Digital Rhetoric
Rhetoric with so-called "born-digital" texts demands skills and forms of
expression that are radically different from works that are digitized or
that employ remediated authoring methods.
"According to their book Remediation: Understanding New Media by J. David Bolter and Richard A. Grusin,
remediation is a defining characteristic of new digital media because
digital media is constantly remediating its predecessors (television,
radio, print journalism and other forms of old media). Remediation can be complete or visible. A film based on a book is
remediating the printed story. The film may not provide any reference
to the original medium or acknowledgement that it is an adaptation. By
attempting to absorb the old medium entirely, the new medium presents
itself without any connection to its original source. On the other hand,
a medium such as a movie clip can torn out of context and inserted into
a new medium such as music. Bolter and Grusin describe this as visible
remediation because, "The work becomes a mosaic in which we are
simultaneously aware of the individual pieces' and their new,
inappropriate setting."(New New Media Wiki)
The born-digital work "refers to materials that originate in a digital
form. This is in contrast to digital reformatting, through which analog
materials become digital. It is most often used in relation to digital
libraries and the issues that go along with said organizations, such as
digital preservation and intellectual property. However, as technologies
have advanced and spread, the concept of being born-digital has also
been discussed in relation to personal consumer-based sectors, with the
rise of e-books and evolving digital music. Other terms that might be
encountered as synonymous include “natively digital,” “digital-first,”
and “digital-exclusive'" (Wikipedia).
Authoring the born-digital text demands a skill set the includes those
needed for the analogue texts. So how should one think about rhetoric in relation to born-digital
texts? Of course it is simpler to break it down into the reading
practices that can be associated with the media. The visual includes
moving and still images, along with 3D navigable spaces and all the
dynamics that can be coded into written text using digital media. One
has to only consider the speed and movement of Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries to see how words become images in a born-digital work:
The visuals in a Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries are entirely made up of the written
word, but amount to more than that in reception. With rhythm, dimensions and addressive
syntax, an
experience is created for the reader that is very different from reading written words on a page. The role of audio in this experience cannot
be understated.
Sound is an important consideration in any born-digital work. Sound
creates space, contextualizes objects, provides rhythm for the text and
guides the reader along a set path of interpretation. Ignoring sound in
the authoring process is to present a digital work without its legs.
The creation of space is achieved with the visual and the audile, but
relies on the interrelated quality of perspective. Perspective is a vast
field of knowledge. Sufficient to say the era of the marriage between
realism and quattrocento perspective in the Western Hemisphere is coming
to an end.
ur perception of space is dominated by perspective, in the sense of a reduction
of the projected size of objects with distance. One of the key jobs of the
visual brain is to decode this size diminution as distance in the third dimension,
or egocentric distance. If the eye were a pinhole cameras, the projection
of the world onto the back plane would be in perfect linear perspective (and
in perfect focus). The succession of images projected on the curved retina
within the eye what Leonardo da Vinci termed natural perspective, a series
of distorted projections that needs to be integrated over time in a representation
in the brain as the eye moves around the scene. How the brain decodes the
information in natural perspective into an accurate appreciation of the spatial
layout has yet to be resolved. (Principles of Perspective)
Natural perspective is gradually being coded by digital media in
the current age. Rhetoric is the body of knowledge that forms this coding.
Key Elements in Online Presentation:
- Distinguish between live presentation (synchronous) and archived presentation (asynchronous)
In many presentations you will combine synchronous
with asynchronous, as the results of your live presentation in person; slides, notes or
a recording (audio/visual) will be distributed online. Intellectual property should be considered in all presentations, but if the presentation is to be stored online, it is vital. How do you want recordings of your presentation, or anything you present in digital form to be distributed? there are many ways; blog, YouTube, Slideshare, Twitter, podcast, Scribd to name but a few channels.
- Combine your physical presence with the dynamism and velocity of the materials you present.
Digital media relies on feedback and how it captures change using digital programming, and responding to inputs from users, either as physical interaction or coded commands. When using digital media for presentations you should consider yourself, your body and cognitive assets part of the programming environment. Share the space with the media. Act in it and present the material according to how you want it to change and develop.
- Control and lack of control in the presentation should be considered consciously.
The famous example of a certain well known social media researcher who spoke at a large and prestigious gathering with a Twitter feed behind her. The presenter was unaware that unkind things were being posted on the Twitter feed as she spoke. Laughter and a distracted audience followed:
"The Twitter stream was initially upset that I was talking too fast. My
first response to this was: OMG, seriously? That was it? Cuz that’s not
how I read the situation on stage. So rather than getting through to me
that I should slow down, I was hearing the audience as saying that I
sucked. And responding the exact opposite way the audience wanted me
to. This pushed the audience to actually start critiquing me in the way
that I was imagining it was."
This is an example of the back-channel dictating how the 'front-channel' develops in a presentation. It is becoming increasingly common that a presentation will be online live, along with audience reactions and commentaries.You should be aware of how the back-channel is manifest during a presentation and make an effort to at least participate in it or be aware of how it is developing.
- Context is important and you should always be aware of it.
First and foremost context is determined by; "Who is the audience?" In good digital presentations the audience will be with the presenter in the space (as a result of perspective and temporal representation). Digital presentations, even in the archive, are more like a discussion (think of comments on a blog) and you have to be speaking the same language in order for a conversation take place. This is related to the issue of control, the personification of the Twitter stream mentioned above being a specific example. Context can be divided into fixed elements (e.g. the building or location of the presentation does not change during the presentation) and non-fixed (e.g. speaking for two hours to a group of 18 year old people on the subject of the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 will produced changes in the waking states of the audience as a presentation context).
- Consider the space the presentation creates.
A space is created when one makes a digital presentation . If it works well the space is occupied by the audience, the presenter and what is presented. Digital media has the potential to engulf people and provide a scene for actors and actions in a narrative.
This digital presentation is taking place in three locations: inside Second Life, over a live video stream and in the physical space of HUMlab. It exists today as an archived stream.
- Copyright defines a professional presentation.
Sharing is central to digitally mediated presentations. We share online all the time; publishing on blogs, uploading documents to Scribd, a video to YouTube, photos to Flickr or Facebook. Audio can be shared on SoundCloud, AudioBoo or Ourmedia, Libsyn, Globat
& Powweb. If you are presenting in a professional context you must obey copyright law. Open Source and Creative Commons are two important tools for stock content to use in your presentations. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. Open Source content allows presenters to use music, images and films, along with editing software without the need of licensing.
From this point we can move on to the role of social media in digital presentations
Let’s talk terms. ‘Remix’ and ‘Mashup’ . What is the difference. According to the great wiki:
A remix is an alternative version of a song, different from the original version. A remixer uses audio mixing to compose an alternate master of a song, adding or subtracting elements, or simply changing the equalization, dynamics, pitch, tempo, playing time, or almost any other aspect of the various musical components. Usually, a remix will involve substantial changes to the arrangement of a recorded work; lyrics may be added or removed, such alterations are not a necessity. A song may be remixed to give a song that wasn't popular a second chance at radio and club play, or to alter a song to suit a specific music genre or radio format.
While:
Mashup (or mash it up) is a Jamaican Creole term meaning to destroy. In the context of reggae or ska music, it can take on a positive connotation and mean an exceptional performance or event. The term has also been used in hip-hop, especially in cities such as New York that have a high Jamaican population.
Mashup, or bootleg, is a musical genre which, in its purest form, consists of the combination (usually by digital means) of the music from one song with the a cappella from another. Typically, the music and vocals belong to completely different genres. At their best, bastard pop songs strive for musical epiphanies that add up to considerably more than the sum of their parts.
Differences? Remix has cool white connotations of high tech interventions. Mashup is Creole (read black), with a hot edge of violence (to destroy) and also termed ‘bastard pop’. Remix is attributable to ‘a remixer’, whereby the artist as genius lives on within the new technology. Mashup is a process (as is Remix actually) that confuses boundaries while striving for a constellation that is only “considerably more than the sum of their parts” but never a new thing. But remix creates a song with “substantial changes” and “a second [coming??] chance”. Remix exists in the production of commodity culture while mashups subvert the values of that culture. Originality is supposed in the remix while it is erased in the mashup.
