DISCLAIMER: This is not an academic essay; rather, it is a personal reflective essay I did for my Year 12 English class back in 2005. I’ve held onto it all this time because from time to time I like to revisit it just to reflect on what I was thinking and feeling at that particular time in my life, and how far I’ve come since then. I’ve decided to post it here due to the hope that some high school student who may have just stumbled on this page might just get something out of it. Lastly, to any member of the North Rockhampton High School class of 2005 who might be reading this right now, know that this essay was and is NOT meant to be defamatory to you in any way. So enjoy.
High school is like a jungle. That’s a thinking man’s way of saying, To have survived it is to hate survived hell. Students can be divided into three different groups: the predators (lions, tigers, snakes etc.), who belittle everyone else because they think they’re superior; the prey (birds, fish, insects, rodents etc.), who so frequently are made to feel like the scum of the Earth by their “superior” peers, and the rest (monkeys and trees), who live out their lives in peace, filling out the remaining scenery. High schools have one of the highest occurrence levels of power struggles.
Why is this so? This is how teenagers – like animals – adapt to their natural habitat. More so, they are most very self-conscious about their own reputation. In primary school, bullying happens just as much, but not for this reason, as primary school students are simply too young to care. Teenagers are emotionally volatile, and in high school reputation is everything. They “go with the crowd” to fit in. When in groups, they use stand-off tactics to bully weaker students in order to look cool in front of their friends – hunting in packs.
When I first started Year 8, I was an innocent and naïve 13-year-old, anxious and scared of the experience that awaited me. It only took me a little while to settle in, but after I did the prospect of surviving high school seemed much more difficult than I had first foreseen. The workload was relentless, the teachers were stricter, and the older students were constantly trying to be intimidating. But what especially shocked me was the transformation my classmates took on. They were not children anymore. But now I know that’s just human nature, as very soon after it happened to me, too.
I have been a victim of bullying all my life. High school has been the worst. One especially bad patch caused by my being bullied was in the middle of Year 9, when I was constantly getting upset at school for what now seem to be very stupid and pointless reasons. It even got so bad that I wanted to kill myself. I felt completely alone, like an astronaut stranded in space by himself. But I got over that phase almost as quickly as I got into it.
Everything happens for a reason, and in retrospect I believe this experience was one through which I had to go, and if I didn’t, I would’ve missed out on a vital life lesson: that you shouldn’t care what anyone else thinks of you. And I don’t. Every student here is so paranoid about their own reputations, so caught up in their own shadow, to just be an individual, someone who says “Say what you want to about me, but I don’t care!” you need to have more guts than Pauline Hanson. Every school needs one of these individuals, and I believe, at North Rockhampton High School, I have to be that individual.
There is no place in society where power struggles are more abundant and severe. You can turn on the evening news or open a newspaper day after day and hear or see stories of workers’ strikes and political disputes. Corruption and confidentiality also play a part in struggles of power. In the current Bundaberg hospital scandal, Indian doctor Jayant Patel (or “Dr. Death”), who is accused of deliberately killing innocent patients, abused his power by threatening to sack his employees if they exposed to the authorities the details of what he was doing. Those of whom who actually dared to “blow the whistle” on Dr. Death are the individuals, so to speak, in this situation. They exposed him because they felt he should not get away with his actions.
What ignites power struggles? Racial prejudice, sexual harassment, different religious beliefs, social resentments, dictatorships? Or is it just humans’ natural blood lust? Because every case is different I suppose we will never know every reason for sure. But what is clear, is the tremendous effect power struggles have upon the world in which we live. All major cases (that is, which are widely told to us through the media) toy with our emotions and in some cases even make some of us scared to leave the safety of our own homes. For example, the War or Terror has caused many of us to be very wary of Muslims in the post-9/11 world; the Dr. Death inquiry has instilled in Australians the fear of being admitted to hospital in Bundaberg. And with the case of power struggles in schools, bullying much too frequently makes victimized students petrified of going to school, a side-effect which in turn affects their learning.
Almost any person who experienced it can tell you that high school is one of the most grueling things you will go through in life. Some will say moving to high school from primary school is tough, but after you’ve settled in there it’s all smooth sailing from there. The way I see it, they could not be more wrong if they tried. You see, the truth is, that transition – moving to high school from primary school – is just a warm-up. It prepares you for the real tests in the five years to come. The workload piles up as the years breeze by. Puberty and the inescapable abuse people serve up to you there pulls you apart and rebuilds you into an angry, emotionally scarred young adults when you leave high school, in vast contrast to what you were when you entered it. Only the strongest survive. Can you stand the heat?
Through my own personal experiences of high school, despite all the aforementioned personal upheavals I have had to endure, it has made me a better person. As a Year 8 student I was not always successfully trying to fit in. Once I did, I discovered the true nature of this place and of my friends. I found myself, I found my crowd, and of my friends I found which were my genuine friends and which were just trying to take advantage of me. I now am fully aware of the true nature and effects of power struggles in society but that awareness has not made me afraid of going outside and enjoying myself or dissuaded me from living my life as an individual.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A Photo That Stopped the World.
Generations are defined by the images and events they grew up with. From the First World War, the Great Depression, the Second World War, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon, all the way along to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the death of Princess Diana and, of course, the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001. All some of the most symbolic and poignant historical events of the last century, each either defined a generation or separated two, but they remain etched in the memory of even those of us who weren’t alive when they happened through the images that simply won’t go away.
In 1972, one harrowing image changed public attitudes to the Vietnam War to dissent, for millions of people. That image was, of course, the photograph taken by Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut of a young naked girl running across a country road, after being burned with napalm during a South Vietnamese bombing raid on her village. For years beforehand, many Westerners had been staunchly in protest of the war in Vietnam, and the widespread distribution of this photograph only added fuel to the fire. Of that fateful day in 1972, Ut says, “You know, I had been outside the village that morning and I took a lot of pictures. I was almost leaving the village when I saw two aeroplanes. The first dropped four bombs and the second aeroplane dropped another four napalm bombs.” Ut now claims, “The pictures were shown in America, they were shown everywhere. They were shown in all the Communist countries - in China and in Vietnam. They still use the photo. Even though pictures are taken in every war, they still show the picture of Kim. They don’t want it to happen again – not napalm.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4517597.stm)
This devastating photograph shows the horrors of the war right from the perspectives of those who were on the frontline by accident – the civilians. The girl’s nakedness show how said civilians were never shielded from the war, and that they were stuck in the middle of a battlefield, and however justified the attack, the photograph depicts the horrors of war in a clear and concrete manner, without being toned down for the masses. It unsurprisingly – and deservedly – earned Nick Ut a Pulitzer Prize (Rademaker 2004).
Photography is a tool for the eternal capturing of a single moment in time. Photographers like to use their own views to preserve an image for all time so the other side of the photograph is artistic, not neutral. Just like a writer or an artist can use their imagination to show off their creativity, to do that photographers use nothing but the truth. Photographers like Nick Ut risked their lives so that they could show they world what their politicians, both then and now, don’t what them to see – another side of the story which is simply too powerful to be propaganda (Rademaker 2004).
The military has always been a significant hurdle for journalists to get around whilst trying to show the reality of an ongoing war. While there is necessary censorship of information that will jeopardize a particular mission, this necessary censorship applies only to very minute details, which a very sensible journalist will omit. The other side to this argument is the distribution of information that is nothing more than persuasive propaganda (Kennedy 2007).
