week 11- Mobilising

I found this week’s reading rather interesting. In the short essay Kate Crawford discusses the issue of constant connection. I personally have thought about the issue of always being connected ever since I owned my first phone and even more now that I now own a blackberry.  Crawford talks about the ‘sickening feeling when we have accidentally left our phone behind’ (Crawford 2010, p66). This is a statement I agree with, whenever I leave my phone at home to go for a run or going down to the shops I think about my phone and wonder if I have gotten any text messages, emails or if I have missed a phone call. Though sometimes the constant checking and thinking about my phone annoys me I wouldn’t give it up.

“When (and how) do I make it all go away?” (Crawford, 2010 p66). This question got me thinking about could we go back to a time without constant connectivity and I came to the conclusion we could but we shouldn’t. Technology has made the world we live in so much more productive and efficient. Instant connection has given me the ability to talk to my friends anywhere in the world and I do. However, I do sympathise with the view of the Italian man who has a “implacable hatred for this apparatus (phone)” (Crawford 2010, p67). I appreciate his view that the mobile phone has been the cause for certain antisocial behaviour. 

All things considered however, I do think that constant connection is a positive step forward for humanity. The benefits that mobility has given human beings not only in our personal lives but also in business far out ways the negatives it has developed in our society and privacy.

References 

Crawford, K., 2010, ‘Noise, Now: Listening to Networks’ in Meanjin Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 2, pp. 64-69

week10- networking

Blog 10

This week’s reading was really hard for me to engage with. Not only have I never used or seen myspace but the amount of loyalty I have to a show is watching it occasionally on television. I especially am not a fan of fictional characters and I find the example of the Gilmore girls myspace page weird and slightly disturbing. However, I did find it interesting because of the fact I found it so peculiar that people would engage in such senseless activities like fan fiction.

The fact producers encode messages that we the consumers then decode (Booth 2008) is not a revelation. Though it is interesting (especially on a psychological level) that fans decode messages and create their own meaning and even discuss these meaning with other fans on multiple platforms (facebook, myspace, twitter, blogs, conventions etc). It is fans that have not necessarily created but defiantly are the masters of trans-media story telling.

References 

Booth, P, (2008), ‘Rereading Fandom: MySpace Character Personas and Narrative Identification’, Critical Studies in Media Communication. Vol. 25, No. 5, pp 514 – 536

blog week 9- othering

The invisible influence of whiteness in western, global and particularly indigenous culture is what Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s paper focuses on. She argues that the superiority and dominance of the white race is evident throughout the world. Before continuing with my critique of the paper I think it is appropriate to highlight the fact she fails to properly define who is white and who is not. I have made an assumption that for the majority of the paper Robinson is talking about only the superiority of the Anglo-Saxons and not all Europeans (colonisers).

Robinson’s argument is one which I agree with, I do believe that white culture, politics and dogma has shaped and will continue to shape the world in which we live. However, I do take issue with some of the points she has raised. Robinson digresses for a short paragraph in her article to say that during the war on terror former British and Australian Prime Ministers Blaire and Howard were in the business of “representing themselves as the holders of true humanity” (Robinson 2004, p78). This statement is mere opinion and because of that it made me as a reader take her and her argument less serious.

 “Cook, who stated that indigenous people of Australia had no form of land tenure because they were uncivilised” (Robinson 2004, p76) this is a great example that Robinson highlights to illustrate the arrogance of white colonisers. However, I am disappointed that she didn’t really discuss in-depth the historical importance and effects that colonisation had on indigenous peoples around the world. “The holocaust in the Congo during the period when it was the main source for rubber and ivory for Europe and North America and was the personal fiefdom of the Belgian king, Leopold II. An estimated ten million people died during that period of colonial plunder in the Congo, roughly half the population” (Baxter, pg 40). This is a perfect example Robinson should have used and illustrates brilliantly how western society values white life above others.

Overall I think Robinson did a good job of highlighting the fact that whites continue to influence almost every part of the globe. However, as stated before she should have talked more about the history and the formation of white dominance ideology then her focus on contemporary examples. It would have also been a lot easier to examine if she had actually defined who is actually white.  

References

Baxter J, 2010, Dust from our Eyes, 2^nd edn, Wolsak and Wynn, Hamilton Ontario

Moreton-Robinson, A., 2004, ‘Whiteness, Epistemology and Indigenous Representation’ in Whitening Race: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, pp. 75-88.