Improv Everywhere--we cause scenes

http://improveverywhere.com/

Just a quick update---it's been about 4 weeks since they posted the Grand Central Station freeze mission and already the video on youtube has had 6.8 million views. Also noteworthy--there have been 28 other "copycat" missions in 28 different cities in 13 different countries! Anybody wanna do one in Denver?

Here are some links to my favorite improv everywhere missions--we watched some of these in class.

111 shirtless men in A&F
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdeBp8J0rqs&feature=user

Synchronized Swimming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggm_j_6jgTc&feature=user

Frozen Grand Central
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

No pants 2k6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7snbtwG5wc&feature=user

Best Buy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utkkXCF8ZVc&feature=user

Suicide Jumper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vsdtCuXS_I&feature=user

But really...once baseball season starts again I'd be totally down to help organize a "no pants" ride on game night on the light rail!

KRS One and Stop the Violence in New Orleans

KRS One visits a "camp site" in New Orleans as part of Stop the Violence's campaign to get the Hip Hop community involved in addressing global violence through education, critical dialogue, grassroots organizing and direct action. I've always had mixed feelings about KRS One's activism similar to the ones we discussed in class about celebrity activism. However, this video is really telling of the complex issues in New Orleans where there's no one group of people to blame - rather a complex system of governmental failures, issues of poverty and gentrification, land use, and natural disaster response.



Seeing this video reminded me of TED talk that I've been reading about from Philip Zimbardo (known for theStandford prison experiment) about his book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (here's a nice interview from Wired). When people are put under intense pressure to survive or do their jobs, there are horrific things they'll do. While the scene with KRS One handing out money is a smaller contained example, this isn't something people would do normally but they're put in position where they're broke, homeless, hopeless, living in a city with a blind government and there's a guy handing out 20 dollar bills. What would you do?

more stencils!

hello all,

its interesting how you notice things once you become aware of them... as i was walking to have breakfast on downing sunday morning, i noticed two pieces of stencil graffiti. im not sure if i was paying more attention because i would be giving a presentation on banksy the next day, but either way i thought they were good... especially the christ with the cross on his back firing a missle... religion can ignite so much hatred, create so many divisions...

RSS as GLU

Here's an inspirational video/slideshow by Alexander Hayes about how Web 2.0 technologies and RSS are changing education (I mentioned it briefly in class today). I'm hoping more academics pick up this methodology!

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Slavery Still Exists Week

The "Activist workshop" looks pretty interesting on Wednesday.

Slavery Still Exists Week

Because Abraham Lincoln didn't end slavery...

Information

Event Info

Name:	Slavery Still Exists Week
Tagline:	Because Abraham Lincoln didn't end slavery...
Host:	DU Task Force, CORD & THe Polaris Project
Type:	Causes - Protest

Time and Place

Start Time:	Monday, February 25, 2008 at 8:00am
End Time:	Friday, February 29, 2008 at 7:00pm
Location:	All over the world!
City/Town:	Denver, CO

Contact Info

Email:

DUTaskforce@gmail.com

Description

The Slavery Still Exists Campaign is the national grassroots public awareness program of Polaris Project on modern-day slavery and human trafficking. At the University of Denver, we will have a series of events open to all students to raise awareness on the issue of human trafficking and modern slavery, including:

Monday - Lecture: "History of Slavery" by Prof. Caleb McDaniel
Department of History
February 25 5:30pm at the Lindsay Auditorium, Sturm Hall

Tuesday - "Charcoal People"
February 26 6:00pm at the International House (2200 S. Josephine St) Sponsored by Peace Corps Week. Refreshments will be served.

Wednesday - "Activist Workshop" by Seth Donovan,
Program Director, Prax(us)
February 27 12:00pm at the Commerce Room, Driscoll Center

Thursday - Lecture: "Slavery in Colorado" by Prof. Claude d'Estree
Graduate School of International Studies
February 28 5:30pm at the Lindsay Auditorium, Sturm Hall

Friday - "Revolution T-Shirt Making Party"
Hosted by Prax(us) and Rocky Mountain Animal Defense February 29 7:00pm at Whittier Community Center (2900 Downing St)

We will also have a booth at the Driscoll Center throughout the week to provide information and conduct a photo campaign.

Wikileaks shut down

A controversial website that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously post government and corporate documents has been taken offline in the US.

Wikileaks.org, as it is known, was cut off from the internet following a California court ruling, the site says.