Consider the points raised in this seminar outline (PDF) in regards to mashup culture. Who owns words, and what is the value of fan production? Can you see value in mashups if we think about it in the following ways:
( from: Mashup Cultures by Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss - editor. p9)
Mashups are combinations of one or more existing works of media that rely on references back to the original/s in order for the newer combinations to be meaningful. In this way mashups differ from remixes as the latter creates a new work and can be made from a single already-existing work. As a critical device a mashup works from what literary theorist Jerome McGann calls derformance.
"Imaginative work has an elective affinity with performance: it is organized as rhetoric andpoiesis rather than as exposition and information-transmission. Because this is so, it always liesopen to deformative moves. Harold Bloom's trenchant theory of poetic influence spelled outsome of the imagination's performative "ratios," as he called them. Certain of these ratios areaggressively deformative, as when Blake famously overturns both Milton's Paradise Lost and itschief precursor, the Judaeo-Christian bible, or when Ronald Johnson selects from and revisesParadise Lost in RADI OS (1977)" (McGann and Samuels)
"Deformative scholarship is all but forbidden, thethought of it either irresponsible or damaging to critical seriousness. It exists nonetheless, and incertain cases it has gained justifiable distinction and importance. Forgery is the most importanttype of deformative scholarship, nor should its contribution to the advancement of learning beunderestimated, as Anthony Grafton has recently shown." - (McGann and Samuels)
Buffy versus Edward is a well know mashup that exposes many of the biases and stereotypical gender assumptions that underpin the Twilight series, along with foregrounding the strong female character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. This mashup is an excellent critical reflection in the deformative sense that McGann refers to.
"Five months in the making, Buffy vs Edward is essentially an answer to the question “What Would Buffy Do?” My re-imagined story was specifically constructed as a response to Edward, and what his behavior represents in our larger social context for both men and women. More than just a showdown between The Slayer and the Sparkly Vampire, it’s also a humorous visualization of the metaphorical battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century" - What Would Buffy Do? Notes on Dusting Edward Cullen by Jonathan McIntosh (on WIMINs Voices).
One of the primary strengths of digital media as a meaning making system is how the collision of two elements can make a third. A video and a soundtrack can be joined in a webpage to create a new set of meanings when compared to the previous two or more works.
(Note: Some of these references are incorrect, but the general idea is present)
Materiality: “Dream America Movie” is constructed entirely by recombining semiotic content from Internet sources. The material consists of the following elements:
1. Moving visual imagery derived from YouTube, with one of two direct references to 131 course material, i.e., a clip from Michael Moore’s documentary, “Bowling for Columbine”;
2. Still photography from news sources and Microsoft clipart;
3. Spoken verbal commentary in the forms of voice over (inserted from YouTube) of the introduction to “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin, newscaster narration, clips from news conferences of former President Bush and current Vice President Biden, and, in one of two direct references to 131 course material, a clip from Morgan Spurlock’s TV documentary, “Minimum Wage”;
4. Written verbal content in the forms of title (her only self-created addition to the video text), news channel logos (ABC; Fox News; CNN), news captions and scrolling banners, signs in the hands of individuals in visuals or propped on objects in visual); a combination of complete sentences in the narration, voiceover, and signs; and one-line clauses and phrases in the news banners and captions;
What unites all of these elements in the above video is the critical theme of 'What is America today as a contrast to the American Dream?'. The focus provided by a theme is an important thing to remember when making a mashup.
The creation of a mashup can critique an established code or order that represents gender or sexuality.
This video was created by Michelle Redman and Kyle Nimmo for MACS 221 at UFV. It is meant to highlight how gender stereotypes are present in commercials and advertisments.
Making the Mashup
a) Writing for a Mashup Creating a mashup is a lot about improvisation, using the materials at hand and understanding how references work in popular culture. You may decide to make a mashup based on a video you have seen that you believe needs to be answered. The YouTube function of Video Response caters for this aspect of the mashup. You may have thought of a theme, say Barack Obama is a Player, and you construct a mashup around that idea, gathering material from videos, podcasts, news images and broadcasts and audiobooks. The time line and rhythm of the segments you use in the mashup are important. Adding music can often make the mashup more effective, or it can fail.
b) The Tools: There are three approaches to gathering moving images for the construction of a mashup; 1. copying, 2. ripping, 3. making. 1. Copying - screen capture using Camtasia, Jing (Mac and PC), AviScreen Classic, Fraps, GameCam, and Capture Me (Mac compatible). Using these programs you can capture images and often sound (AviScreen is image only). These can be saved as an .avi file and edited in a video editing program. I will return to video editing in the third section, making. 2. Ripping is the taking of content from the Internet. the Fast Video Download (FVD) addon for Firefox is one way of taking videos from the Internet. DownloadThemAll allows for fast download of videos, audio and images from a webpage. It does not work with embedded content the way FVD does. KeepVid does work with embedded videos on the Internet.
When making mashups a Creative Commons License (CC) is your friend. The CC License allows you to copy and modify content for non-commercial use. There are many sites on the Internet that allow for free use (free as in open). These include the enormous archive.org, OurMedia, and Freesound.org. Soundcloud is a music sharing site that allows for free downloads, as does the Free Music Archive. 3. Making is the stage after both copying and ripping. You have the gathered the raw materials for your mashup and now you need to put them all together. This is the hardest part of the process in many ways. For video editing there are a number of options available. In HUMlab we offer FinalCut Pro. As a free online download, but much simpler solution for video editing I use VirtualDub. There is also Windows Movie Maker. Camtasia (Free 30-day trial version) has a fairly advanced editing function as well. To covert AVI to MOV files for Window Movie Maker, there is a free solution. To covert Flash to MOV try this one. For working with sound, I use Cubase LE4, but there are free solutions. Audacity is one of them. Sill images can be inserted into the editing time-line of Camtasia and FinalCut. You can import the ripped video (after conversion if necessary) into each of the video editing programs mentioned here, using the Import Media function. You may want to add your own content as well and this can be done with the video cameras in HUMlab, the audio software I have mentioned here or using your own images. Once you have completed your mashup I recommend sharing it with the world, using:
“The
labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever
fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind. ”
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus.
“One
text that shows the disaster of the divorce between science and poetry
would be the one by Mary Shelley whose name is Frankenstein.”
Avital Ronell, Body/No Body (in conversation with Werner Herzog)
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley (published 1818) represents a historical and literary
divergence between the poetic and the technical, and is a significant
reaction against this split as part of English Romanticism. It is the
contention of my presentation that in contemporary digital works of art
and narrative we are witnessing a re-marriage of science and poetry.
However, this union should be no automatic cause for romantic joy, as
the present situation in the education sector of most Western
democracies indicates. Today, the natural sciences are separated from
and weighted favorably in relation to the production and analysis of
culture. There is little to indicate that this is an effective strategy
in light of present global ‘network culture’ initiatives. Today, the
union of science and poetry in digital media is felt most acutely in
reading, or the performative interpretation of imaginative works.
