22nd Jul 2008
aftermath of ubc class #1
so, great class…fun, open, informed, and participatory…very cool for a summer class. it is amazing how much media is in our veins…our students’ veins…our consciousness and formation of our knowledges. it is hegemonically in the dominant culture’s interest to keep us media illiterate…perhaps that is why media literacy is not on education syllabii, in core curricula, and on our radar. how different would a critical media curriculum be? we would not have to alter our content, merely add another lens in which to read media. Freire advocates us to teach our children and youth to read the world–that reading the word is not enough–being functionally literate is still being culturally illiterate.
and so we begin two weeks exploring the effects of media, and critically understanding the multiple meanings in a mediated society. i am looking out the window at a large Chevron filling station in the middle of the bay…a signifier of corporate consumerism even in the water…that is a symbol i remember from my childhood, laden with red, white, and blue, the gas company remains an american icon–i am interested in your symbols, the symbols of our students…what do these symbols mean? how do they inform our consciousness?
in the language of Mike Myer’s Linda Richmond….discuss
The consumerist ethos that dominates our Western culture feels like a beast. We live in this world of FAKE, because everything is bought on credit. We are pressured by the stars or by each other to buy fancy cars and Coach purses in order to live up to this ideal lifestyle that is portrayed and then romanticized in the media. Life is this weird competition of who can accumulate what. Tabloid magazines are the most incredible form of advertisement out there. We (quite possibly me, but I think I’m pretty normal) see what the celebrities are wearing- and we want those things. It is, however, ironic that we want to have what the rich stars have, but then are so judgmental about their ways of life (probably doing things that we all do). We demonize Christina Agulara for getting a boob job and Lindsay Lohan for drinking too much, but we drool over their Couture dresses? We idealize what these celebrities have, but condemn them for what they do. I wonder why this binary- to make us feel better about our credit card bills and our “regular” jobs?
I cannot pretend that I do not fall into this trap. But it is sort of a survival technique. If we are to argue that attractiveness is a component of the dominant class, then by default we must assume that we (whoever we is) work to increase our attractiveness. “stuff” is attractive, and if we are culturally literate we will be able to buy the right kind of stuff. If we see the world through Prada sunglass LENSES then we will at least have the luxury of having social capital as we work to unpack its effects.
The consumerist ethos that dominates our Western culture feels like a beast. We live in this world of FAKE, because everything is bought on credit. We are pressured by the stars or by each other to buy fancy cars and Coach purses in order to live up to this ideal lifestyle that is portrayed and then romanticized in the media. Life is this weird competition of who can accumulate what. Tabloid magazines are the most incredible form of advertisement out there. We (quite possibly me, but I think I’m pretty normal) see what the celebrities are wearing- and we want those things. It is, however, ironic that we want to have what the rich stars have, but then are so judgmental about their ways of life (probably doing things that we all do). We demonize Christina Agulara for getting a boob job and Lindsay Lohan for drinking too much, but we drool over their Couture dresses? We idealize what these celebrities have, but condemn them for what they do. I wonder why this binary- to make us feel better about our credit card bills and our “regular” jobs?
I cannot pretend that I do not fall into this trap. But it is sort of a survival technique. If we are to argue that attractiveness is a component of the dominant class, then by default we must assume that we (whoever we is) work to increase our attractiveness. “stuff” is attractive, and if we are culturally literate we will be able to buy the right kind of stuff. If we see the world through Prada sunglass LENSES then we will at least have the luxury of having social capital as we work to unpack its effects.
I enjoy the feeling of dis/location, of hearing another voice and feeling that stirring inside me that denotes ‘movement’. Sounds like constipation…well, it kind of is…a social constipation. When one allows oneself to sit, unmoved for too long and then a voice comes along and forces you to move. Discourse can be like exlax. Enough of that…
Reflecting on the comment above that “Freire advocates us to teach our children and youth to read the world–that reading the word is not enough–being functionally literate is still being culturally illiterate”, I think a good place to start is to show students that they already read the world; and that their reading is informed by who they are, and the priviledges the may or may not hold. I teach grade 6/7 and I love the passion of my students’ assumptions. Their reaction to ‘Otherness’ is beautiful. My favourite way to start a lesson is “Ok, I’m not really supposed to talk about this, but…” It grabs their attention. They want to see more than they currently can, or are premitted to. They want to be involved in the construction of knowledge.
iFeel?