The case was brought by a Swiss bank after "several hundred" documents were posted about its offshore activities.

Read more.

NIU community successful in blocking WBC protests

Looks like the groups that utilized Facebook and other social networking sites were able to band together with local law enforcement to avoid any major confrontation at one of the NIU victim's funerals:

"When this is what you do as your hobby, as your leisure time, this is what you spend your money on," said Paulette Phelps, daughter-in-law of Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church. "This is our vacation. This is our fun time."

In spite of their inflammatory signs, including one that read, "God sent the shooter," their protest took place almost without incident.

The only exception was when a mourner shouted at the protesters from behind a police barricade before being led away by police.

The presence of several dozen police officers from departments throughout the county seemed to effectively prevent any confrontations between the Westboro Baptist Church and mourners.

A row of St. Charles snowplows formed a physical and highly visible barrier between the park where the protesters were assembled and the east entrance of the church.

About 40 officers from the Kane County Mobile Task Force, in riot gear, stood guard around the park to protect the mourners from the protesters.

"They have the ability to express their freedom of speech," St. Charles Police Chief James Lamkin said. "We wanted to make sure there was nothing that would disrespect the funeral."

About 15 students from around the suburbs were on hand to express their disgust for the protesters' message.

Read more.


Also, the article I wrote for Pop + Politics on memorializing the NIU shootings on social networks is available here. I'd love any feedback or comments if you have time as I'm planning to write something more lengthy for my master's thesis!

Citizen Journalism

We discussed citizen journalism briefly today in class, and I thought this was a good example.

http://www.yourhub.com/

Yourhub.com is an example of citizen journalism that's owned by a corporation. In Denver, it's associated with the Rocky Mountain News, but it appears in other states as well. The idea behind yourhub.com is to get citizens involved and informed of community issues; the regions are very localized and it is mainly an online publication, though there is a weekly printed insert in the Rocky. Anyone who registers can post, and by posting online, citizens give rights to the publication to possibly be published in print. This concept of citizen journalism sort of reaches for the idea of a public sphere, but ultimately fails because there are some filters and control (though much less is controlled for than in an official publication).

Celebrities and Activist Media

After the presentation today that focused on celebrities becoming involved in radical media, I got to thinking about other examples.  The classic Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt example are two celebrities that have become involved in world affairs and quite frankly I believe that they are doing these things just to enhance their "image".  

Is the Will I Am music video about Obama just another example of how celebrities are butting into world affairs?  I feel like all these celebrities who are participating in this music video are making Obama part of "pop culture" which greatly effects who votes for him.  Does this video make Obama appeal more to young people?  Is it right of these celebrities to be voicing their opinions on youtube about the future of our next president?  

I think that these celebrities are forcing people to vote a certain way because they may be fans of that particular celebrity.  Should we vote for a certain candidate just because our favorite celebrity does?  Probably not.  Below is a link to a youtube video that shows many of the celebrity supporters of Obama.

Celebrity support for Barack Obama: 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpdDdzH3VqU

Blogger put into prison

Here are some video links about the blogger Fouad Al-Farhan who was arrested for blogging in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.alfarhan.org/

Fouad Al-Farhan was blogging some topics that critisized the Saudi Arabian government which led to his arrest in December 2007. Because many public gatherings are banned in Saudi Arabia - the only way a public sphere can exist is within the blogging community. People can have anonymous aliases and can have more freedom with their ideas.

I found out about this case from my friend who was aware of this incident in the Middle East. In particular I found it interesting on how strict Saudi Arabia is with their radical and activist media.

Here's another link with an article about Fouad Al-Farhan.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/blogger-who-dared-to-expose-saudi-corruption-is-arrested-767807.html

Culture Jamming

After the midterm, I was surprised that I had some trouble coming up with an example of culture jamming that we hadn't discussed.  I was searching the web last night and came across these two examples of culture jamming.  These two were some of the most obvious/prevalent ones that I came across.  Hope you all have time to check it out and find it interesting.  

will.i.am and john.he.is

Check out this spoof on the Will.i.am Yes We Can video.



And here's the Yes We Can video incase you missed it.

Networked Journalism

This is a post by Angie

Through all of the reading and explanations, it has still taken me quiet some time to truly understand what the term “Networked Journalism” really means. Ultimately it took a blog entry from Jeff Jarvis on BuzzMachine to make things clear to me. Click here to get to the article.