Computer games, websites, digital works of literature, apps, virtual
worlds, interactive art, and spatial media (GIS, Kinnect, GPS, Wii) are
interpreted as they are performed and often require some knowledge of
the medium by the user in order for the work to function. This situation
represents a form of reading that has not been practiced widely in
Western academic and literate circles for several centuries. We are not
witnessing a return to what Walter J. Ong famously terms a “secondary
orality” (10-11), but rather we are seeing a form of inscription rapidly
emerge that is spatial, multi-temporal, performed, place-bound, visual,
sonic, and navigated. Two central concepts are important for
understanding how digital works are generally interpreted, and these are
simulation and remix. Representation has become the domain of mediating
objects, both virtual and physical, while reading is as much about
arranging and appropriating as it is about reference, symbolism,
iconography and interpretation. Based on a relatively small selection of
digital works this presentation examines reception practices involving
digital media, which suggest an expanded concept of reading where the
material technology of a work determines meaning as much as its
representative elements do. In this examination I demonstrate how
performance, participation, co-authoring, and remix make the reading of
the digital works. These works are
Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson (1995)
Last Meal Requested by Sachiko Hayashi (2004)
Façade By Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern (2006)
Second Life http://youtu.be/9g-kYvK3P-Q
CONSTRUCT by salevy_oh (2011)
The Celebration by Iris Piers (2011)
Patchwork Girl is a work of electronic literature by American author Shelley Jackson. It was written in Storyspace and published by Eastgate Systems in 1995. It is often discussed along with Michael Joyce's 'Afternoon, a story' as an important work of hypertext fiction.
"Shelley Jackson's brilliantly realized hypertext Patchwork Girl is an electronic fiction that manages to be at once highly original and intensely parasitic on its print predecessors."
The actions of the avatar, which is the identity of its operator in SL, conform to the traditions of Varjrayana Buddhism. The combination of the actions of the avatar and the audio is a two fold signifying structure, with the operator of the avatar at the center. In a simulative sense the operator of the avatar is enacting a practice that is firmly contextualized in religious and social contexts.
Last Meal Requested is an interactive net art work by Japanese/Swedish artist Sachiko Hayashi. It deals with themes of gender, state power, violence and the rhetoric of the image. The original work can be accessed at http://www.e-garde.net/lmr/lmr2.html
Selavy: What happens when you write in a diary? Of course, some people write down “got up at 7am, drank a coffee, had lunch with Jim, went to bed early”, but that’s not the type of diary I’m referring to. It is rather the idea of keeping a record of selected thoughts, feelings, moods, ideas, etc. The important part is, of course, that you do that regularly. And that is exactly what I did in CONSTRUCT: I added one room each day. Every one of the 75 days of the residency has its own room, often relating to the topic of the residency itself, a time capsule of ideas, artifacts, or reference to other work. If you read a diary, you may get an idea about the writer and her life. If you visit CONSTRUCT, you may get an idea about Selavy Oh and her residency.
The Celebration "combines a circular display of flatscreens, reminiscent of a giant zoetrope, containing amateur film footage from the 1910's-1940's with different soundscapes that can be manipulated by the audience" (Piers).
How the audience manipulates the various audio and images, and how they combine to create an interactive and immersive space, makes The Celebration an engaging work of interactive digital art.
The visitor enters a darkened space, where the only available light comes from the 10 screens showing the films of The Celebration. By moving around the space and judging their own distance, speed of movement, posture and height in relation to the (largely invisible) Arduino trackers, a dance begins with the audio and the cracked black and white images from almost a century ago.
Each of the screens that make up The Celebration has an Arduino tracking sensor attached, which maps the movements of the body of a visitor, and implements pre-programmed changes in the presentation of images and sound.
Unknown faces stare out from the screens, mostly laughing, talking (unheard) and often looking straight at the camera, and at the audience. As these faces watch, the visitor dodges and weaves, hops and slides, while the images and sounds change. At the same time the visitor is watching the faces, along with their bodies, their families and friends, competitors at sports events and classmates, neighbors and colleagues. It is according to this arrangement that a circuit of movement and gaze is achieved by the programming of The Celebration.
Façade is a prototype of interactive drama, a new genre of character and story-intensive interactive entertainment. Façade is freely downloadable at interactivestory.net. In Façade, you, the player, using your own name and gender, play the character of a longtime friend of Grace and Trip, an attractive and materially successful couple in their early thirties. During an evening get-together at their apartment that quickly turns ugly, you become entangled in the high-conflict dissolution of Grace and Trip’s marriage. No one is safe as the accusations fly, sides are taken and irreversible decisions are forced to be made. By the end of this intense one-act play you will have changed the course of Grace and Trip’s lives – motivating you to re-play the drama to find out how your interaction could make things turn out differently the next time.
In this video Facade is used to promote an abstinence program.
Twitter is a log-in web 'micro-blogging' service where users can follow each other as they post 140 character entries in a scrolling feed of short messages, links, updates, bookmarks and referrals (re-tweets). It was founded in 2006 and currently has 11 million active accounts.
San Antonio-based market-research firm Pear Analytics
analyzed 2,000 tweets (originating from the US and in English) over a
two-week period in August 2009 from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM (CST) and
separated them into six categories:
Social networking researcher Danah Boyd
responded to the Pear Analytics survey by arguing that what the Pear
researchers labelled "pointless babble" is better characterized as "social grooming"
and/or "peripheral awareness" (which she explains as persons "want[ing]
to know what the people around them are thinking and doing and feeling,
even when co-presence isn’t viable").
An enormous number of universities are using Twitter to brand and profile themselves. I have been Tweeting since 2006. When it comes to my own Twitter use and what I get from it. I do not engage in conversation so much using Twitter, although it is becoming more of my twitter activity as more people join in. I have broken it down into these categories:
1. Bookmarks - I have a delicious site where I keep bookmarks. Twitter is more about sharing bookmarks than archiving and ordering them. I can also harvest bookmarks from the Twitter feeds I follow.
2. RSS Feed - Twitter has replaced my syndication services, although I keep it going I hardly ever use it. The people I follow using post about their blog entries
3. Profiling myself - this includes notifying on my own blog posts, publications, events, performances, teaching and travel.
4. Conference and event reporting - I can follow a conference or event either from the Twitter site dedicated to it, or from its assigned hash tag.
5. Note taking and record keeping - i have composed blog posts and journalism articles from my entries on Twitter. It is possible to archive your Twitter posts and as Twitter only keeps the previous 4000 tweets you may want to do this regularly.
6. Networking - Twitter tracks the location of Tweets and you can search of other Twitter users nearby. As well Twitter is an easy way to come into contact with the leaders or interesting people in your academic field.
7. As a Text and Research Object - Enormous amounts of information are generated by Twitter. In regard to some of the big national and international events of the past few years, Twitter has been a source of expression and information for millions of people. The Israeli invasion of Gaza, The student uprising in Iran, the revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and the massacre in Norway have all be well documented using Twitter. Collecting this information and collating it is an interesting challenge for academics.
8. Creative Writing and Literature - Fiction using twitter abounds by so-called TwittLitters. As well there is the retelling of the great novels using Twitter, with the book Twitterature selling well in many countries.
9. To converse and socialize - you can chat with friends, discuss a common interest, look for missing people at workshops, get information about food, accommodation, travel, books, music, websites and so on.
"Place is experienced space (Malpas, 1999; Tuan & Mercure, 2004). It is what happens when geographic space takes on meaning of any sort—as an object of memory, desire,or fear. Place can be produced through happenstance (the space of a first kiss), through narrative (the space of childhood that is persistently articulated with story), through familiarity (the space one lives each day),or through representation (the space of art or advertising). This identification with place is an important method of organizing personal experience and social actions." - Using Virtual Worlds to Foster Civic Engagement, Eric Gordon and Gene Koo p206
Place is more than just a name. Place gives identity and meaning to space. Places are marked out and organized according to class, gender, history, power, politics, knowledge, nationality, memory, desire, narrative, and conflict. It is relatively easy to think of a place that has special or specific meaning and then question why it is different from another, perhaps very similar place.
In digital media place takes on a new level of significance in narrative. Place often determines identity in digitally media narratives. Consider the most famous computer games, where location directs action.
World of Warcraft relies on places to order the flow of play. Raids are conducted over boundaries between places. Places take on specific characteristics to enhance play and contextualize characters and action.
It is different in Counter-Strike. Distances, heights and fields of view are that much more meaningful here. Meaningful largely through the functionality of my weapons, to be sure. Still, a variety of tactical behaviours is possible. The spatial structures can be appropriated in different ways. But again, the look of the buildings is largely irrelevant. I learn the valuable properties of places via multiple repeated attempts.
