Wednesday, March 31, 2010
VAGABOND, Herman and Chomsky
Well, I'm unsure if I even know what is going on. I mean, WOW! this is one of those readings that burst your "I think I'm ready to face the evils of the world" bubble because you aren't. I honestly thought I already understand what is happening to our world, modern or post-modern. I mean, after all, the media merely sends “messages and symbols to the general populace…to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society” (257) right?
Apparently not so... My awareness regarding (post)modern society revolves around money, and when I mean revolve it is more like orbiting. I try to grasp the concept of real and virtual - yes, I understand the notion of video games but what about the stock market? All these huge figures of numbers are discussed and civilians who invest fret over this, however, what is supposed to be backed up by a stable currency (gold) is not even with us in reality. So, does this boil down to how the stock market, as in our economy, is an illusion because it is a mere concept???
So, everyday, we live our lives worrying about bills - or uh, the thing we use to exchange for more things...they're just mere ideas for more ideas? I mean, if you think about it, what is money but a face and some numbers printed on paper? Why do we toy with this notion of the real and the unreal or surreal?
Billboard Music
Pre-Class Herman and Chomsky
Their explanation of the five filters that go into manipulating what we see on television and read in the newspaper was particular insightful for me as well, because although I had always recognized these “filters” as being in existence and of powerful constraint, I never realized to what extent they all functioned together in harmonious concert. The most interesting “filter” for me was that of the “flak machine” in which “centers” and “institutions” have been created for the sheer purpose of monitoring anti-business and thus supposedly “anti-American” propensities of the mass media. The media is than harassed by these groups until they decide to either abolish or provide counter-opinions to their “unconventional” arguments, which almost always end up with the media again giving more than adequate weight to the big business and government-sided point of view. Likewise, “although the flak machines steadily attack the mass media, the media treat them well. They receive respectful attention, and their propagandistic role and links to a large corporate program are rarely mentioned or analyzed” (277). I think the most alarming part is that it is our own government, a government that prides itself on a democratic society with freedom for every citizen, that is the major producer of this filth they call flak…
Post Class, Andrew Wells
Pre Class 4/1 Bourdieu
3/30 Post Class
In class on 3/30 we contemplated the question what is postmodern about the billboard charts? This goes back to our Lyotard discussion on how our culture loves to rate everything from itunes ratings to yelp and other review sites. We are always looking for the best and newest releases of pop culture. I agree with scott's post when he says that train is at a postmodern point in their career because they made their big hit with "Drops of Juptiter" and "When I look to the Sky" and now their new song gives references to many songs that we as a culture have connected to in the previous decades. Going off of this it reminds me of how after John Mayer made it big and then came back later with his song "Waiting for the World to Change" where he gave a really strong statement about the media when he says, "and when you trust your television what you get is what you got cause when they own the information, oh they can bend it all they want " which is a critical media statement but in a pop hit song from John Mayer. Since our culture has such a fascination with ratings, he used this to his advantage and he brought what was going on in the world into a song that he knew was going to be on the billboard charts and give out a message. This relates to the quote we talked about, "The defrauded masses today cling to the myth of success still more ardently than the successful." I also enjoyed in this class the connection to my History of Radio and Television class, which is very interesting and important to know how media has evolved over the years. "The radio - democratically makes everyone equally into listeners." This medium created unity and the sameness that we were talking about and how it brought everyone together into the same routine and rhythm.
