Labeling too difficult for some to handle

The Renoir Cinema in Brunswick Square, London is being renamed Curzon Bloomsbury. Writer Ryan Gilbey, loyal to this theatre, feels that he will be betraying the Renoir Cinema by accepting it’s new name. He listed examples of Starbursts candy and Puff Daddy being things that changed their names and still survived strong. Gilbey was able to accept these particular name changes, but somehow cannot arrive at the idea that his beloved, memory-filled Renoir will be soon Curzon Bloomsbury.

When I came upon this article, I thought of the discussion we had in class about feminism, and the labeling we have given the word. When most think of feminism, they think of loud, aggressive, women activists fighting for equality. This is the label we put on the word. It’s strange that we don’t place it’s actual current definition as the label, but that may make too much sense.

In the Renoir article, the writer doesn’t think of the actual physical building and what it does as a business, but rather holds his personal experiences with it. Perhaps if Opal Fruits made an impact on his life as much as this cinema, he’d be upset with the label change to Starbursts.

Words strong enough to kill

Seven teenagers were arrested on November 13th in Long Island for fatally stabbing Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant. An article written on November 14th, in the NY Times criticizes Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, for the harsh words he spoke of immigrants a few days prior. There was not blame or talk about the teens that killed Lucero, but only the level of guilt that Levy should be feeling from his words. It’s interesting that this media source chose to not even address that the ones doing the prejudice killing are so young; merely kids. T

The article convinces its readers that Lucero has no level of guilt. The NY Times writer said that Levy believed, “that the killing would have been a one-day story anywhere but his home turf…Mr. Levy needs to realize that distortions cut both ways.” He thinks because of what he said, he’s getting too much attention in his community. However, what about the power of the media? Why wasn’t the fact brought up that his bigotries may have easily helped persuade the teenagers into the hate crime? After reading this article completely, I wanted to know more about what exactly Steve Levy said about immigration and why this reporter feels that Levy is learning that words have consequences.

Also from the NY Times, I found an article specifically about Levy and his talk on immigration. There was a positive feel to the article at first, but soon it began to portray him quite badly. A specific prejudice that Levy enacted about immigration was him labeling Mexicans women’s children “anchor babies” because they would go over the border so their child could be born free in America. That day, he also said a local hospital was shutting down their maternity ward because there were too many “anchor babies.” This proved to be a complete lie.

While Levy is the Suffolk County executive, he will not allow the existence of hiring sites, outreach organizations, or further negotiations for immigrants. Therefore, there will be no change in the current situation of immigrants in Long Island. After realizing this in the second reading, I can see now that the first writer would say Levy has to learn the hard way about his words. Or isn’t he? Even though something as tragic as teenagers killing because of prejudices beliefs, it doesn’t seem likely that Levy is remorseful.

MTV episodes possibly infomercials for activism

Reality television shows have been around for a while now in our culture. They are intriguing most to producers because they seem unpredictable to their audiences and are cost effective. When we were discussing reality television shows in class yesterday, we came to the agreement that some reality shows inspire their audiences, while others just poke fun for entertainment purposes, or so viewers can feel better about their performances as mother, fathers, healthy people, etc.

Being just one station, MTV has a rather large amount of reality shows. Real World, Tila Tequila, Road Rules, Paris Hilton’s Best Friend, Made, and True Life are just some of the reality shows that have aired for them. MTV claims them all to be unscripted and authentic. The reading assigned to class for Friday informs and critiques MTV’s reality shows, written by Lauren Weber for the Los Angeles Times. When brainstorming for themes of True Life, producers went looking for people who’d star in the episode, “I’m living off the grid.” Yet, usually those who don’t follow the norms and don’t want to live on “the grid,” also don’t like MTV and the culture it portrays, and even the television industry in general. This problem is almost humorous because MTV placed itself there; addressing only a specific culture lead to the loss of audiences who didn’t like that culture. “Producers had to find people who were rejecting the mainstream culture that MTV basically helped to create but who were also willing to star in an MTV show,” Weber wrote.

Another MTV show that is stirring up conversations is Exiled!. It takes people that were originally on My Super Sweet 16, and place them with host families in third world countries to live for the week. It’s supposed to be an eye-opening experience, but in many cases, what was being portrayed on the screen was the times during the week when the American is criticizing the culture of their hosts. In a New York Times article published in August, Elizabeth Jensen wrote about the hope producers have for this new show to be an “infomercial for activism.” They want to expose their pop-culture viewers to the world outside their bubble. Yet, it seems that the producers may not have thought about the impact of sending a spoiled 16 year old overseas. How does the host country view Americans if the only American they met was a Sweet Sixteener? Only time will tell if Exiled! and other MTV reality shows will positively impact our nation and its surroundings.

