The Best of Culture Jamming

Culture jamming is becoming more and more popular in proving a point by large groups going against the norm publicly. This has been apparent with such groups including Improv Everywhere. The goal of this group is simply to create chaos and joy. Scenes include extremely random material such as no pants subway and human mirror. One scene that is my personal favourite is “Operation Best Buy” which included 80 Improv Everywhere agents dressed in khakis and blue polo's to cause chaos in the store. These scenes provide an effective way to escape the norm of everyday society and poke fun at daily life. Although there really is no social cause associated with this group, they go against culture by making fun of it. Improv Everywhere makes fun of popular culture. An example of this is when 100 shirtless men walked into Abercrombie and Fitch in order to target their nature of advertising topless buff men. This sort of cultural jamming is effective at making people laugh about our homogeneous ways of living. Culture jamming can be used to pressure government and corporations; however the true form of culture jamming used by Improv Everywhere is by creating joy. The culture jamming group Improv Everywhere purposely stays neutral to any cause in order to keep the joy and chaos alive without any biases. Although, they are not productive in bringing change to government and business culture they offer the gift of delight to victims who witness a scene. Overall, Improv Everywhere is successful in receiving global attention for comically drawing awareness to society’s popular culture and its flaws.

The Dire Need for Media Education

National Media Education Week was an effective way at targeting youth to think critically of media technologies. Whether it is the internet or common television, this campaign was aimed at providing teachers with curriculum to teach students the dangers of media technologies. National Media Education Week was even sponsored by CTVGlobemedia with advertisements during the campaign week. I found it difficult to participate in this week due to my position as a student but I wanted to spread the word on how this movement is aimed at teaching students, therefore I emailed the link to my old guidance councillor from high school. She placed a poster of National Media Education Week in the staff room in order to promote the cause. I am not sure if anything was accomplished but I do know that several courses in my high school outline the importance of critical thinking when using the media in any way. National Media Education Week can also be used to target cyber bullying and to prove that technology can be abused. It is important to have such a campaign to incorporate media awareness into the education system in Canada. However, from my personal experiences there is not enough of this education available for students in grade eight and nine (the transitional grades). Hopefully this campaign will increase the urgency for more media education during those years.

Buy Nothing Day

A well known method of raising awareness for over consumption is Buy Nothing Day. Over consumption definitely must be depicted as a problem of the western world and targeted in an innovative fashion. Buy Nothing Day provides innovation and simplicity in order to awake consumers of the problems facing capitalism. Over consumption can lead to serious environment hazards as well as economic stress on producing countries. I believe that on November 28th 2008, Buy Nothing Day will be extremely significant since globally we are facing an economic crisis. This day will focus on how we have reached a dead end with capitalism and globalization in light of the economic catastrophe. Today we face the reality that this system of over consumption and globalization may not be totally fool proof. The unsustainable factors of over consumption are being exposed at a rapid pace. Greenhouse Gas emissions are rising in developing countries that produce everyday products for the western world while economic uncertainty burdens global production. These factors must lead to us questioning our current business model and I believe that is what Buy Nothing Day will accomplish. Everyone is feeling the severe consequences with this system which could also increase the amount of participants in this day of awareness. Since I live on campus, it may be difficult in not purchasing any goods such as meals from large companies but I will make sure that all purchases are locally produced. This day is a perfect method of bringing awareness to a global scale about the consequences of our economic model and over consumption.

The Risks Associated With Media Hegemonies

If there is anything that I have learned throughout the years is that you must know where your information is coming from. In today’s society, the media is being overwhelmed by special interests of companies. Media hegemonies existing in Canada and the US are taking over Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by cross media ownership. I will be analyzing just how much the controversially republican company News Corporation owns. According to www.thenation.com, News Corporation is the owner of Fox, Twentieth Century Fox, Sky Italia and 67 percent of the National Geographic channel. This results in viewers being bombarded by this company and their interests on television and film. There have been many accounts that link fox to manipulating the news and the fact that they control so many news channels does not help. Furthermore, I found even more news companies that News Corporation owns such as The New York Post, The Sun, The Times and The Daily Telegraph in Australia. It is easy to notice the international news coverage that News Corporation possesses. Their ownership does not end there; they also master the publishing company HarperCollins Publishers and Reagan Books. An interesting fact is that this massive corporation also owns the blogging website MySpace. This company owns media companies that are situated all over the world. The problem associated with cross media ownership is that personal interests of CEOs are included in the majority of news stories. One compelling story demonstrating how Fox manipulated news coverage was regarding the case of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson who were silenced for a story written about the giant company Monsanto. The major company threatened Fox about the story, leading to Fox trying to suppress the reporters. This eventually led to the firing of these reporters and a lawsuit against Fox. In other words, this is an implication of cross media ownership since the CEOs rely on other large businesses for funding in advertisement which can lead to immense pressure on controversial stories. This of course makes us victims of cross media ownership.