Hey, Soul Sister...Post Class
The song “Hey Soul Sister” by Train seems to be somewhat of a postmodern song, due to the references it makes to other songs, as well as the fact that the band Train itself is in sort of a post-modern (revival) part of their career. The first reference to other billboard successes is in the first line of the song “Hey soul sister” may come from the song “Lady Marmalade” from the 2002 film soundtrack Moulin Rouge. Also the expression itself, referring to a woman as a soul sister is a bit of a throwback to the late 60’s and early 70’s when powerful African American singers like Aretha Franklin were popular amongst the billboard charts. Aretha Franklin was even known as “Soul Sister Number 1” after her 1967 release of “I never loved a man (The Way I Love You)”. Other references (without knowing if they are intentional or not) are the lyric “one track mind” could make reference to the Johnny Thunders song “One Track Mind”, as well as the Madonna citation when singer Patrick Monahan says “like a virgin (Madonna song) your Madonna”. Other references that can be made to popular songs in the past are made when Monahan says “I don’t want to miss a thing”, he could be making reference to the Aerosmith song from the Armageddon soundtrack. All of these connections that I have made may or not be intentional by Train, however it is interesting that this song (showing so many influences) has done so well on the billboard charts. Drawing from artists of the past may have made listeners feel more connected with the song, because of songs they have liked in the past. The reason I say that Train as a band is in a post-modern part of their career, is because they are in a personal revival. Since the song “Drops of Jupiter” we haven’t herd much from Train, but now at what should be the latter part of their career they have made a revival, and there is something postmodern about that, and the music that people are listening to.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Herman and Chomsky, meg143, pre class 3/30
I found the reading on “A Propaganda Model” very interesting and a deeper look into why and how the media is filtered and controlled by such a small group of people before it is presented to the public as “freedom of speech.” It begins by explaining how many countries with extreme censorship in their government and media is obviously propaganda used to serve the dominant elite class. But also that media outlets in countries such as the US that are privately owned and claim to have the people’s best interest at heart are doing exactly the same thing it is just harder to pick up on. “A propaganda model focuses on this inequality of wealth and power and its multi-level effects on mass-media interests and choices” (257). This model has 5 main points of how the media in our country is still owned and produced by a dominant elite class. The points consist of the size of the size and concentrated owner wealth in mass-media firms, the fact that advertising is the main source of income, the reliance that media has on the government, businesses, and “experts” who fund and approve these media sources, “flak” a way to discipline the media, and “anticommunism” as a control mechanism. After all of these elements have effected and altered the news the public only sees the final product which in most cases is extremely different from the original raw news that was found. Unfortunately, the networks that have the most power are always the ones with the most money and the ability to broadcast their ideas the most and the loudest to the general public. Without funding from advertisers, the government, and other businesses a media network has almost new income and no way of broadcasting their news and ideas. “The trend toward greater integration of the media into the market system has been accelerated by the loosening of rules limiting media concentration, cross ownership, and control by non-media companies” (262). While, the media companies have been able to expand, broadcast more, and reach a wider and more diverse population the quality of news seems to be going down. When there are so many different people involved in the funding of these media outlets the filters create news that is produced for the investors benefit not for the greater good of the general public.
Jean, Herman & Chomsky
“ It traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print, marginalize dissent and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their messages across to the public” (257).
This quote makes me think of the differences between US media and Europe media. The US media especially the news is extremely censored. We only see one view of what is going on in the world. The government only presents an event in a way they feel is just enough information for us to know what is going on but not give the whole story. We are very censored in what we see when it comes to images of wars and what is happening in Iraq. The government “powerful” officials decided what we can handle and what we cannot. In Europe the media is not nearly as censored as the US. They see much more graphic and heartbreaking images that show citizens more of the truth that is occurring in these hard times. The BBC is not nearly as censored because it was originally a non-profit free news station that took off to be the number one especially in London. When living in London last semester it was much more interesting to watch the BBC news and see the true pictures of what was going on in the world today. The less censored news though may be more disturbing shows the truth rather then the extremely censored US news. In all categories not just news powerful people are the ones that decide what is right for people to see. They make decisions and are ultimately controlling the rest of the world with there power. This causes propaganda to become way to popular in society especially today.
Post-class on Adorno & Horkheimer
Pre-class Jameson
Monday, March 29, 2010
A Propaganda model, Andrew Wells
This essay talks abotu the 5 filters that help filter out news that get published. The one just talked about was the filter of Ownership. The following filters include: Ownership, funding ,sourcing, flak, and Anticommunism as a control.
Its obvious that the mainstream media depends on heavily advertising revenues to survive. An example can be found in sports. The way a sport makes money is by the various amount of adverting during and in the middle of game play. Advertising is shown so frequently that the viewer is sometimes never aware that the ad is in front of them. Herman and Chomsky claim through the example of adertising in a newspaper, that the owners objective is to produce mass amounts of advertising with out affecting the reader to be uninterested. The idea behind the newspaper is supposedly to inform but what the owner is doing is puting the advertising as the product not the actual information printed.
