Week 5 Lecture - Media, New Media & Today

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The sequel to last week's focus on consumption, this week's lecture shifts the focus to entertainment and media production. These industries and the products they generate are traditionally presided over by the studios and media corporations that make up the dominant distribution system. More recently, new communication technologies have facilitated a shift away from this information and entertainment autocracy.

From an early age, we are taught to be critical analysts of texts: children in primary schools develop an understanding of the inescapable bias embedded in texts (Queensland Studies Authority, 2007). The dominant textual medium of this era is a multimodal one, consisting of symbols, audio, and visuals that communicate and target particular perspectives, values… and versions of ‘truth’.

The growth of independent and world cinema films and other products has provided the consumer audience with more options in terms of film: consumer choices are still limited by the dominant players in the distribution system, however, as mentioned above.

Increasing availability of user-friendly (and affordable) video- and audio-capture devices, convergent devices, editing software, and online distribution opportunities has permitted viewers to defy the consumer-producer dichotomy. Everyday consumers around the world can now be producers as well, provided they have access to the web and a recording device. ‘Bloggers’, ‘tweeters’, ‘facebookers’, subscribers to fan sites or personal news websites… All of these engage to some degree in a practice known as citizen journalism. Rather than wait for the ‘official’ take on current affairs, citizen journalists actively contribute to the gathering and distribution of news and information using the resources at their fingertips.

Although the totalitarian foundations of journalism and media production have been rocked, the bias remains. Some ‘citizens’ choose to harness the power to report on and distribute news to create interest, build a following, counter false reporting, mislead others, or to blatantly challenge the powers that be. This practice of hijacking the journalistic domain is a vague form of cultural jamming, which “…is directed against an ever more intrusive, instrumental technoculture…through the manipulation of symbols.” Film- and documentary-maker Craig Baldwin (cited in Williams, 1999) explains that effective culture jamming, like the art of jujitsu, uses the weight of the enemy against itself. From the 'golden arches' to the oval office, no institution is safe.

Reference List

Queensland Studies Authority. (2007). Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework:
     English Essential Learnings [Electronic version]. Retrieved July 26, 2010, from
     http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/7284.html

Williams, S. (1999). Culture Jamming 2.0 [Electronic version]. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from
     http://www2.inow.com/~sam/cultjam2.html