Basically networked journalism according to Jarvis is professionals and armatures working together to get the real story. I agree with his statement because ultimately anyone can witness the news, you don’t have to be a big-named reporter or professional journalist to make the news actual news. Jarvis also mentions in his entry that the focus of the process more than the product is what makes news. I also agree with this because the process of making news is very important. You have to have your facts, details, questions, perspectives and many different factors all straightened out before you can call something news. The straightening out of all these different things is the process.

I think it is very important for people to think critically about what they see and hear on the news and contribute those thoughts. Jarvis stated in his entry, “We are all in this together.” He is referring to amateur and professional journalists. If this is the case and we all are responsible for creating the news is it very important that we challenge ourselves and each other by thinking critically about our news.

a documentry to look at

As we have discussed documentaries in class I wanted to show the class this Sundance special jury prize winner and academy award (oscar) nominated documentary on the subject of civil rights for same sex couples. This topic is similar to the Fox news interview. Please take a look for yourself at the preview. It has strong emotional appeal. The story was told without an narrator.

The address for the website is www.freeheld.com

Facebook and politics

From my presentation I told how many politicians have used Facebook as a tool to promote their presidential campaigns. I thought it was a really interesting way of having a public sphere where Facebook members can make their own groups about politicians and respond to the different types of content on certain candidate sites. Facebook members can post on walls, view photos, watch Youtube videos, read notes, and view other content from candidates. Here's an article from CNN that talks about how influential Facebook has become for the presidential elections.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/08/facebook.vote/index.html

In my presentation I also showed some of the candidate profiles on Facebook such as:

Barack Obama
http://www.facebook.com/barackobama?ref=s

Hillary Clinton
http://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton?ref=s

and some other profiles such as

Mitt Romney
http://www.facebook.com/mittromney?ref=s

John McCain
http://www.facebook.com/johnmccain?ref=s

KRS One Lecture

The sound quality of this is awful, but KRS One makes some parallels that made me realize that hip hop acts as activist media. Around 5:23 he makes some good observations:

Documentary on hip hop's beginnings

I wanted to share this with whomever (Jackie?) is doing their paper on hip hop, because its a fascinating piece of media about Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation, Malcolm McClaren, DJ Kool Herc, b-boy culture, and the South Bronx. The beginning is weird, but you'll get an idea of how different hip hop was in the early 80's and late 70's and how it served the south Bronx community.

Sheila and Kate on FOX

Here's a link to the video of Sheila and Kate that we didn't get to see in class.

What do you think about this??

My friend joined this group on facebook. Maybe it's a way of showing some kind of solidarity with people of a similar religious persuasion. Perhaps they joined because they wanted to argue with people that were bashing Jews on the wall. I don't know...

I checked it out because I'm Jewish and I was curious to see how many of us there were in this group on facebook. It disturbed me to see what is written on the wall and the topics of the discussion board. There are serious topics for example the discussion of the birth right trip; however, others pertain to sexuality in a joking manner. The wall postings discuss how big Jewish noses are, the fact that the Holocaust "didn't" happen, oh and my personal favorite that "Jews suck camel dick and Hitler rules."

I feel open access is important because it maintains a democratic public sphere affording people (that have access to technology) the opportunity to bring topics into discourse that may normally stay under the radar due to hegemonic standards within the public sphere and public screen. Often times however, especially on mass social networking websites, (that are not advocacy related) people come in and speak freely against what the "group" or "discussion" for which it was initially erected.

What do you all think about this? Is this an inevitable phenomena? Should people fight with those that are opposing them? Does that only bring about more opposition? Does it make the group less alluring? Is dissent just a natural occurrence that is found in our society and in groups on the internet? How does it differ on the internet?

The groups homepage is below.

HOW MANY JEWISH PEOPLE ARE ON FACEBOOK???