The third filer is known as the sourcing filter. This is where the medias concern is the continuous flow of information to fill the demand for daily news. Herman and Chomsky argue that this task can only be filled by major business or even the government. To make it easier for the news promoters to get a hold of information from the government there are places in which they can discuss business, scheduling press conferences at hours well geared to news deadlines, and organization of press releases or photo opportunities.
The fourth filter is known as the Flak filter. Herman and Chomsky both refer this filter as a "negative response to a media statement or program" (Hc, 275). Flak from the powerful can be either direct of indirect. Direct(ex. Phone call or message). Indirect (ex. Funding a campaign with knowledge of later down the road asistance)
The fifth and and final filter is the Anticommunism as a control. This is the idea of exploiting public fear through potential threatening situations. The situation can either be real or fake. Both Herman and Chomsky say that this was often used to silence the public. An example of this could be the Iraq invasion and the Gulf war. With todays use of the internet many "indie" sites are able to publish independent articles to produce a certain idea of what the situation actually is.
Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Andrew Wells
Postmodernism is presented in this article as a means of making a radical break from high modernism.
"The case for its existence depends on the hypothesis of some radical break or coupure, generaly traced back to the end of the 1950's or the early 1960's" (F, 482)
It's considered a culture dominant, but not a style.
James also adds on the breaking of the bounderies between high art and popular culture in a critical way; aesthetic populism (F, 483)
Jameson does a comparison of Van Gogh and Andy Warhol to explain one of the keys in distinguishing features of postmodernism, the fetish. In Van Goh's painting, being represented as high modernist, is put next with Any Warhol's "Diamond Dust Shoes," representing postmodern art. Jameson argues that Ein Paar Barnshuhe contains the whole object world of agriculture a misery and the fore is not considered a fetish since it does not hide the poor conditions it represents.
The best example found in the article was when Jameson refers to an architectural example of a postmodern building symbolic of the multinational world space in which we function in daily. We as the people who occupy this new space do not posses the perceptual equipment to match this new hyperspace.
"... the Bonaventura aspires to bring a total space, a complete world, a kind of miniature city..."(F, 509)
The point that Jameson is trying to make is that with this latest mutation in space, Postmodern Hyperspace, has succeeded in lowering the capacities of the person to locate itself to organize its current position from an external world.
VAGABOND, Jamesson
For example, from vinyl records to cassette tapes, CD's to iPods...Succeeding periods that deal with the notion of legacy (think Volkswagen's punch buggy commercial) is a naturally operating ideological system.
Generations serve the interest of companies because it helps the consumers figure out the trends through different eras. In fact, the clothing brand, GAP, prides itself the ability to mend the (generation) gap. Our pursuit for "faster, stronger, better" conflicts us because we do not understand what's the "better" one - AT&T or Verizon, PC or Mac. When we were given too many choices and too many media messages are involves in persuading us, we would recognize nothing in the end. While some may simply say there is no need to change or "if it ain't broken don't fix it," we may feel like we have done evolving the revolution and nothing original is left to create and there is no longer room for change.
Pre-Class/ Response to Clem (3-29-2010)
To stay on the topic of fashion, I (and I'm sure most students on campus have) noticed a growing trend in bright clothing, reminiscent of the tacky 80s fashion. Why? We have this strange fetish with nostalgia in our postmodern era. Do we not know what to make of our time?
To explain what I mean by the latter point, I will refer you to a video I posted months ago on the blog:
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkCR-w3AYOE&feature=PlayList&p=599060200DB9C100&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=32 )
In this video, George Carlin (circa 2006) explains what it means to be a modern man, by which he means "postmodern man." Through the length of this bit, Carlin points out subtle contradicting ideologies and thoughts that compile the "modern man." It's an impressive piece of stand-up from Carlin and I implore that you watch it, let your mind soak it up, and analyze it as you please.
