Archive for November, 2006
The story of National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) refusing a donation of DVDs by Inconvenient Truth co-producer Laurie David is flying all over the blogosphere right now. The following post from the Think Progress blog has a great link to the kind of oil and coal industry curricula the NATA does accept (it’s about a teen girl who discovers what life is like without petroleum, such as no lipstick!). Just goes to show there is nothing “neutral” about education, or the media used for teaching. But this being a “teachable moment,” I hope educators will show the Inconvenient Truth and the oil industry video linked below to teach about bias, not only in media, but in energy consumption as well. I encourage clicking through to the Think Progress post to read the whole thing.
Think Progress » Science Teachers’ Organization Refuses To Accept Copies of Inconvenient Truth:
In tomorrow’s Washington Post, global warming activist Laurie David writes about her effort to donate 50,000 free DVD copies of An Inconvenient Truth (which she co-produced) to the National Science Teachers Association. The Association refused to accept the DVDs:
In their e-mail rejection, they expressed concern that other “special interests†might ask to distribute materials, too; they said they didn’t want to offer “political†endorsement of the film; and they saw “little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members†in accepting the free DVDs. …
[T]here was one more curious argument in the e-mail: Accepting the DVDs, they wrote, would place “unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.â€
As it turns out, those supporters already include “special interests,†including Exxon-Mobil, Shell Oil, and the American Petroleum Institute, which have given millions in funding to the NSTA. And while the NSTA showed no interest in helping educators get copies of Al Gore’s movie (which scientists gave “five stars for accuracy“), it has distributed oil industry-funded “educational†content, like this video produced by the American Petroleum Institute: (click this link to see the video)
Technorati Tags: InconvenientTruth, LaurieDavid
I’m currently writing a chapter on Native America, education and digital learning for the MacArthur Foundation, who is publishing a seminal six book series on the subject next year. My chapter will be in the “Race and Ethnicity” volume. MacArthur is investing a lot of resources ($50 million!) into this project and is making a conscious effort to create a new field of study on the subject.
Part of their effort to draw attention to the project is their “Spotlight” blog, which highlights some of the ideas and insights of the authors. I posted to it today, and you can view it here. A short snip:
The Nunga (southern Australian aborigines) have a term for the mental software of the European colonizers: “Invader Dreaming.†I take this to be a compact description of a mentality, one that is of the “invaders,†but one that also “invades.â€
And just as I view advertising as the dream life of corporations, I think its fair to say that digital media is a kind of dream world that requires critical inspection. Consequently, I’m interested in what sociologists refer to as “subjectivities,†ways of perceiving and being in the world and how they impact communities. As an educator and writer engaging different media forms in Native American classrooms, I want to extend this discussion to a broader understanding of communication systems as mental and spiritual environments, or as â€media ecologies.†As Neil Postman remarks, “When media make war against each other, it is a case of worldviews in collision.â€
Technorati Tags: MacArthur-Foundation, digital-media-learning
At least with The Daily Show fake news is funny. Not so with “Video News Releases” (NVR), which are bogus news packages created by PR companies that run during regular news programs as if they are legitimate news. This has been a growing phenomena that needs curbing. Click below for more:
Local Television’s Dirty Little Secret
For the second time this year, Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) have revealed that corporate propaganda continues to infiltrate local television news across the country.
Stations are slipping corporate-sponsored “video news releases†— promotional segments designed to look like objective news reports — into their regular news programming. This deception is illegal under FCC rules.
Technorati Tags: news, PR, VNR, videonewsreleases
America’s Army is Rated ‘T’ for Teen
As you probably know, the US military is having trouble recruiting. Various strategies include massive ad campaigns, video games, and aggressive campus presences. While working at a Native American boarding school, I recall classes getting canceled so students could watch the Air Force rock band perform in the gym. For me it was a bit like Spinal Tap, but the kids seemed to enjoy the covers of southern rock songs played by crew-cut donning soldiers in jumpers. In response there are a number of organizations who are engaging in “counter recruitment.” Meanwhile, there is the latest campaign, Army Strong.
Frankly I’m baffled by the new Army slogan, “Army Strong.” It strangely alludes to the Italian roots of “fascism”:
The word fascism stems from the Italian word fascio (plural: fasci), which may mean bundle, as in a political or militant group, or a nation. The term also comes from the fasces (rods bundled around an axe), which was an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of magistrates. The symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity; a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is very difficult to break. (from Wikipedia)
Thankfully, AdAge has a great review of the recent ad campaign, which points out the obvious. The current TV ad completely ignores the “elephant in the room,” war.