Starting with the Spanish-American war in 1898, a journalist’s job when covering a war was to praise it, even if they wanted it to end. This was the same with the First and Second World Wars. However, by the time of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, television had begun to take hold and through this miraculous medium, people were able to see more of the world with which they were unfamiliar. In Vietnam, many television networks themselves were so cynical of the governments controlling them that they allowed their journalists to carry out reports that showed the war in all its horror. After the distribution of not just Kim Phuc’s photo, but also victims of events like the My Lai massacre and the conflict between South Vietnamese Buddhists and American forces, American public contempt for the war skyrocketed as quickly as the death toll. This change of heart in ordinary people is what is inspired when journalists dare to step out of their ceremonial positions, and become humanists. They are no longer trying to do their jobs, but rather, exposing the corruption of our politicians who should be trying to make a difference in a good way (Kennedy 2004).
But while throughout history war photography has gone from being used as propaganda to a tool for the spreading of the truth, it has also divided many into both wanting to win the war and to put and end to violence and suffering. As humans, we are undeniably obsessed with the suffering of others – the distribution on the 12 September 2001 of the infamous photo of a man falling out the North Tower of the World Trade Center to his death immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks received an angry response, but it has since emerged as the most well-known photo of the events of that infamous day (Scott 2006). Why do we often have a fascinated response from such confronting and depressing images? Perhaps we sometimes want to be challenged and moved, even without having homicidal tendencies, or that through seeing these kinds of images we get a glimpse of how our difficult lives could be worse, thus stopping us from taking so much for granted and enabling us to more often think of others and look on the bright side of life. For most of us, fascination with depressing things simply means a source of inspiration.
However, just as we sometimes forget that celebrities are just as flawed as we are, it is possible to forget the different or even more personal stories that people behind famous photographs have. In the same 1972 bombing of her village Kim Phuc lost two of her six brothers, with one of her surviving brothers being permanently blinded. She has crimson rope-like scars on her back as result of the removal of her burning clothes. In 1986 she was separated from her parents and sent to Cuba to study, where she met her husband Bui Hoy Toan, with whom she finally escaped to Canada in 1992 and had a son the following year (Plummer, Eftimediades, 1995). She is now a United Nations advocate for peace.
Kim Phuc, as a result of that photo, remains an accidental spokesperson for the inhumanity of war. But perhaps the strongest indicator of the power of that photograph is that even at the time it was printed in some of the most socially conservative newspapers in existence. This fact suggests that its statement about war made some of the most conservatively-inclined people of the day to look deeper into the actions and notions they were supporting. It continues to do that today.
However, Kim Phuc, whether she likes it or not, will never be able to either live down the photograph of her at nine years old, running away from war with napalm burning her skin, nor erase the harrowing memories of that day. We all may be able to come to our own conclusions about war from news reports or films, but unless we ever have the misfortune of being there, we will never discover the horrors of war in their full scale. Michael Kimmelman begs us to remember, however, that Kim’s unforgettable image also stands for millions of others, all throughout history, who as children or teenagers, were victims of war (Kimmelman 2006). Kim was indeed one of the more lucky ones since she lived to tell her tale, but the war will remain with her forever. “I know that picture changed the world, and it changed my life. I don’t want to remember that day,” Kim stated when attending a war photography workshop in 1995. At that same event, Nick Ut said, “ I thought something was missing. I thought how nice it would be if these guys who were killed could get involved. So even though we have photographers here who do underwater photos, who do fashion photos, one thing I wanted to point out with the memorial is that this is a fun job, it’s a good job, but people do die.” (Judson 1995) This makes us ponder the question, Why does suffering sell?
Nick Ut’s photograph was an image of modernity for the Baby Boomer generation. To be a part of modernity means finding ourselves living in an environment that promises an adventure and a change in us – and simultaneously, one which poses a very real threat to every part of our lives. Those of us who find ourselves in the middle of this maelstrom are often short-sighted enough to think they are the only ones in those situations. Indeed, this feeling has designated many nostalgic rumours of a pre-modern Paradise Lost, a feeling which usually stems from the loss of one’s innocence (Berman, p. 1). Upon seeing Kim Phuc’s sadly defining plight on newsstands and television news broadcasts, however, many Baby Boomers who felt disenchanted and without belonging were given a strong wake-up call. As previously stated, many of these people were staunchly opposed to the war in Vietnam before Kim Phuc’s image was shown all over the world, and its distribution only increased the number of participants in anti-war street protests. Due to the right-wing governments of the time, particularly that of Richard Nixon in the United States, their efforts fell on deaf ears, but the same Baby Boomers, as well as their offspring, are now protesting the war in Iraq thanks to brave and truthful reporting of that war. This is why journalism is the most influential medium.
With each passing generation, people are getting less impressionable and more starved for challenge. As absurd as it may sound now, fifty years ago all the media had to do to cause an uproar was to show Elvis Presley swiveling his hips. Since then we have matured more in fifty years than we did in five-hundred years. We now have a more cynical and jaded view of what we hear and see which makes us hungry for a more profound depiction of humanity (often making us search for our own answers), the good side and the bad side of it, as well as a natural yearning for such depictions in the human psyche (regardless of whether or not we have homicidal tendencies) through which we have become much more desensitized to violence. Journalists know what their audience wants, but all too often they can only deliver what their bosses know will sell. Why, most of the time, with the media do moral human issues like civil wars play second fiddle to ratings wars?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Ut, N. 2005, Picture power: Vietnam napalm attack, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4517597.stm
· Rademaker, R. 2004, The history utility of photography: a case study in Vietnam, http://194.3.120.243/humanities/ibhist/student_work/ia2004/erik_rademaker04.pdf
· Kennedy, B. 2004, Project report: Media, war and peace, pp. 3-4, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/classes/STS390_04topessays/Bernadette_Kennedy.pdf, University of Wollongong
· Scott, J. 2006, Photography and forgiveness (Nick Ut’s Vietnam napalm, Queen’s Quarterly, find through ProQuest
· Plummer, W., Eftimediades, M. 1995, Double exposure: symbols of Vietnam, Phan Thi Kim Phuc and Mary Ann Vecchio recall the anguish, People Weekly, find through Infotrac
· Kimmelman, M. 2006, Photographs of Vietnam: bringing war back home, The New York Times, find through ProQuest
· Judson. G. 1995, Stepping out from the lens of history: frozen moments alter lives of subjects of 2 famous photos, The New York Times, find though ProQuest
· Berman, M. 1982/1988, “Introduction: modernity – yesterday, today and tomorrow,” taken from All that is solid melts into air, Reading 4, Resource Materials
In 1972, one harrowing image changed public attitudes to the Vietnam War to dissent, for millions of people. That image was, of course, the photograph taken by Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut of a young naked girl running across a country road, after being burned with napalm during a South Vietnamese bombing raid on her village. For years beforehand, many Westerners had been staunchly in protest of the war in Vietnam, and the widespread distribution of this photograph only added fuel to the fire. Of that fateful day in 1972, Ut says, “You know, I had been outside the village that morning and I took a lot of pictures. I was almost leaving the village when I saw two aeroplanes. The first dropped four bombs and the second aeroplane dropped another four napalm bombs.” Ut now claims, “The pictures were shown in America, they were shown everywhere. They were shown in all the Communist countries - in China and in Vietnam. They still use the photo. Even though pictures are taken in every war, they still show the picture of Kim. They don’t want it to happen again – not napalm.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4517597.stm)
This devastating photograph shows the horrors of the war right from the perspectives of those who were on the frontline by accident – the civilians. The girl’s nakedness show how said civilians were never shielded from the war, and that they were stuck in the middle of a battlefield, and however justified the attack, the photograph depicts the horrors of war in a clear and concrete manner, without being toned down for the masses. It unsurprisingly – and deservedly – earned Nick Ut a Pulitzer Prize (Rademaker 2004).
