Self-evaluation and inspiration for activists

The assigned readings, online activities, and films were especially significant to me it was definitely the best material that was assigned to me over the semester. I was motivated to do the assignments well because they opened my eyes to a lot of information and analysis of media that I found very interesting and pertained to my everyday life. I have definitely developed a deeper understanding of media’s influence especially in America’s consumer culture, and analyze media exposure through a new lens/ perspective. They have also helped me understand its fundamental characteristics and methods of persuasion, which deters my inclination from further exposure.

After doing the PSA assignment, I realized the amount of work that goes into every form of media and took less for granted when observing media’s tendencies and persuasive techniques. The rich media poor democracy film as well as the corporation were both pretty influential, and helped me realize the true dangers in corporate control, which revealed a lot about what is wrong with our country. I was also really impressed with the class dynamic, and how we responded and interacted through sharing ideas with each other about these assignments. I think that was the main thing that made this a great class, and we really learned a lot from each other.

The course content was crucial in my academic interest, as well as my personal sanity in some respects when comparing it to my other classes. I felt it covered some very important content, and in terms of my future work, as an environmental studies major, I feel like this class has helped me understand some of the barriers that I may encounter, and some techniques to overcome them, as well as the ways in which to efficiently accomplish expression of environmental justice, and promote effective changes. The most important idea that I continuously came across in my studies in this class was the different relationships people have with the environment, and how these differ in overall success and happiness as well as natural serenity and flow of events.

I feel that my vision of the earth and society hasn’t changed all that much, but I definitely strengthened my views about media mind control and the relationship between nature and capitalistic society. A lot of new ideas or intricacies of different issues I had already known about were brought to my attention for the first time, and I was often shocked by some of the issues we discussed. Although the majority of the time we felt that the topics were very depressing and seemingly impossible to overcome, I was surprised to leave this class with positivity and confidence that the human race can solve these problems with well-organized and carefully thought out execution of active social movements and networking. I think that was the goal of the class in a lot of ways, and its an important lesson learned that something can always be done, and the constant changes throughout time.

Right now one of my most important personal roles in promoting media literacy education is with my eight-year-old brother, Jason. He is home schooled, and my parents and I are like-minded in our media perspectives, so I’m not worried about him being over-exposed or being brainwashed, but these situations can sometimes backfire if they’re not kept on the right track, or given the right amount of attention. My paranoia definitely comes into play with his adamant desire to watch television or go online, because naturally, he wants what he can’t have. I felt similarly to him growing up, but indeed had more exposure than he ever does, which leaves me hopeful that he will presumably resist the feed even more so. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoy bringing up these topics for discussion among friends, and even enjoy a heated debate with those that resist media literacy. By spreading these ideas, and raising awareness, I feel like I can make a difference by working against the system, and expressing myself in a meaningful way. I have a lot of angst and judgmental feelings against the medias focus on over consumption and carelessness for the earth’s resources. At this point I am not at a place in my life where I feel that I can make a huge difference, but I do my best to stay aware, and support mindfulness, and hopefully one day I can do more. After taking this class I am very inspired, yet paranoid and apprehensive about taking further action against the system, but I know it is necessary if something is to be done. So by the time the shit hits the fan, hopefully I will be prepared for the worst and expecting the best.

PSA Reflection

Our experience in making our PSA was awesome. It was really fun to put together and we are all very excited about the topic. We used short clips of multiple interviews that we shot all over campus. Britny did most of the editing and then we got together and polished with the final touches. It's good that we changed the topic abruptly, because our original idea seemed tired and overdone. I really like the sequence of our PSA, and I think its interestingly flexible, because of the variety of ideas expressed throughout it. I think our group dynamic was successful, and we built well on each other's ideas so it was easy to make group decisions. The interviewees did a good job of expressing a variety of different views on Beauty, and I think that it ended on a positive note that gave hope to non-conformist ideas of beauty that are heavily influenced by the media. There is a good balance between the shots of people and blocks of text, and they timing works well with the music as well. Although it was sometimes tricky to line up the perfect timing, but there we're no major problems so everything went smoothly. Our tools and props were simply digital cameras and imovie, which made everything a lot simpler, and very fun to play around with. Overall, I think we were very efficient and motivated to creating a positive film supporting individuality and strength in beauty in a society so heavily influenced by the superficiality of the media today. I think this is a good tool for environmental activism, because it reveals so much about the connective diversity between every other individual and one's self, which touches a distinctive humanness that people can relate to on an emotional level.