Pre class Jameson
Jordan, I must agree with you, after reading this I was almost in physical pain. This text is honestly excruciating. He uses so many examples and refers to so many authors, theorists and artists that everything he was saying became very confusing. But anyway, what I understood from this and was still very interesting is that postmodernism is believed to be a coupure from the past and from modernism could in fact just be a change, an innovation, a stage in capitalism. Jameson relates postmodernism with capitalism and claims that aesthetic productions today have become integrated into commodity production. He gives us Andy Warhol work as an example of this. Postmodernism he says is not a style but a cultural dominance. But he also says we have trouble representing are own time and culture therefore we pastiche the past. This blank irony, the neutral representation or imitation of dead styles is now becoming our global culture creating intertextuality. So everything is becoming pop culture as we adapt it to our era. Even history. This was to my mind one of the most interesting part of this essay. When authors, filmmakers, artist attempt to recreate the past, they do so with ideas and stereotypes of the past. These representations therefore become simulacra of history, as Baudrillard would put it. It cannot be truthful because we were not there or if so time distorts memory and becomes more subjective, twisting reality. What we have at work is therefore not historical literature or films but pop history. With this comes one of postmodernisms symptoms: the difficulty to represent our own time.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Andrew Wells, 3.29.10
Here is the link to the Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqqqaUwgbGo
The commercial is about the product gum called Dentyne Ice. It does a great job in reenacting a condom commercial. In one scene a couple is seen in the back of a car during the night with the windows fogged up. The girl asks if he has protection and he responds by pulling out a pack of gum.
The reason why I thought immediately to Barthes was because by viewing this commercial the audience is filling in the gap of the situation. When the girl asks for protection the viewer immediately thinks of a condom. Barthes says we constantly rewrite texts and give them new meanings based on our own emotions because of this we like to have something that is not fully revealed so we can fill it in with our imagination.
ANiCO – Individualism vs Ideology
“…are we capable of making any degree of progress or even forward-thinking change? Or are we just a band of robots who are unable to be individuals? And with this type of discourse in mind, how do we even define “the individual”?”
I think we kind of delved into this with Benjamin’s idea of the original, but I’ll take it a step further by referring to Henry Jenkins and his talking about subculture and how fans will take the canon and create something new with it.
Yes, we all live in ideology and can never escape it. Yes, the elite and general society create it and naturalize it for us to accept it. I can be bitter and say “well, we’re just going to have to wait for the elites to think it’s time to be forward thinking, lol!”
But I can be positive, and think we’re on some sort of cusp in technological and communicative advancement. When the industrial media creates something, we have the legitimate power to question, break, expand, or demean whatever media or ideology that’s thrown at us, with just a post on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and pretty much the rest of the internet. Yes, we can and will get muddled up in ideology, because it’ll even extend into the internet, but you can’t really let that stop you. It’s hit or miss. People will fuse ideas and ideology all on their own and progress on their own, even if it seems like it won’t in the present.
For example, what we’re learning right now—the acknowledgment of ideology, what it is, how it works—is probably an ideology itself. But we’re going to try and use this knowledge to apply in a progressive way to the world today, even if these were words made up by mostly white dudes that are either old or dead now. Their ideas were once individual ideas (and maybe even then, not really, if they constantly shared with other theorists,) but have since expanded into something incredible after being released into the world. I hope this made sense, because I’m posting this at midnight. Basically, what I’m saying, I know there’s a lot of scary and bad things that ideology can do. But sometimes you can make it do good things, like people becoming just a little bit self-aware. We just have to make more good than bad. (and hope our perspective of what is good becomes hegemonic, HA!)
ANiCO – Post Horkheimer/Adorno
Replying to McGowan’s questions and some of his comments in this post.
“…Marx’s idea of systemic ideology and the notion of collective consciousness: does our brain determine our being?, or does our being determine our brain?”
I had a hard time swallowing this brain vs being part just for the word choice. First, the use of the specific word “being”. I thought of the word as a state of existence. My being, your being—‘to be’ something as opposed to nonexistence. If I’m understanding his question right, ‘brain’ is suppose to represent the individual, and ‘being’ the social person falling in line with ideology, does he mean that we validate our existence based on society or ideology acknowledging it? It irks me, but somehow it makes sense. I wanted to say that we all have different states of being (or realities!)—I am a being in my own head, I am a being within Rollins College, within America, within my Hispanic heritage—but then realized all of these have their ideologies.
