Image, the Imaginary, and Postmodernity's Mediascapes: The case of The Onion

BEIJING. The Chinese Communist Party may want to brush up on U.S. media.

The People's Daily, the party's official organ, ran a large feature on its website Tuesday on young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un being named The Onion's "Sexiest Man Alive."

The only glitch was that The People's Daily didn't seem to realize The Onion is a satirical publication...

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~ dc

Post Blog Appadurai

Today in Class we discussed our readings on Arjun Appadurai. There are phrases, quotes and ideas in this piece that resonate with me.  Two of the phrases were Disorganized capitalism and Path Dependency. I believe both of these conditions are caused by the structures that hold capitalism up. Something like path dependency, which is when we blindly follow the trend and even if, its not right path we still stay on it. Also Disorganized Capitalism is just as it sounds, capitalism but disorganized or not right. In class we heard an example about how Florida is the top grower of tomatoes in the US but how its one of the worst places to grow tomatoes. Also the scapes Apadurai had mentioned all about understood the structures of different landscapes. When dealing with media scape you must understand its power structures. You must be able to identify biasness so that you can look at the gaps in the text like Mache ray or Derrida. In this clip John Stewart points out Fox News’s bias, he sees the biasedness and is aware of his media landscape. Overall i learned a lot more in this semester than i thought i would. The first couple of days i was worried about learning theorist. But all turned out well and i learned a lot, hopefully i can bring up critical theory in other classes besides John Stewart Economics

Post Blog 11/28

Thankfully, after today’s class discussion I feel I now have a better grasp on Appardurai’s article. His essential argument is that the global cultural economy is growing at an exponential rate. There almost aren’t any countries or cultures that are purely there own. He states, “Cultural transitions between social groups in the past have generally be restricted, sometime by the fact of geography and ecology . . . ” (511). However, “it takes only the merest acquaintance with the facts of the modern world to note that it is now an interactive system in a sense that is strikingly new” (511). This interactive system of which he speaks with “new order and intensity” is congruent with the advancement of technologies. Technology is constantly growing and likewise its advancement effects industry and culture around it. This for example could be anything from advancements transportation of traded commodities to telecommunication satellites. Basically anything that contributes to the ‘shrinking’ of world. He creates 5 concepts for helping understand how this has happens in their respective categories. One example of this can be “technoscapes.” This refers to the technological contributes to the global flow of culture. For example lets say Michael Jackson, an American pop icon. Now I say and American icon, but in reality the majority of people of earth know who he was. Technological advancements in radio, television, Internet etc. has made it so nearly everyone in the world could identify a song if they heard it, and furthermore could even tell you when he dressed like. Appardurai’s has, for all intents and purposes, created a lexicon for which can be used to help understand the global economy and the cultural flow of the postmodern world. 

Post Class 11/28/12 - Arjun Appadurai-

Arjun Appadurai has rather a broader ideology of the global cultural economy. However, his ideas ties into one piece at the end. He discussed disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy which contains rather recent on going issues in global economy. He talks about "elementary framework for exploring such disjunctures to look at the relationship among five dimensions of global cultural flows that can be termed"(514). Those five dimensions are 'ethnoscapes', 'mediascapes', 'technoscapes', 'finacescapes', and ' ideoscapes'. They all tie into one similar relationship which shaped by globalization  and easier excess of everything. In today's society, whole world is so closely related especially in economy. No country is completely independent when it's come down to economy and culture. We think this irregular culture and relationships had been going on for long time. Yet this international phenomenon had been going on only last ten years, when we critically look at what Appadurai is discussing in his text. 

Post class 11/28

Once again, the class discussions truly brought forth the deeper meaning, and agenda, of Appadurai's reading in its totality. One of the links we drew in class was the sustained cultural forces creating a stronger communication across cultures and the ways in which its becoming stronger.

"A new power was unleashed in the world, the power of mass literacy and its attendant large scale production of projects of ethnic affinity that were remarkably free of the need for face-to-face communication or even of indirect communication between persons and groups." (511-512)

Mark Poster brings forth the rhizome and how it spreads down and out, just as Appadurai explains this cultural connection. Thanks to the ability of communication growing there's an equal spread of culture with that communication.

In regards to mediascapes, one of the five dimensions laid out, I was in thought over a governments bias with another country or culture in relevance to media. If a country's government were to have a tiff with America, would they then hold out a lot of American media from their own population? They would seem to have the power and resources to do so. How would this then play into the Americanization of that country? Would this then have a reaction similar to Appadurai's discussion of distance from metropolitan areas and their fantasy images? If a culture is far removed from America, then their images of Americanization would become imagined.

post class 11/28

Arjun Appadurai discussed the imaginary in his article. A lot of what I found can relate back to what Baudrillard discussed in his discussion on reality and simulacra. When Appadurai discussed the “ethnoscapes” in his piece he was discussing the people including tourists, workers, immigrants, refugues, and more all together creating the culture and society we live in. For example the tourists that go to Disneyland are choosing to partake in a type of culture and that is what creates the change in our world. His discussion of “mediascapes”is interesting as well because we have so much technology now, but the distribution of it is so important. A lot of what we have in the media is regulated or controlled by the government, and what is seen in the media influences our view on our culture. Media and technology shape our world today.

He also discussed “disorganized capitalism.” Every time I travel from my home in south Florida back to school I pass through the middle of the state with tons of orange factories. Almost all of our oranges come from Florida and it makes me wonder why that is. Florida is conveniently located within the United States. The shipments of oranges are sent out all across the country from just one state. I am not sure why, because other states could most likely grow them too and have local produce. This is one way our country and disorganized and makes it much more difficult then it needs to be. This has to do a lot with what Appadurai says. He questions the culture we live in and then how this is affecting our economy, and on even a bigger scale, our globe. 

Pre Clas Blog: Arjun Appadurai

Appadurai's article explores the global cultural economy. Appadurai notes that there is this sense of nostalgia for some, nostalgia for a place of time that one has not been to. Growing up as a teen, there was a television channel, that would air Different Strokes at night. I watched every single episode and was fascinated with the American sitcom. Purely for the fact that I liked comedy, but also the fact that it was a famous American show. I wanted to know what it meant to be American and somehow this show acted as a gateway. Although it was among a list of many that I would watch, all american shows. The reason why this one was different is the fact that there was this constant feeling of Nostalgia. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African American boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman. There is a definitely mettanarrative around this whole show, and that is the notion of two black children taken in by someone who holds so much privilege in the country, during a time in which there where still pretty high racial tensions. Appadurai states " The past is now not a land to return to in a simple politics of memory. It has become a synchronic warehouse of cultural scenarios" (513), the show constantly drew upon the tensions that Mr Drummond faced, and at this time it was seen as kind of revolutionary for the country. I celebrated the family dynamic, although not really know what the underlying tones suggested. Living in an interracial household, this had never appeared as something that may be such a problem.