PlaNetwork 4, MediaSpace Power

Networking Power: Struggle and Transformation in MediaSpace

Wi-fi does not reach the west room where we're meeting; I'm writing this offline.

Aliza Dichter: Media is not just radio and TV, but also the net, billboards, and toys. Government handing the rights to a half dozen media companies is parallel to letting only K-Mart and Wal-Mart trucks use the public highways.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Third World Majority Hip-hop. Reclaiming our voices through digital storytelling is not just about us telling our stories; it's about reclaiming our dignity, our communities, and our histories. Disney, AOL, Fox, GE, and Viacom keep us where we are.

If you want a photo of my grandfather, you go up to the attic. A black woman might have to get grandad?s photo from the Hearst anthropology museum. 'These are stolen images.' It is rape of our people!

Look at the video game Custer's Revenge, where Custer, sporting an erection, goes after an Indian babe tied to a cactus. Could this be for real? Sort of. The Classic Gaming Page describes a brief unregulated period in the early 80s when games were unregulated. Custer's Revenge was sold under the counter. While revolting in concept, a primitive, buggy game like this wasn't the sort of thing to turn white boys into monsters. Besides, this was 16 years ago, hardly the best evidence for what's happening today. Here's what it looked like:

I?m sure Thenmozhi takes a lot of crap because she's female, black, and Asian, but her extremism detracts from her credibility. Yeah, the world is full of injustice but that hardly converts anthropologists collecting photos into rapists or young white males into drooling, blood-thirsty revenge seekers. (Memories of Andrea Dworkin.) www.cultureisaweapon.net

Ilyse Hogue. smart meme. Beware of false memes.

Control mythology. War on Terror. Wave the flag. Diamond rings for anniversary.

Santa's red & white came from Coke. Huh? (Update: This is an urban legend. Santa had the costume before Coke began its Santa campaign.)

Points of intervention. (vulnerabilities) Taking to the streets. Tree sitting. Greenpeace.

Battle of the story or story of the battle? When Bush was a kid, he put firecrackers in frogs to blow them up. Topple the Saddam statue.

• Promote psychic breaks
  
• Articulate values crises
  
• Neutralize control mythology
  
• Tell new stories

Posted by Jay Cross at June 6, 2003 01:18 PM | TrackBack