Tag Archives: Alternative Media

Censored

The article by Thomas Eland opened a can of worms, living in a society where there ā€œsupposed to beā€ freedom of speech and the right to self expression without being attacked or censored. The media is to be here to make the public aware of what is taking place; why are they manipulated by the gatekeepers? Only telling what they want us to know, not the truth. Yes, I am fully aware that some things political and economical pertaining to the country are to be kept secret; but other things! For example Ebola, I would like to understand and I am positive many other individuals in society would like to understand and Ā know the truth about it. Does it really exist? How are we living Ā in this modern ere with evolving technology and medicine and there are large outbreaks of Ebola wiping out thousand around the world. I believe there are the ā€œbig dogsā€ of the media that decipher what is to be told; concentrating on the money making rather than the truth.

The alternative press are not afraid to tell the truth; an example of that is the newspaper in Paris that was attacked for telling the truth. Personally, IĀ prefer the alternative press because I am able to, read and understand what society really thinks and what is taking place without the censorship.
Reading about Zine was very informative In my opinion It is a great way to express yourself and free your thought; without being censored.

Alternative Press/Media

The reading Ā ā€œCritical Thinking, Deviant Knowledge, and the Alternative Pressā€ by Thomas Eland talks about how we are at the mercy of major corporations and do not realize it. This may be caused by the mass media which is such a significant force in the shaping of our way of life, resulting in the negative aspects being filtered out. Some of these multinational corporations also control various aspects of mass media and profit, all in the the name of capitalism. A good example of this was mentioned in “Research Strategies” by William Badke where the average person that searches for something on Google, usually just chooses the information from the first results page. What this does, is limit our ability to do real research.

 

In the article ā€œThe History and Characteristics of Zinesā€ by Fred Wright we take a step back and see that not everything has to be tainted by commercialism. Zine works produced are non commercial publications containing a wide variety of subjects but not limited to music, comics, fantasy/science-fiction. In the years of its early beginnings zines were more of a community of fandom related to a fixed set of interests. But it has since then evolved. The growing popularity of this form of Ā print media can be attributed to it’s similarity social network for groups/interests on a website, but a more analog version. More importantly zines are not subject to censorship from gatekeepers like traditional media as it is self published work.

Notes from today (2/9), and reading & blogging assignments for Wednesday 2/11

Today we discussed the pros and cons of a wide range of analog and digital non-text media. we ran out of time before I could show the trailer to the filmĀ Side by Side, so watch it on your own if you wish:

A 2012 New York Times article “Film is Dead?” nicely describes how analog film works, and offers a variety of perspectives on the economic impact of the industry’s move in the digital direction.

On Wednesday, we will discuss alternative media in both print form (zines and the underground press) and electronic form (blogs, wikis, etc.)
For Wednesday, please read the following:
Eland, Thomas. ā€œCritical Thinking, Deviant Knowledge, and the Alternative Pressā€
Wright, ā€œThe History and Characteristics of Zinesā€ (Part I only)
Barnard College, About zines: Definition, Genres, How to Make a Zine
Your blogging assignment is one reading response blog post.

~Prof. Leonard

Media Convergence

Living in the twenty-first century non-text media are taken for granted; mainly because society have gotten so accustom to it and it is no longer a ā€œbig dealā€ to most. Technology is evolving everyday and after reading the article: Content, Computing and Communications Ā by Graham Meikle,Ā  I am even more happy about its release. Apple Ā released iTunes, which is an application that keeps track of songs by creating a virtual library,Ā It is also used to play, download, and organize digital audio and video . In 2003, the iTunes store was unveiled customers were then able to quickly find, purchase and download the music they want for just 99 cents per song. Thereafter videos, podcast, books and applications can be purchased or downloaded for free. I use iTunes every day because for me it keeps me entertained and it makes my life as a business owner so much easier with some of the applications. Despite the fact that Ā iTunes Ā may have certain issues like not being able to have more than a certain amount of songs in your library according to how many gigabytes you may have; In my opinion as with everything else there will always Ā be issues and complaints Ā from consumers even if it is something as amazing as iTunes.

I remembered having a discussion with my mother about traditional media and how she is learning and enjoying all these new and alternative multimedia and applications like Pinterest,Pandora and Poshmark. She reminisced about when she growing up, she had nothing but books, regular broadcasting radio and letters; there were no such thing like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where you can find friends, post your thoughts, videos and high resolution images for the world to see and even advertising a business.

Because I am living in this century I prefer the alternative to the traditional print and media; because with just the push of a button you can listen to an almost never ending list of music selected by you or you can watch a movie or television show ā€œon the goā€ via Netflix or Hulu. In my opinion, all of the alternative audios, videos , etc., are amazing and life changing in some cases; that will forever keep changing, making it challenging at times to keep up with but nevertheless the changes are welcoming for me.