Feeling melancholy, ambivalent, unsure. Not the usual emotions for me. So what do I do? Scroll through my iTunes library, trying to find a song to suit my mood. No, more like trying to find a song to define my mood. To recreate or even create my mood. As if I could just find the right song with the perfect lyrics to sum up my situation, everything would be better… Shirley, you asked how does media “inform our consciousness?” What could be more integral to my consciousness than my emotions? And here I am trying to manipulate them with some external stimuli generated by corporate culture for exactly this purpose (mostly Indy bands, okay, but still!). Trying to mediate my experience. Turn on, tune in, tune out. Instead of just feeling what I’m feeling and trying to get to the root of it. How uncritical of me! I wonder what people did back in the days when art & music were just made for religious purposes. Pray, I suppose. Or maybe it was easier to find a song with the right lyrics… On the one hand, music can be an inspiration or source of spiritual wellness, right? On the other hand, how lazy and artificial is it for me to mediate my experiences instead of reading them critically as I should read the world? To turn to media for comfort and clarity? But I suppose that’s why it’s a multi-billion dollar industry. Funny, in my last two courses, we discussed (criticized) our students for always being plugged in to some form of media or another instead of experiencing reality… Oh wait, the perfect song just came on! Gotta go!
Well, I am looking forward to the next two weeks learning about Media Literacy with fellow educators. As I reflect on my own life, I realize I am pretty much media illiterate and unaware of the impact media has had and continues to have on my life. I also realize my student’s need me to be informed in order to help them make more informed decisions.
A couple of thoughts came to my mind today during class especially when Shirley talked about the impact media has had on young girls. I thought of the many times I have had to ‘chat’ with my girls about their choice of clothing for school. The pajama pant and tiny tank top phase is finally over, but now it is the short-short skirts and tiny tank tops with the bra and midriff exposed. I teach elementary school children, yet they look like street workers, however according to them they look like the girls from the Pussy Cat Dolls!
The other moment I thought about was when I had my ‘just turned’ 4-year-old goddaughter come over for her very first sleepover. Her parents and I were unsure if she would make it through the night so I suggested she bring something to make her feel at home. Well, the Dora pillow, Dora sleeping bag, Dora backpack, her High School Musical pajamas, socks, sippy cup and bowl all came along with her. With my truck full of belongings to make her feel at home, we headed to my place to watch High School Musical 1 and 2, and then play Dora games.
I wonder…what have we done to our children? Looking forward to hearing other stories, comparing notes and working towards dealing with the impact media has on children and us! I believe it’s needed now more than ever.
As long as we’re talking amongst ourselves (in the language of Linda Richmond)… I remember growing up in the 60’s with KRAFT Singles, Miniature-Marshmallows, Pizzas, KD, Velveeta Cheese, Cheese-Whiz…it seemed like if it wasn’t KRAFT, it wasn’t food. Sunday night wasn’t a Sunday on CBC without the voice of Bruce Marsh intoning in a rich voice… “Hi I’m Bruce Marsh with tonight’s KRAFT recipe”…invariably, the recipe contained KRAFT Miniature Marshmallows or Miracle Whip and sometimes both if you can imagine (both well known health foods!) Even today the slogan is “it’s gotta be KD”. This resulted no doubt in the unification of “American Cuisine” where you gave-up or lost homemade products and a complex variety of foods derived from a multiplicity of ethnic origins – Slavic, Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern. Who was going to eat Mom’s pizza when you could make a KRAFT pizza in 20 minutes? And so we lost contact with many cultural foods (although now we seem to be gaining them back). The net effect of all this brainwashing is that I now avoid all KRAFT products although I might be buying KRAFT products unwittingly (perhaps hidden by another label). KRAFT just like Chevron with its red, white and blue lettering is the second largest North American food and beverage company). Note also that James L. Kraft was a Canadian!! Thinking about all this makes me feel just a little “verklempt”! I’ll just leave you with this thought… Kraft dinner is neither a craft nor a dinner. Discuss.
It was a very interesting first class. My first thought is that I would like to putting together a class visual dictionary of symbols/icons that most of my grade 6/7 know. There is no doubt that the lexicon of images is extensive–even if created by 12 and 13 year old children. Throughout the years, I have asked the students to identify famous pieces of art. Although they may not know the artist or the name of the piece, they are familar with many images. Several students can identify Munch’s The Scream or a Picasso piece from his cubist period. I soon realized this was not due to great art education, at home or at school. This types of images have been coopted by corporations in order to increase sales. I was deflated–much as I was when Michael Jackson bought much of the Beatles catalogue. I’m not sure selling running shoes was what Lennon, at least, was thinking when he wrote Revolution. More upsetting, sometimes I find myself humming along to a great song when I realize it is now just soundtrack to a commercial.
Part of my particular educational interest is the use of SMARTBoard’s (interactive whiteboard) and the way they seem to empower children with disabilties. It would be a great vehicle for a media literacy project where we could have our own visual journal of images that convey meaning with no words. With the exception of health and safety warnings, off the top of my head the ones that I can think of all relate to companies, products or services. As mentioned in class, this type of knowledge is a different literacy yet extremely powerful. The concept of a shorthand that identifies a brand is the cheapest and possibly most powerful type of advertising. It does have ramifications for education. How much money should be spent on education?if all children really need is knowledge enough to get a paycheck and identify the swoosh, the arches, and the DC in order to spend their money? It always returns to the ultimate purpose of education. In other classes, we have agreed to the aim of education to be to help children ultimately “lead a good and worthwhile life in a democratic society” then the curriculum leaves out much of the information required to be more than a member of “the bewildered herd.”
