is one of Ms. Peachez most popular videos (sorry embedding has been disabled):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGrqW3nx5HM

If you have a chance check out the comments. They are really interesting.

At the same time Staten Island rapper NY Oil picks up on Peachez and her following. He releases the video "Ya'll Should All Get Lynched". The song explicitly targets Peachez in several points (including the chorus line at one point) saying she should be lynched. Once again, his message of hate is produced by the sam grass roots authorship in a different region entirely. He was obviously made angry by the persona and the stereotypes. Check this out (make sure you watch the Peachez vid. first):



Not long after, in the majority white town of Jena, Louisiana some two to three hours south of Shreveport, several race based instances of violence/hate occurred. White students hung nooses on trees in the lunch yard of Jena Highschool. The violence that ensued lead to the arresting of six black students, and zero white. In the weeks that would come a time of tremendous hope and fear, as well as new personal experiences would come to pass. By social web/grassroots means, the Free the Jena Six Rally was arranged. Between fifteen and twenty thousand people descended on the town of fourteen thousand. The media swarmed on the event.

I couldn't find any of the original organizational sites (perhaps the temporal nature of Tactical Media), but here is one of the remanence:

http://colorofchange.org/jena/

Finally, at the same time NY Oil releases his song "Jena 6". I think that this is an interesting instance of tactical media, because of its reactive nature and usage of noose imagery, yet again. Also, it's important to note that this song is created with the same web 2.0 era production tools and relied on the internet for distribution. For me his cry to, "...make the Jena 6 a Genesis" was somewhat tainted after his previous messages of hate. Here is a link to the song (it's the last one in the myspace player):

http://www.myspace.com/nyoil

I don't claim that any of these instances are truly related in any deep way, but I did (and still do) find the coincidence of their occurrence pretty interesting. All are moments that employ alternative media to mobilize and empower but also generate hate. In light of our recent class discussions, I'm trying to figure out which instances are truly tactical and which are simply alternatives linked to a specific time and place. Sorry, if this is not entirely coherent I think I'm getting sick and I'm a little loopy. I just felt I had to get this out of my system.

Richard Dawkins on the O'Reilly Factor

This is in the same vein as the Hitchens video - although not quite as much of a circus.  Still, it fits with that same idea of creating a spectacle. 

Response to lead discussion

When thinking about the difference between tactical media and alternative media and deciphering between the two, two questions came to my mind. Is tactical media always alternative? Is alternative media always tactical? These two questions were a way for me to separate the two into their different elements. I am more inclined to answer yes to the first question than to the second. I think most of tactical media is alternative. There is a resistance to the power structure and the dominant hegemony of how the media should be used and controlled and who should use and control it. Both forms address this issue but the means vary quite differently. As Matt mentioned tactical media is essentially guerrilla warfare where alternative media is the steady push towards change. Tactical media seeks to destroy its target from the inside out while alternative takes the approach of creating a different norm. “Don’t hate the media, become the media,” would be tactical media’s slogan where “Don’t hate the media, change the media,” could be the alternative media’s.

Not all alternative media is tactical. By definition, alternative media always strives to be in opposition to the mainstream whereas tactical media’s goal is to resist a definition at all. Tactical media strives for its independence, the ability to reform and reframe their goals. Most alternative forms of media remain consistent in their purpose, where tactical media’s power is in the instability and unpredictability of the process. By infiltrating the system they force change or at least cause a reaction as mentioned with www.gwbush.com. But this infiltration isn’t sustained, its purpose it to be quick and powerful making its mark then dispersing. Alternative media is meant to be sustained to break through the barriers of the mainstream power structures causing a shift in the paradigm. This is often a slower process working from the ground up. Alternative media utilizes the tools created by the existing structure or creates new tools to compete. Tactical uses what’s available to create new ground and to reclaim a voice in the communicative landscape. Tactical media’s purpose is to always resist the power. So, when powers switch it is safe to assume new tactical media will form to resist the new structure. I think the quote “life becomes resistance to power when power takes life as its object” illustrates the purpose of tactical media beautifully.

http://www.hactivist.com/ -tactical media website

Matt's group lead

The readings were kind of all over the map for today, but the best amalgamation of the topics and points brought up in these readings is that tactical media is essentially a guerilla war. You make do with the tools at your disposal and target an enemy larger than you. But now the larger and very open ended question is just who is this enemy? Mainstream media, public perception, power elite. All seem likely targets for the wrath of tactical media.

Using the tools at your disposal.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Macguyver through the chapter on Gambiarra. The point was clearly to show how technology and media can be utilized differently than their original goal to produce a unique effect.

This sort of reminded me of a low-tech youtube. What is the original purpose of youtube? Whatever the answer to the question is irrelevant, since the original intention of the medium is now obsolete to the use of it. Some people post op-ed pieces. Others make funny narratives or skits. Some post television shows that they like. There is no wrong way to use Youtube. The users have made it their own, and maybe that was the original intent.

Using a radio strapped to a bike to spread an opinion is undoubtedly a less effective strategy than having a syndicated radio show, but it’s still useful in that a message is being spread, albeit on a more limited scale. You can spread the word with the tools you have, limited as they may be.

Perspective and tone. Fighting fire with fire.

We’ve already discussed the Jon Stewart incident in class, so I won’t waste time reiterating it, but there are two elements that I want to bring up. Firstly, the nature of satire and why it is or isn’t effective. In college, I was the editor of a satirical newspaper called the Spartan Weekly. I told my writers often that the difference between parody and satire is that parody winks to the camera to tell the audience it’s all a joke, whereas satire takes itself seriously and never breaks character. In satire, you want people to think you’re crazy to illustrate the point of just how crazy the truth can be.

