The Corporation

Commnet: For a few bad apples there seems to be a lot of reference to bad apples. Makes one wonder just how many there are that we don't know about. Hmm, the american way, use the image of the bald eagle to the advantage of the corporation.
Interesting look at the how it has evolved to a reference to something per man hour. If you think about it, that is all business is about for the most part.
The corporation as a pesron. Makes for a an interesting development of our history. Definitly sounds like some issues need to be changed.
The all mighty buck makes the world go around. Something that seems to be driven home through marketing and anything else that can be used by the various corporations.
Using factories in poor thrid world countries is definitly a double edge sword. Yes, we have paind them for cheap labor but they now have jobs. Granted they should be paid more and in better conditions.
Moving into the chemical production area. The issues are greater but with the situation of the corporation it will only be prolonged for many years. Nice focus on Mansantos. Now if only something can be done about it.
Accountablitity, doesn't seem that there is enough to actually cause a corporation tohave concern. They seem to just include the cost of paying fines into the budget plan and it just motivates them to make even more money to compensate for it.

It will be interesting to see the end of the movie next week.

Birth of a Nation, part 3

Comment: Today we have viewed the rape/suicide section and are making are way through the KKK section. It is interesting to see how the KKK is portrayed during this time frame. Most of the movies and shows I have seen don't come across they same way. Definitely a time difference in then versus now.
The portrayal of the blacks is very over the top in how they are trying to gain control over everything. AS well lusting for white women. This really shows the male gaze for either side of the representation of the races. Male dominated on both sides.
Hmm, interesting how the conflict of the KKK and the blacks is almost like a war set up. Not quite the direction I would have thought it would have been taken. Seems to be more like a revolt than pure racism. It has become the white army attacking the black army. Very strong separation of the races with little for the supporters for the opposite sides.

So far it has been an interesting film. It appears that we will not be seeing the end of the movie due to time constraints. I'll have to track it down some time to see the end.

Dances with Wolves

Comment: It has been a little while since I saw this movie but I have seen it a number of times. I think the biggest point that the movie makes is that the roles of the Native Americans are shown in a different light than how it has been. The Sioux are shown as being somewhat compassionate but still in a strong and stiff manor. I think for most Americans this would have brought the strangest reaction in how they were not portrayed as the “evil bad guy” although the Pawnee still get that label. The Whites were invading Sioux territory and were only defending their lands. After all, they were here first and have had many interrelations with other natives on both the bad side and good. I think for me the portrayal of the Indians was one of the better ones for the time, however, now it wouldn’t be quite what I would like to see. Having studied a little of the Native Americans our take on the Indians is a bit off to say the least. It is nice to get the other side of the story now and then in movies but doing it in a politically correct manor is unnecessary. It should be told as it was not how we think it was.

The Matrix Trilogy

Comment: Having just read what Lisa Nakamura feels about this movie it does invoke other feelings about the movie. I did enjoy the trilogy and found it was interesting how the characters where moved and created. For Keanu Reeves to be the lead actor was quite the stretch in the beginning as many people have said. His acting skills are somewhat limited and the supporting cast of Laurence Fishburne he gets over shadowed with such great actors. One can see how they set the cast and with the second and third movies they added a larger mix of ethnicities to get a better blend of what they felt the people of Zion would be like. Having heard what some of the actors and actresses said about the first movie one can see where they went with this idea.
The whole gaze of how the machines are portrayed is interesting. Having them all be straight laced white business men I think is making a jab at how our society was back in the 40’s and 50’s with the ‘Man’ being the one in charge. All sections of society bowed down to what the ‘Man’ did. He was the caregiver and the head of the household. He brought home the income so it was his place to be in charge. Something in the lines of the classic look of Leave It to Beaver I think. So when we see the people of Zion we get the total mixed package of everyone living day to day and no particular race/ethnicity is ruling the city. Now, with a lot of other sci-fi we do get the heavy Asian feel but for this movie from a cultural point of view it was very subdued. I think that our society now expects for action movies that the fight scenes will involve some kind of martial art and so it is very over blown in some reactions to it. Kind of like how the fight scenes were in the movies from the 70’s. Rough and tumble with nary any kind of martial art fighting style. It is now what we expect to see so when someone does something different it catches our eye. This is what the Matrix did for us in that it did something new with what we expected and now we see it copied in many places.
Overall, there are many subtle happenings going on in these movies. A person can take them for what they are, entertainment, or they can scrutinize them, analyze them and make it out to be more than what it might have been intended to be.

Race in the Construct - Lisa Nakamura pg 61-85

Recap: Lisa goes into the movies: Blade Runner and The Matrix, and the novels: Neuromancer and Snow Crash. She describes the origins of the cyberpunk mentality for movies and the idea of Asian’ism in the cyberpunk ideology. She talks about how the idea of the use of the Japanese basis for the local used to represent the common idea of where we might as a world society end up.