Photography is a tool for the eternal capturing of a single moment in time. Photographers like to use their own views to preserve an image for all time so the other side of the photograph is artistic, not neutral. Just like a writer or an artist can use their imagination to show off their creativity, to do that photographers use nothing but the truth. Photographers like Nick Ut risked their lives so that they could show they world what their politicians, both then and now, don’t what them to see – another side of the story which is simply too powerful to be propaganda (Rademaker 2004).
The military has always been a significant hurdle for journalists to get around whilst trying to show the reality of an ongoing war. While there is necessary censorship of information that will jeopardize a particular mission, this necessary censorship applies only to very minute details, which a very sensible journalist will omit. The other side to this argument is the distribution of information that is nothing more than persuasive propaganda (Kennedy 2007).
Starting with the Spanish-American war in 1898, a journalist’s job when covering a war was to praise it, even if they wanted it to end. This was the same with the First and Second World Wars. However, by the time of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, television had begun to take hold and through this miraculous medium, people were able to see more of the world with which they were unfamiliar. In Vietnam, many television networks themselves were so cynical of the governments controlling them that they allowed their journalists to carry out reports that showed the war in all its horror. After the distribution of not just Kim Phuc’s photo, but also victims of events like the My Lai massacre and the conflict between South Vietnamese Buddhists and American forces, American public contempt for the war skyrocketed as quickly as the death toll. This change of heart in ordinary people is what is inspired when journalists dare to step out of their ceremonial positions, and become humanists. They are no longer trying to do their jobs, but rather, exposing the corruption of our politicians who should be trying to make a difference in a good way (Kennedy 2004).
But while throughout history war photography has gone from being used as propaganda to a tool for the spreading of the truth, it has also divided many into both wanting to win the war and to put and end to violence and suffering. As humans, we are undeniably obsessed with the suffering of others – the distribution on the 12 September 2001 of the infamous photo of a man falling out the North Tower of the World Trade Center to his death immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks received an angry response, but it has since emerged as the most well-known photo of the events of that infamous day (Scott 2006). Why do we often have a fascinated response from such confronting and depressing images? Perhaps we sometimes want to be challenged and moved, even without having homicidal tendencies, or that through seeing these kinds of images we get a glimpse of how our difficult lives could be worse, thus stopping us from taking so much for granted and enabling us to more often think of others and look on the bright side of life. For most of us, fascination with depressing things simply means a source of inspiration.
However, just as we sometimes forget that celebrities are just as flawed as we are, it is possible to forget the different or even more personal stories that people behind famous photographs have. In the same 1972 bombing of her village Kim Phuc lost two of her six brothers, with one of her surviving brothers being permanently blinded. She has crimson rope-like scars on her back as result of the removal of her burning clothes. In 1986 she was separated from her parents and sent to Cuba to study, where she met her husband Bui Hoy Toan, with whom she finally escaped to Canada in 1992 and had a son the following year (Plummer, Eftimediades, 1995). She is now a United Nations advocate for peace.
Kim Phuc, as a result of that photo, remains an accidental spokesperson for the inhumanity of war. But perhaps the strongest indicator of the power of that photograph is that even at the time it was printed in some of the most socially conservative newspapers in existence. This fact suggests that its statement about war made some of the most conservatively-inclined people of the day to look deeper into the actions and notions they were supporting. It continues to do that today.
However, Kim Phuc, whether she likes it or not, will never be able to either live down the photograph of her at nine years old, running away from war with napalm burning her skin, nor erase the harrowing memories of that day. We all may be able to come to our own conclusions about war from news reports or films, but unless we ever have the misfortune of being there, we will never discover the horrors of war in their full scale. Michael Kimmelman begs us to remember, however, that Kim’s unforgettable image also stands for millions of others, all throughout history, who as children or teenagers, were victims of war (Kimmelman 2006). Kim was indeed one of the more lucky ones since she lived to tell her tale, but the war will remain with her forever. “I know that picture changed the world, and it changed my life. I don’t want to remember that day,” Kim stated when attending a war photography workshop in 1995. At that same event, Nick Ut said, “ I thought something was missing. I thought how nice it would be if these guys who were killed could get involved. So even though we have photographers here who do underwater photos, who do fashion photos, one thing I wanted to point out with the memorial is that this is a fun job, it’s a good job, but people do die.” (Judson 1995) This makes us ponder the question, Why does suffering sell?
Nick Ut’s photograph was an image of modernity for the Baby Boomer generation. To be a part of modernity means finding ourselves living in an environment that promises an adventure and a change in us – and simultaneously, one which poses a very real threat to every part of our lives. Those of us who find ourselves in the middle of this maelstrom are often short-sighted enough to think they are the only ones in those situations. Indeed, this feeling has designated many nostalgic rumours of a pre-modern Paradise Lost, a feeling which usually stems from the loss of one’s innocence (Berman, p. 1). Upon seeing Kim Phuc’s sadly defining plight on newsstands and television news broadcasts, however, many Baby Boomers who felt disenchanted and without belonging were given a strong wake-up call. As previously stated, many of these people were staunchly opposed to the war in Vietnam before Kim Phuc’s image was shown all over the world, and its distribution only increased the number of participants in anti-war street protests. Due to the right-wing governments of the time, particularly that of Richard Nixon in the United States, their efforts fell on deaf ears, but the same Baby Boomers, as well as their offspring, are now protesting the war in Iraq thanks to brave and truthful reporting of that war. This is why journalism is the most influential medium.
With each passing generation, people are getting less impressionable and more starved for challenge. As absurd as it may sound now, fifty years ago all the media had to do to cause an uproar was to show Elvis Presley swiveling his hips. Since then we have matured more in fifty years than we did in five-hundred years. We now have a more cynical and jaded view of what we hear and see which makes us hungry for a more profound depiction of humanity (often making us search for our own answers), the good side and the bad side of it, as well as a natural yearning for such depictions in the human psyche (regardless of whether or not we have homicidal tendencies) through which we have become much more desensitized to violence. Journalists know what their audience wants, but all too often they can only deliver what their bosses know will sell. Why, most of the time, with the media do moral human issues like civil wars play second fiddle to ratings wars?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Ut, N. 2005, Picture power: Vietnam napalm attack, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4517597.stm
· Rademaker, R. 2004, The history utility of photography: a case study in Vietnam, http://194.3.120.243/humanities/ibhist/student_work/ia2004/erik_rademaker04.pdf
· Kennedy, B. 2004, Project report: Media, war and peace, pp. 3-4, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/classes/STS390_04topessays/Bernadette_Kennedy.pdf, University of Wollongong
· Scott, J. 2006, Photography and forgiveness (Nick Ut’s Vietnam napalm, Queen’s Quarterly, find through ProQuest
· Plummer, W., Eftimediades, M. 1995, Double exposure: symbols of Vietnam, Phan Thi Kim Phuc and Mary Ann Vecchio recall the anguish, People Weekly, find through Infotrac
· Kimmelman, M. 2006, Photographs of Vietnam: bringing war back home, The New York Times, find through ProQuest
· Judson. G. 1995, Stepping out from the lens of history: frozen moments alter lives of subjects of 2 famous photos, The New York Times, find though ProQuest
· Berman, M. 1982/1988, “Introduction: modernity – yesterday, today and tomorrow,” taken from All that is solid melts into air, Reading 4, Resource Materials
Social Networking in Universities (with Gretta Mitchell).