I have been thinking about the students that I taught this past school year. They were 7 and 8 years old while in grade 2, yet already they were very strongly influenced by their exposure to media. Some of them asked their parents to buy them “happy meals” from McDonalds. When I ask the students why they like McDonald’s so much, they explained that they like getting the toys from McDonalds. They had not yet realized why McDonalds was giving them those toys along with their hamburger, fries and pop. They also discussed “Hannah Montana.” One seven year old student even missed an afternoon of school so her dad could drive her to Seattle for a “Hannah Montana” concert. Webkinz, stuffed animals that “come alive” online in a “Webkinz World,” and various PlayStation and XBox games are also hot topics for discussion among grade 2 students. There were a couple of grade 2 students who already had a cell phone and at least one student received an iPod as a gift. This student thought I was a bit strange for not having an iPod, after all, doesn’t everyone need one?
At recess time there is a forested area where students can build forts, other areas for playing soccer, hockey, or various playground games and creative activities. While these activities do occur, a lot of girls in my grade 2 class preferred to bring “Bratz” dolls and ponies and all the various accompanying accessories to school.
While painting self portraits in class, a number of students included detailed replications of the logos or phrases from their clothing. A few of the girls drew themselves wearing clothing that they see pictured with the “Bratz” dolls (e.g., short shirts, jewelry, high-heeled shoes) or drew themselves standing in a model-like pose.
While the students are strongly influenced by media, most of them have not yet developed media literacy. It will be crucial for them to be more aware of what is really going on in the world of media and how their consciousness and knowledge formation is already being manipulated by various forms of media at a young age.
as I was watching CNN’s coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign, I kept thinking about the quote in Donald Macedo’s Deconstructing the Corporate Media/Government Nexus that “the propaganda apparatus makes the “bewildered herd” believe that they are active participants in the democratic process and not merely “spectators.”" CNN certainly tries hard to make the coverage appear interactive, but this still comes across as superficial. ‘expert’ analyst Bill Schneider tells the viewer about the opinion poll breakdown for each candidate: what percent of White males support Obama, what percent of Latino women support McCain, what percent of married couples in the military support Obama, what percent of Starbuck’s coffee drinkers support either candiadte ad nauseum…… the numbers make it appear that everyone’s ‘voice’ is being accounted for, but i wonder what effect or relevance any of these figures have on the actual outcome of the election. it would be more interesting to have a CNN analyst break down the campaign donations from major corporations and interest groups so that Americans can get a real sense of who is supporting whom and why. of course, this is not likely to happen, at least not in primetime. Neither CNN nor any of the other major networks covering the election would dare ‘distrub’ middle America with the shocking truth that this election, just as the previous ones, is being bankrolled and I would argue largely decided by the NRA, Big Business, the Christian Right, Planned Parenthood, and a number of other special interest groups. couched in these terms, it would seem that we are merely “speactators” in this election process, passively waiting for the latest poll data, or gossip about either candidate. Yet, CNN still tells us that we, especially those peole residing in the so-called ‘swing states,’ are the ones deciding the election. As long as we (Americans) continue to delude ourselves that the present election process is democratic, CNN and the networks which cover the election will happily oblige and continue to spoon feed us ‘manufactured democarcy:’ opinion polls, staged interviews, photo ops, and pep rallies etc.
Politics at it’s best
Robin Sweeney
July 21, 2008
Power and knowledge, how are they really measured? I was at a McDonalds (yes I feel guilty but that is not the point) last week and was standing in line. A man in front of me, that some may say was a “bum” was next in line. He was very well mannered as any guest would be and what I had thought before he was helped was that money was money regardless of who it came from. However, when the man stepped up to the counter he was waited on by what seemed to me, to be the manager. He was well groomed, wearing a different uniform than the other workers and seemed to me that he could hear and actively communicate. As I was waiting I listened to the interactions of the manager and the “bum”. The man ordered a muffin and placed his change on the counter. As he paid for the muffin he asked the manager if he could have a fresh muffin as the other worker had just brought them out and they were sitting on the counter. The manager took the money and gave the man his change. The manager proceeded to the muffins taking one of the old muffins, putting it in a bag and placed it in the microwave. At this time the man asked again if he could have had one of the fresh muffins and the manager again stared right at him and completely ignored him. As the man asked for the new muffin the second time he wasn’t only ignored by the manager but then he was harassed by the other worker questioning him about being around the new muffins and that he had touched them. I couldn’t believe what I had seen. I am usually a very vocal person when I feel someone was being taken advantage of, but I didn’t do anything. I don’t know if it was shock or if I didn’t want to make the man feel even more invisible than he most likely already did. As I left the McDonalds I felt really distraught. Had that man been you or me he would have got one of the new muffins. Had he looked, or perceived to be a well groomed, clean cut, knowledgeable person, he would have been served differently. Since McDonalds or the manager didn’t see him as a threat, or anyone who they may be able to profit from, he was treated very badly. Politics at it’s best.