Comments: Her looks into the history how the cyberpunk view is interesting. I enjoyed the movies, Blade Runner and The Matrix, as I am more of sci-fi type of moviegoer. Having also read a lot of sci-fi books the cyberpunk view really did take off in the 80’s and the relation of having the Japanese back ground seem to become more important the more it moved along. In addition the inter mixing of races, not of the white nature, even created more interest as a possible future look at where we might end up. The homogenized view of our populace in the future with a specific race being in the great minority grows more and more true as we start to integrate more cultures into each other.
Side note: Sometimes I wonder about how people tend to put more into what someone does with movies. Granted the Matrix does have some interesting aspects to it but why can’t it just be that as a writer someone used their creativity and had a “cool” idea and put it to film, novel or what ever. Then everyone starts the judgment of what it is. Reading between the lines has become quite the career for people. It does get tiring now and then, about how people judge how something is meant to be. That is fine but please don’t try and force the idea onto others as if it is the only right answer.

The Meaning of Memory - George Lipsitz

Recap: George Lipsitz discusses the history of the television in American culture. He goes into the evolution of the advertisement and how it related to the show it was shown during. Also, what effects this had on the American culture at the time. The unwritten aspects of how the broadcasters and paid advertisers set in motion the way we would evolve with the television in just about every household.

Comment: The way the history of the TV has been played out it almost appears to have been a plot by the manufacturers to use it only for the placement of their products. Knowing that it was just the next direction of technology development as a medium of communications only makes the mystique even greater for the continuation of the next generation of media. Another interesting idea is that while the creators of television didn’t have an idea that it would be used to sell products quite like it has been. In Lipsitz descriptions of some of the historical aspects it comes across to me as a sort of subliminal advertising being created by the manufacturers in how they have been able to integrate their products into the shows and this then sets the plan in motion to effect the society as a whole. Who is to say that women wouldn’t have had a better chance to move into a more equalized society if the TV had not been invented. It is possible that the television media created the environment that we now live in. Advertiser target specific race and genders all the time to focus on what they wish to sell. I suppose this could be looked as carried over from the new paper media or even the old Sears catalog. There have been many references over the years to someone being able to buy something out of the Sears catalog and this reference to being a more affluent person in society. Over all the television has placed the family, no matter what race or ethnicity, into the place they are now. We all generally look to the television and what they show as reflections of how our society is now.

The Cherokee Indians and the Internet - Ellen L. Arnold and Darcy C. Plymire

Recap: Arnold and Plymire talk about the Cherokee Indians and how through the history of each tribe, they have come to establish their own web sites. Each tribe has a slightly different agenda for the use of the internet and the information made available there in. They briefly describe the plight of the Cherokee from a historical standpoint and how that has played into what each tribe does with their current situation. They cover both sides of the issue about how the internet will either help or disseminate them further from their cultural background. For example, further absorption into white-euro life styles, etc.

Comments: having recently studied Native Americans, I have a different perspective on how they have been treated and what needs to be done to help them better. If the Native American tribes can become sovereign nations then they would have more power to do what they wanted and end up being treated as equals with whites. Now this is a long shot at best right now, especially with the right wing control of our government, for the Indian Nations to become independent states or actual nations. The later being the best option. I am glad to see that the Cherokee have made the use of the internet a part of their current culture. If the new generations are not technologically informed, then it would only further the absorption of their lifestyles into the mainstream American culture. The Internet gives all Native Americans the chance to tell their story and tell it the way they want and not have to deal with editors and other people involved in publishing information through traditional methods. More power to them to use the Internet and gain larger successes for each tribal group.

Staking Their Claim - Rhonda O. Bautista

Recap: Rhonda O. Bautista goes on to tell about the internet and the access granted to women in the Asia. Most women do not have access to the internet and the cost to do so is huge when compared to our normal costs. It would be interesting to see where the population stands now just less than ten years later. She also talks about how the women in the Asian countries have started to claim areas of use in the male dominated societies. Her main focus is on the group, AWORC, Asian Women’s Resource Exchange. This group has set up facilities for women to use to gain knowledge about a variety of issues; Violence against women, The Status of women, Globalization, Women’s access to information- focusing on gaps among different sectors. These are just a few of the issues AWORC covers for women. They are providing a huge resource in many Asian countries to allow hands on training and education with internet technologies.

Comments: The culture of the Asian countries is definitely male dominated. It is nice to see that there are some changes coming along to help move the gender divide to an equal balance. Granted it will be some time before the women can really feel independent there. It is very similar to how the women have been treated here and really shows how far we have come as a society. I feel that we still need to move farther along to make the genders equal here. Once many of the stereo types are broken, we will be able to move along as a society.

Dating on the Net - Lynn Schofield Clark

Recap: Clark talks about the teen dating relationships from the online community. She goes over the history of dating and how it has developed over the last century into the 21st century. She explains how the female to help them gain a better position for themselves and possible family development created the dating issue. Her comparisons to how the female works the use of the internet now is similar in how the females used the situation of “dating” during the mid 20th century. She also explores the use of an avatar in chat rooms and other online experiences for the female. Young female teens will develop an avatar that fits what they think is the preferred visual description that male teens will want to see. However, a large majority of the male teens understand how the females go about “lying” about their physical description. Clark seems to think that over all, teens do what teens do. Their use of the internet chat rooms is not as explicit as adults and they have set peer-to-peer rules they play by. Going against the rules results in some form of punishment and ultimately leads to either moving on or being ignored.