Social networking in universities
In the early years of the twenty-first century, the world for the first time has its universally-linked culture defined by two separate “worlds” within Earth itself: the real world, and the online world. The real world remains more or less the same as it was at the end of the 1990s. In cyberspace, social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and to a lesser extent YouTube have allowed us to make new friends and stay in contact with old ones, or even to form relationships, just at the click of a button. But they have proven to be useful also for advocating social causes, heightening the self-esteem of users and for generating additional revenue for groups, organizations and institutions through free advertising. Why, then, are a momentous number of tertiary education institutions shunning the idea of creating their own similar sites?
Without a question the most persistent element of the hype surrounding web 2.0 is social networking and how it is driven from our homes rather than institutions. University students are the reason for this, and they already have extensive experience with using social networking tools from home for leisure. Given this blooming relationship, education institutions must begin to reinvigorate their curriculums with emphasis on social networking. There are examples of this occurring, but at sluggish rates. Forging connections between random people is what social networking is at its core, and the ensuing fraternizations between pairs are intrinsically social, often relating to interests and hobbies. If the fad of social networking is going to grow in popularity any further, tertiary education institutions must act to buy into it because it will be the easiest way to tap into the collective interests of their students. Just as their parents went to the local burger joint or the ice-skating rink in their free time, Generation Y use sites such as Facebook and MySpace to hang out (Gonick 2007).
Early adolescence is a time when self-esteem is of the utmost concern. We will try the craziest, most dangerous things all in the name of looking cool in front of our friends. These days, an average fifteen-year-old can be considered cool just by meriting a Facebook or MySpace account. Facebook, MySpace and other online portals for social networking allow young people to form friendships with people their age on the other side of the world just by sending a quick and easy friend invitation. They can create personal profiles and blogs that can be viewed and commented on, thereby providing them with a platform for publicly expressing their personal views on life (Valkenburg et al, 2006). Thankfully, most adolescents know not to spend sixteen hours a day on social networking sites, as addicts of that nature find it has decreased their self-esteem, and thus it has sent their self-esteem flying, given there is a desire within us to all protect our outlook on oneself. Valkenburg, Peter and Schouter maintain that teenagers would instinctively steer clear of social networking websites if it was obviously going to have a detrimental effect on them. Compared to face-to-face situations, friend networks give teenagers notably more freedom in terms of who they can and cannot communicate with, and unlike memories of mean things people have said to them face-to-face which are not ones they can easily shut out, social networking allows them to permanently erase negative comments to keep the positive ones, which provides another boost to their opinion toward themselves (Valkenburg, 2006).
A recent study conducted in the United States has shown a large number of university graduates, some of them web designers, bloggers and computer programmers, through the discovery that working in a café or even from home does not always deserve the glowing reputation it has, instead long for the professionalism, communication and good old social interaction of an environment to which most swore to never return: a traditional office (Horowitz 2007).
Facebook’s revenue is mostly generated by the enormous amounts of advertising to be found on the site – the flipside being that users are allowed to endorse any organizations, morally appropriate ideologies and even their own planned functions, the surprising potential of which 18-year-old American student Andrew Leavitt discovered last year when he hosted a public charity fundraising event (Rathi, 2007). With this in mind, Facebook becomes a potential economic goldmine for universities and colleges, as a decision to advertise their services and details on such a prominent worldwide network will work to increase the enrolment levels of the institution dramatically.
One of Facebook’s most popular tools – or “applications,” as they are so dubbed on the site – gives users the chance to join or create specific groups dedicated to specific social causes or groups just meant for fun. Following the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, countless Facebook groups established by Virginia Tech and other tertiary educational institutions across the United States emerged, promoting unity within their communities and support for the victims of the massacre (Fox, 2007). A group set up for victims of the massacre by the Pennsylvania State University staged a tribute at one of their football matches, which proved so successful that co-organizer William Solomon said he had never been so proud to be a Penn Stater (Koons, 2007). Though one can only hope Australia never experiences its own Virginia Tech massacre, here Facebook can still work to unify all a university’s members, especially off-campus students but also on-campus alumni, through easy possibilities like online study groups.
A university’s own intranet can also assist in providing a greater feeling of belonging to non-Caucasian students who go to a predominantly white university. In the United States, male African-American students at several Ivy League colleges reacted very positively to their institutions’ intranets and later, when they became recognized as high achievers, attributed this to the positive learning and social environment generated by the specific institution’s online network (Harper 2008).
Arguably the central theme of concern for university deans involving social networks is depiction of illegal activities. A number of colleges and universities are still stuck at the point of wondering whether they must monitor their social networks – or possible social networks if they have yet to jump on the bandwagon – to prevent any form of hazardous or illegal activity (Van Der, 2007). Only if the activity described or depicted involves a child should it really be reported, and most students in their right mind would report an act of this nature if they witnessed one. Rhode Island School of Design general counsel Steven J. MacDonald is one of a few noted college teachers who do not believe a university’s intranet needs to be heavily monitored. It does not matter that they are doing it on their university’s computers; the law confirms the students alone are response for information and images they access and upload, which denies staff the need to monitor their online network 24/7 (Van Der, 2007).
New intranet software now also allows information and imagery to be viewed with much greater speed than other areas of the internet when using on-campus computers. The e-Professor works in a cyclic nature, sharply reducing transferal time for links and information to another vicinity of the portal. This will especially be of benefit to lecturers with larger-than-average classes (Ottosson, 2003).
Online social networking is an ever-growing force to be reckoned with. Through cross-promotional ventures a university can further get its name around, specific group pages enhance the crucial unification of at least one faculty if not the university as a whole, individual profile pages will have the same effect for each student’s self-esteem, an intranet provides faster access to information and web links, and best of all, a university intranet does not need to be heavily monitored by staff since only students themselves by law can be prosecuted for any and all illegal information and images they access of post to the intranet, irrespective of where they are working from. These are reasons enough to prove that an individual intranet for Central Zone University can only help us prosper financially, and educationally.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Gonick, Dr. L. 2007, Social networking and other new technologies on the university campus, http://www.caudit.edu.au/educauseaustralasia07/workshops/Workshop%204%20-%20Gonick.pdf
· Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J. and Schouten, A. P. 2006, Friend networking sites and their relationship to adolescents’ well-being and social self-esteem, CyberPsychology & Behaviour.
· Horowitz, E. 2007, Co-working can solve non-traditional office issues, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, ProQuest.
· Rathi, R. 2007, Students tap Facebook to spread word, Boston Globe, ProQuest.
· Fox, M. 2007, Mourning Tech on Facebook, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, ProQuest.
· Koons, S. 2007, Support grew quickly for Tech tribute, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, ProQuest.
