ALC215 Week 3: Globalization, Hip Hop and American Culture

I've always wanted to go to America (hopefully one day soon), part of it is because of my love for American sport, part of it is because I just want to see the world, and part of it is because I've always had a fascination in American Hip hop culture.While I am fully aware that culturally, the real America is a far from what is portrayed in music, music videos and movies, perpetuation of these cultural stereotypes has lead to my views (and I'm sure I'm not alone) being skewed from reality. This is because me as a consumer of media texts, especially as an impressionable child, I only see extrapolated, theatrical versions of what the reality of American society might actually look like.

I'll freely admit that my knowledge of (or lack thereof) American culture has been completely shaped by artists such as Ice Cube, Tupac and the Notorious BIG amongst many others, as well as film and television such as 8 Mile, Coming to America, White Men Can't Jump, He Got Game and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

 

Unambitiousus.com (2013)

However, representations through film, television and music very rarely stay true to real life. This is because film and television often rely on assumptions and stereotypes to make characters recognisable and relateable. Benshoff and Griffin explain these stereotypes as 'oversimplified and overgeneralised assumptions' which 'inevitably create erroneous perceptions about individuals' (Benshoff and Griffin, 2009, pp.42-43). These representations and stereotypes of gangsters, rappers and streetballers are fact to me, partly because I don't know any better having no actual experience to base my opinions on, and partly because these stereotypes are enforced to such a degree that they have almost become impenetrable parts of popular culture. 

 

http://www.defjam.com/artists/beastie-boys/

The rapper for example is almost always an African American male, laden with chains 'bling' and baggy clothing, and often associated with gangs. This stereotype is occasionally challenged by white artists such as Eminem or the Beastie Boys, however the stereotype still endures because it is still embedded in the psyche, and to an extent perpetuates itself when people recognize it and act accordingly.

References

Benshoff, H, Griffin S 2009, America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, Blackwell Publishing, United Kingdom, pp.42-43.

ALC 201, Module 1, Topic 3, Surveilance Case study

Note to all ALC215 readers, this is work for another unit, by all means comment, but you won't be able to submit it.

 The recent release of Microsoft’s new Xbox One (the successor to the Xbox 360) has thrown up a couple of intriguing elements of electronic tracking and surveillance. Firstly there is an issue of activity and use tracking through a compulsory Internet tether for a daily check in, (which has now been scaled back), but primarily the controversy centres around the console's Kinect motion capture camera. As part of the Xbox One's perpetual standby mode, Kinect is always active, and picks up any movement, voice or hand movements, and beams footage back to Microsoft's central servers.

This is disturbing enough in and of itself, however when coupled with allegations made by American hacker Edward Snowden that all Microsoft products are equipped with a 'backdoor' which grants access to America's National Security Agency. This, you could argue is similar to the communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) which as Gates and Magnet (2007, p.281) explain as being an act that 'requires telecommunication carriers to design their equipment, facilities, and services to enable electronic surveillance'. One could argue that this is no different to allegations made by Snowden, and that NSA access is just another part of the modern surveillance society, however CALEA is written into law, and freely available to anyone to view, while the NSA's PRISM operation (detailed below) was run in complete secret, without the knowledge of the general public. 

Snowden paints a picture of an extremely effectively and sophisticated surveillance scheme, which can monitor every facet of everyday life, and while Xbox One's Kinect camera is only a small facet of this, having an omnipresent video recording capability built in to what is essentially a children's gaming device is something that many would view as a trivial and invasive perversion of their civil rights, especially considering at the time of release facts about where footage might end up and what it might be used for had not revealed.

It should be noted here that there has been no confirmation that any Kinect camera footage has been or is being monitored as part of the PRISM program, however the possibilities of such a system are pretty much endless. Furthermore, much has been made in the past about the 'threat' of surveillance, chiefly through the analysis of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, a concept of self-regulation, predicated on the idea someone 'could be' watching. The Panopticon was furthered by French sociologist Michel Foucault, who analyzed it as a way 'to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in it's effects' (Foucault, 1977, p.201). This sentiment has now become very relevant again with Snowden's revelations that the American government has the potential capabilities to monitor a person's every single movement and connection. Does the concept of the Panopticon still ring true today, even if the medium has changed from a prison guard to a computer technician? Will the mental image of a dark room somewhere with hundreds of television monitors have any influence whatsoever on the human condition?
 

References

Foucault, M, 1977, 'Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison'. A. Sheridan, (Trans), Penguin, London,  p.201.

Gates, K, & Magnet, S 2007, 'Communication Research and the Study of Surveillance', Communication Review, 10, 4, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 12 August 2013.  p.281.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5yB3n9fu-rM

Pazarino, M, 2013, 'Microsoft reverses course on Internet connection and used game policies of Xbox One', retrieved August 7, 2013, http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/06/19/microsoft-apparently-reverses-course-on-xbox-one-always-on-internet-connection-and-used-game-policies/ 

RT, 2013, 'Microsoft helped the NSA bypass encryption, new Snowden leak reveals' retrieved August 7, 2013, http://rt.com/usa/microsoft-nsa-snowden-leak-971/ 

Wordcount: 495

 

ALC215 Week 2: Globalization, Ethnoscapes, Migration and Me

Globalization is one of those complex phenomena that seem to have hundreds (maybe even thousands) of different definitions floating around the internet. It has been described by various theorists as 'the compression of time and space' (Baumann 1999), 'the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole' (Rantanan, 2005) as well as being discussed in great depth by theorists such as McLuhan
in his hypothesis about the global village.

With all that in mind, I've decided to blog about the ethnoscapes and financescapes associated with globalization and how it relates to me. So, both my sets of grandparents emigrated from Greece in the 60's, and although it's something I've never really looked in to in any depth, but I've always assumed it was partly due to political unrest, partly due to economic problems and partly due to them simply wanting a better quality of life. Their move to Melbourne characterizes Appadurai's thinking on so called 'ethnoscapes', which he phrases as the 'landscapes of group identity' which he also points out are no longer bound by physical borders. Australia as a whole is a good example of this as the country is mostly populated by a myriad of different ethno-cultural groups, who still identify themselves with their country of origin. Although like many, my extended family still indulge in specific forms of media from their own countries and printed in their own languages, either through satellite television, the internet, or old school print media.

In terms of how this has effected myself and my family, looking at the current state of Greece it's fair to say that the quality of life and education is a drastic improvement on what I could've been born into otherwise. Kinda scary to think in another life I could possibly be getting around in one of these without globalization and the effects of these 'scapes'.

  

Travellerspoint.com

'Till next week...


References

ALC215 slides, 2013, Week 2.

Appadurai, A. (1990) ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’, Theory Culture Society, Sage Publications, London, vol. 7, p. 295.

Rantanen, T. 2005 ‘Theorizing media and globalization’, Media and globalization, Sage Publications, London, pp. 1-18

Testing, testing, 1,2,3.

This post is a test post, it's purpose is to test.

ALC 215 is the unit, Globalization and the Media are the subjects.


Dragons will also be covered, however depth and detail may be scant