Comments: It seems that teens today are doing just what teens have always done. Although they have adapted the use of the internet with the use of the chat rooms to further the possibility of developing a relationship, however it seems that the female is more interested in creating a long distance friendship. The teen males seem to have a more sexual expression that the females will either ignore or take to a private two-person chat room if they want to explore more. It is interesting to see how the female teens will take the avatar and make it a form of expression to be more accepted by the males, generally hiding their true appearance in the description of the avatar. This leads to a cat and mouse game between the genders to determine just who is what and so on. To me it seems very much like how teens primp and preen their appearance when in public. Definitely different from when I was a teen. The computer and the internet would have made for some interesting situations growing up.

Television and the Internet - Ellen Seiter

Recap: This article by Ellen Seiter goes into the idea that television will become the rule of the Internet. This article was done in 1999 so at this point is a little out of date about the actual internet and its usage. From her research, she seems to think that the internet will be comprised mostly of information about television and that media producers will be focusing on the television aspect. She also goes into the use of the internet by women, and how they are subject to different standards than males, with males gaining the most usage time at home and work.

Comments: First thing that strikes me is that during the time frame she wrote this article the internet was being targets with various ideas of how it should be used and that people in general were of a higher class that used it on a regular basis. While at the time it was fairly true users were more often male and of a higher income bracket that doesn’t hood quite as true today. Just in the seven years, since this was written, there has been a large change in the number of people with computers at home. The cost of computer ownership has dropped dramatically where most middle class families have access to a computer and even some lower income brackets have computers at home. Now, granted there still is a large shortage of computers in the lower income households, there are now more computers at school and other locations that allow lower income families access to computer. It would be interesting to see how her research would turn out now about how much time the female is getting on the computer with families. We have seen that a large number of teens use the computers quite frequently with tendency of the youth today being very techno savvy. I think as the new generations grow the internet and the time spent on the computer will grow together.
Seiter’s concerns that media giants and computer giants are going to rule the way the internet is used isn’t quite as big now as it was seven years ago. There is a large amount of internet use not geared to TV, Porn, and other computer related topics. The proliferation of information on the internet has been moving with leaps and bounds to other areas as well. A new online database like Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, started in 2001 has grown into huge resources for anyone to use. This is just one example of new internet uses not geared to the television. AS for the technology realm of the internet, one could look to Google as an example of a non-traditional media giant. Starting back in 1996 and then officially forming the Google.com address in 1997. They have become the worlds largest search engine all the while retaining the relaxed non-corporate mentality. Google has ties to many media giants but maintains a fairly unobtrusive appearance. Their method of advertising is a subtle and more specific type of advertising. I think this gets away from the idea of the normal media blitz that is used by the other media giants.
Basically, the internet has grown and is used by more people of both sexes than ever before. Yes, there is still slant to the male side but it is getting smaller.

Birth of a Nation, part 2

Watching the last half of the movie one can really see the male gaze and how D.W. Griffith portrayed the differences in race. The blacks are portrayed with a very heavy lean towards being comical and clownish at times. Also, the use of white actors portraying blacks in key roles, which also shows the place of blacks for the turn of the century in how they are being involved in the making of this movie. The women are also portrayed with an over accented view. The character Lydia Brown is shown with over stated sexual desires that recur through out the movie. I am going to assume that for the time the acting was not considered over the top. Also, how the women are subservient to the men even when they are portrayed as children. The actions of all the women in the movie appear to be driven by the actions of the men even to the point of when one is being pursued for courtship. In addition, it is interesting to see how he portrays the place of mixed race people, the mulatto, even if they appear to be white. Even when one is placed in a position of power by the activist character, Austin Stoneman. The actions of the people to Silas Lynch’s character are quite expected seeing how they still have all the strong feelings in place after the resolution of the war. I do not think that Griffith was able to really show just what the reactions would have been like due to the times and reactions of the general public. Also, how the reactions were strong even in how he did make the film. Unfortunately, he had to cut a couple of scenes to make it more acceptable for the times.

We are stopping the movie at the beginning of the rape sequence, one of the scenes he had to edit and we will resume the movie from there after spring break.
The gaze of the movie is definitely male and I am looking forward to the end of the movie to really see just where he takes it.

Birth of a Nation

Today we should see the end of the movie I hope. It has been interesting so far seeing how view or gaze of the movie shows just how much slant a person can have even when they are tryingto show an unbiased view point. Now for the time frame when this is made it really shows just how the political thought about male and female relations where at the turn of the century. From tjhe research I have come across on the Net, it was quite a racially hot movie. I am looking forward to viewing the rest of the movie to get a better understanding of how D. W. Griffith viewed the conflict between the North and the South during the Civil War.