After today’s class I thought about our discussion around the notion of a disappearing middle class. Perhaps the middle class is not necessarily disappearing but we are living beyond our means…our maxed out credit cards, the desire to look and feel like movie stars…in a wrinkle free world holding a prada purse working at starbucks! We are striving for something the media wants us to be…The media speaks for us, represents us, speaks to us and even advises us (choose this name brand over the leading name brand because….). The media targets the dominant middle class culture, the more we buy, the more we feel like we’ve moved up in this world! It’s not enough to be media aware, but media literate…who’s being represented? Why? Whose voice is being heard? What’s being kept from the viewer, subscriber, or consumer?…questions for “Culture Jamming” with students.
Symbols…hmmm…they remind me of my grade 6/7 female students who are obsessed with lululemon and TNA. Children are not children in this media world, but “revolving” consumers. Wearing symbols, but not sure what they stand for is common… children are very aware of symbols and they place great value on them. According to my high school teacher friend here is a disturbing media symbol …. playboy bunny tanning sticker placed on a teenage girl’s body-they wear the sticker, go to the tanning booth and then remove the sticker-being branded exemplifies that we somehow have digested media and it owns us-what’s this all about?
My partner laughed when I told him about the course. He said it is the perfect course for me. I think this comment might come from the fact that he often wonders why I watch television when most of it just makes me ‘upset’ to the point where I yell at the screen. I like to think of it as ‘interactive media’. Besides burying our heads in the sand doesn’t make it go away…we just get dirt in our eyes.
In the spring of 2004, I was working at a school where we were having a discussion about the amount of media time our students were plugged in. At the time, I was concerned because students were reporting upwards of 6+ hours in the evening of screen time, ending at 11pm (or later). They were getting up late in the morning, not leaving enough time to eat breakfast and then coming to school hungry. The effects were obvious to me-homework was not getting done, they were tired, their ability to think critically and persevere with difficult problems was limited. After a bit of research on the net, I came across some very interesting lessons on media education that went beyond my concerns of the day, which was simply how much time they were spending watching TV and DVDs, playing video games and surfing the internet. My staff met several times and began planning a week in September when we would turn off the TV and provide some activities at the school to help them fill their time. This was to coincide with some lessons in media education using some of the resources from the internet that I shared with my colleagues and a book for adolescents called, Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You should Know. The sad part is that after all this discussion and planning, I went on Maternity Leave and it never happened. The year after I came back from Maternity leave we went on strike and I have a lot of excuses why this topic didn’t go any further.
When my husband and I met in 1999, neither one of us had a TV. We had each come to the conclusion on our own that our satisfaction with life was related to the amount of television we consumed. The less TV we watched the happier we were. Since then we have acquired a TV but watch just enough to remain conversant in popular television culture. Otherwise, we don’t watch much. Life is just too bloody busy.
There are a lot of reasons to be critical consumers of media even if it is just to limit the amount of time spent doing one activity. However, I’m looking forward to going beyond this in this course.
Thinking about our discussions today and curious to know what my 15 year old daughter and her 15 year old friend think — I asked them who has the power in our society? They were quick to answer; “Celebrities, because they just need to do something, say something, wear stuff, etc. and it becomes popular then all the cheap stores want to copy them and sell it to us.”
I asked; “What if designers give them free stuff, or their managers restrict their image freedom and make them dress/look a certain way — who is in control then?” They still think celebrities are in control of themselves and while they agree that designers are using celebs as “free” models, they think it’s kind of like the chicken and the egg thing — who had the ‘fashion/style’ first, the designer or the celebrity. Hmmm. They vehemently believe that celebrities have far more ‘control’ over their own images than I believe they do and so I suspect I will embark on an eye-opening journey with my daughter over the next little while, more so than ever. They found the question of “who has power” hard to answer, as they took it to mean political power, but when talking about the power of media and images they did talk a lot about the overrepresentation of anorexic white girls and even quoted stats — “Did you know that 15-20% of young girls have eating disorders?” When I asked what religious views are represented, they barely missed a heartbeat and answered in unison “Christianity” (neither of them believe in God). “Ya, like even rappers thank God for making them famous.” When I asked them about talk shows, they both said they loved Ellen and David Letterman, but hated the Tyra Banks show because it’s “really boring, all about make-up and how to lose weight”. They like Ellen because “she’s funny and really interesting and has interesting topics and funny skits and stuff and David Letterman because he interviews celebrities and has music on the show.” I wonder what 3 shows I’ll be watching…? Their guilty media pleasure is Camp Rock with the Jonas Brothers (a Disney product). Who knew? I guess I’ll have to check it out!