· Harper, S. R. 2008, Realizing the intended outcomes of Brown: high-achieving African-American male undergraduates and social capital, American Behavioural Scientist, Infotrac.
· Van Der, M. W. 2007, Beware of using social networking sites to monitor students, lawyers say, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Infotrac. Ottosson, S. 2003, Dynamic production development of a new intranet platform, Technovation, Infotrac.
In the early years of the twenty-first century, the world for the first time has its universally-linked culture defined by two separate “worlds” within Earth itself: the real world, and the online world. The real world remains more or less the same as it was at the end of the 1990s. In cyberspace, social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and to a lesser extent YouTube have allowed us to make new friends and stay in contact with old ones, or even to form relationships, just at the click of a button. But they have proven to be useful also for advocating social causes, heightening the self-esteem of users and for generating additional revenue for groups, organizations and institutions through free advertising. Why, then, are a momentous number of tertiary education institutions shunning the idea of creating their own similar sites?
Without a question the most persistent element of the hype surrounding web 2.0 is social networking and how it is driven from our homes rather than institutions. University students are the reason for this, and they already have extensive experience with using social networking tools from home for leisure. Given this blooming relationship, education institutions must begin to reinvigorate their curriculums with emphasis on social networking. There are examples of this occurring, but at sluggish rates. Forging connections between random people is what social networking is at its core, and the ensuing fraternizations between pairs are intrinsically social, often relating to interests and hobbies. If the fad of social networking is going to grow in popularity any further, tertiary education institutions must act to buy into it because it will be the easiest way to tap into the collective interests of their students. Just as their parents went to the local burger joint or the ice-skating rink in their free time, Generation Y use sites such as Facebook and MySpace to hang out (Gonick 2007).
Early adolescence is a time when self-esteem is of the utmost concern. We will try the craziest, most dangerous things all in the name of looking cool in front of our friends. These days, an average fifteen-year-old can be considered cool just by meriting a Facebook or MySpace account. Facebook, MySpace and other online portals for social networking allow young people to form friendships with people their age on the other side of the world just by sending a quick and easy friend invitation. They can create personal profiles and blogs that can be viewed and commented on, thereby providing them with a platform for publicly expressing their personal views on life (Valkenburg et al, 2006). Thankfully, most adolescents know not to spend sixteen hours a day on social networking sites, as addicts of that nature find it has decreased their self-esteem, and thus it has sent their self-esteem flying, given there is a desire within us to all protect our outlook on oneself. Valkenburg, Peter and Schouter maintain that teenagers would instinctively steer clear of social networking websites if it was obviously going to have a detrimental effect on them. Compared to face-to-face situations, friend networks give teenagers notably more freedom in terms of who they can and cannot communicate with, and unlike memories of mean things people have said to them face-to-face which are not ones they can easily shut out, social networking allows them to permanently erase negative comments to keep the positive ones, which provides another boost to their opinion toward themselves (Valkenburg, 2006).
A recent study conducted in the United States has shown a large number of university graduates, some of them web designers, bloggers and computer programmers, through the discovery that working in a café or even from home does not always deserve the glowing reputation it has, instead long for the professionalism, communication and good old social interaction of an environment to which most swore to never return: a traditional office (Horowitz 2007).
Facebook’s revenue is mostly generated by the enormous amounts of advertising to be found on the site – the flipside being that users are allowed to endorse any organizations, morally appropriate ideologies and even their own planned functions, the surprising potential of which 18-year-old American student Andrew Leavitt discovered last year when he hosted a public charity fundraising event (Rathi, 2007). With this in mind, Facebook becomes a potential economic goldmine for universities and colleges, as a decision to advertise their services and details on such a prominent worldwide network will work to increase the enrolment levels of the institution dramatically.
One of Facebook’s most popular tools – or “applications,” as they are so dubbed on the site – gives users the chance to join or create specific groups dedicated to specific social causes or groups just meant for fun. Following the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, countless Facebook groups established by Virginia Tech and other tertiary educational institutions across the United States emerged, promoting unity within their communities and support for the victims of the massacre (Fox, 2007). A group set up for victims of the massacre by the Pennsylvania State University staged a tribute at one of their football matches, which proved so successful that co-organizer William Solomon said he had never been so proud to be a Penn Stater (Koons, 2007). Though one can only hope Australia never experiences its own Virginia Tech massacre, here Facebook can still work to unify all a university’s members, especially off-campus students but also on-campus alumni, through easy possibilities like online study groups.
A university’s own intranet can also assist in providing a greater feeling of belonging to non-Caucasian students who go to a predominantly white university. In the United States, male African-American students at several Ivy League colleges reacted very positively to their institutions’ intranets and later, when they became recognized as high achievers, attributed this to the positive learning and social environment generated by the specific institution’s online network (Harper 2008).
Arguably the central theme of concern for university deans involving social networks is depiction of illegal activities. A number of colleges and universities are still stuck at the point of wondering whether they must monitor their social networks – or possible social networks if they have yet to jump on the bandwagon – to prevent any form of hazardous or illegal activity (Van Der, 2007). Only if the activity described or depicted involves a child should it really be reported, and most students in their right mind would report an act of this nature if they witnessed one. Rhode Island School of Design general counsel Steven J. MacDonald is one of a few noted college teachers who do not believe a university’s intranet needs to be heavily monitored. It does not matter that they are doing it on their university’s computers; the law confirms the students alone are response for information and images they access and upload, which denies staff the need to monitor their online network 24/7 (Van Der, 2007).
New intranet software now also allows information and imagery to be viewed with much greater speed than other areas of the internet when using on-campus computers. The e-Professor works in a cyclic nature, sharply reducing transferal time for links and information to another vicinity of the portal. This will especially be of benefit to lecturers with larger-than-average classes (Ottosson, 2003).
Online social networking is an ever-growing force to be reckoned with. Through cross-promotional ventures a university can further get its name around, specific group pages enhance the crucial unification of at least one faculty if not the university as a whole, individual profile pages will have the same effect for each student’s self-esteem, an intranet provides faster access to information and web links, and best of all, a university intranet does not need to be heavily monitored by staff since only students themselves by law can be prosecuted for any and all illegal information and images they access of post to the intranet, irrespective of where they are working from. These are reasons enough to prove that an individual intranet for Central Zone University can only help us prosper financially, and educationally.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Gonick, Dr. L. 2007, Social networking and other new technologies on the university campus, http://www.caudit.edu.au/educauseaustralasia07/workshops/Workshop%204%20-%20Gonick.pdf
· Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J. and Schouten, A. P. 2006, Friend networking sites and their relationship to adolescents’ well-being and social self-esteem, CyberPsychology & Behaviour.
· Horowitz, E. 2007, Co-working can solve non-traditional office issues, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, ProQuest.
· Rathi, R. 2007, Students tap Facebook to spread word, Boston Globe, ProQuest.
· Fox, M. 2007, Mourning Tech on Facebook, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, ProQuest.
· Koons, S. 2007, Support grew quickly for Tech tribute, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, ProQuest.
· Harper, S. R. 2008, Realizing the intended outcomes of Brown: high-achieving African-American male undergraduates and social capital, American Behavioural Scientist, Infotrac.
· Van Der, M. W. 2007, Beware of using social networking sites to monitor students, lawyers say, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Infotrac. Ottosson, S. 2003, Dynamic production development of a new intranet platform, Technovation, Infotrac.