And then ‘brain’. I HAVE to get into the mind vs brain argument. Was it just failure to be specific or did he genuinely want to use the physicality of ‘brain’ to represent the individual? I guess if the mind can be affected by ideology, something as reliable as predetermined chemicals and electrical signals have to substitute for absolute individualism (then again, damage to the brain, learning, and memory can change synapses, so WHO knows…)
ANiCO - A Late Review for King Kriggle, AKA Jordan
I could have sworn I posted this last week, found that I didn’t, and realized I accidentally deleted the document where I originally wrote it up. Fantastic.
Well there isn’t much to criticize about Jordon’s posts. They are exactly what Dr. Cummings has asked for: A frequently-updated, timely-posted glimpse into the mind of one of her students. His posts are reflective, always presenting a new idea or example to relate and expand upon what we read and/or spoke about in-class, but never a tedious, word-for-word summary of what was discussed. Also, emotional: he genuinely speaks about how he reacted to the readings, never afraid to admit his confusions about the readings or just downright rejecting what a theorist says. I think a lot of students are afraid to do that because of the social stigma of “well I’m a student, I don’t know any better” and tend to invalidate themselves. In reality confusion and questions are best for propelling us forward towards our goals in understanding these crazy, crazy theorists.
If I had to have one nit-picky gripe about his posts, it would be he writes like he talks. It’s a nice identifier when he’s using an alias, but generally informal and kind of confusing if I’m trying to get a sense for what he’s trying to convey and there’s ideas scattered about and no thesis sentence to refer to. But this is probably a difference in how we view this blog: I look at it like a place to post up formal mini-arguments on what a theorists is saying or what forms of media could be applied to their theories. I look at Jordan’s posts and see something like a scholarly diary.
Post Class Marx/Althussar
Post class
post class Horkheimer-Adorno
Like Jean, I was stuck by the quote “ The radio democratically makes everyone equally into listeners.” The choice of the word democratically is very interesting because it would mean that as listeners, we are all free to choose what we would like to hear and that all equally. Every spectator having the same right of choosing and the same voice. I can agree that we have the choice of turning of the radio or not, to change the channel or not but are we really choosing what is being aired? Not at all right? I find this quote very ironic and grate because it is what we are told to believe to be kept happy in our society. We think that we have all these choices and are free to decide what it is we want. But the truth is, we are in a consumer society where everything we think we choose is in fact set in front of us by the media, by society, by the way we have been raised, for us to “choose”. The reason we pick a brand at the store is because our mom use to choose that brand. The reason we watch a certain TV show, or listen to a certain type of music is because it has been advertised, our friends listen to it, watch it or for the sake of being “different” because no one knows about it, we feel like we move out of ideology by showing interest in them but they are all the same part of an other ideology. The most popular choices are the ones set by the hegemonic ideology because it is what we know best, have been expose to more. This just sends us back to what Althusser said, “ There is no practice except by and in an ideology”
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Post Class 3-27-2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
pre class for Jameson...King Kriggle!!!!
VAGABOND, Hebdige [preclass make up / post class]
The subculture mentioned in class shapes us as individuals. For example, if I were to interact with someone from UCF, instead of saying campus center, I would say student union. If I were to hang out with someone from Berkeley, I would use a very different lingo.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
post class Hebdige
I liked in class how we talked about subcultures and related it to schools and colleges. I never really thought how every school has its own language such as r-card, country club, fox day and many more. Its true that every school creates its own culture and ideologies within themselves that we subconsciously conform to. Without thinking these new ways and words become part of our everyday life when we become a Rollins students without ever thinking twice. How many times have you wrote foxday to a friend at another school and they have no idea what you are talking about and you just don’t understand why. We use these words in everyday life and expect everyone to understand. After reading Hebdige it made me think about how many things really are subcultures such as sports, clubs, communities, schools that I never would of thought in that way. Everything we do and take part of has its own ideas and words used everyday and we never think twice about it, just assume everyone understands. It made me realize how so many acts of everyday life take part subconsciously and how many different subcultures people truly are apart of.