Symbols such as the golden arches of Macdonald’s, and the green mermaid of Starbucks, inform us that these establishments offer the promise of product satisfaction, whereas “no-name” restaurants and cafes carry a great deal of uncertainty and risk for the consumer. Therefore, the Macdonald’s and Starbucks symbols create in our conscious a sense of comfort and ease because they represent consumer certainty and familiarity. The comfort and ease that accompanies such symbols is built into our consciousness through our own personal experiences. Over time we develop a certain relationship with the Macdonald’s and Starbucks of the world, one that is built on the promise that each visit to these establishments will provide us with the same product consistency and quality every time. Even though each franchise store is somewhat different from the others, we still allow ourselves to belief the promise that the symbol on the outside of the building makes. Therefore, we overlook the flaws of the individual store because we are convinced that simply because it bares the Macdonald’s arches it must produce the same quality of product we enjoyed at the last store we visited. Consumers, however, must be continually satisfied with the products they purchase from these symbolic restaurants/cafes or they will begin to be disillusioned with the promises of their symbols. In other words, if Macdonald’s products continually disappoint you then eventually you will view the golden arches as a symbol of distasteful food, rather than a delicious meal, and stop believing the promise of the symbol.
Symbols such as the blue and white circle of the BMW auto corporation also inform our consciousness. BMW cars are marketed as the “Ultimate Driving Machines” and the blue and white symbols are the stamp of approval on each car, the verification that you are actually driving or witnessing the “Ultimate Driving Machine.” Without the blue and white symbol BMW cars would be hard to distinguish from other brands and perhaps only the most ardent automobile enthusiasts would recognize a BMW not displaying its trademark symbol. The BMW symbol is what people look for when they are trying to assess which automobile is the best. Of course other auto makers, Mercedes for instance, have become equal or greater to BMW, but BMW still gives the consumer the promise of being at the same level as the other luxury cars. This is do to the fact that the BMW symbol has long stood for excellence in automobile engineering and still claims to be the best of the best, the “Ultimate Driving Machine”. Now, as we commute to work, and we are passed by thousands of cars daily, we can categorize cars by simply looking at the symbols they bare on the front and rear ends. Cars that have the BMW symbol are placed at the highest category, whether we’ve driven one or not, because our consciousness has been told that this blue and white symbol means that this car is a BMW, and therefore, one of the best cars humankind has ever created.
I was talking today with someone who is not a teacher but considering getting her Masters in Education. She expressed how she can’t believe that media literacy is not part of the school curriculum (even though I hadn’t even mentioned the subject). I completely agree with that view. We try to teach children to be critical thinkers and to connect what they learn in the classroom to the real world, but there is something wrong when we fail to teach them how to think critically about the real world.
We are flooded daily with symbols that most of us do not even consciously think about we are seeing. Many of us, especially children, are conformists. When I was a child, I wanted to buy the ‘name brands’ because wearing trendy logos was the way to be/feel accepted. I never questioned what the brand stood for or what it took to make it. It makes me think of a commercial where they use the term ‘brand power’ – buy the brands that are popular/well known because they are of good quality. That is how most consumers identify with brands, whether it be clothing, food or electronics. If it’s a popular brand, it must be a respectable product and everyone wants to be respected and fit in, so they go with what’s ‘in’. A symbol is a powerful tool, whether we like to admit it or not. A great example of this is the symbol used by Apple. When I brought my Macbook to school, many of my students (grade 3) were thrilled to see it on my desk. They started asking me if it belonged to me and if I had an Ipod. Then many of them started sharing, with great pride, how their dad had an Apple computer or an Ipod. The Apple symbol to them was not simply that of a computer company, but rather a status symbol. It’s funny how only a few years ago Apple was seen as an inferior product, but with smart advertisement, it has transformed into pop culture.
I guess I could write a whole lot about symbols, but I’ll just check some. Let’s start by white, blue and red…honestly the very first thing that comes to my mind is the Chilean flag. Well, I’m Chilean what did anyone expect? Actually, I’ve just recently realized that the American flag sported the same colors, not that I’m color blind, it is just that for me white, blue and red bear the significance I was taught at school. The white is for our snowy mountains, the blue symbolizes the color of the sky — not any more, Santiago has one of the most polluted skies in the world, at least we get to be number one in something, right? — and the red stands for the blood our heroes bled in order to reach independence. How could I ever relate them to the U.S.??? It’s weird…I feel more Chilean now that I am here. Let’s do another one, the cross. I grew up Catholic– talking about big corporations — and although I have many fights with the Catholic-Church-hierarchies and dogmas I still find it hard to say I’m anything but Catholic. What does the cross represent to me? A reminder that Jesus Christ saved me, a reminder that I am in fact a believer, a reminder that I can be a better person, and that I must love others as I love myself. Actually the cross represents a myriad of things and I could write a lot about it but I don’t want to bore anyone. A third one, a blue owl with a red U on the chest, the symbol of the soccer team I cheer for in Chile, source of happiness and distress. My wedding ring, it reminds me I got married almost 14 years ago to my boyfriend of 8 years, the father of my sweet princesses, my shelter, my lover, my friend, my partner…not my other half, I am a whole person by myself, but the one that has been beside me through rough and smooth, for better or worse…my first pancake – in the words of Dr. Steinberg — and hopefully the last. If I think of my kids, thanks God my 2 year-old can’t tell what the golden arches are all about, but her pacifier, even the sight of it, is huge on calming her down.