Ad Analysis

I chose McDonalds’ website, which wasn’t so green-washed as I thought it would be, but it did give insight on the kind of exposure they are trying to get in that area. There was more focus on their food sources and different ingredients they use than I thought there would be, as opposed to fluffy image-based expression. Although the information seems to be flawed and lacking, and the images that are used are minimally indicative, their sources are listed in the “Meet Our Suppliers” section. The images of their prepared food are obviously perfectly manicured and their captions are simplistic on a white background. I think its hilarious to refer to McDonalds workers as chefs and to display their “kitchen” as a place with culinary expertise and label themselves a restaurant. They have step-by-step video clips that show how they make different items on their menu, which are all performed by a diverse and attractive cast, and very assuring in their personality and camera angles. There is also an interactive question/answer page on their website that allows you to ask questions about their food and food production etc.. which I think is interesting, and could maybe be a good outlet for activist tomfoolery. In the kids section there is a series of captions that say, “He’s here, he’s there. Man, the guy is everywhere. A trusted friend both honest and fun. There’s a little bit of Ronald in everyone”. Very creep. They have a page on their environmental commitments, and what organizations they contribute to in order to keep their image green friendly. Persuasive techniques used: Symbols, BIG LIE, hyperbole, bribery, bandwagon, simple solutions, fear/defensive nationalism, testimonial, plain folks, warm fuzzies, beautiful people, group dynamics, strength, scientific evidence, card stacking, and the race card. http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/good/environment.html

Activist Website

I chose ACME (the action coalition for media education) whose mission of social or economic change is broadening the reach of media education, and stressing the overwhelmingly growing impacts of media in the world today. I really liked the variety and interactivity of the videos they posted, and the way in which they target a broad audience of people affected by media (everyone). I think online activism does work, because the internet is the most advanced and connective outlet that exists on a massive scale around the world. However, because of this scale participation in this form does not feel very meaningful. I think the way to solve this consuming problem is to keep track of the popularity of your activist input, and the growing network of followers you or your cause gains. It’s a difficult process for sure, and hard to stay organized, productive and motivated at times, but definitely can make a difference. I support this website completely, I think its awesome and publicizes an important message.

PSA group blog post

We changed our topic completely from composting issues at UVM to beauty and how it is portrayed in the media. We are much more excited about this topic, I think it will be much more creative and fun to make happen. I got four interviews so far, which were very successful, definitely got some good input from folks.

Toxic Sludge is good for you.
Democracy is the labeled American system of government which claims dedication to freedom for all citizens for self-governance and the pursuit of happiness. It has become stereotyped in my view, with a kind of democracy-washing that occurs from my frequent disappointment, or prepackaged influences from its systems. I think real democracy has been lost or greatly diminished for a long time, and is found in more local functions like town meetings or grassroots efforts. From reading this chapter I recognized the struggles of PR against angry and combative American citizens. I think this is an important perspective to consider when trying to overcome their propaganda and take collective action against them, and to know the harder you fight, the harder they sweat. So it's only a matter of publicity and getting as many individuals involved as possible. Although this is much easier said than done, it's important to understand the potency of activism and the fluidity of power. I think the first step of adjusting the capitalist economic system is by eliminating the “conflict of interest” by somehow acknowledging and awarding those who use of PR is well intentioned and honest, as well as those who are economically mindful. Otherwise, I believe grassroots activism will make the biggest difference, because you really can't fool all of the people all of the time and people are getting more sick, more quickly of this pre-packaged molding for American cultural consumerism. I think a truly just society wouldn't use Americans' boredom and systematic categorization to regurgitate back to us and basically control our economic tendencies and demographics. I hope to find a meaningful role in this, and at this point I have yet to be involved in major activism, but I would be interested in taking action in the future for ecological causes and what not. Otherwise, I talk about these things with lots of folks and love getting heated over a good debate.
Sitting in centennial woods: I had a good experience, it was very sunny but still a bit chilly. I saw a lot of birds: Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, and some Turkey Vultures. It is still very moist and really muddy in some parts, I'm getting excited to go foraging for Fiddleheads!!!!!
Watching TV: South Park, latest episode on facebook and “getting sucked in”, was funny. Watched it with a bunch of kids, good interactions during commercials, some not good ones.
Watching TV was definitely much easier, because I only had to go down the hall to a friend's room, whereas I had to walk a good distance to the woods. Although there is no real “info flow” in the woods, it was easier to see what was coming during my outdoor experience than on the television, where it was an unknown ending. The experience in the woods taught me a much less obvious lesson than South Park, where it was all spelled out in the plot. It gave me a time for self-reflection and mind clarity, where as the show filled my head with images and sounds that were distracting. I think knowledge is portrayed more elegantly in the natural world, and very redundantly on television. I think this experience tells us the importance of time well spent in nature, and that people need to shut their tvs off right away to save their sanity.