Jean, Adorno
“The radio democratically makes everyone equally into listeners” (42)
I liked this quote by adorno because we can relate it not only to radio but to all types of media. When we listen the radio we have no say in what is being played. Someone in charge chooses what he or she plays on the station and everyone listening to the station no matter where they are hearing the same thing without any choice. Everyone is listening equally. This is the same with television as well. When we choose to turn on a certain television channel at a certain time whatever is playing is on. We cannot choose what is being played on that channel at that time and everyone tuned into the channel is watching the same thing being equal watchers. This makes you think about how everyone has something in common. How even within many subcultures and ideologies we all come together at some time as equal listener and watchers. We are all forced to the hegemony of our culture at certain times through this idea of watching the same television shows and listening to the same music. It also makes us think of how our culture is shaped and formed through radio and television. Since we all listen and watch the similar things it makes it become part of our culture and is accepted as the norm because everyone is seeing or hearing it. This idea makes us think how our culture and subcultures are shaped by control of different types of media.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
VAGABOND, Horkheimer and Adorno
American television show usually revolves around a typical theme: flaunt money & the riches such as Teen Cribz, they target specific audiences in order to assure favorable ratings. Disregarding reality TV, fictional characters represent typical people, television networks secure audiences that are seeking to identify with a specific group. As these characters demonstrate idealized standards of attractiveness, the bar is set for viewers as to how they should look. The popular media also sets a basic norm for how one should act, talk, and dress. Furthermore, the escalated drama presents problems that are plausible but the heightened intensity causes viewers to apply poor communication skills to their lives.
For one of the CMC 100 projects, my group and I examined The O.C and Dawson's Creek - two popular teenage sitcoms one taken place in the 90's and the other in the millenia. We looked at how the social scene portrayed as been changed over the course of time. Not only are the clothing and lifestyle way more "glamorous," a lot of the scenes are more vulgar and is borderline PG13 because it challenges a certain ideal which most people are not able to reach.
In other words, these shows are your life, only better (this reminded me of how te virtual is better than the real and the real is jealous of the virtual.) I say this because teenagers gravitate towards shows with such outrageous themes because it gives us a "myth" to live up to.
Pre Class, Horkheimer & Adorno, Ann
Pre-Class "The Culture Industry"
Pre Class Hebdige
Post Class 3/23 Jenkins, meg143
I found our class discussion on Tuesday very interesting and I have enjoyed the readings by Jenkins, Marx and Althusser as well. The discussion about twitter was the first topic that I have a slightly different opinion on. I currently use twitter and have found it both entertaining and fascinating and I’ve also watched it work wonders in the marketing world. While I do understand there are a lot of skeptics against twitter, I have to say that I think it is a useful media tool that brings about an ambient awareness of your friends, celebrities, as well as companies/ designers that you like. I understand it may not be a necessary tool but I don’t believe it has created any negative implications either. “People who may not ever meet face to face and thus have real world connections with each other can tap into shared framework of popular culture to facilitate communication” (556). Jenkins explains in this quote how tools like twitter and facebook have created real connections with strangers who may not ever meet each other but it does not take away from the fact that they are communicating and making connections. We live in a very participatory culture that is now surrounded by the web and I think that instead of rejecting these tools we should embrace them and look for the positives in connecting with others around you. I am planning to go into marketing or public relations and I have already become very familiar with certain media tools from past internships and I know that I will continue using them and have to stay up to date with the newest technologies and ways to reach the general public. “We are witnessing the emergence of an elaborate feedback loop between the emerging DIY aesthetics of participatory culture and the mainstream industry.” (571). Different websites and technologies are taking off and becoming extremely popular and I am very interested to see what will be the next media tools that change our day to day lives as well as the marketing and public relations industry.
Pre Class response to Dick Hebdige
The part of the reading that I enjoyed the most was the section about the ideological form. It is explained that certain sub-cultures seem dangerous, but at the same time have been co-opted into our culture to be accepted. A good example of this is the punk culture. Punk culture originates arguably in New York City, in a pre 1977 scene in Andy Warhol’s doll factory (practice space for The New York Dolls). It is often perceived that punk culture started in England, because the punk culture in England caught on a lot faster there. The fact that it is understood by most that this music scene started in England is a great example of how the counter-culture has been co-opted into a society that needed it. In the mid 1970’s kids in England were fed up with police brutality, and the treatment of the lower middle class, which is why angry punk music caught on so well for them. Today, we see that punk music has been co-opted into our mainstream society, with the induction of The Sex Pistols into the rock and roll hall of fame, and The Who having a huge contract with CBS’s nighttime dramas (as well as their multi-million dollar deal with the super bowl in 2010). Stuart Hall has a few pieces about the co-optation of counter-culture. Because counter culture will always be co-opted into our mainstream society (due to big business seeing it as a commodity i.e. $$$), counter culture will always change. Take the music scene in Seattle Washington in the early 90’s. No one could have ever guessed that a band like Nirvana (so rebellious) would ever appeal to 15-year-old kids living in the suburbs across the world. The fact that it did made grunge music (and culture) commodified. The counter-culture will always change, but will always end up being bought out by big business, and eventually lose its cultural aspects.