Façade
A "one act interactive drama" where "A couple, Grace and Trip, hosts the player in their apartment for cocktails and proceeds to have a relationship breakdown. Using full typed sentences the player can coach them through their troubles or drive them to be more distant from each other." Facade as a narrative work relies on the representation of place and identity (specifically gender and class) to present a story. In Façade place and gender are combined in the bar and the lounge areas of the three-dimensional apartment that makes up the work. The bar is associated with the male character Trip, and the lounge is given female characteristics though an alignment with Grace. Each character retreats or is drawn into their respective areas in the conflicts of the narrative, often calling for the guest/reader to join them. The objects that are located in the respective areas also function to prompt the reader in responding to the narrative according to associations between gender and place. A painting or a piece of furniture prompts dialogue from the characters to address the reader according to gendered themes in narrative. With the structures provided by the characters and their respective places in the narrative, the reader is restricted to a set number of responses according to gender. In this way the characters and the places they occupy establish the directions for narrative development in Façade.
The relationship between Trip and Grace is composed of stereotypical gender roles and the portrayal of their professional versus private lives. Trip and Grace’s marriage is defined in narrative according to Trip as the stronger and more powerful partner while Grace struggles against being submissive. This, in turn, translates into one character having greater agency where Trip dominates compared to Grace. Many of these conflicts are played out in the narrative in relation to the places depicted in the work. For example, during the evening, he chooses the wine and fixes the drinks. In negotiating the bar and serving the drinks, Grace asks the guest, “Jim, how about something simple, like a nice glass of chardonnay?” only to receive the reply from Trip, “Yeah, no, we need to open this wine! Our friend is here, we're going to enjoy ourselves, that's all there is to it! GRACE: (frustrated sigh)” (Façade). Grace, as representing a narrative direction, is denied agency, in that she is unable to choose her own drink, and once again fails to find her own voice in the dialogue with Trip. As a result the reader is left with the narrative direction initiated by Trip as the only way forward for the story.
The bar area is identified with Trip as part of the gendered structure of the places in Façade. Trip occupies and controls the bar, and he refers to it numerous times with statements that assert a sense of competitive and aggressive pride,
TRIP Oh, yeah, uh, I'm gonna fix us some drinks in a sec!
TRIP Ah, you need to help me break in my expensive new set of cocktail making accessories.
JIM: cocktails? I love cocktails
TRIP: Yeah, hang on, ooh, I'm going to make you one of my fabulous drinks in just a minute, heh! (Façade)
The bar is a masculinized place in Façade by virtue of Trip’s dominance of it, as it is only there that he can display his power and status,
TRIP. Y -- yeah, uh, we need drinks!
JIM: large drinks
TRIP: This is great... -- (interrupted)
TRIP: W -- well, uh, I'm going to open an exquisite Bordeaux!
TRIP: Best of the best, you can't buy this in stores. Very, very special -
GRACE: God Trip, you are such a wine snob. Just like my dad. (Façade)
The comparison between Trip and Grace’s wealthy father is part of the masculine and authoritative narrative qualities assigned to the bar. Readings are set up according to the power and status implied by the exclusive wine offered by Trip. The alcohol is presented in contrast to the tastes of Grace, who is parodied and humiliated in the contexts of the bar. This humiliation is demonstrated in exchanges such as, “TRIP: Why don't I make us one of my new drink inventions, TRIP: I call it Grace's Inner Soul. TRIP: It's a mixture of chardonnay, bitters and lots of ice” (Façade). Grace is contrasted to the social prestige associated with the bar in relation to Trip.
The bar area functions as support for Trip, which confines the reader to a single male perspective. A picture of the Italian countryside, from a holiday that Trip references as a “second honeymoon” (Façade) is beside the bar, and he draws attention,
TRIP: Oh, Jim, I thought you might like this photo I just put up from our recent trip to Italy.
JIM: thanks
GRACE: Uhh, it's a beautiful picture of the Italian countryside, of course he'll like it! (Grace sips her Grace's drink.)
TRIP: Grace, I know you don't like it, but our friend might.
GRACE: By the way, anybody, join me on the couch if you like.
(Façade)
If the guest joins Grace on the couch the narrative themes connected to her and prompted by the objects, decorations and art that surround are moved into the centre of dialogue. A move to the lounge by the guest/reader shifts the progression of narrative away from the perspectives of Trip and towards those of Grace. If Trip is not at the bar and instead moves closer to the couch and Grace, the overall narrative moves to center more on the concerns of Grace and eventually on both characters. The two places in the apartment, the lounge and the bar are actually extensions of the characters Grace and Trip as far as narrative is concerned.
From these place-based narrative exchanges identity converges for each of the characters. The reader/guest establishes perspective regarding the characters and the 'best' ways to address them as identities considering the contexts of dialogue.
"There is no self that is prior to the convergence or who maintains 'integrity' prior to its entrance into this conflicted cultural field. There is only the taking up of the tools where they lie, where the very ’taking up’ is enabled by the tool lying there”. - Judith Butler (1990 145)
This is a still image of my avatar in Second Life. It has no biological sex, no genitals or DNA that identifies it according to a scientific standard as male. However, it is consistently referred to by myself and others as 'he' or 'him' and the things it owns as 'his'. Visually, this avatar presents as male and the above image illustrates this 'maleness' in a contemporary style. The business suit, hair style and physical features indicate to me a form of 'soft masculinity', with influence from some of the androgynous gender tropes from popular culture. Lack of facial hair, long eye lashes, large eyes, longish hair style, slight build that lacks developed muscle definition, and thin hips add to the androgyny of the avatar. The image of the avatar is not suffused with sexual imagery and the erotic zones of the body are not emphasized in gender specific ways. The lips are one area of the body that can carry erotic connotation in particular cultures (both male and female) and these are somewhat emphasized with the avatar. The soft masculinity of the avatar can be related to a larger masculine culture in East Asia, where male bodies are represented without excessive muscles or hair and attention is paid to cosmetics and appearance preparation. This video is an example of such a soft masculinity:
South Korean idol boy band, Dong Bang Shin Ki singing Under My Skin in 2008, (Notice the avatar-like flying of some of the characters) Further analysis of this video and "mu-kuk-jok 'soft masculinity'" is HERE
"Feminist geographers often consider the body as a place, a “location or site . . . of the individual”(McDowell,1999). Judith Butler (1990) developed the influential concept of“performativity,”regarding gender identities as a performance in the “stylized repetition ofacts.”To Butler,being a woman is not a natural fact but “a cultural performance [in which] ‘naturalness’ [is] constituted through discursively constrained performative acts that produce the body through and within the categories of sex”(cited in McDowell, 1999,p.54)." Bardzell and Odom The Slave's Body as a Place p252
Apart from the visual appearance of the avatar in regards to gender and sexuality there is also the concept of performing gender. My avatar performs as a predominantly heterosexual identity in Second Life. While stereotyping plays a large role in the performance of heterosexuality masculinity, the attributes of my own avatar that indicates a predominately hetero-orientation can be the same that indicate androgyny; lack of overt sexualized physical attributes, a gender-neutral physical stance and movements, and the absence of queer, bi or gay (HTB) symbols in reference to what is considered the so-called 'default sexuality' (i.e. heteronormativity).
I presented my avatar to some students recently as "fairly standard in regards to gender" and it was only while thinking about it further today that I understood what this can mean. The opening quote, "There is only the taking up of the tools where they lie, where the very ’taking up’ is enabled by the tool lying there” from Judith Butler is very much about the components of gender performance. When we work in virtual worlds we operate under the same rules to which Butler refers. What is available is what people can use to identify socially with gender and sexuality. Agency emerges from this range of possibilities according to what is tolerated, permitted and encouraged in the "conflicted cultural field"..