Global

Information

Group Info

Name:	HOW MANY JEWISH PEOPLE ARE ON FACEBOOK???
Type:	Just for Fun - Inside Jokes
Description:	***Hey Just wanted to let everyone know I closed the group off. I thought this would enable me to filter out the "Haters"*** FIRSTLY JUST KNOW THIS GROUP IS FOR FUN AND HAS NO REAL PURPOSE OTHER THAN TO SEE IF WE CAN GET ALL THE JEWS ON FACEBOOK INTO ONE GROUP JUST KIND OF A FUN PROJECT. NO ONE IS DONATING ANY MONEY FOR EVERY PERSON WHO JOINS BUT YOU ARE FREE TO VOLUNTEER. IF YOU JOIN THIS GROUP AND TRY TO GET ALL THE JEWS IN THE GROUP THIS WAY IF YOU EVER ARE SOMEWHERE AND YOU NEED A PLACE TO STAY FOR THE SABBATH OR HOLIDAYS OR ANYTHING AT ALL YOU WILL KNOW WHERE TO LOOK FIRST (OKAY NOT GONNA HAPPEN BUT STILL COOL TO THINK ABOUT A PERFECT WORLD) THIS IS NOT MEANT TO SINGLE OUT JEWISH PEOPLE BUT RATHER TO JOIN THEM TOGETHER THIS IS MEANT TO BE A FUN AND HELPFUL GROUP (AND A PLACE WHERE WE CAN POST STUFF ONLY WE ARE ALLOWED TO LAUGH AT LIKE THOSE JOKES CMON YOU KNOW WHICH ONES) AND AT THE END WE WILL THROW ONE HUGE HANNUKAH PARTY THIS TIME NEXT YEAR OKAY MAYBE NOT BUT STILL WOULD BE KINDA COOL TO SEE HOW MANY JEWS THERE ARE ON FACEBOOK ***Okay I have finally decided to turn off the Caps lock to address one issue. So many of you say im a dumb ass or this is a horrible group because "anti semites know exactly where to look" of "we can get rounded up again".. you guys are whacked out. What the hell is gonna happen?! Is an antisemite gonna send us all viruses or something. Get real people stop being annoying and just enjoy the group for what it is, a place to connect with your fellow jews. If an antisemite wanted to find all of us he could search for the last name goldstien or schwartz and that would be half of the group anyways. :).. So If you are scared, no one is stopping you from joining the "HOW MANY NON-JEWISH PEOPLE ARE ON FACEBOOK GROUP?" ** Purim pictures are welcomed and encouraged as well as any other way you can share the joy of Adar with your fellow jews reguardless of how many there are** Eating Lox and Muenster cheese with triscuits is so jewish THE CAPS LOCK IS BACK AND HERE IS WHY... STOP FIGHTING WITH EACHOTHER ITS A LITTLE DISGUSTING AND WHAT TYPE OF IMPRESSION DOES IT LEAVE TO THOSE WHO ARE READING AND NOT JEWISH. STOP STOP STOP, DONT ARGUE ABOUT REFORM VS CONSERVATIVE VS ORTHODOX. ENJOY AND APPRECIATE THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALL JEWISH, ALL OF THE GUYS ARE MISSING A PEICE AND ALL OF THE GIRLS CAN MULTI-TASK WE ARE ALL THE SAME PEOPLE SO STOP FIGHTING. ***To all of you jew haters (specifically flikso dixie and samal kamal allah what ever your guys names are) you guys are all crazy and I appreciate your posts, you give all of us a great laugh. We would be scared but your claims of blowing yourselves up or killing all of us would be much more frightening if you could spell. By all means continue posting whatver your want but realize that all you are doing is making us feel more secure because that we now know that the people who want to kill us probably still have to sing the bunny ears song so they remember how to tie their shoes. Oh and on that note BRING IT!!!...****** Oh oh oh wait I forgot something, I heard on the news that the FBI and CIA track terrorists through facebook and myspace so yeah um ............ **** Just letting you know Im gonna open up the pictures again so feel free to add. But if you happen to not shower or hate israel or if you cant write or if you agree with anyone whose last name starts with an Ahmad or Bin Laden please do not post pictures it is very annoying to go back and erase them.

Contact Info

Website:	http://yu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2225082847
State:	NY

Recent News

**Hello all my fellow people, as most of you have probably heard Iranian President Mymamadroped- Meonmyhead has been invited to speak at Columbia University. In case you guys for some reason dont know that problem with this guy, lets just say that if it was up to him this group would be called "How many Jewish People WERE on facebook?" Yeah I said it. So guys if you are in New York, go do something about it dont be quiet, I think we all know what happens when no one speaks up.**

On a happier note, This group is awesome and Im going to send a letter to some Jewish Orginizations to see if we can sponser some sort of get together. If you think that may be a good idea and would be interested in going to Israel or meet somewhere in the states Send me a message let me know if you are interested and where you would be willing to go.**(Dont worry guys, I dont work for birthright, but it would be funny if I set this whole thing up just to be able to go to Israel for free, forever)

***ADD PICTURES OF THE MOST JEWISH THINGS YOU KNOW OF****

AND ALSO IT IS OBVIOUS THAT DOWN THE LINE IF THE GROUP GETS BIG ENOUGH PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT FANS OF US "JEWS" WILL BEGIN MAKING COMMENTS THAT WILL PROBABLY GET US A LITTLE UPSET SO WE CAN GO ABOUT HANDLING THIS ONE OF TWO WAYS 1)IGNORE IT 2)DONT IGNORE IT AND WRITE SOMETHING THAT ALL OF US WILL BE ABLE TO LAUGH AT AND HE/SHE WONT. I GO WITH NUMBER TWO BECUASE I CANT WAIT TO BE THERE FIRST ONE TO CALL SOMEONE "PASSOVER CEREAL" THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN THAT!