The Advancement of National Film Industries.
Many say the Age of Imperialism has long passed. However, that can be argued to the contrary. Of course, the British Empire has all but nearly dissolved, but now the American Empire has most of the rest of the world under its control. Its film and television industries remain the centre-point of its influence – the “Hollywood” sign in the hills of California is universally recognized, the Indian film industry is known as “Bollywood,” and the national cinema and television industries of dozens of countries continually struggle to find an audience when competing against the familiarity and attraction of American movies and television programs. Subsequently, most have to take notes from these more luring American imports in order to become a hit.
In this essay, I shall attempt to decipher three expert readings on the adapting of national film and television industries by their governments in order to regain the loyalty of their audiences and the respect of the people those governments represent.
In India, a nation populated by over one billion people as opposed to the almost four-hundred million in the United States, the youth market is especially important for the catching-on of new trends. One of the most groundbreaking American media outposts of the last thirty years was MTV, which hastened the spread of innumerable youth trends, not least of all music videos, and continues to do so today. In 1996, Indian television network Star TV tested an MTV clone titled Channel V (which subsequently has been adapted for mass consumption in Australia). One way in which Channel V differed from MTV, however, was in that it also chose to promote Indian musicians as well as foreign musicians, and this fusion of Hindi and English pop and its making its deejays household names highlighted the great potential of Indianized music programs (Mankekar, p. 347).
Closer to home, there have been objectives put forward in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 with regards to local content, in relation to the overall job of broadcasting and its powers of influence over the public. Keeping a certain level of activity for our film and television industry is not one of the legislation’s top priorities, yet it is frequently argued that if production activities fall below a certain level, the cultural impacts the governments is trying to achieve with them might not eventuate. The reading on the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 highlights the findings of an inquiry conducted into the legislation and how many participants of it refused to directly discuss the application of the BSA’s objectives while many emphasized the importance of diversity and choice in everything. Even the then-Prime Minister Paul Keating sided with those involved with the inquiry. The inquiry was especially concerned about its possible impact on children’s programming and how networks could start to take advantage of the innocence and impressionability of young children. One participant is quotes as saying, “Children’s programming remains a strong area of community concern, with focus on providing child-specific entertainment, on the educative role of children’s programming and about levels of “adult” content to which children are exposed.” (Author/s not given, p. 382).
Reading 3-2 compares and contrasts censorship and content regulation in Australian film and television now and how it was in the past. In both industries there has always been a prevailing need to cater to all tastes and age-groups, in order for a film or television program to be successfully sold both here and overseas. It also delves deeply into the fierce rivalry between television and radio, a rivalry especially close with regards to advertising. The several categories of content regulation are explained, and the rigidity of censorship laws (understandable given the number of child-viewers) are described to the point where it would be possible to think that the media thinks we as adults don’t see what is often only implied.
Later in the same reading, the argument over the Australian content policy’s top priority being the promotion of social and cultural objectives rather than assistance to the Australian production industry is put under the microscope. Rather than choosing one side to this argument or even attempting to solve it, Reading 3-2 provides evidence to suggest that both sides of this argument work. “Current content regulation is complex and media specific. In general, the level of regulation is related to the assumed influence of each type of media.” (Author/s not given, pp. 382-384). And there is even what is known as a “creative control” test designed to road-test the genuine appeal and Australianness of Australian television shows, relating to the nationality of key personnel and production and post-production locations. The test is not concerned with the filming locations or subject matter of the production (Author/s not given, pp. 382-384).
This prevalent kind of neo-imperialism, like the kinds we have seen in the past, has both helped and hindered people whose civilizations it conquered. In her commentary The Myth of Unadulterated Culture Meets the Threat of Imported Media, Nancy Morris considers just what defines an “indigenous” culture just how far the repercussions of damage to cultural identity can stretch. While some of us believe that mass media consumption and identity go hand-in-hand and others do not, Nancy Morris attempts to pinpoint the catalyst for this assumed relationship and backs away from raising her own views as it whether it exists or not. She writes, “Phrases such as “cultural distinctiveness” and “local specificities” refer to the unsullied culture perceived to exist before the intrusion of external influences. “Regional consciousness” and “loyalties” are ways of describing collective identity.” (Morris p. 279) With this extract Morris illustrates how smaller cultures can be threatened by imperialist temptation and power, only to be reunited by cultural ties in an attempt to fight off such threats.
However, what Morris highlights here – underprivileged people fighting oppression – can itself have repercussions. They are fighting fire with fire, and subsequently if one uprising overthrows a tyrant, the nation home to the culture that uprising was led by runs the risk of essentially turning into their former oppressors, which keeps the chain of imperialist oppression going.
Nancy Morris also uses her commentary to express concerns about cultural purity and mixing. The opening paragraph of this part of the essay reads: “The concern that imported media fare causes members of national or ethnic groups to lose their sense of themselves as a collectivity is often expressed as the fear of the dilution of cultural purity.” (Morris p. 280) At a glance Morris could be re-hashing the argument that critics of television had when it was unleashed that it turns people into zombies, but when we analyze this statement more closely we see that is not the case. Morris is simply trying to expose the negative influences of one of the biggest juggernauts of Western globalization.
Nancy Morris provides a detailed study of the history and positives and negatives of globalization though imported media. Refreshingly, she avoids analyses of capitalism and communism, and how the two are inextricably linked with globalization. Her commentary also discusses how some items that are thought of as staples for a certain culture are often produced elsewhere or are mistakenly thought to have originated in that country. Of course, when products are made in a different country to the one in which they are to be sold, this creates jobs in the manufacturing country but not in the selling country, as well as the exploitation of sweatshop workers. In short, Nancy Morris, in her commentary, illustrates that for all the disputes between supporters of one or the other, capitalism and communism are not really that different after all.
Reading 3-2 attempts to pare down the sections of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, deciphering all the laws contained in it for a less-learned reader to be able to digest the information. Of course a document such as this is not widely distributed outside the government, in magazines or newspapers or even over the internet, and thus the actual existence of legislation like it is often completely unknown to the majority of the general public. The reading exposes identity, diversity, character and community as the major cultural objectives of the Act as well as the Australian Content Standard but still describes the cultural objectives of the two as being “necessarily broad.” This essentially just means that both the Act and the Australian Content Standard embrace the wide-ranging demands of all Australians. The reading also proves that the quality and innovation of productions prevail (Reading 3-2, Resource Materials, p. 380).
In her scathing, yet restrained and thankfully biased commentary The Myth of Unadulterated Culture Meets the Threat of Imported Media, Nancy Morris dissects the very topical and relevant debate surrounding imported media in and from every country in the First and Second Worlds. Nancy Morris shows how both sides of this debate could have level playing fields. On the one hand, Morris writes about “cultural homogenization,” not denying that it is caused by exposure to other cultures but clearly saying that it has helped advance smaller civilizations. On the other hand, she also claims, “A fundamental reason to support local media is because they serve local expression. As is the case with intercultural change, media are not necessary for this; social groups always find channels of expression. Indeed the enthusiasm of collectivities for images and representations of themselves is one explanation for the resilience of identity. But given this propensity, local media can provide something important.” Basically, Morris is simply saying that with or without imported media, individuality and freedom of expression would both still prevail (Morris pp. 284-286).