PSA: My group is doing well, we did some video recording on friday at the davis center trash cans, which was successful. We are going to download what we shot during class and outline the sequence and layout of the PSA.

Toxic Sludge is Good For You

Ch.8

1. “You think of ‘biosolids’ and your mind goes blank.” I think this is a very true and important point because most green washing is PR language skills at its best. I believe it was in “Consuming Kids” where the strength in language use and application is brought up as a manipulative tool. I was also blown away by some of the different names that they came up with to make toxic sewage sludge sound more “tasteful”.
2. The scariest part of this chapter was definitely all the horror stories of people dealing with the long term health risks of living or working near sludge composting sites, and the way in which they were undermined for the irresponsibility of certain areas’ sewage disposal. Some of the explanations in defense of this method of disposal were ridiculous. One I found particularly perturbing was by Sarah Clark, a former board member of the Environmental Defense Fund, where she stated that sludge farming is the best means of returning nutrients that were originally removed from the soil, when in actuality, it provides 3% of usable nutrients to plants, and the remaining percent is highly contaminated with toxins.
3. The fact that this is a case where a high population density area is illegally “haul and dumping” sewage sludge in rural areas that are relatively poor and economically defenseless makes this a blatant case of environmental racism. I can’t believe it has effected so many people and animals that there’s actually a “Help for Sewage Victims” group.
4. The whole capitalistic aspect of “free fertilizer” that only reveals its negative side effects after two years of contamination is so evil and predictable. The very nature of this disparity between different economic and location based advantages portrays the industrial “use and abuse” relationship with the environment. I just don’t understand why its worth it for people to disregard other people in the short term when its obviously going to end badly and (hopefully) blow up in their faces.
5. The way the author refers to the fact that sludge people are really pushing to compost on organic farms is very scary to me. It just goes to show how flexible different aspects of our food industry is through corruption. Sometimes I think people go overboard when extremely limiting the foods their children are allowed to have, especially if they don’t follow their same example, but I would be just as paranoid if I had a baby depending on me and I was depending on our food system to provide me safe food. The combination of unknown, unregulated chemical wastes being leaked into public sewer systems and the toxicity levels that carry pathogens that can be carried and harmful in so many different ways is frightening, and its being dumped on the food we eat.

My question is… Why does most of the testing of company products or ecological effects done by the company itself? How can we eliminate this, and have separate research done in an efficient way?