The avatar above references symbols of soft-masculine power in the suit, formal qualities (expensive clothes, neck tie) and attention to appearance. These factors ally power with economic wealth in the formation of identity. These qualities are surprisingly similar to many of the images from the video of the South Korean pop band. The role of my avatar in my job influences the references and values I represent within it. I have attempted to build connections between agency and power in my avatar by referencing formal qualities in male contexts. The technological aspects of my job can be related to the East Asian cultural reference where a stereotype of a technical mediated identity is common. I also think about Science Fiction novels, especially those by William Gibson, and the ways they portray East Asia as a digital society where gender-ambiguous figures move freely in information spaces.
Background Commentary
In performing the above reading I considered the following:
- Performativity: We have talked about gender being created performatively by our everyday practices. In this sense the practice of creating avatars is part of the process of creating gender. So how do the avatars (re)produce gender stereotypes? How do they exceed them?
- Representations of gender and sexuality: as both representing what is not present (the avatar representing 'me' in SL, the avatar's gender representing cultural notions/norms of gender such as the heteronormative), and as actually creating/being what is thus represented (and never just 'mirroring' the student, or cultural notions/norms). So, what do the avatars create when it comes to gender/sexuality? What do they think of the potential political power behind this kinds of representations? Do you think about the looks of the avatar's as being feminist in any sense? If so - how?
- The Butler quote: "There is only the taking up of the tools where they lie, where the very ’taking up’ is enabled by the tool lying there”. This is somewhat difficult to grasp, but virtual worlds are good examples in order to illustrate it, since "the tools" (for performed gender for example) are on the one hand per-determined by the architecture of the computer program, and on the other hand, as is the case with Second Life the tools for the manipulation of gender imagery and performance are many.
- Agency: The above also relates to agency, and having a choice (although always conditioned by the "convergence or who maintains 'integrity' prior to its entrance into this conflicted cultural field").
- Gender is said to be the prime thing in people's identifications and in identifications of others. So what choices are made in relation to identify and identification in the construction of the avatar? Initially it is necessary to decide whether the avatar is male or female (which is of course an interesting thing in itself). Why does one choose the avatar's gender as the same as my own? Why does one choose an oppositional gender? In relation to becoming a subject occurring in relation to subjecting oneself to different norms (for example gender norms). In a virtual environment simulations of gender performance can be experimented with. My avatar is not specifically incomprehensible and this is a result of reference to standard contemporary gender norms .
For further references to avatars, agency and the representation and performance of Self see HERE.
"Donna Leishman’s “Red Ridinghood” is an interactive story and a prime example of electronic literature. The viewer has to click on certain objects within the scene in order to make the story progress resulting in interaction. While at one point the viewer is offered two choices to click, both routes end up leading to the same ending. This type of story can be mistakenly labeled as a ‘game’ meaning that the viewer actually has the ability to change the outcome of the story line. Yet “Red Ridinghood” does not actually offer the reader to choose the ending of the story, it simply allows them to become an essential part of the story. Thus the literary aspect is kept in tact, the viewer is allowed a sense of control over the story, but is ultimately not able to change the plot in any way. This element of interactivity with the story is makes “Red Riding Hood” an example of how an interactive story can still be literature and not art or even an online game. The narrative cannot be completed without an outside force, in this case the reader clicking through the passages. The narrative itself is also something that can only be produced on an electronic level. It is made up of pictures and sounds rather then words. While Little Red Riding Hood is a common story, the illustrations put a new twist on it, making it a new urbanized fairy tale that doesn’t adhere exactly to the original plot line."
Place plays a significant role in the establishment of Red as a characte both in terms of the depicted body and the locations it occupies:
"Red and Wolf are two deeply intertwined characters acting out in this story. Red's perspective is one of compromised authenticity; so much of the background storyline is acted out through her dreams (or written in her diary) that it is hard to know how her evident inner turmoil has skewed the Wolf's character. Leishman excels in bringing to life the complex inner workings of a young woman, particularly through the view of Red's bedroom. Who is Red? What are her mental fabrications and what is fact? These are questions that the author begs us to raise with this scene." - A Peak into the Bedroom
Historical background to mass media in the Commonwealth of Nations
-Popular media in Commonwealth countries today (reading and listening exercises)
-Children’s media in Commonwealth countries
-Control and censorship of media in the Commonwealth
Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines, although mass media (like books and manuscripts) were present centuries before the term became common. The term public media has a similar meaning: it is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which may require union membership in some large markets such as Newspaper Guild, AFTRA, & text publishers. The concept of mass media is complicated in some internet media as now individuals have a means of potential exposure on a scale comparable to what was previously restricted to select group of mass media producers. These internet media can include web TV and radio, personal web pages, message boards, podcasts, blogs, video hosting services.
Work through the following key terms and concepts in your groups using the course compendium and related materials:
British model of broadcast media
Mass media in India
Regulation of media
Mass Media in Australia
Censorship
Mass Media in South Africa
Mass media is part of globalisation, government, education and popular culture. Like these areas of of human and cultural interaction, media is complicated. Think about your own relationship to media, how you use it and how it effects you.
In this lecture I am am going to talk about some of the media systems in the countries we have been dealing with in the course. There are once again great similarities between each of the nations in their structures of media. But there are great differences in how media is integrated into peoples lives in each state.
Reporters without Borders worldwide press freedom ranking for 2007: 24th The history of media in England is a very long one. The first commercial modern newspapers were published in England in the 18th century. I want to just summarise a few points here in regards to England that are relevant to the rest of the course in terms of media.
The British Model of Broadcast Media
The model for broadcast media that was first established in the United Kingdom in the first decades of the Twentieth century became a model for many parts of the British Empire and later the Commonwealth of nations. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was the world's first national broadcasting organisation and was founded on 18 October 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd; It was subsequently granted a Royal Charter and was made a publicly funded corporation in 1927. The Royal Charter decreed that the BBC's views be entirely independent of any private or governmental influence. It is thereby required to "be free from both political and commercial influence and answer only to its viewers and listeners". According to its Charter, the BBC's mission is "to enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain." (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC)
The influence of a large and powerful institution such as the BBC on media activities as news gathering and programming structures is extensive. In South Africa, India, and Australia the main public broadcaster, with the possible exception of India due to its large number of regional languages and media outlets, exerts a large degree of influence on the overall broadcast media landscape. In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Doordarshan in India and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) each follow similar forms to the BBC. Each occupies a defining position in the mass media of their respective nations. Each is administered under government legislation, although unlike the BBC Doorsharshan does not have an independent editorial control. Prasar Bharati, its parent body has all board members appointed by the Government of India acting through the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. This control is evident in a budget that allows expenditure on "propaganda and public relations". The ABC Board of Directors is directly appointed by the Fderal government of Australia. The SABC Board of Directors is also appointed by the South African Government. In July 2009 the SABC Board was dissolved by then acting President Kgalema Motlanthe.
Mass Media in the United Kingdom/England The United Kingdom has an extremely diverse media with an almost unrivalled number of outlets, second only to the United States.
List of Media Sites for the United Kingdom. Listing websites, addresses, telephone numbers, live links and more for all areas of the online media, it's your one-stop media portal. Continually updated with 50 updates over the past week, we currently list 836 radio stations, 512 television channels, 1,596 newspapers, and 1,931 magazines.
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) The BBC is the model public service media network for many countries that once belonged to the British Empire. Content from the BBC features heavily on the ABC in Australia. With the establishment of cable and satellite television the BBC is a world leader in the field. The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known simply as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers and revenue. It has 26,000 employees in the United Kingdom alone and a budget of more than £4 billion. Founded on 18 October 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd, it was subsequently granted a Royal Charter and made a state-owned corporation in 1927. The corporation produces programmes and information services, broadcasting globally on television, radio, and the internet. The stated mission of the BBC is "to inform, educate and entertain"; its motto is "Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation". The BBC is a quasi-autonomous Public Corporation operating as a public service broadcaster. The Corporation is run by the BBC Trust; and is, per its charter, "free from both political and commercial influence and answers only to its viewers and listeners". Wikipedia
The Digital Divide in England (2007) n 2005 there was a twelve percentage point gap between the number of adults with broadband at home in Northern Ireland (lowest at 24%), Wales (25%), Scotland (31%) and England (highest at 36%). This year’s report shows that by 2006 this gap had reduced to three percentage points. Take-up in England stood at 45% and in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales had reached 42%. In 2005 the gap between the nations in terms of digital television take-up was even larger at 19 percentage points ( Wales at 72%, England at 66%, Scotland at 60% and NI at 53%). By 2006 this gap had reduced to 13 percentage points (Wales at 82%, England at 75%, Scotland at 76% and NI at 69%).