Reading 3-4 is an enlightening critique of just what non-damaging effects globalization has. With the establishment of MTV-esque television station Channel V tested by Star TV, India was economically brought up to the levels of other Western countries (that is, of course, with television, at least) without having any of its traditional ties cut. Its devotion to having half its programming being Indian was a hint taken by the founders of Channel V in Australia. Transnational media theorists maintain that expansion of transnational revenue requires a state strong enough to provide safe investment environments and trademark protection. India’s struggle to maintain its ability to forge cultural production is of much political significance. Thus, the case study provided in Reading 3-4 shows that rather than debating whether some nations have been made obsolete by imported media, we should really focus on investigating how transnational information and revenue regimes have played a role in the updating of communities not only in India but in every other developed country in the late-twentieth- and early-twenty-first centuries (Mankekar pp. 344-347).
Many of the national television and film endeavours performed by various Australian and foreign governments that are discussed in these readings could be read as pure propaganda, but what might seem like propaganda to a foreign reader is just a way to raise national pride for the endeavour’s national audience. Then there are those that raise national pride without even trying to make a political statement – Australia’s Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and India’s Channel V are two such examples. But which method is more effective?
Productions endorsed by national governments that are intentional propaganda have historically been produced during times of war, and due to the increasing cynicism of the general public, over the last forty years they have been successful in few countries. Apolitical pieces that usually just try to tell tall tales – a classic Australian example of these is the 1996 film The Castle – are nowadays much more successful because they do not talk down to their national audiences. Many governments have been slow to pick up on this way of cracking into this subtle way of cracking into the minds of the people they represent, but what ground they lose here they make up with exceedingly cleverly-placed advertising. Ultimately, advertising, rather than film or television, is what governments use to ensnare the minds of voters.
But in productions that are distinctively tied to one nation, can patriotism be misconstrued as racism? With regards to India’s “copying” of MTV into Star TV, for example, were they trying to say, “Anything you can do, we can do better”? Of course, here the Indian government was simply trying to lessen the influence of Western globalization without erasing it or making a statement of hate. The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 was attempt to do the same thing in Australia, working in conjunction with the Free Trade Agreement to provide Australian viewers with abundant, quality Australian programs without ignoring the demands of viewers from different backgrounds.
Nobody needs to be told that globalization is seen by many governments the world over as a threat to the continuity of their way of life. That’s been known since television was invented. However, over the decades, many countries that have been influenced, either positively or negatively, by it have found ways to fight back and subsequently influence the larger power that influenced them in the first place. For example, the Beatles became Britain’s response to Elvis Presley and they led the “British Invasion” of the 1960s, India’s Star TV exposed the true appeal of embracing multiculturalism, and Australia has provided many of the world’s most popular film stars in response to Hollywood’s domination of the Australian box office, as well as numerous highly acclaimed worldwide hit films which were designed from the outset as having universal appeal. Arguably these examples helped to fix the possible flaws of what the U.S. used as a weapon for influencing cultures in other countries.
Where there is a link between time and change, there are also ideological conflicts thrown into the mix. The Cold War may be over, but it still reverberates today – we no longer have fears of communism but Western fears of invasion by others are still felt by many. Governments all over the world know how eager their people are to get out and see the world and that television and film can enable them to do that without leaving their own living room, so they continually strive to create productions that will re-instill a strong pride of one’s country, without making them believe that they belong to a superior race. Such productions ultimately help to reminds us all of what unites us as human beings, and that we are all links in a very big chain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Mankekar, P. 1999, “Epilogue: Star Wars,” taken from Screening culture, viewing politics, pp. 344-347, Reading 3-4, pp. 10-13, Resource Materials
· Author/s not given, Productivity Commission 2000, “Australian content regulation,” taken from Broadcasting Inquiry Report pp. 380-384, Reading 3-2, pp. 2-5, Resource Materials
· Morris, N. 1994, “The myth of unadulterated culture meets the threat of imported media,” taken from Media culture and society, pp. 279-280, pp. 284-286, Reading 3-3, pp. 2-3, pp. 7-9, Resource Materials
In this essay, I shall attempt to decipher three expert readings on the adapting of national film and television industries by their governments in order to regain the loyalty of their audiences and the respect of the people those governments represent.
In India, a nation populated by over one billion people as opposed to the almost four-hundred million in the United States, the youth market is especially important for the catching-on of new trends. One of the most groundbreaking American media outposts of the last thirty years was MTV, which hastened the spread of innumerable youth trends, not least of all music videos, and continues to do so today. In 1996, Indian television network Star TV tested an MTV clone titled Channel V (which subsequently has been adapted for mass consumption in Australia). One way in which Channel V differed from MTV, however, was in that it also chose to promote Indian musicians as well as foreign musicians, and this fusion of Hindi and English pop and its making its deejays household names highlighted the great potential of Indianized music programs (Mankekar, p. 347).
Closer to home, there have been objectives put forward in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 with regards to local content, in relation to the overall job of broadcasting and its powers of influence over the public. Keeping a certain level of activity for our film and television industry is not one of the legislation’s top priorities, yet it is frequently argued that if production activities fall below a certain level, the cultural impacts the governments is trying to achieve with them might not eventuate. The reading on the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 highlights the findings of an inquiry conducted into the legislation and how many participants of it refused to directly discuss the application of the BSA’s objectives while many emphasized the importance of diversity and choice in everything. Even the then-Prime Minister Paul Keating sided with those involved with the inquiry. The inquiry was especially concerned about its possible impact on children’s programming and how networks could start to take advantage of the innocence and impressionability of young children. One participant is quotes as saying, “Children’s programming remains a strong area of community concern, with focus on providing child-specific entertainment, on the educative role of children’s programming and about levels of “adult” content to which children are exposed.” (Author/s not given, p. 382).
Reading 3-2 compares and contrasts censorship and content regulation in Australian film and television now and how it was in the past. In both industries there has always been a prevailing need to cater to all tastes and age-groups, in order for a film or television program to be successfully sold both here and overseas. It also delves deeply into the fierce rivalry between television and radio, a rivalry especially close with regards to advertising. The several categories of content regulation are explained, and the rigidity of censorship laws (understandable given the number of child-viewers) are described to the point where it would be possible to think that the media thinks we as adults don’t see what is often only implied.
Later in the same reading, the argument over the Australian content policy’s top priority being the promotion of social and cultural objectives rather than assistance to the Australian production industry is put under the microscope. Rather than choosing one side to this argument or even attempting to solve it, Reading 3-2 provides evidence to suggest that both sides of this argument work. “Current content regulation is complex and media specific. In general, the level of regulation is related to the assumed influence of each type of media.” (Author/s not given, pp. 382-384). And there is even what is known as a “creative control” test designed to road-test the genuine appeal and Australianness of Australian television shows, relating to the nationality of key personnel and production and post-production locations. The test is not concerned with the filming locations or subject matter of the production (Author/s not given, pp. 382-384).
This prevalent kind of neo-imperialism, like the kinds we have seen in the past, has both helped and hindered people whose civilizations it conquered. In her commentary The Myth of Unadulterated Culture Meets the Threat of Imported Media, Nancy Morris considers just what defines an “indigenous” culture just how far the repercussions of damage to cultural identity can stretch. While some of us believe that mass media consumption and identity go hand-in-hand and others do not, Nancy Morris attempts to pinpoint the catalyst for this assumed relationship and backs away from raising her own views as it whether it exists or not. She writes, “Phrases such as “cultural distinctiveness” and “local specificities” refer to the unsullied culture perceived to exist before the intrusion of external influences. “Regional consciousness” and “loyalties” are ways of describing collective identity.” (Morris p. 279) With this extract Morris illustrates how smaller cultures can be threatened by imperialist temptation and power, only to be reunited by cultural ties in an attempt to fight off such threats.