Ch.9

1. The “Torches of Liberty Contingent” publicity stunt for “female emancipation” was very effective, “Within months, in fact, the politest of American ladies were puffing in public and sales of Hill’s Lucky Strikes were soaring.” Why are females constantly targeted and so easily influenced by the media?
2. “Also disconcerting is the fact that the 150,000 PR practitioners in the US outnumber the country’s 130,000 reporters”. I am curious what the ratio is in other countries and the different disparagements in comparison. The whole PR ordeal is so overwhelming to me, and it is scary to see modern day propaganda feeding so many industrial motives. The way in which people take advantage of the corporate system is so misanthropic and suicidal in its nature.
3. I was shocked at Kathleen Marquardt of Putting people first when she described the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, and The humane Society as a “radical animal rights cult” (Dowie, 127). I think that is a completely inappropriate assertion to make at a Wise Use Leadership Conference award speech, however that was in 1992, so I’m sure they’re no longer as cavalier about it, which is a small step forward.
4. The fact that green organizations are given cash contributions by corporate polluters is so obviously hush money to pay for the dirty work that works towards solving the very ecological damages they create in the first place.
5. The “Shifting the Blame” and “The Selling of Earth Day” sections were really interesting, they are both such cop-outs to solving real problems. It all boils down to a break down of the system and punishing those responsible to the fullest extent and charging them with true costs. I also think it’s a shame that Earth Day is a logo. Something so radically opposing justifies that there is something seriously wrong with its purpose and function.

My question is… How can environmental groups/ activism keep up with corporate legalities when they are constantly advancing and while we’re [companies] are working with them, they don’t have time to sue us.”-Frank Boren? How to outsmart the good cop/ bad cop scheme?

Culture Jam

Dear American Association of Advertising Agencies,

I am writing to you as a concerned citizen in regards to the overwhelming favoritism and monopolizing of corporate sponsorship on television and radio. I have just finished reading the book Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn, and am deeply opposed to the constant rejection of civil human liberties that the Adbusters organization receives when inquiring the purchasing of air time for non-consuming promotion.

At the rate at which our culture is evolving to depend solely consumerism, I believe that the media experience needs to contain some kind of balancing alternative. With Adbuster’s cultural perspective, the viewer has a greater chance of broadening their knowledge on the ecological damages that are resulting from all of the consumption, which needs to preventatively change before we ruin our entire planet.

Although this is obviously an economic boundary that is uncomfortable for any corporate sponsor to cross, it is immensely important and the right thing to do. Although it is understood that you have the right to selective airing, you should enable that right to start allowing the right kinds of messages into the public’s attention. A lot of people are very concerned for the media that their kids are consuming, especially the psychological, physical, and ecological effects. Your selection process is the reason why I do not watch tv or listen to the radio and stay as far away from any corporate influences as much as possible, because I directly oppose the lack of democracy that corporate power demonstrates.

Any paying organization should have full rights to airtime just as any individual should be able to exercise the right to freedom of speech no matter who it effects because that is the divine right of all Americans. Otherwise, your advertising selection process is undemocratic. Once the desires of an organization of individuals gets pushed aside for the desires of an overpowered corporate machine, there’s no freedom of cultural expression, and the truth will grow and explode in your face.

“Fifty years ago Alabama blacks sat in the backs of buses and at their own end of the lunch counter without thinking twice about it. Many women once believed they didn’t deserve to vote… Today, we’re caught in the same kind of reflexive subservience to corporations. We think its normal for them to have more rights than we do. We think it’s proper for them to clear-cut ancient forests, influence elections, run our airwaves, take politicians on jaunts to the Bahamas and draft the world trade rules. But it isn’t, and once you’ve reframed the issues of sovereignty, power and privilege, you’ll wonder why you ever thought it was.” (Lasn, 155)

Sincerely,

Faye Iwata

The corporation:

Surprise: It gave me a new perspective on how important money is, when it’s all just so made up and unreasonable.

Agitation: That what these interwiewees are saying makes so much sense, yet so many people don’t agree or even understand their logic.

Significant item of new learning: reflection, rage and rebellion.

My question is… why has our economy grown so out of touch with ecological needs, and how do we make that connect for people who only care about making lots of money?

Although there was an attempt for a positive ending by exemplifying progressive movement in the world, overall, it made the future look very bleak. I only feel so negative about the situation because of how far our ecological damages have added up thus far, and the corporations in power have so much to lose that in order to stir up enough reflection, rage and rebellion, there will be a huge number of casualties. I think the world war 3 that is discussed in Culture Jam is a very possible outcome, and weapons of mass destruction will put our planet in danger. We’ve become so fake-culture obsessed that there is no alternative. People are comfortable with their immersion in their tv set and that’s enough satisfaction to justify the corporation’s stronghold on their money and self-branding. This is how the movie made me feel, but I hope we are stronger than that. I know that there are past successes in overthrowing of this large power, but this is global and connected to everyone’s life daily. As an individual I feel completely unprepared and maybe un-involved, although I do have the reflection and rage part within my scope I just don’t think that enough people do in order to work together to produce this kind of change. What I really mean is not that things will never get better, but I think they will get a lot worse first.

