the prominence of an invisible labyrinth

‘Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains’ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Just an interesting quote I read the other day. And slightly ironic, because “society” is a man-made institution, and as a result we, ourselves, are the culprits of this ’imprisonment’ of society. We have built instruments, such as laws, rules, and morality, in attempts to ‘guide’ society and potentionally prevent the occurence of anarchy and other such lawless societies, and yet in the same sense, we can’t escape them. But more importantly, although we know these instruments are artificial, we all abide by and do follow them. If we worked in numbers, could we change this? And if so, what would be a better situation? Do you think that society is infact stuck in chains?

A Short Black

Have you ever felt like you just don’t quite belong? I know! What a cliché? Some poor, self-pitying girl, who has everything, doesn’t feel like she belongs. NEXT! Just wait a moment. I’m not the same. Whilst the premise of my story might sound familiar, I can assure you, it is quite unlike the story you think you know.

A short intro to my life: Hi! My name is Yael. I am a girl, a daughter, a sister, a student, a baby sitter, a friend, and an outsider. I have friends. Don’t get me wrong, and we are all totally BFF (well for now anyway), but at the same time I sort of make myself fit the mould if you know what I mean. I can adapt to my surroundings to make life easier and less lonely. But deep down, I don’t quite belong. One problem is the fact that no one in my grade or any of my family or friends outside of school have the quality I look for, when I try to describe where I feel like I ‘belong.’ You see, I go to a school, I live in a home, and I socialise with people who are all of the same orientation. Not in terms of sexuality, or in terms of the process of thinking, what I mean is slightly more physical. Slightly more, how you say, Caucasian. The problem is, deep down, I want to be black.

 A few months ago, I started my own website, a sort of charity program, “Pennies for Pigments.” The aim of the program is to help me save up for what I like to phrase a “reverse-jackson” operation, aka “black to the future.” In my free time, apart from updating my website, I practice my hip-hop and break dancing. I have managed to successfully perfect my finger-snapping. I attend Hillsong in an attempt to improve my gospel outreach, and I write scripts for movies. Two weeks ago I began filming my first film, “Blacktion”. The story is sort of a memoir of my life so far. Whilst I have lived for a short 17 (soon to be 18) years, I feel as though my story is quite unique, and through film, I am better able to express myself. It isn’t so much a film, more a documentary really. It has only begun, and will not be complete until I am able to find my true identity. I want to feel “blind,” where all I see is black. I’ve always had a problem with finishing things I set out to do. I make a start, then my short attention span kicks in, and I forget what I was doing and move on. Not this time though. You’ll see.

That pretty much brings you up to date. Currently, I’m sitting on my bed, admiring my Will Smith pin-up and trying not to mess my Jamie Foxx print bed spread, all the while, typing this up in my first blog entry. FYI, a blog is basically an online journal, and since I’ve filled my Oprah Winfrey diary, I thought I might as well just jump on the bandwagon and begin my own blog. Gah! My hand is resting against Jamie’s cheek. It’s so white, and unnatural. That reminds me. *Mental note: add purchase black gloves to my to-do-list. Also book in some more appointments at the tanning salon. Enquire at local surgery how much it would potentially cost to have fat from my thighs sucked out and injected into my badoinkah-doink.* Just before, I was reading a site that was talking about the best way to introduce your blog to the big wide world, and they said to talk about your past, present, and dreams for the future. So we have covered my past and present, which brings us up to the future. One day I want to be just like Queen Latifah. Lenny Harry will be my husband. P Diddy my admirer. Missy Elliot my dance teacher. And Morgan Freeman will god-father my children. I’m going to live in the Bronx in NYC, and drive a push bike. My bruthas and sistas will hang with me on the stoop at the front of our townhouse apartments, blasting Destiny’s Child through the boom box, so I can work out some dangerous moves. Hey a girl can dream.

Dailiness Tutorial Blog #3

Scannell’s chapter, Dailiness, from the outset appears to be a philosophical piece that questions and redefines the means of ’care’ and ‘concern’. It’s initial relationship to media and society of today however, remains questionable. After this failed attempt, the text  boils away to simply explain the process by which televisions, newspapers and radio programs come about, from initial thought to final editings, all in a manner of which the purpose is to suit not only each day, but also the time of day, and attempt to “constitute the meaningful background of everyay existence” (Scannell, 1996, pp.177). For it is the universal acceptance of this “everyday worldiness,” (Scannell, 1996, pp.177) that is the common feature of all three media; newspaper, radio, and television.

When we switch on a TV show or a radio station at any time of the day, we take for granted the “care” that the show ”effortlessly gives off about itself” (Scannell, 1996, pp.146). I for one know that I have never sat around and considered that radio programs, and television programs are broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They never switch off. And the fact that thought has gone into everyone of those seconds to ensure that no matter what time of day a person is to tune in, the program or schedule has been specifically structured to entertain it’s listeners. This endless broadcasting, permits us to perceive these media as being “no big deal…trivial, unimportant things” (Scannell, 1996, pp. 177), and thus we have conceived this notion of ‘dailiness’ .