Reporters without Borders worldwide press freedom ranking for 2007: 120th
Indian media—initiated since the late 1700s with print media started in 1780, radio broadcasting initiated in 1927, and the screening of Auguste and Louis Lumière moving pictures in Bombay initiated during the July of 1895 —is among the oldest and largest media of the world. Indian media—private media in particular—has been free and independent throughout most of its history. The period of Emergency in India (1975–1977), declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was the brief period when India's media was faced with potential government retribution.
Mass Media in India Mass media in India is that part of the Indian media which aims to reach a wide audience. Besides the news media, which includes print, radio and television, the internet is playing an increasing role, along with the growth of the Indian blogging community.
Compared with many other developing countries, the Indian press is relatively unfettered, except for obstacles in the way of setting up media companies which were part of the pre-1990 license raj. In 2001, India had 45,974 newspapers, including 5364 daily newspapers published in over 100 languages. The largest number of newspapers were published in Hindi (20,589), followed by English (7,596), Marathi (2,943), Urdu (2,906), Bengali (2,741), Gujarati (2,215), Tamil (2,119), Kannada (1,816), Malayalam(1,505) and Telugu (1,289). The Hindi daily press has a circulation of over 23 million copies, followed by English with over 8 million copies. There are several major publishing groups in India, the most prominent among them being the Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, the Hindustan Times Group, Essel Group, The Hindu group, the Anandabazar Patrika Group, the Eenadu Group, the Malayala Manorama Group, the Mathrubhumi group, the Kerala Kaumudi group, the Sahara group, the Bhaskar group, and the Dainik Jagran group. India has more than forty domestic news agencies. The Express News Service, the Press Trust of India, and the United News of India are among the major news agencies.
Historical Perspective of Mass Media Laws in India Mass Media laws in India have a long history and are deeply rooted in the country’s colonial experience under British rule. The earliest regulatory measures can be traced back to 1799 when Lord Wellesley promulgated the Press Regulations, which had the effect of imposing pre-censorship on an infant newspaper publishing industry. The onset of 1835 saw the promulgation of the Press Act, which undid most of, the repressive features of earlier legislations on the subject.
Thereafter on 18th June 1857, the government passed the ‘Gagging Act’, which among various other things, introduced compulsory licensing for the owning or running of printing presses; empowered the government to prohibit the publication or circulation of any newspaper, book or other printed material and banned the publication or dissemination of statements or news stories which had a tendency to cause a furore against the government, thereby weakening its authority.
Then followed the ‘Press and Registration of Books Act’ in 1867 and which continues to remain in force till date. Governor General Lord Lytton promulgated the ‘Vernacular Press Act’ of 1878 allowing the government to clamp down on the publication of writings deemed seditious and to impose punitive sanctions on printers and publishers who failed to fall in line. In 1908, Lord Minto promulgated the ‘Newspapers (Incitement to Offences) Act, 1908 which authorized local authorities to take action against the editor of any newspaper that published matter deemed to constitute an incitement to rebellion.
However, the most significant day in the history of Media Regulations was the 26th of January 1950 – the day on which the Constitution was brought into force. The colonial experience of the Indians made them realise the crucial significance of the ‘Freedom of Press’. Such freedom was therefore incorporated in the Constitution; to empower the Press to disseminate knowledge to the masses and the Constituent Assembly thus, decided to safeguard this ‘Freedom of Press’as a fundamental right. Although, the Indian Constitution does not expressly mention the liberty of the press, it is evident that the liberty of the press is included in the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a):
(1) All citizens shall have the right - (a) to freedom of speech and expression; (b) to assemble peaceably and without arms; (c) to form associations or unions; (d) to move freely throughout the territory of India; (e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; and (f) to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. (Constitution of India http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/in00000_.html)
It is however pertinent to mention that, such freedom is not absolute but is qualified by certain clearly defined limitations under Article 19(2) in the interests of the public.
It is necessary to mention here that, this freedom under Article 19(1)(a) is not only cribbed, cabined and confined to newspapers and periodicals but also includes pamphlets, leaflets, handbills, circulars and every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion:
Thus, although the freedom of the press is guaranteed as a fundamental right, it is necessary for us to deal with the various laws governing the different areas of media so as to appreciate the vast expanse of media laws. From: http://www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/media.htm
Doordarshan Doordarshan (sometimes DoorDarshan; (Hindi:दूरदर्शन); literaly means TeleVision) is the public television broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati, a board nominated by the Government of India. It is one of the largest broadcasting organisations in the world in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters.
The Times of India (TOI) is a leading English-language broadsheet daily newspaper in India. It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times Group). The newspaper has the widest circulation among all English-language broadsheets in India. In 2005, the newspaper reported that (with a daily circulation of over 2.4 million) it was certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations as the world's largest selling English broadsheet newspaper. How the Times of India is produced
The national broadcaster in India is Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Prasar Bharati is a statutory autonomous body established under the Prasar Bharati Act. The Board came into existence from 23.11.1997. The Prasar Bharati is the Public Service broadcaster of the country. The objective of public service broadcasting is to be achieved though All India Radio and Doordarshan which earlier were working as independent media units under the Ministry of I&B.
All India Radio All India Radio (abbreviated as AIR), officially known as Akashvani (Devanagari: आकाशवाणी, ākāshavānī) (Urdu : اکاشوانی), is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India), an autonomous corporation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Established in 1936, today, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks in the world. The headquarters is at the Akashwani Bhavan, New Delhi. Akashwani Bhavan houses the drama section, the FM section and the National service. The Doordarshan Kendra (Delhi) is also located on the 6th floor of Akashvani Bhavan. During his regular broadcasts from the Azad Hind Radio, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose (Leader of the Indian National Army in World War II) used to refer to the pre-independence AIR as Anti Indian Radio.
Children's Television in South Africa
Cambala Investigation Agency
Toon Disney India
Southern Africa
Reporters without Borders worldwide press freedom ranking for 2007: 43rd
Mass Media in South Africa The media of South Africa has a large and flourishing mass media sector and is the African continent's major media player. While South Africa's many broadcasters and publications reflect the diversity of the population as a whole, the most commonly used language is English, although all ten other official languages are represented to some extent or another. Afrikaans is the second most commonly used language, especially in the publishing sector. Up until 1994, the country had a thriving Alternative press comprised of community broadsheets, bilingual weeklies and even student "zines" and xeroxed samizdat. After the elections, funding and support for such ventures dried up, but there has been a resurgence of interest in alternative forms of news gathering of late, particularly since the events of September 11, 2001. Of course much of the history of mass media in South Africa is tied to the history of apartheid. During the apartheid era, newspapers had to apply for registration if they published more than 11 times a year. An arbitrary amount was also required before registration was approved. A history of the press in South Africa introduces many of the major themes of the history of media in the country in general. The power of the mining industry, the politics of the state and the struggle for representation by the majority of the population influence the nature of mass media in the nation. See The History of the Press in South Africa
It has been pointed out that almost all the large daily newspapers are owned by just four large media firms, which could lead to pro-Corporate bias. In addition, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which is the public broadcaster, is argued by many to carry a fairly strong pro-ruling party (African National Congress (ANC)) bias, especially considering the fact that the majority of its management and executive staff are either ANC members or ANC aligned.