***Anyone who needs a place for any jewish holiday and isnt a stalker really pretending to be a jewish guy or girl, should feel free to ask around, seems like all 18000 of you are great people except for the occasional Ahmadinejad who strolls in.**** Just throwing it out there, you can throw it right back

Just wanted to let you know we have reached 18,198 people divide that by chai (18) you get 1011 what that means I have the slightest clue but if this group reaches 613,000 i might be able to think of something.

Just want to hear some of your guys/girls opinions on what I should do when someone comes in a writes something on the wall that probably rubs the children of moses in the wrong way. If you are curious, read the comment by ahmed "FUKK ALL U STUPID FUK JEWS, U GUYS R ALL GONNA DIE SOON U BIG NOSED PUSSHOLES." So Im gonna start a discussion and you guys can tell me if I should keep them or erase them. If we decide to keep them up I will then start another discussion on whether or not we should teacher them how to spell and use punctuation marks so this way when they try to make us feel like "FUK JEWS" we will know they really mean fucking jews. By the end of the week ill see what wins. And then we can have a raffle. Okay maybe no raffle.

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Israel Sex Festival Sextival Penetrates Tel Aviv

http://www.israelnewsagency.co...

By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----- February 5, 2008 ....... The first ever sex festival in Israel got off to a hot start this evening. Hanger 11 in the northern Tel Aviv port can now boast the proud record for having the most vibrating plastic dildos in one place in the Middle East. ....

Posted by Joel Leyden

DAVIDRUBANLIKESITINTHEASS.ORG

http://DAVIDRUBANLIKESITINTHEASS.ORG

ITS TRUE

Posted by Pablo Delerosa Jaun Montoya

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DAVID RUBAN IS GAY AND LIKES COCK

1 post by 1 person. Updated 17 hours ago.

Taglit-Israel Birthright Summer 2008

1 post by 1 person. Updated 24 hours ago.

sam46176126@modmailcom.com

1 post by 1 person. Updated on Feb 5, 2008 at 2:50 AM.

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Danny Yana	Mehmet Selvi	Laura Bartky	Gabriela Montevideo Uruguay	Ido Zifroni	Keren Charney

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Guy Shipman (London) wrote at 9:34am pablo your just being an idiot now. Your insults are virtually complimeants they're so bad. John tucker + Pablo = burritos keep it having sex guys i like eating burritos Message - Report

Ethan Rauf (London) wrote at 10:16pm yesterday Anyone see those 4 huge black guys banging Tucker's mother. Bent her head back and she gave it. Tucker your mother has the nicest ass in the world damn I bet she likes it. Message - Report

John Tucker (no network) wrote at 10:11pm yesterday better then suckin dick FAGGOT Message - Report

Ely Bridge (South Kingstown High) wrote at 9:22pm yesterday john and pablo sucking each others pussies. Message - Report

Pablo Delerosa Jaun Montoya (Mexico) wrote at 7:01pm yesterday I SEE BIG NOSES Message - Report

Pablo Delerosa Jaun Montoya (Mexico) wrote at 6:52pm yesterday JEWS SUCK CAMEL DICK HITLER RULES Message - Report

John Tucker (no network) wrote at 2:53pm yesterday HOLICOST UNREAL IDEA Message - Report

David Yid Ruben (Vancouver, BC) wrote at 2:48pm yesterday Pablo licks John Tucker's ass while he plays with his brothers balls. Message - Report

Jamie Gibbon (London) wrote at 2:16pm yesterday Im not a jew. But i just wanna say that Pablo plays with his brothers balls. Message - Report

Alanna Katz (SUNY Buffalo) wrote at 2:07pm yesterday Hey everyone, I just got back from an amazing trip to israel through Taglit-birthright: Oranim. If any of you have questions about the trip, and were thinking about going, feel free to send me a message on facebook. Registration is Feb 12 :) Message - Report