Andrew Wells, Post-class 3/24/10 THE CULTURE INDUSTRY
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Post Class for 3/23/10 King Kriggle
Monday, March 22, 2010
Response to Althusser
Pre class for Hebdige 2/23/10..KING KRIGGLE
Pre- class Hebdige
For this reading of Hebdige, I would like to focus more on the first part of the reading: (i) From Culture to Hegemony. First of all I enjoyed seeing how Hebdige took us through the understanding and changes in meaning of the word “culture”, from a feudal ideal of hierarchically ordered community to a future of socialist utopia to the understanding of a particular way of life. Nowadays, as he puts it, we comprehend this word as the study of a society and its total way of life. This term, culture, which we are all part of and study other ones too is engulfed in ideology. I like how he refers to other theorist like Barthes and Althusser, particularly when the later mentions in his description of ideology that it is perceived-accepted-suffered cultural objects but which act beneath consciousness. And again relating to previous reading we have done such as Marx and Althusser on ideology we have come to the understanding that those who have more say, more power, the ruling class impose their dominant ideology. Those who have less power to produce or impose their definition of the world on the world are nonetheless still in ideology but that of their own group on top of the one of the oppressor.
As I was reading this I could not help but relate to this passage from a book I am currently reading Franny and Zooey by J.D Salinger:
“It isn’t just Wally. It could be a girl, for goodness’sake. I mean if he were a girl, he’d have been painting scenery in some stock company all summer. Or bicycled through Wales. It’s everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so- I don’t know- not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you’re conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way.”
I really enjoyed reading this passage because it sent right back to CMC and to the idea that we are stuck in ideology and no matter how hard we try and leave it we just enter a new ideology. Like Franny’s character I think it is sad-making. The importance again is being aware of such things and that we do thing maybe because we enjoy them a little yes, but mostly because ideology has, with time made us enjoy them by being engulfed in it.
Blog Exercise- Feedback for Clem
Review for Meg143
Overall I enjoyed reading your blog.
- Posts seemed to demonstrate understanding of class material.
- You have been blogging twice a week.
- Almost all posts seem to meet length requirements.
- You may want to try to use less quotes and write more of your own ideas.
- You also may want to use less summarization.
- Annie
Hebdige - Hegemony/ Pre-Class 3-22
Feedback for Joe
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Post Class 3-21-2010
Feedback: for Jean's eyes only
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Comments for ANICO, and more on blogging in general
Blogger Review Molly Andrews
I enjoyed reading Molly Andrews blog. I liked how you brought in personal experience and compared it to the issues we have talked to in class especially in your Disney and Zizek blog posts relating it to a recent trip. It shows good understanding being able to apply the information to everyday life and makes it more interesting to read. I also like how your posts have a reoccurring theme of Disney. I like how this style shows connections of many different theorists all being able to relate it back in some way to looking at one particular place. It shows that you have a really good understanding of the theorists we are discussing
All your posts that you have done have great content and can relate to all readers. You just have to start posting more, very few posts and almost all of them are post class posts, not really any pre-class posts. Just catch up and continue your style!
Barthes' theory in Dentyne Ice commercial [rambles]
The gap. We fill in the blanks.
'Nuff said.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Blogger Review on Alison 3/18
I really like how Alison takes quotes and makes an in-depth analysis on them while making connections at the same time. For example, she took the quote "It was Disney's magic to be able to stress the happy side of life, and there are always, in human society, characters who resemble those of Disney comics"(123) and explained how people use disney to escape the "horrible tragedies and wars going on." I agree with her when she says that people do want to believe there is good and peace in the world and that is why Disney makes its millions. That quote was in response to Mickey being nominated for the nobel peace prize and it is kind of humorous to think about.
