Mediacology

Though I think the tone of the following article is a little stark, I do think the notion of a “truth emergency” is valid. In particular, I don’t think people understand how intertwined media, finance and the military are.

Truth Emergency: Inside the Military Industrial Media Empire | The Media Freedom Foundation:

A global dominance agenda also [...]

This is one of the greatest culture jams of all time, made by artist Phil Patiris. I’m glad to finally see it on the net. This YouTube version is a little incomplete. I recommend seeing the complete version at the Internet Archive.

When I was a kid I attended a summer chemistry class in which the teacher demonstrated the horrifying properties of white phosphorous. As he poured if from a test tube it burned through almost anything it touched and potentially, he warned us, human flesh. As he did this he mentioning in passing it was used [...]

The movie.

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You have to admit, as propanda goes, these are absolutely brilliant. At least your tax dollars are finally paying for something that works. Enter the Air Force’s current “a changing world” campaign. It is so rich with paradigm it’s hard to summarize in a short paragraph what they are putting forth. Suffice to say they [...]

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“The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives” (Nick Turse)
From TomDispatch.com:
Here is the new, hip, high-tech military-industrial complex — an omnipresent, hidden-in-plain-sight system of systems that penetrates all our lives. Mapping out what should more properly be called the Military – Industrial – Technological – Entertainment – Scientific – Media – Intelligence – Corporate [...]

Of all the nefarious propaganda strategies, the one that irks me the most is the use and abuse of war veterans to justify war. I’m not just talking about the “support our troops” hammer used to pound peace activists, but the parade of retired generals and so-called experts who come on television to legitimate violence. [...]

Some Iraqi War vets staged mock raids in Chicago based on patrols they performed in Iraq. It’s in interesting guerrilla theater tactic to get people to switch mental gears. Frankly, it scared the crap out of me.
PS As I was thinking about the action depicted in the video, it occurred to me that post-9-11 doing [...]

More evidence of the obscene reality we’re in. I truly hope the Democrats have something better to offer.
For more info, click here.

I’m cribbing notes from Rising Voice’s David Sasaki who wrote an excellent roundup of how the Web is a tool for Kenyan activists to document the current crisis.
Ushahidi is an organization that is combining SMS alerts of Kenyan violence with google maps that gives a timeline of civil incidents but also a way to map [...]

These videos are certainly sensational and have the right intention at heart, which is to make more concrete the horrors of industrialized state violence and the holocaust. Yet there is something that strikes me as a bit off about the scenarios in these videos. It gives the impression that there is something random, [...]

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I just completed my first Slidecast, which is a combination of a PowerPoint with narrated audio. It’s about eight minutes long dealing with the theme of propaganda, war photos, film and popular culture. I hope you like it. More to come!

Is anybody really shocked? At least the evidence is in. Now use it.
Iraq: The War Card – The CIraq: The War Card – The Center for Public Integrity:
President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at [...]

Peter Kuper
NoZone
This is Not a Comic
2004
Silkscreen
Is it possible that there are artists for war? Unlikely. The above image is one of 60 works featured in the Artists Against The War show sponsored by the Society of Illustrators. Wish I could be there, but the site previews the work.

Technorati Tags: Peter Kuper, Society of Illustrators

You can read my latest column on war, pictures and propaganda at Understand Media. Link follows.
Understand Media -> Articles -> War Pictures by Antonio Lopez:
Regardless of your opinions about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, the Bush Administration has relied heavily on media management and imagery to justify and promote its cause. Whether [...]

MPAA thinks the above poster is inappropriate for all audiences because hoods are scary.

Unlike these.

Taxi to the Dark Side is a documentary, these bottom three are horror films whose graphic images are apparently agreeable to the general public, including the necons. The good news is that the documentarians got some free publicity out of [...]