Week 6

Censoring?

Looking At Aljazeera as a source of news, can we say that Western News Organizations censor the news we get? Aljazeera is known for their graphic news images and stories that presents the real facts behind international conflicts or other events. Because the Western News companies like Fox News don’t, does that mean they’re censoring us?

It’s really does raise a lot of questions on what media outlets should show, but many see the freeness of Al Jazeera as a good thing. “Traditionally, the Middle East has been accustomed to heavily censored offerings of state-controlled television…(however) by using the power and persuasion of television, this news channel provided the first exposure to opposing voices, and in so doing has managed to enrage all of the authoritarian Arab regimes at one time or another (M El-Nawawy, 2002).”  

Historically, not censoring violent images can have huge effects, for example the Vietnam War, also known as the televised war. The tactics and treatment from the American’s towards the Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were captures on camera for the first time in a war, because of the content that was being sent home (not propaganda for once) the general public became very much opposed against their troops, with Vietnam vets being spat on and only been allowed to march many years after.

References

M El-Nawawy, A Iskander – 2002, Al-Jazeera: How the free Arab news network scooped the world and changed the Middle East,  omec.uab.cat

Week 5

Making Culture

Culture is defined as “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. For me there are so many different cultures people are a part of and everyone has some sense of culture in their life whether it is a nationalistic one or not.

Personally, I feel as though I am part of an AFL culture as I live and breathe the sport, I feel as though I have a direct link between myself and others who are in  the same boat regarding the sport, even though we’re all different individuals.

“The sense of ‘home’ as a stable and coherent entity is an important part of…dispersed existence.”
(ALC215 Study Guide, p.8)

When it comes to patriotism or any concerns I have in my country of birth, I tend to agree with Sun’s point that “migrants may become more possessive on issues of national sovereignty than do their compatriots at home (Sun, 2002, p114).” I myself recently spent a bit of time in America (LA and New York) and only whilst I was out of Australia did I suddenly feel this sense of nationalism and eagerness to know what exactly was going on back at home.  

However, this is not to say that I didn’t adapt to the American culture I was thrown into, within a matter of days I was talking, eating, drinking and behaving like the quintessential American.  

References

ALC215 Study Guide, p.8. 

Sun, W 2002, ‘Fantasizing the homeland, the internet, memory and exilic longings’, Leaving China: media, migration, and transnational imagination, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, Md., p. 114.

Week 4

When arguing if the The Olympics are either a globalizing force/global event or are not, it really comes down to your view on what global means. We all know that The Olympics is an event that culminates with an enormous number of countries (10,500 athletes participating from 204 countries), huge numbers of volunteers, massive investments from sponsors all over the globe and millions and millions of spectators watching, however how much of this globe are actually involved.

You just need to look at the host nations of the past 20 years; United Kingdom, China, Greece, Australia, North America, Spain, South Korea and North America. What is the common denominator here? They’re all relatively wealthy nations that have either hosted before or done well over the years in the Olympics.  Look at Africa, not a single Olympic games has been hosted in an African nation.

Not just that, even the medals are dominated consistently by the same countries, with China, the US, the UK, Korea and Russia making up the top 5 for medals, hardly a globalizing force.

On a positive note, these Olympics have become known as the ‘social networking games,’ with the overall message being spread faster and further than ever before. A recent study of 1005 Americans found that 17% are watching the Olympics online or digitally and a further 12% have remained abreast of the games via social networking sites (Kurz 2012).    

References

Kurz P, Aug 2012, Americans augment Olympics TV vewing with social networks, online video, finds Pew, NP