Week 1 Blog - Who controls media
After going through the Pozner reading, the question that stuck in my mind was about how we know what we know, and who controls the media? All my friends have blogs except for me, and lots of them put videos of their performances and randomness on youtube. Journalists control what we read in newspapers... simply which stories and also what sort of hidden angle they spin it with. Television news is the same. But when you consider blogs and youtube as "new media" you really see that everyone has the potential to control media.
Videos on youtube have millions and millions of views... some of them original and some of them postings of other media.
One video that particularly sticks out in my memory is one we stumbled across in another GWSS class. While we were studying music videos we came across a video someone had made of their 6 year old sister doing the dance with the Pop Lock and Drop It music video. Apart from the fact that it's cringe-worthy that a 6 year old is already emulating behavior of sex "objects" on television... the thing that really bothers me is that her older sister got out the video camera and put it up on the internet for thousands of people to look at. If media is in her hands, it really scares me as to where it could go. Obviously we have the right to self expression and that video didn't directly harm or attack any particular person; but I still think that there is something worth thinking about.
How are we, as people who promote many different things but essentially the rights of women able to reach as many people as the crazy youtube videos and bloggers? If we join them on youtube and other accessible media, how could a 30 second video make that girl realize the objectification and sexism found in such a popular video?
I'm all for "not beating them, joining them" but it will take enormous amounts of creativity to become as appealing as the video with 27 million views in 1 year. Or the songs that play on the radio three times daily. I'm really excited for this class... it's an opportunity to do just that.