Time difference makes no difference

Usually writing for newspapers the day after elections is difficult for European journalists. With the time change, it has been impossible to have the United States' new president elect on European newspaper covers on November 5th. Much creativity has been needed every year to develop an article that is still interesting the day after the election since they cannot give the actual outcome. However, this year a Danish paper, Politiken, fixed the problem of which candidate to place on the front page, by simply placing bold, red text, reading, "Go to http://www.politiken.dk/." This website contains the results of the election for the curious Danish reader.

Not only is this a clever idea from the Politiken journalist, but also it reflects aspects of the culture we live in. Ernst Poulsen, at Poynter Online, in regard to this newspaper, notes that it has taken years for newspaper editors to allow the "www" logo to appear occasionally in publication, and now today it’s making headlines.

It makes sense to me that editors and newspaper administrators wouldn’t want websites publicized in their papers. It would seem logical that if you can get news online, you’re less likely to also want news in a tangible, paper-form; therefore bringing less demand for papers. But with the internet still growing and references to websites occuring in almost every form of print media, could print media be next in becoming extinct in the media world?

How soon are we creating and popularizing new forms of media, while older forms have no defaults? Is it necessary to get a new cell phone every six months if your previous one isn't broke? Will children in the next few generations be learning how to read from a computer screen? The crazy thing is that these ideas don't seem that far off.

"Language of film" understood and spoken by all?

When we were discussing the elements of the “language of film” and genres in class earlier this week, I wondered if these elements applied to only American and Western-society films or for all films in existence. I tried thinking about the movies I have seen from other countires, and if they used different forms of editing and sound styles. I couldn’t think of too many foreign-made films. When I lived in Spain, I saw some American movies dubbed into Spanish but also saw a few films made by Spaniards. They seemed like they could fit into some of the genres, but also have their own. Each country probably has its own style within the genre, just like a director has his/her own style. But are there some non-Western films that have completely new genres or elements of film language?

The Tokyo International Film Festival is going on now until November 5th. In an article by The Japan Times on October 16th, a writer said that usually two “high-profile entries” come from the United States; ones that didn’t get into any western festivals. The fact that the popular ones were also the ones that didn’t do well within western standards led me to believe that the language and genres are different between western and non-western films. Now that I am aware of the “language of film,” I will be more apt to critique and find differences next time I see a western and non-western film.

Campaign Ad = Camp Ad

With all the campaign advertisements being crammed into the media in the last five days before election day, it didn’t surprise me when I received a Facebook message with a link of a Youtube video with a campaign ad motif. A friend that works for a summer camp that I went to when I was a kid sent me a message informing about the following summer’s activities and a video link. Discovering that it had a campaign ad theme didn’t surprise me much because right now much of the media is using the election theme in their media advertisements and production.

The camp video is similar to campaign ads in many ways. First, the voice narrating is deep and smooth, and sounds inspirational. The voice speaks somewhat slowly without music at first, reminding viewers about how the negativity of the campaign is getting tiring and about dreaming of a better time. This then leads into talk about early registration for the camp will be that better day in the distance. The music becomes more upbeat. It is similar to a campaign ad in that there’s a clear distinction between the first half and second half of the ad; in the first part one party is negatively talking about the other, then things change around and the party sponsoring the ad gives hope, speaks inspirationally, urges viewers to make the right choice for their safety and well being.

All sorts of media are using the campaign and political motif to get viewers attention, either by poking fun or by taking a more serious tone, urging people to vote. Saturday Night Live has had some of their highest ratings with their political skits. Also, MTV is doing a countdown, shown on the bottom right of the television screen, until Election Day, along with many special tv shows and web articles about the election’s issues.

With so much media feeding off the campaign, it’s almost hard to think where they will find their ideas after November 4th, but then again, with a new president there’s always much to talk about.

Held in Iran

A grad student from Los Angeles, was arrested and thrown in jail in Iran on October 15th.  She was in Iran working on a thesis on women's struggles.  (She is a dual citizen of Iran and U.S.) She was pulled over in her car by the police, thinking she was being  stopped for a driving violation.  Instead she was forced to lead them to where she was living, where they searched her belongings and confiscated her computer which contained video footage for her study.  

In a video newscast on the Los Angeles Times website, the reporter said that the woman's family was told by officials that if they didn't go to press she would be released soon.  Yet she still hasn't been released as of now and hasn't been able to have contact with anyone.  The embassy said that she may be being tortured.

I think that its interesting that the Iranian police/administration told her family that she'd be released soon if no press would find out.  What could they be doing that would look bad in the press? Are they doing something illegal or against their rules?  The international press surely would think differently than the national press too.  

The fact that this woman is detained is thought of as a terrible thing to us in the United States, but the media in Iran most likely isn't thinking the same.  They may think its a good thing, to check her out to see if she's a threat or something.  Still there are many, many women who are upset because of the treatment she's getting in the country.