Danger, Risk of Privatization

When net neutrality and the dangers associated with them were introduced in class I was left disturbed. Before this class, I had no idea our internet was under such danger from big companies. The fact that corporations are trying to earn the authority to manipulate our internet in order to induce the user into using their services is revolting. Professor Lipton made it clear that the President in waiting Barack Obama is opposed to halting net neutrality. This means he is in favour of a democratic internet process where all sites have the same speed and priority without any private interference. The most important feature of this battle between public and private internet in respects to Canada is the fact that big networking companies are lobbying the government. These companies have publicly admitted that they do not necessarily support net neutrality. Jacqueline Michelis a representative of Bell Canada told the CBC their opinion on the democracy of internet “our position on network diversity/neutrality is that it should be determined by market forces, not regulation”. The fact that as of now the internet is under risk of becoming s privately beneficial mean of media is sickening. How long until the government gives in to the pressures of big money? Another drastic feature in this fight for private interest is the notice of consultation and hearing in regards to a “Review of the Internet traffic management practices of Internet service providers” according to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). This hearing that will take place on July 6th 2009 will re-open the debate to net neutrality. Following this information, I know that I will write a letter to my local MP urging the government to take action in order to save net neutrality.

OneWebDay...A Need for Internet Democracy

On September 22nd, OneWebDay was set to inform internet users around the world about the internet and its need for democracy. This day was really not noticeable for me since unfortunately I use mainstream internet sites. When I looked at the values and goals of this day I was mainly impressed, however the majority of web sites did nothing to inform users of this day. The founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark stated that “OneWebDay reminds us that the net really is a democratizing medium, that everyone gets a chance to participate. If you want, you can stick your neck out and speak truth to power.” The idea of web is really to put the internet back into the hands of the everyday users not the big corporations. This would be great if the big websites participated however, it would be contradictory of them to promote One Web Day since it puts the power back into the hands of the people. The internet has certainly changed my life, every day I rely on checking my email (as a mode of communication), following news (staying updated) and watching movies (entertainment). Without Internet, our world would be extremely simple and we would not be living through a rear-view mirror model. Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) incorporate all modes of information or communication into one. This includes cell phones, televisions and even internet. ICTs have made it easier to communicate with others as well as receive information. This can lead to an overload of communication and information in everyday life.

A Worthwhile Mission Needs Worthwhile Attention

The topic for this blog was outlined in the course syllabus as “We Are At War: What is your response”. To me that title says it all; originally this was a peacekeeping mission and now 98 troops have died fighting for peace. This mission has been extremely disorganized. During the start of this mission in 2002, Canadians felt proud fighting for peace and tearing down the Taliban’s hold on Afghanistan. We immediately saw change as women stopped wearing their burka’s and more schools were built. However, when many troops were moved to the southern region of Afghanistan the Taliban fought back. All of a sudden, we found ourselves at war.

Since then we have extended the mission to 2011 and I agree with this decision only if the war is given enough political attention. With the Harper Government in charge, I found that the Afghanistan mission did not focus on peacekeeping and rebuilding. I agree immensely with the Manley report which states that 1000 troops be added by our allies and their focus shifts from combat to diplomacy. The report also states that the military focus on training the Afghan army. I believe that following this report may lead to success in the near future. We must stop fighting and empower the Afghan army to take charge of the Taliban. I have great respect for the men and women fighting for peace in the name of Canada, therefore let us stop wasting their time and put the Manley report to test.