However, what Morris highlights here – underprivileged people fighting oppression – can itself have repercussions. They are fighting fire with fire, and subsequently if one uprising overthrows a tyrant, the nation home to the culture that uprising was led by runs the risk of essentially turning into their former oppressors, which keeps the chain of imperialist oppression going.
Nancy Morris also uses her commentary to express concerns about cultural purity and mixing. The opening paragraph of this part of the essay reads: “The concern that imported media fare causes members of national or ethnic groups to lose their sense of themselves as a collectivity is often expressed as the fear of the dilution of cultural purity.” (Morris p. 280) At a glance Morris could be re-hashing the argument that critics of television had when it was unleashed that it turns people into zombies, but when we analyze this statement more closely we see that is not the case. Morris is simply trying to expose the negative influences of one of the biggest juggernauts of Western globalization.
Nancy Morris provides a detailed study of the history and positives and negatives of globalization though imported media. Refreshingly, she avoids analyses of capitalism and communism, and how the two are inextricably linked with globalization. Her commentary also discusses how some items that are thought of as staples for a certain culture are often produced elsewhere or are mistakenly thought to have originated in that country. Of course, when products are made in a different country to the one in which they are to be sold, this creates jobs in the manufacturing country but not in the selling country, as well as the exploitation of sweatshop workers. In short, Nancy Morris, in her commentary, illustrates that for all the disputes between supporters of one or the other, capitalism and communism are not really that different after all.
Reading 3-2 attempts to pare down the sections of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, deciphering all the laws contained in it for a less-learned reader to be able to digest the information. Of course a document such as this is not widely distributed outside the government, in magazines or newspapers or even over the internet, and thus the actual existence of legislation like it is often completely unknown to the majority of the general public. The reading exposes identity, diversity, character and community as the major cultural objectives of the Act as well as the Australian Content Standard but still describes the cultural objectives of the two as being “necessarily broad.” This essentially just means that both the Act and the Australian Content Standard embrace the wide-ranging demands of all Australians. The reading also proves that the quality and innovation of productions prevail (Reading 3-2, Resource Materials, p. 380).
In her scathing, yet restrained and thankfully biased commentary The Myth of Unadulterated Culture Meets the Threat of Imported Media, Nancy Morris dissects the very topical and relevant debate surrounding imported media in and from every country in the First and Second Worlds. Nancy Morris shows how both sides of this debate could have level playing fields. On the one hand, Morris writes about “cultural homogenization,” not denying that it is caused by exposure to other cultures but clearly saying that it has helped advance smaller civilizations. On the other hand, she also claims, “A fundamental reason to support local media is because they serve local expression. As is the case with intercultural change, media are not necessary for this; social groups always find channels of expression. Indeed the enthusiasm of collectivities for images and representations of themselves is one explanation for the resilience of identity. But given this propensity, local media can provide something important.” Basically, Morris is simply saying that with or without imported media, individuality and freedom of expression would both still prevail (Morris pp. 284-286).
Reading 3-4 is an enlightening critique of just what non-damaging effects globalization has. With the establishment of MTV-esque television station Channel V tested by Star TV, India was economically brought up to the levels of other Western countries (that is, of course, with television, at least) without having any of its traditional ties cut. Its devotion to having half its programming being Indian was a hint taken by the founders of Channel V in Australia. Transnational media theorists maintain that expansion of transnational revenue requires a state strong enough to provide safe investment environments and trademark protection. India’s struggle to maintain its ability to forge cultural production is of much political significance. Thus, the case study provided in Reading 3-4 shows that rather than debating whether some nations have been made obsolete by imported media, we should really focus on investigating how transnational information and revenue regimes have played a role in the updating of communities not only in India but in every other developed country in the late-twentieth- and early-twenty-first centuries (Mankekar pp. 344-347).
Many of the national television and film endeavours performed by various Australian and foreign governments that are discussed in these readings could be read as pure propaganda, but what might seem like propaganda to a foreign reader is just a way to raise national pride for the endeavour’s national audience. Then there are those that raise national pride without even trying to make a political statement – Australia’s Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and India’s Channel V are two such examples. But which method is more effective?
Productions endorsed by national governments that are intentional propaganda have historically been produced during times of war, and due to the increasing cynicism of the general public, over the last forty years they have been successful in few countries. Apolitical pieces that usually just try to tell tall tales – a classic Australian example of these is the 1996 film The Castle – are nowadays much more successful because they do not talk down to their national audiences. Many governments have been slow to pick up on this way of cracking into this subtle way of cracking into the minds of the people they represent, but what ground they lose here they make up with exceedingly cleverly-placed advertising. Ultimately, advertising, rather than film or television, is what governments use to ensnare the minds of voters.
But in productions that are distinctively tied to one nation, can patriotism be misconstrued as racism? With regards to India’s “copying” of MTV into Star TV, for example, were they trying to say, “Anything you can do, we can do better”? Of course, here the Indian government was simply trying to lessen the influence of Western globalization without erasing it or making a statement of hate. The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 was attempt to do the same thing in Australia, working in conjunction with the Free Trade Agreement to provide Australian viewers with abundant, quality Australian programs without ignoring the demands of viewers from different backgrounds.
Nobody needs to be told that globalization is seen by many governments the world over as a threat to the continuity of their way of life. That’s been known since television was invented. However, over the decades, many countries that have been influenced, either positively or negatively, by it have found ways to fight back and subsequently influence the larger power that influenced them in the first place. For example, the Beatles became Britain’s response to Elvis Presley and they led the “British Invasion” of the 1960s, India’s Star TV exposed the true appeal of embracing multiculturalism, and Australia has provided many of the world’s most popular film stars in response to Hollywood’s domination of the Australian box office, as well as numerous highly acclaimed worldwide hit films which were designed from the outset as having universal appeal. Arguably these examples helped to fix the possible flaws of what the U.S. used as a weapon for influencing cultures in other countries.
Where there is a link between time and change, there are also ideological conflicts thrown into the mix. The Cold War may be over, but it still reverberates today – we no longer have fears of communism but Western fears of invasion by others are still felt by many. Governments all over the world know how eager their people are to get out and see the world and that television and film can enable them to do that without leaving their own living room, so they continually strive to create productions that will re-instill a strong pride of one’s country, without making them believe that they belong to a superior race. Such productions ultimately help to reminds us all of what unites us as human beings, and that we are all links in a very big chain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
· Mankekar, P. 1999, “Epilogue: Star Wars,” taken from Screening culture, viewing politics, pp. 344-347, Reading 3-4, pp. 10-13, Resource Materials
· Author/s not given, Productivity Commission 2000, “Australian content regulation,” taken from Broadcasting Inquiry Report pp. 380-384, Reading 3-2, pp. 2-5, Resource Materials
· Morris, N. 1994, “The myth of unadulterated culture meets the threat of imported media,” taken from Media culture and society, pp. 279-280, pp. 284-286, Reading 3-3, pp. 2-3, pp. 7-9, Resource Materials
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