A News Bulletin from Swaziland The Kingdom of Swaziland is a country located in Southern Africa, centred at approximately 26o49'S, 31o38'E. It is relatively small in area, similar in size to Kuwait. Swaziland is a landlocked country, bordered by South Africa on three sides except to the east, where it borders Mozambique. The country, inhabited primarily by Bantu-speaking Swazi people, is named after the 19th century king Mswati II, from whom the people also take their name. The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Swaziland is the highest in the world at 38.8%, and is much higher than that of sub-Saharan Africa overall (7.5%) and globally (1.1%).[2] Life expectancy at birth in Swaziland is little above 30 years.
Internet Traffic Flows 2005. You will notice that Africa, particularly Southern Africa is very much 'out of the loop' when it comes to internet access on a large scale. The channels for the Net run from east to West not from North to South. Access to information is one of the great challenges for South Africa in the 21st century.
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) The SABC is South Africa’s national public service broadcaster. As such, it is obliged to provide a comprehensive range of distinctive programmes and services. It must inform, educate, entertain, support and develop culture and education and as far as possible secure fair and equal treatment for the various groupings in the nation and the country, while offering world-class programming on television and radio. The SABC’s television network comprises four television channels - three of them free-to-air and the fourth pay-TV. Combined the free-to-air channels attract more than 17,5 million adult viewers daily, reaching 89% of the total adult TV-viewing population.
Television in South Africa Television is the most tightly regulated media sector in South Africa and is (along with radio) regulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Broadcast rights, especially for television, are issued by invitation only and only two independent television broadcasters have been permitted to operate up to now. Broadcast licenses mandate percentages of local, community and educational content and broadcasters are required to include such content as a condition of their license. As a result, there are only four free-to-air terrestrial television channels in South Africa, the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) Channels 1, 2 and 3 as well as e.tv. The SABC is South Africa's state-owned public broadcaster.
More News from SABC TV 3rd Degree is a current affairs program from South Africa The Rights of the Disabled in South Africa
Children's Television in English Shown in South Africa
Hectic Nine 9
The Mysterious Cities of Gold
Pumpkin Patch
Paddington Bear
Australia
Reporters without Borders worldwide press freedom ranking for 2007: 36th
Early Media in Australia Most material published in the first twenty years of the New South Wales colony notified soldiers, convicts and private settlers of the many rules set by the Governor. These 'government orders' were printed on a portable wooden and iron printing press that had been carried to the colony on the First Fleet. The orders were then displayed or announced aloud in public places and in churches at the compulsory Sunday services as more than half of the early colonists could not read. In November 1800, The Royal Admiral docked in the colony carrying a transported convict, George Howe, who arrived with printing experience from the West Indies and London. These valuable skills were quickly put to work at the government press, and the colony's first locally published book, a compilation of government orders, was produced in 1802. George Howe was also permitted to print Australia's first newspaper from a humble shed located at the rear of Government House. From 5 March 1803, the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser was on sale as a weekly edition with four portfolio pages of official material and a limited number of private notices. In early editions of the paper, a colonist could find shipping news, auction results, crime reports and agricultural notices as well as poems, literature and religious advice. To collect local news, the editor hung a 'slip box' in front of the store where the paper was issued News from abroad arrived on the clipper ships and was usually ten to fourteen weeks out-of-date by the time it was published.
Electronic Media in Australia The first radio "broadcast" in Australia was organised by George Fisk of AWA on 19th August 1919 where he arranged for the National Anthem to be broadcast from one building to another at the end of a lecture he'd given on the new medium to the Royal Society of NSW.(History of Radio in Australia) Television started in Australia with the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956.
Media Regulation in Australia - cross ownership rules.
The major effect of the laws is to prevent the common ownership of newspapers, television and radio broadcasting licences that serve the same region. The purpose of the legislation is to encourage diversity in the ownership of the most influential forms of the commercial media: the daily press and free-to-air television and radio. The justification for the rules is that the effective functioning of a democracy requires a diverse ownership of the daily mass media to ensure that public life be reported in a fair and open manner.
Australian Communications and Media Authority The ACMA is the government regulating body for media in Australia. Australian media ownership is one of the most concentrated in the world. The last review of media ownership in Australia (1999) found that of 12 capital city and daily papers, seven are owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and three by John Fairfax Holdings. The West Australian and the Canberra Times are the only independently owned dailies. One of the richest men in the world and the owner of a huge media empire, Rupert Murdoch is Australian and he began with newspapers, magazines and television stations in his native Australia, Murdoch expanded News Corp into the UK, US and Asian media markets. In recent years has become a leading investor in satellite television, the film industry, the Internet and media. News Corp is today based in New York and Murdoch became an United States citizen in 1985. He inherited newspapers from his father, legendary Australian journalist Keith Murdoch who died in 1952.
Channel Nine One of the most popular commercial television channels in Australia.
SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is Australia's multicultural and multilingual public broadcaster. SBS is unique. Its radio and television services broadcast in more languages than any other network in the world. Sixty-eight languages are spoken on SBS Radio. Programs in more than 60 languages are broadcast on SBS Television, and Online, SBS New Media provides text and audio-on-demand services in more than 50 languages. SBS was established to give voice and exposure to multicultural Australia; to define, foster and celebrate Australia's cultural diversity in accordance with our Charter obligation to "provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia's multicultural society".
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia's national public broadcaster, known previously as the Australian Broadcasting Commission. With a budget of AUD$823 million, the corporation provides television, radio and online services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas through the Australia Network and Radio Australia. Through its commercial arm, ABC Commercial, the corporation runs a chain of retail outlets, selling books, audio and video recordings, and other merchandise related to its programs. Founded in 1929 as the Australian Broadcasting Company, it was subsequently nationalised and made a state-owned corporation on July 1, 1932, becoming the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Following this, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 changed the name of the organisation to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation effective July 1, 1983.[1] The corporation produces programmes and information services, broadcasting nationally on television, radio, and the Internet. The ABC is often referred to informally as "Aunty", the origin of this name derives directly from a nickname of the ABC's cousin, the BBC
The Sydney Morning Herald The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. The newspaper's Sunday edition, The Sun-Herald, is published in tabloid format. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously-published newspaper in Australia.
The Melbourne Age The Age is a broadsheet daily newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. The Age was founded by three Melbourne businessmen, the brothers John Cooke and Henry Cooke who had arrived from New Zealand in the 1840s, and Walter Powell. The first edition appeared on 17 October 1854. The Age currently has an average weekday circulation of 196,250, increasing to 292,250 on Saturdays (in a city of 3.8 million). The Sunday Age has a circulation of 194,750.
The Australian The Australian, also referred to as The Oz, is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia Monday through Saturday each week since 1964. The editor is Chris Mitchell, and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly. The Australian is the biggest-selling national newspaper in the country, its chief rival being the business-focussed Australian Financial Review, with weekday sales of 135,000 and Saturday sales of 305,000. These figures are substantially below those enjoyed by metropolitan dailies in the major cities. The Australian is published by the Murdoch company News Limited, which also owns the sole or most popular metropolitan daily in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane.
Australian Children's Television
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Play School
Mr Squiggle
Censorship
Censorship can take a number of forms in relation to media today. These can be summarised as the reduced freedom of access to media, reduced freedom of expression in media, reduced multiplicities of expression in a media landscape and reduced possibilities to produce media. The traditional image of banning a book or a film is only one aspect of censorship in the world today. Being able to access multiple accounts of an event in media is important and a controlled media environment can prevent such a situation. Each of the countries discussed in this course is generally recognised as possessing a free press. However each has also banned publications, websites and manages the ownership of mass media outlets.
Australia
Australia is a federation, and responsibility for censorship is divided between the states and the federal government. The Federal Parliament has the power under the Australian Constitution to make laws relating to communications and customs. Under the communications power the federal government can regulate the broadcast media (television and radio), online services (the internet), and under the customs power, the import/export of printed matter, audiovisual recordings and computer games. However, the production and sale of printed matter, audiovisual recordings and computer games solely within Australia lies with the states.