Culture Jam/The Corporation

Culture Jam 72-136

1. I really liked The New Activism (Fire in the Belly) chapter because it gave a nice contrast to old revolutionary movements and how culture jammers stand apart from them. I especially liked the feminist and leftist sections, where I found a refreshingly new viewpoint that Lasn expresses in this quote: “The Liberal Left has a way of co-opting every worthwhile cause. In the past few decades, it has hung its flag on the black movement, the women’s movement and the environmental movement… if we’re going to build an effective new social movement, we’re going to have to work not with them but around them.” (119-120) I thought this was powerful because it showed how important a role inspired creativity plays in revolutions with ideas that have never been tried before. This is mostly because of the numerous connotations that are attached to certain pre-stereotyped groups and ideas.
2. In the list of metamemes for culture jammers, I think adjusting the global marketplace with ecologically true costs is by far the most fundamentally impossible. There is no way any industry or nation of individuals; moreover a world of billions, can afford to pay the price of ecological sanctity. Whatever utopia we might’ve once had was long gone before human civilization became its irreversible corrupter. This dilemma appears in my everyday life whenever I eat tropical fruits, ride a plane, use Styrofoam… all irreversibly damaging, yet capitalistically de-valued, therefore undervalued in my consumer-dependent mind, and killing our planet.
3. In the “We’re Not Slackers” Lasn describes the typical North American undergrad conundrum; “There’s no real rush to finish a degree because what lies on the other side but debt, pavement pounding and the potential shame of boomeranging back home?” (155) If this is the kind of fear that is keeping us in school and from flourishing through creativity and independence, what am I doing? Why should I put myself in all this debt? Is this crazy?

4. “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” (177)

5. In “The Meme Warrior” I found the tactics of a culture jammer very interesting in that it challenges the persuasive skills of corporate media directly, because it must overpower it in order to succeed. “An effective TV subvertisement (or uncommercial) is so unlike what surrounds it on the commercial-TV mindscape that it immediately grabs the attention of viewers. It breaks their media-consumer trance and momentarily challenges their whole world outlook.”(133)

In all of Lasn’s refrences to promote ad busters and their ideas, I feel he is being hypocritical and basically advertising throughout the whole book.

My question is how can we trust Lasn’s huge solutions when it seems there is a bias and other intentions any author has in capitalizing off their work, and what adbusters as an organization does with its profit. As a media foundation their very motive is to sell their product, and although its supportive of revolutionary ideas and eye-opening literature, their campaigns seem less effective than the price of their zine would imply. I would say stop filtering money into the systems, Lasn has a huge obsession with television, the people who are watching however, are the corrupted. I think more exposure in community centers and on a more human level is where it is most important to get the message out to the appropriate and most effective audience. Why pay thousands to millions for airtime on a corporate news channel when you can channel those funds into worthy causes like charity or promotion of these ideas within the community or at educational seminars/ lectures. People who are going to attend and participate at these levels are the individuals who will make a difference.

The Corporation:

What really made an impact on me was the simplicity of the corporation. After all everything that is human-engineered, human-geared, and human-centered must have similar characteristics to that of a human. I really liked the psychological breakdown of corporate psychopathic tendencies, and thought it was very intuitively effective. All of a corporations connotations and ecological effects are in actuality just a reflection of humans as consumers, and it boils down to the savvy techniques of wealthy owners and their busy bee workers that are happening behind the scenes. I thought the most important part was in exemplifying the externalities of a corporate civilization, and that’s what most consumers fail to understand, or have concern for, ultimately being the destroyer of the natural world. The spy interview was pretty cool and I liked the optimistic quote: “In devastation there is opportunity”, although it can produce good or bad outcomes dependent upon who takes action first.