From appropriate topics, to music selection (all scheduled to appeal to the time of day’s expected listeners) we never truly understand the hard work, that is put into producing ’quality’ broadcastings. The hard work is not only evident in the structure of the show, but delves deeper into the ‘care’ and ‘concern’ put into producing an ‘honourable’ program. For example, do you ever really take the time to sit back and listen to or watch a program and consider how drastically the effects of what you are seeing/hearing could be altered by a slight change in intonation, a jumble of word order, or even the depletion of what appears to be menial conversation? Neither do I. But such simple, ‘small details,’ heavily impact on, the interpretation of, our reception of, and the perceived quality of a broadcast. Thus, the care of this ‘structure,’ if carried out well, ‘honours those who made it and those for whom it is made’ (Scannell, 1996, pp.146).

Bibliography

1. Scannel, P. “Dailiness” In Radio, Television and Modern Life. Blackwell, London, 1996, 144-178.

The Peter Pan Effect

Was just reading the SMH newspaper mag, The Guide, and came across a very interesting article. The cover story of the week, “There’s jest in the quest,” features comedian Lawrence Leung and his new TV Series Choose Your Own Adventures. This is the second time I have read an article about Lawrence, the other was in JJJ Mag, and it is honestly one of the coolest ideas ever. Lawrence has created a television series entirely about reliving your childhood, and finally attempting all of the dreams and aspirations you had as a child. Don’t you sometimes dream about what is would be like to be a child again? I often do, a life without responsibility, the only care you had in the world was number one, and life seemed just a whole lot more fun and easy going, all my memories are sunshine and rainbows. And yet, I love living and existing as I am now. At the end of the article Lawrence makes a good point. One of the best things as a child was that every experience seemed new, exciting, you learnt from it, and you grew from it. And whilst our day-to-day adventures aren’t deemed as exciting as they were in our youth, we are all constantly still learning and should all try to experience new things and have that childish freedom and fearlessness to be outgoing and attempt everything it is that we wish to do and desire to be. – Sorry it was just a really touching article.

Domestication #2 Tutorial Blog

I walk in my front door, greet my dogs, and shout out a big “HELLO!” to what suprises me as a non-responsive household. This is a rare opportunity where I am the first child home. So I do as any child of several siblings would, I claim my seat on the couch in front of the TV, and skim through the Foxtel TV Guide to choose whatever it is I want to watch. Within a matter of only 15 minutes I hear the front door open and a chorus of loud voices headed my way. Sure enough, my sisters have arrived home. They dump their school bags outside the lounge room, grab a snack and join me on the couch. Sounds civil enough right?…WRONG!

A nagging whinge begins in my left ear, that I attempt to ignore, but can’t help to recognise as a request sounding something similar to “STEFFI CHANGE THE CHANNEL! NO ONE WANTS TO WATCH THIS BUT YOU! PUT ON FOX8!” I turn to the elder of my younger siblings, and reply quite simply, “No! I was here first.” That, and I threaten not to drop her off or pick her up when she wants a lift. NB. this is one very useful weapon to pull out being an older sibling who wants something, primarily the TV and reinforcing that you are infact situated higher on the household hierarchy. I persist, she persists, and then my other sisters chime in. This form of communication is one that frequents our household and has replaced other ”normal” forms of socialisation between my family members. It has actually become a rare phenomenon for us to debate over politics, or converse about interesting thoughts and epiphanies we have experienced throughout the day.

The bantering continues for a short while, before we hear our mum coming down the corridor. We suddenly silence ourselves, and glare at the TV in what we think to be a pretty convincing stare of contentment. “What are you all yelling about? Why can’t you just settle, and watch the same thing?” She always manages to see right through it. My sisters and I all have a say on our stance of what should be playing on the TV, but not in a mature or humane manner, we sound something similar to banchees screaming over the top of each other. My mum, walks straight up to the TV and turns it off by the little switch on the front of the screen. Damn, I can’t even turn it on again by remote. She tells us “to be grateful that we even have a television in [her] day it was a privilege not a right. And that still today, people don’t own one television, let alone one on each level of the house.”

After stomping off to our bedrooms, I climb onto my pink Sony Vaio (we don’t share a desktop), but not without making a quick pit stop by my Ipod dock radio. I jump onto MSN and send out messages of complaint to people I spoke to merely an hour ago and explain the horrible situation. I notice my sister online, and type silent abuses at her for getting us into trouble. If arguing cannot be heard, it therefore does not exist. I lean across my bed for my Nokia, check my messages, and send a few smses to anyone who I know will listen and instantly reply to how unfair life is. It’s just a quick justification that I was right, I did have a right to the TV. I was there first. 

Bibliography

1. Silverstone, Roger. “Domesticating Domestication. Reflections of the Life of a Concept.” In Berker, Thomas, et al, eds. Domestication of Media and Technology. Bershire, UK: Open University Press, 2006, 229-248.