Now that I’m somewhat more aware of them…there are hundreds of symbols, and they do inform not only our consciousness but our unconsciousness as well. They make us react, they fill us up with emotions…I can’t avoid feeling anguish and distress when I see a pointy white hood or a swastika. They are “just” symbols, but they carry history and intention. Most symbols have been carefully tailored to meet people’s needs, fears and desires, and they do the job quite brilliantly.
Resisting the Forces
I agree, great class! I especially appreciated the time spent reminiscing about our childhood media memories – existing in the tension created where nostalgia intersects with critical consciousness. Barbie was one image I carried with me as I walked to the beach this afternoon to do my reading and to reflect on the influence of media symbols on myself, my community, and my students. Whenever I think about Barbie though, GI Joe’s army fatigues inevitably pop up – for it seemed to be one or the other when I was growing up; either you’ve got the prettiest outfit & accessories, or else you’re tough enough to blow the competition to smithereens. Ever notice how, amid the myriad fashion trends over the years, camouflage has never quite gone out of style?
Speaking of symbols, I am currently looking at rich array on the Canadian Forces website (www.forces.ca – if you visit, be sure not to miss out on the TV ad which encourages enlisting in order to “FIGHT FEAR” and “FIGHT CHAOS” among other grand adventures). The whole website is rife with patriotic images, and caters most especially to marginalized peoples including visible minorities (which include “Black, Chinese and Japanese Canadians”), women, and Aboriginal peoples. All of these blurbs predictably espouse the duty and honour of serving in the Canadian military. In the case of visible minorities, for example, the website claims that to have earned the right to fight for the country meant success in the struggle against discrimination. And maybe on some level it was a success; certainly the Canadian Forces do offer some fantastic career opportunities and “free” education, if you’re willing to be inspected, scrutinized, and ordered around a whole lot. In effect, if you’re willing to play the game, you may reep the rewards… actually, it’s a very fitting ‘factory-style’ exercise for a capitalist country’s defense strategy.
But I am not just interested because of my childhood nightmare of the limited, and highly gendered playground choices of GI Joes or Barbies. I spent the early years of my teaching career teaching in Northern Quebec on a Naskapi reserve. The community was isolated from the educational opportunities of the rest of the province and the school had no guidance counselor to assist graduates in making decisions about their future directions, be those to CEGEP (college), university, trades, or community programmes. These kids certainly didn’t have the University recruitment reps signing up to make presentations to students (the way they did at my high school). One organization, however, figured the 3- hour ride in a nine-seater to the small sub-arctic community was worth it.The Canadian Forces flew all the way to the tree line to talk to my students about specialized Aboriginal programming (during class time, of course). Glossy brochures, exciting videos, and promise of free travel & thousands of dollars remuneration for a few weeks of pre-recruitment training was more than enough for many to fill out applications. But I wondered, whose interests are being served by upping the number of Aboriginal soldiers in Canada’s military?
A browse through the very separate and elaborate Aboriginal programmes website (http://www.forces.ca/interactive/cfaep/index.asp) reveals that according to Canadian Forces, Aboriginal peoples have a “proud tradition” of serving for Canada in several international conflicts. And further, that recruitment programmes are aiming to match the number of Aborignal, Metis & Inuit soldiers proportionally to Canada’s population demographics. The images of soldiers growing out of the ground and canoes morphing into submarines all to the tune of wolves howling suggests something a lot more insidious, however. But not to worry, the Canadian Forces does make “cultural accommodations” for First Peoples: “Aboriginal members of the CF can wear their hair long or braided.”
But is the military a big, nasty, horrible beast? No, I do not seek to condemn the career choices of many, including Aboriginal peoples. In fact, a former student of mine joined because she liked to be physically active, and as non-heterosexual young woman, could not find acceptance in her conservative Christian (a lasting gift of early missionaries) community. For her, the programme was a way out, and on top of that is has afforded many opportunities she may otherwise not have had. I do however question the values propagated by the Canadian Military tradition, it’s motives vis-à-vis Aboriginal youth, and its recruitment strategy. Indeed, whose interests are being served by encouraging the Canadian government’s strongest resisters to join a Nationalist organization?