However, to reduce duplication and ensure some national consistency, the states, territories and federal government have agreed to establish a co-operative national classification scheme. Under this scheme, the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) (a federal body) classifies works. Federal law enforces these classifications with respect to customs, and online services. (Broadcast media are not under the purview of the OFLC, but rather a separate federal agency, ACMA.)
But since the federal Parliament has no power to criminalise the domestic sale or exhibition of printed matter within the States, the States and Territories then as part of the scheme pass their own laws criminalising such sale and exhibition. However, although they have delegated their censorship responsibility in general to the Commonwealth, they reserve the legal right in specific cases to either:
reclassify works,
prohibit works that the Classification Board has allowed, or
allow works that the Classification Board has prohibited
The Central Board of Film Certification, the regulatory film body of India, regularly orders directors to remove anything it deems offensive, including sex, nudity, violence or subjects considered politically subversive. In 2002, the film War and Peace, depicting scenes of nuclear testing and the 11 September atrocities, created by Anand Patwardhan, was asked to make 21 cuts before it was allowed to have the certificate for release.atwardhan objected, saying "The cuts that they asked for are so ridiculous that they won't hold up in court" and "But if these cuts do make it, it will be the end of freedom of expression in the Indian media." The court decreed the cuts unconstitutional and the film was shown uncut.
In 2002, the Indian filmmaker and former chief of the country's film censor board, Vijay Anand, proposed legalizing the exhibition of explicit films in selected cinemas across the country, saying "Porn is shown everywhere in India clandestinely... and the best way to fight this onslaught of blue movies is to show them openly in theatres with legally authorised licences".He resigned within a year after taking charge of the censor board after facing widespread criticism of his moves.
In 2003, the Indian Censor Board banned the film 'Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror)', a film on queer India produced and directed by Sridhar Rangayan. The censor board cited that the film was 'vulgar and offensive'. The filmmaker appealed twice again unsuccessfully. The film still remains banned in India, but has screened at numerous festivals all over the world and won awards. The critics have appluaded it for its 'sensitive and touching portrayal of marginalized community'.
In 2004, the documentary Final Solution, which looks at religious rioting between Hindus and Muslims, was banned. The film follows 2002 clashes in the western state of Gujarat, which left more than 1,000 people dead. The censor board justified the ban, saying it was "highly provocative and may trigger off unrest and communal violence". The ban was lifted in Oct.'04 after a sustained campaign.
In 2006, seven states (Nagaland, Punjab, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh) have banned the release or exhibition of the Hollywood movie The Da Vinci Code (and also the book),although India's Central Board of Film Certification cleared the film for adult viewing throughout India. In 1989, Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses was banned in India, as it was in many countries, for its purported attacks on Islam.India was the second country in the world (after Singapore) to ban the book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_India
South Africa
Press freedom has a chequered history in South Africa as well as a dubious current state. While some sectors of the South African media openly criticised the apartheid system and the National Party government, they were hampered by various amounts of government censorship during the years. For example, journalist Donald Woods became renowned after he fled to live in the United Kingdom in exile and expose the truth behind the death of Steve Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement. After the end of apartheid in 1994 however, censorship ended and a new constitution was enacted which has a Bill of Rights that guarantees that every citizen has the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of the press and media, the freedom to receive or impart information or ideas, freedom of artistic creativity, academic freedom, and freedom of scientific research. These freedoms are generally respected in practice and the press is considered relatively free. Laws concerning the media and political control over its content are generally considered to be moderate and there is little evidence of repressive measures against journalists. In consequence, South Africa is ranked joint 31st (with Australia) in Reporters Without Borders' worldwide index of press freedom 2005.
However, there has also been criticism of certain aspects of the freedom of the press in South Africa. It has been pointed out that almost all the large daily newspapers are owned by just four large media firms, which could lead to pro-Corporate bias. In addition, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which is the public broadcaster, is argued by many to carry a fairly strong pro-ruling party (African National Congress (ANC)) bias, especially considering the fact that the majority of its management and executive staff are either ANC members or ANC aligned. The cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were banned in South Africa by Judge Mohammed Jajbhay on 3 February 2006.
Television is the most tightly regulated media sector in South Africa and is (along with radio) regulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Broadcast rights, especially for television, are issued by invitation only and only two independent television broadcasters have been permitted to operate up to now. Broadcast licenses mandate percentages of local, community and educational content and broadcasters are required to include such content as a condition of their license. As a result, there are only four free-to-air terrestrial television channels in South Africa, the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) Channels 1, 2 and 3 as well as e.tv. The SABC is South Africa's state-owned public broadcaster.
Since the end of Apartheid, there has been a dearth of alternative media in South Africa as most of it got incorporated into mainstream corporate media as well as government and political party organising. Some of South Africa's largest social movements and other activist organisations have an online presence of alternative blogs and activist websites. According to the social movements, the importance of these alternative media sites are that they provide a way for 'poor people to speak for themselves'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_South_Africa
England
The digital divide is the increasingly gaping void between those who are "connected", with two-way, video-rich, on-demand media being pumped into their home (or mobile device) over IP ("Internet Protocol"), and those who aren't: of the 40% of adults in the UK who don't have internet access, we reckon half of them have very negative attitudes to new media and don't see the benefit of the internet, the red button and - to a certain extent - mobile phones. A two-tier nation. Every bit as stark a divide as would be access to free health care for some and not others. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/01/the_digital_divide_1.html
The introduction of controversial games featuring photo-realistic images, such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap, led to calls from the British tabloid press for games to fall under the Video Recordings Act. The UK games publisher trade body ELSPA responded by introducing a voluntary age rating system in 1994. The ELSPA ratings were succeeded by PEGI in 2003. Nevertheless, although games are generally exempt from the Video Recordings Act, those depicting sexual content, or gross violence towards people or animals, must still be submitted to the BBFC for consideration. BBFC ratings are legally binding, and British law imposes stiff penalties on retailers who sell to under-aged customers. However, the Act was discovered in August 2009 to be unenforceable. The rating system is to be reviewed as part of the Digital Britain (http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx) project.
Carmageddon, in which the gameplay involved mowing down innocent pedestrians, was the first game to be refused classification in 1997, effectively banning it. The game's publisher, SCI, had a modified version created in which the pedestrians in question were replaced by green-blooded zombies, which completed a successful appeal against the BBFC to overturn their original decision. The uncensored, unmodified version of Carmageddon was later released under an 18-certificate.
In 2002 the Io Interactive game Hitman 2: Silent Assassin was withdrawn by a number of retailers due to religious sensitivities. The area in question involved a Sikh sect that were depicted as terrorists involved in arms smuggling and assassination. It also involved a section that many Sikhs believed to closely resemble the 1984 massacre at the Amritsar temple. In 2004, the parents of a murdered 14-year-old boy blamed Manhunt as having been "connected" to the murder. It was later found not to be, as the game was found in the victim's home, rather than the killer's. Leicestershire police "did not uncover any connections to the computer game." The accusations prompted some retailers to remove the game from their shelves. Nevertheless, following this incident the sales of the game rose due to the free publicity from newspaper headlines. The sequel, Manhunt 2, released in 2007, was banned in the UK by the BBFC. On appeal to the Video Appeals Committee this ruling was overturned however the BBFC launched a successful judicial review into the VAC's decision, forcing the VAC to reconsider its judgement. On 14 March 2008, the VAC again recommended that the game be released, a position to which the BBFC have now agreed. The game now, according to Play.com is reportedly available on 29/08/2008 on all 3 consoles and is available to pre-order.
In June 2007 the PS3 game Resistance: Fall of Man was criticized for the use of Manchester cathedral as one of the games' backdrops. Sony, the publisher of the game, responded by saying "Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is aware of the concerns expressed by the Bishop of Manchester and the cathedral authorities... and we naturally take the concerns very seriously. Resistance: Fall of Man is a fantasy science fiction game and is not based on reality. We believe we have sought and received all permissions necessary for the creation of the game."