Alison's posts give engaging examples that help others examine the content further. I like when she says that parents take their kids to to Disney to, in a way, get them away from the horrors of real like distracting them with the imaginary world of Disney. Allison did a good job in taking what we learned in class and intertwining it with her own thoughts about our class topics. A suggestion I need to work on as well as her would be commenting more on other people blogs when they have a good point or something you want to add on to them, because other than that I really enjoyed her posts because it addresses what it should.
Review for Jackson Ryland by King Krig
pre class for Althusser Marx for 3/18/10 KING KRIG
Response to Vagabond's Posts:
Vagabond’s posts have been very interesting and entertaining to read. You do a very good job of connecting the readings to other theorists or to other related ideas, giving the reader a deeper understanding of the material as well as showing you fully grasp the concepts. You’re posts on Disney were especially interesting and thought provoking about how the American culture has no real symbol, and that Disney may truly be the most prominent American icon whether we believe it or not. Your post on Marx and Althusser was also very interesting and when you bring in specific quotes it makes your post that much stronger. I also think its great that you often comment on other students blog to make it much more conversational. The “rambles” post of a quote by George Carlin also fit in perfectly with our blogging and was an interesting change of pace and idea from a different person. All in all your posts put the theorists in a new light by relating them to outside ideas, they were entertaining as well as informational. My only advice would be to make your posts a little more in depth, and bring in specific quotes from the readings more often. And you seem to have made up the blogs you missed which is great. Keep up the good work!
Feedback for Vagabond
Feed back for Devon
First of all, you write very well. Your style is clear and sharp. I feel like you understand the theorists and theories well and your comments are always very developed. I like that you use examples from your personal experience or also take elements from class discussion or text and related to real life. It seemed to me like you were constant in you blogging and do not need to worry about delayed posts much.
You use quotes well and integrate them nicely in your analysis but you could do that even more. To be honest you are a good blogger and I it is hard to give you advice because I think you do a really good job. The only thing I could say is that maybe you could comment on peoples post sometimes too, to alternate and give your opinion on what other classmates have to say.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Post class Jenkins and Poster
Jenkins and Poster both put forward this idea of the web as being “ Rhizomic”, “Viral”, “Chiasmic”. And this is true to a certain extent. Yes we can be connected with people from the opposite end of the world, receive and give information we never would have had before. The idea that we can share our ideas, art creations, videos, essays and more, the idea that we participate we are active members of this wave. But as much as some aspects of this are great I think it also poses a problem because it makes all these art forms somewhat lose their essence, as Benjamin would say. We are able to show “the world” but it is not the real thing. It is just a copy of it on a screen. Also it blurs the lines of who are the artists, professionals and who are the amateurs. And as it was mentioned in class, what do we believe in all that is said in this abstract place of the web? What do we trust and what do we not trust? Think of Wikipedia, we all use it to look up basic info, but complete strangers wrote that, anyone can change it and what is the background of the person who posted the info. Are they qualified in that field? We know we should not rely in it yet we still do. To finish, I would like to talk about this idea of being connected to the world. This is false. We are connected to people who are just like us, who have the means to have Internet and be connected to us. We are not sharing anything with certain parts of the world that do not have the luxury of having our tools of communication and knowledge.
Pre class Marx and Althusser
When Marx says “ The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas” or “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production, so that the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are on the whole subject to it”. To my mind this means that the loudest voice becomes the right one, the powerful one. We accept ideas put in front of us as a consensus. It becomes the status quo and because everyone else believes it, so do we, with out questioning where it came from or how reliable these ideas are. Those who have more time on their hands, as Marx would say, are able to think and produce ideas. They also have most of the time a strong power of speech and language in order to convince an audience but who says their ideas are the right ones? These ideas are concepts, which are not palpable. Althusser would call this “illusions”, “allusions to reality”. And this is what forms an ideology, which we cannot escape and are no matter what a part of. So I think this is what I understand when Althusser speaks of the differences between RSA an ISA. The Ideological state apparatus, functions by ideology primarily but also by repression secondarily. I think that not being able to get out ideology, having difficulties questioning because we are so ingrained into it is a form of repression. This is a vicious circle and I don’t think we could ever resolve this but the importance is to be aware of it and not be passive subjects.