Personally the timing of this class could’nt be any better for me. I just finished a class where I learned more about an evil mouse ruled empire, that shall remain nameless, than I ever wanted to know and am growing more aware of the influences of media on our daily lifes every day. The name brand round about we did today was very interesting and I would love to do a similar activity with a class for it really made me aware of just what I was wearing/drinking/holding and why. From what I have heard today, it seems as though the current discourse around media is identifying it as the real life curriculum, not the hidden curriculum. Meaning, students are spending more time engrossed in media that they are in curriculum subjects so why bother calling it hidden? Prof. Steinberg’s comment about the chevron symbol reminded me of a documentry I had seen where American grade 5 students were assigned two tasks, one was to think of and draw a symbol for each letter of the alphabet (Chevron = C) and then second portion was to hand write the cursive alphabet. Nearly the entire sample of students could identify, draw, and label a company logo from A-z but less than half could hand write the letters from A-Z.
I finished reading the final two chapters of a great book, Middlesex, the other day. It has a pace that feels more like a baseball game than a hockey game. I think this allowed for the narrative about the lives of 3 generations of a family to be better articulated. I finished reading it on Friday and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly, I can’t remember much of the book. It has left me. Or it is leaving me currently and obviously some of the most important parts of the book jumped ship first. This happens a lot to me with written texts. It’s like looking at your body and seeing a scar from a biking accident you had as a kid. You know you were hurting and in pain, but 20 years later, you are just really relying on pure speculation of the intensity.
Maybe popular media has this kind of an impact on us as educators, students and citizens. Whether we are critically aware or it or not, we have been blasted with this stuff since our first breath. Every once in a while, a good defragging is needed in order to see why we teach, parent, read, watch and feel the way we do. We are at times victims, and at times complicit within our own decoding of the media saturated world around us. Hopefully this course and our interactions will help dismantle what we think we know.
Some flags are easily identifiable symbols. When I see the Canadian flag, I feel lucky to live in Canada. I see the Maple Leaf and think about the Canadian environment, vast and varied. I think about a friendly, multicultural country. And then the American flag enters my head. Like a migraine. Or maybe like an errant bullet from south of the border. I associate that flag with power, money, arrogance…and a bit of nausea, because I’m worried that Canada isn’t that different than our neighbours.
I did a quick youtube search and found 1810 hits for “Canadian Flag” and 4030 hits for “American flag”. I was surprised that there were so few American flag hits, as I associate the American flag as a significant source of American pride and dominance. I thought there would be millions of videos celebrating the Stars and Stripes. It was interesting that few Canadian flag videos appeared negative or controversial, but there were a significant number of American flag videos focusing on war, politics or flag burning.
What about the Olympic flag? Does it represent the connectedness of the five continents? It was interesting to live in Vancouver when the 2010 Olympic bid was being debated. Concern over the road to Whistler got more attention in the media than impacts on people living in the Downtown Eastside. Talk of jobs, new facilities, and tourism didn’t really get into details like who would actually make the “profit”.
I sound too negative right now. Don’t worry; I’m not ready to raise the white flag yet.
The symbol in my childhood memory has always been Mickey and Mini. For me and many other Chinese in my age, the cartoon series was not like any other regular animation, but a 30 minutes date with American Culture once every week. I was easily attracted by the mid-class Mickey and his seductive girlfriend, Mini with long thick eyelashes, because they looked so happy, innocuous, and worriless. Gradually, more and more Mickey and Mini appeared in my life: in my pencil box, on my shirts, on my backpack, etc. They became something must have for many kids in my elementary years. I did not understand what all these mean. I did not know I had unconsciously bought in the American culture sold through cute Mickey and Mini. Until recently, I still dreamed about a Disney Land trip. Honestly, I just realized that what a faithful consumer I could be. Moreover, the cartoon series also planted seeds of American Dream in my heart. Naturally, more and more products associated with American enter into my life, Coke, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and so on. I still remember, 4 years ago, I saw hundreds young people lining up in front of a Pizza Hut in China for a Valentine’s Dinner. 4 years later, on July 19, 2008, I saw an online news talking about the first customer in the first Apple store in Beijing, China. The ‘lucky’ Apple customer is a 20 years old college student, who had been waiting 22 hours outside the Apple store until the store opened. Is that a victory of American culture colonialism? At least, it has some symbolic meanings.
As I was reading the Media Literacy: A reader, Wag the Dog somehow comes to mind. Wag the Dog is a 1997 film starring Robert De Niro, about the White House using media to fabricate a fake war with Albania to distract the electorate from a U.S. presidential sex scandal. I remembered when this film was released, so was the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal surfaced onto headlines. Coincident? It was life imitating art or the other way around…hmmm. I don’t know. But for some reason, I was stunned by how media can be used to manipulate the publics and how the publics are so easily taken in by it. Media in different forms have always been tools to propagandas and ideological control yet this movie really puts it in my face. I supposed this was when I became media literate – “The eyes do not see; they only record while the mind sees.” Entertainment is more than just entertainment now. Like Donaldo Macedo puts it “that the mind can be ideologically controlled, it filters in order to transform what the eyes record.”