Advertising Age:
The “get over yourself” line is fantastic. And the rest minimally does its job of portraying Army service as selfless and heroic. What it doesn’t do is acknowledge the elephant in the room. Save for one flashing image in the 60-second of a medic placing his stethoscope to the chest of a healthy-looking Iraqi boy, there is not the slightest reference to wartime. The strength message scans as far as it goes, but is drowned out by the deafening silence about violent reality.
Technorati Tags: advertising, army, counter recruitment, propaganda, Army Stong
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
As the New York Times recently reported, companies are creating their own films, TV networks and “webasodes” under the rubric of “branded content.” The fact that I am writing about it is a tribute to the “marketability” of the concept. People ignore ads, so this is part of the commercial backlash to wire your eyes and ears. Until the novelty wears off, keep a look out for the ridiculous and sublime. With news of Anheuser-Busch’s soon-to-come BudTV (or should we call it “MisogynyTVforTeens”?), I’m loath to predict “reality” TV shows that in a real alternate reality would be called things like “Hangover Island,” “STD Survivor,” or “DWI Date Rape.” OK, so I’m a little off color here. But extreme times call for excessive parody.
Call it product placement planet in which all things brand are reality. This is the future of marketing, and the future is now. Don’t be surprised, though, because “brand channels” are the ultimate logical progression of a commercialized media system. After all, isn’t every advertisement also a compact, self-evident, self-contained ideological lesson plan on the merits and wonders of the commodities system?
One example that is worthy of a closer look (thank you media gods!) is instantdef.com, Snickers’ version of one of these self-contained brand universes proliferating the Web. I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a while, so I’m sure it’s value as a viral meme has already been sapped as it has ebbed and flowed through the sea of marketing cool. But here goes. If you are an educator, I recommend this site as one of those great “teachable moments” that appears more often than not these days. Continue reading ‘Product placement planet’
So many movies, so little time. Staying informed is serious work. Still, looks like there’s another excellent documentary on the war, Iraq in Fragments. Judging from the trailer it appears beautifully shot, which makes me a little nervous. I’m coming to believe that images that spectacularize war tend to make it more palpable, as if its another entertainment experience to be consumed. True enough, I remain fascinated by war and its destruction. There is something very primal about it. I wonder if my obsession, even if it’s predicated on ending war, somehow perpetuates its existence. Still, what is appealing about this film is how it appears to view the conflict from an Iraqi perspective which is totally absent from our national media. We often tend to think of how the war hurts us, meanwhile we annihilate from our thoughts the people who have suffered the most from this travesty.
Could this be the future of reading? ZAP Reader takes your text and flashes it quickly so you don’t need to move your eyes. This is a little like the idea I had when I was a kid to take a “book pill” to save the time it takes to read. I don’t know if I can get used to reading like this, but I could be conditioned to, just like Alex de Large in A Clockwork Orange. My one complaint about this utility is that it takes your text and processes at the ZAP Reader site. I’d like to see it as a standalone that generates the text right in your Web page like an embedded object (such as the YouTube video in this post). But, hey, I think it’s cool. But like eating ice cream too fast, it kinda pinches my brain too.
Here’s another opportunity to read about the top 25 censored news stories from project censored. Here’s a snip, click the link to read what’s on the rest of the list.
News & Culture | Censored news stories:
1. Net Neutrality
Throughout 2005 and this year, a largely underground debate has raged regarding the future of the Internet. More recently referred to as net neutrality, the issue has become a tug of war with cable companies on the one hand and consumers and Internet service providers (ISPs) on the other. Yet despite important legislative proposals and Supreme Court decisions throughout 2005, the issue was almost completely ignored in the headlines until 2006. And except for occasional coverage on CNBC’s Kudlow & Kramer, mainstream television remains hands-off to this day.
Coming to an eyeball near you:
This is your brain on negative ads - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com:
WASHINGTON - The grainy black-and-white images appear on television, while ominous music plays in the background. It’s another in a blizzard of negative political ads and before you consciously know it, the message takes hold of your brain.
You may not want it to, but it works just about instantly.
In fact, the ad’s effects on the brain “are actually shocking,” says UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Marco Iacoboni.
Technorati Tags: election, politics, negative advertising
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Via: Boing Boing: Timeline of words used in Presidential speeches (1776 - 2006):
Start Slide Show with PicLens LiteChirag has analyzed “the words that presidents used frequently in their speeches shows which issues they deemed important. The prominence of ‘Terrorist’ in G. W. Bush’s tag cloud is unsurprising while Richard Nixon was all about ‘commitment’ somehow. Move the slider around to see the changes in tag cloud.
They’re not just for trucks stops anymore…
Prime Rib, Minus the Prime-Time TV:
“[National Restaurant Association] surveys show that diners increasingly view restaurants as extensions of their own homes, and a large percent would like to see table-top TVs installed at their favorite eating joint.”