One of the progenitors in modern satire was a piece called A Modest Proposal by Jonathon Swift in 1729. In this work, Swift proposes a solution to two problems in England: a food shortage and the Irish. His solution? Eat the babies of the Irish! Of course he wasn’t serious; he was just trying to bring to light the dehumanization of the Irish in England. The point is that sometimes you need an extreme example to snap people out of apathy, or at least that’s what Batman thinks.

The other point is that Stewart claims that media has become a puppet show, and here’s another example of it. Take a look at this clip of Christopher Hitchens on Hannity and Colmes a few days after the death of Jerry Falwell.

This was not a discussion, it was theater. Hitchens points out that he was only booked on the show to be attacked. They knew what he was going to say and wanted him to say it so that Hannity could act outraged and denounce him. This wasn’t about discourse, it was about performance.

So, when the enemy is the tone and demeanor of the news media itself, satire can be an effective tool. We have yet to see if Comedy Central is making a real impact in respect to changing the media, but we know they are doing a great job of rabble rousing. Time will tell if and how the media landscape is different because of their presence.

The internet as a rallying point.

Websites aren’t that hard to make these days, although I’d hardly call it easy either. But surfing the web, that’s a breeze. Whatever your pet cause, there’s a place out there for you, even if it’s repugnant. The creator of Stormfront, the ironically named Don Black, attests that his website isn’t about pushing an anti-black agenda, it’s about uniting behind the idea of being pro-white. It’s a rallying point for people of like beliefs. While I’m sure we’re all in agreement that this site is reprehensible, it does point out a larger trend emerging in the internet age. People of similar ideologies are much more easily mobilized, as they now have virtual places in which to convene. Before, people of certain interests and beliefs were limited in how they could interact with one another. Now, the physical boundaries are irrelevant and we can come together virtually for a cause, no matter how trivial or flat out insane. And there are some insane causes…

The Stormfront also points out another important note about the nature of tactical media. It’s aim is not necessarily someone or something in a position of power. It can also be aimed at the public perception of that power. To use an example, prior to blogging, the perception in respect to the media was that if the media brought it up, that’s the news that we need to keep on eye on. The media was there to tell us what was important. But with the blogosphere in place, stories that got little to no traction in the mainstream media are finding new life. Of course not every story impacts as strongly as if it were to air on 60 Minutes, but now they at least have a fighting chance. Before, a power elite told us what was important. Now we can decide for ourselves. The bigger picture, though, is that we start to understand how and why the mainstream media chooses their stories. We see hints of corporate bias for their advertisers, and not wanting to irk certain political figures. We see them jump from one knee jerk reaction story to the next, and show videos of drunken celebrities, followed by an op ed piece about how shameless it is to cover drunken celebrities. In essence, the new emergence of alternative and tactical media are showing us that the emperor was naked all along.

So there you have it; we have the ability to modify technology to suit our pet causes, websites to rally our agents, satirists to chip away at the mainstream and an unprecedented access to knowledge. So why are people still so uninformed? (start watching at 2:30)

I liken the growth of internet based media to the changing demographic of people who play video games. In the early eighties, games were thought of as a children’s medium that few adults indulged in, and that was true. The perception of gamers as children stayed constant in the media, but it missed the fact that these kids who were playing video games as children grew up over the last twenty years, and they didn’t stop playing video games. Now the largest demographic is young adults. Media works in the same way. It’s not exactly a secret that the younger generation is embracing the change, while the older one is either ignorant to the shift, or resistant to it. This may sound callous, but eventually the older people will die off and the younger generation rising to take its place is already integrated with the new media. If traditional media and power elite don’t understand that, than no wonder they’re losing their grip.

Questions:

How is tactical media different from alternative media?

Tactical media allows people to rally and congregate virtually for their causes, but could a case be made that this is a negative trait, since it dilutes the advocacy and makes it harder for one cause or group to stand out?

Is it also possible that many of these advocacy sites simply increase the volume of armchair advocates, or simply rally people behind an idea that they already believe? To phrase it another way, is reading the Huffington Post as a leftist really just the same as watching Bill O’Reilly as someone on the right?

Realistically, how can we expect the media landscape to change as a result of satirical news shows like the Daily Show? Will they instigate a real change?

Is the public sphere disappearing and the virtual landscape taking its place?

In this, the information age, it’s easier than it’s ever been to spread information, but by the same token, it’s just as easy to spread disinformation as well. Could this be seen as negating the positive effects of digital media? What if disinformation is used to bring a positive change?

If news shows have essentially become a form of theater, as evidenced by Stewart and the Hannity clip, why is it allowed to continue as the public becomes increasingly aware of it? Couldn’t the answer be in regards to these shows and punditry in general that we know, but we don’t care?

If what we think of now as alternative media becomes mainstreamed, what will be the alternative to that?

Why in this information age, is it still so easy to spread disinformation or distort the truth? Does the fault lie with the message makers, the media, or us as the public?

Many of these chapters discussed the rise of media, either mainstream or citizen made, in isolated or ignored regions. Does the impact of a mass message carry more weight in these regions, due to the lack of opposing viewpoints?

It’s been said that, “the medium is the message.” With that in mind, is it reasonable to assume that a loud speaker hobbled together from old radio parts could have greater impact than a national radio show?