As I was reading the Media Literacy: A reader, Wag the Dog somehow comes to mind. Wag the Dog is a 1997 film starring Robert De Niro, about the White House using media to fabricate a fake war with Albania to distract the electorate from a U.S. presidential sex scandal. I remembered when this film was released, so was the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal surfaced onto headlines. Coincident? It was life imitating art or the other way around…hmmm. I don’t know. But for some reason, I was stunned by how media can be used to manipulate the publics and how the publics are so easily taken in by it. Media in different forms have always been tools to propagandas and ideological control yet this movie really puts it in my face. I supposed this was when I became media literate – “The eyes do not see; they only record while the mind sees.” Entertainment is more than just entertainment now. Like Donaldo Macedo puts it “that the mind can be ideologically controlled, it filters in order to transform what the eyes record.”
The Gods Must Be Crazy was another film that came to mind. This was a movie about an African Bushmen, living in the deep isolation of the Kalahari dessert, saw a Coke Cola bottle dropped from the sky and went on a journey to the edge of the Earth to return the bottle to God. When I first saw this movie back when I was still a kid, I just thought it was funny. But really, Coke Cola was at the forefront of marketing, not just a short cameo in a movie branding its product, but a whole movie centered around the Coke Cola bottle! What an ingenious way of marketing the product – a movie and a commercial all in one.
Big Brother is watching…
So there’s this show my husband and I are addicted to-Big Brother10. It’s on 3 days a week on CBS and takes place in the US. Basically, the show is about a group of 14 people (7 men and 7 women from all different walks of life) who are all put into a house (of their own free will of course) and compete in different challenges with the ultimate goal to be the last man (or woman) standing, and that person wins $500,000 USD. The show is very interesting, as the people in the house have no access to the outside world at all. They have little to no access to music or books. They are unable to watch TV, read newspapers, speak/text on the phone, or heaven forbid-use the internet/email. Occasionally, the people in the house compete in challenges to occupy a little of their time. The bulk of their time is spent on forming alliances with other members of the house, scheming, and manipulating each other into voting out 1 player at a time. I think the main reason my husband and I find the show so fascinating is that it is truly a social exercise. The people on the show struggle with their emotions and paranoia till the very end of the show. The sheer drama of the show has had us hooked from the very first season.
I have noticed that the contestants selected for this show vary from the token homosexual and/or African-American to a war veteran or someone who is closely related to an individual who is currently “serving” in the war in Iraq. I am guessing that the contestants are not a random sample.
Happy viewing!
Waheeda
Sounds like a fascinating class, wish I could have been there!
Here are some sites that might be of interest, from the “media in our veins” to other resources:
http://diversityaffluence.com/index.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FY758
http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2004/10may04/10ethnic.html
I’ve just been skimming a few of the comments and i have to say, waheeda, I love big brother! this season though I haven’t really gotten into the show, I think i miss “will and boogie” and no one new seems to work for me.
Looking back on the class discussion though, I’ve noticed more and more how much I am affected by media. Just this week, after the Gossip Girl episode I was talking with friends about how we wished we could wear their clothes, have their accessories, and basically live lives without a worry for anything (well except the gossip). I can only imagine how this affects the students we will one day be teaching…imagine having to deal and control that?
As for the radio, the other day at a wedding my 6 year old cousin was singing along to “Love in this club”. When you think of the words, you don’t exactly want a grade oner to be singing along to it….but then again…while in elementary school we were trying to be like the Spice girls…and lets be honest would you want your kid dressing like that at that age?
Everyone is affected by media, one way or another. I never got into the show Big Brother…but i absolutely love Gossip Girl and 90210..i am addicted! My girlfiends and i get so excited wen its Gossip girl night or 90210 night..we watch the shows and gossip about them for days after..its fun hehe. We really do want the lifestyles of those girls in the show..everything seems so laid back and romantic. They wear the best clothes and accessories…they’re rich and live in the most fabulous houses..Just look at the Hills for example or Laguna Beach..those girls live in lifestyles we would all like to live..but can we? NO! But for a moment, as you watch those shows, it’s like ur part of it and you’re laid back and not worrying about anything…once the show is over, however, it’s like GET BACK TO REALITY! I absolutely love those 2 shows and i dunt miss an episode..and if i know i will..i’ll put it to tape..lol..its sad!
On that note..GO HABS GO!
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i love how they sing this song in the park in the movie. I love this song…its sooo cute !!!!!!
I’m glad I saw this, kudos!
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Are you serious?!? At least I caught this on a good day XD
This is a lot better than what I’ve been seeing elsewhere lately. If we had more like it around, we could be better off.
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So I stayed up WAY too late the other night and got caught up into watching some infomercials and really liked one in particular. It struck me as funny and inetersting at the same time.
I like this, but my friend next to me doesn’t
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Shane Cauley from Cheyenne, Wyoming Wy.
cauley.shane@gmail.com or on FaceBook
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