Tutorial Blog #1 – MDIA1002

(i) use of newspapers (print and on-line)/radio news/tv news?

I read the news everyday on the internet, at least once via such sites as ninemsn, and sometimes SMH. Ninemsn.com.au is my internet homepage. On very slow days, where I feel bored or just like bumming, I will check it out about 3 times in the day because they often update their page throughout the day so I check up on what’s changed. I have a subscription to the SMH print paper, which I read as well. I don’t really watch the news much on TV as I don’t have much of a TV agenda, I prefer reading the information, and I often hear the news on the radio in the car.

(ii) do you use any language tools?

I don’t really find I ever need to use language tools. Not that I know every word, just I prefer to try to figure out what it means via the context it is used in. However, if need be, I use Google, or Wikipedia or Dictionary.com.

(iii) how you are with deadlines?

I love the idea of deadlines. Call me a loser, I really don’t mind. I like the structure and security of deadlines. Without them, I would still get the work done, just I really like having a schedule to abide by. Although, whilst I do like them, for me personally, in general I think I’d prefer no deadline, where you handed work in your time, because not everyone has the same drive to complete work without a deadline, and then the dedicated students would be more noticeable.

 

Steffi Radnan

z3259530

W15A

Media and Society – Weekly Blog #1

The media, is a fickle friend; for with good, comes bad. But just as with everything in this world, nothing is perfect, and instead of working against media, we should try to understand it, so we can gain from it’s benefits. Media and Society (O’Shaughnessy, M. et al, 2005) explores the concept of media, by breaking it down into categories of representation, interpretation, and evaluation, then exploring what the media do to us, and finally building the concept back up into what we recognise today as ‘the media,’ but with an altered, and more educated point of view.

Previously I believed that the media was infact just a replication of society, at a hightened reality. I was wrong. Media and Society explores the processes of the media and through doing so, highlights how media is used to make sense of the world, ourselves, and others for us. This is where the problem begins. When evaluating society, media “privilege some issues and identities while devaluing others,” (O’Shaughnessy, M. et al. 2005, pp. 34) and subsequently, we are presented with a slanted point of view of society, based on the judgement of that specific media producer. This brings to the fore, the age old question of whether this influence the media has on society is in fact a negative impact. Whilst the media does initiate certain problems in people, it can potentially be an underlying influence. Sometimes, these influences are good and can encourage people to attempt things they would never have dared, yet, in the same breath it is a culprit for glorifying and bringing attention to violence and crimes, that could just enhance the acts of other impressionable beings with images and stories, that could lead to copy cat acts. Unfortunately, more often than not, these situations often make the headlines. Is this as a result of what we want to be informed about, or does the media determine what we will receive? “Do we get what we want, or want what we get?” (O’Shaughnessy, M. et al. 2005. pp.36)

Popular belief sustains that media is controlled by an elite group of society, such as those outlined in Media and Society, which include owners and business managers, creative personnel, and technicians. However, I personally believe that the largest controlling factor of media is society, which has a far greater population and thus influence on what is and isn’t published. For after all, if there was no demand for what was being produced, then there would be no means to create media in the first place. I understand that those few elite members are in fact the brains behind what is physically produced and distributed, however, at the end of the day, if there isn’t enough support from society of what is being presented, then those people have failed to impact society and give us what we want, and subsequently we disregard this media.

What media do to us, will always be a very personal area to explore, as no two humans are the same, and we are all affected differrently but what we are presented with. However, as a society we have the ability to determine what is being shown, as we are the ones who demand what we want. So at the end of the day, for better or worse, the impact of media on society; are we to blame?

Bibliography:

1. O’Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Stadler. Chapter 3: What Do the Media Do to Us? Media and Society. Media and Society: An Introduction. 3rd ed. South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford UP, 2005. 31-58.

a new perspective

ok ok,

i understand i have blogged a lot in the last 24 hours … but i just had an epiphany or revellation if you will….

last night, being at the 17 again premiere (its the first of its type of event i have ever been to) there was just so much hype and energy….and i loved it….it made me really happy to think one day, i might be able to help organise these events…and little things such as your role model, not the latest car on the market, or newest ipod upgrade, or hippest mobile, just a person that inspires and affect so many people can cause that kind of a reaction….just a simple wave or smile from someone you look up to, can cause they greatest of ecstatic and joyful reactions…it’s amazing…i need to be part of it

15 minutes of fame….kind of :P

guess what?!??!

I just received a phone call from Biggzy…from the hot30 countdown on 104.1 fm…and they asked if I would like to speak to Taylor Swift and ask her a question, on air, for tonight’s program :D

how exciting!!!

just to add to it….apparently tonight on the 5 o’clock news, in the entertainment segment you actually get to witness the kiss on my cheek from zac

yipee!!!!

zaction!!!

P3110179

Originally uploaded by me, miffy

me on the red carpet in my mum’s wedding dress at the zac efron 17again movie premiere