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Officers

Tali Leibowitz (Israel)

By far the person who posts on the wall the most and Israel officer

Gil Small (Santa Barbara City)

PROBABLY THE ONLY JEW IN PERU OR HONDURAS

Ryan Sacks (UCSB)

HEAD OF UCSB JEWS

Question

Hey-
I've been sick lately, though I have learned recently that they don't think it is viral (i.e. not contagious). Due to this fact I have been forced to miss some class...like today and last week. I am a dedicated student and would appreciate it if anyone wanted to review with me. We could go to Stella's... or that other good coffee place on Evans. I usually study alone so I understand if you do not feel inclined but it would be greatly appreciated and I'll buy the coffee ;).

Thanks,

Julia Kaplan

Back-to-Iraq

This is a great blog written by a former reporter for the AP that left his job and went to Iraq with money donated by supporters who wanted a reporter to go to Iraq and cover what is really going on there. He raised over $15,000 and has been reporting since 2002 and has a large number of readers each day. He has now begun reporting in several other areas of the world.

It is a good example of fighting hegemony in mainstream media and getting real news we can rely on.

http://www.back-to-iraq.com/

YouTube and Academia?

I'm slightly frustrated by this video posted by a professor who utilized YouTube in her class to get her students to think about media critically. She's very honest about her frustrations and successes within the course. Here's an outline of the five points she makes in her video about why her experiment with YouTube in the classroom wasn't successful:

1. YouTube is a new media form surrounded by speed and efficiency. Doesn't allow extended dialogue which is what academics specialize in.

2. Humor and sincerity are important qualities of YouTube videos. Attempting to communicate something in a logical structured format isn't considered successful.

3. Popularity is a fundamental organizing strucutre for YouTube (corporate and people's viewing experience). Searching for this popularity leads to meritocracy. "There is a certain amount of talent that is needed to produce things that rise up and above the noise."

4. YouTube sells us the same type of commercials that other media sell us, but in a slicker mode. The corporate imperative causes this. YouTube is a "big TV." Policing organized around the most mediocre mainstream middling ideas of the culture, everything that falls to the outside is suspect and easy to remove.

5. There is a second world, niche micro communities, who produce radical culture and media outside the logic of YouTube and isn't well supported by YouTube's structure. It needs to find a new community that will support building an infrastructure for dealing with (I'm paraphrasing here)"asking the harder questions, saying the hard things that need to be said...and hold on to the terrain that is slipping away as corporate culture and mainstream culture take away our energy."

How do you feel about Juhasz's comments? I know that I haven't taught or participated in a class that used YouTube as it's main source of communication, but I will say personally, it is examples such as this that make me never want to teach within a university setting. Her 5th point really gets under my skin, which I interpret as "Academia needs its own ivory tower mode of discussion and YouTube isn't good for anything except videos of cats." Wow... what about media literacy projects like this, political activism and education like this, or smart détournement like this, or citizen media like this.

Yes, there are lots of stupid things on YouTube and they don't develop a discussion and most users probably don't think critically about media but becoming a producer of media is the beginning of that (in my opinion...maybe I'm wrong). I think it's a fantastic entry way into a smarter, more critically minded, accessible dialogue about media production.

monopoly?

we have read much about the power of media conglamorates, and their desire to control the distribution of information...

i read this story yesterday and felt it was worth sharing...

"Google troubled by Microsoft move"
Internet giant Google urges regulators to scrutinise Microsoft's proposed $44.6bn move to buy Yahoo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/business/7225599.stm

Here is the image one student showed interest in during my presentation. I'm not sure if I did in fact get it from that website which is why I wanted to post it.

In response to the project critisizing ads for prescriptions

I agree that there are over diagnosed illnesses as a result of pharmaceutical marketing campaigns. The most noted would probably be ADHD. However, there are drugs that have benefited the public through advertising. One example would be the Gardsil vaccine. This vaccine, passed by the FDA a little over a year ago protects women (and soon men) from three types of HPV. HPV causes infertility in women and in men can lead to an equal amount of oral and throat cancers as smoking. Another drug that is beneficial is the morning after pill.

Some advertisements may turn some American's into hypochondriacs and cause them to seek assistance from their medical professionals. Others, may spread awareness and protect against potential dangers (preventative medications like Gardisil). If people have such a low concept of themselves and their stability bolstered through anti-depression/ anti-anxiety ads then it may be best that they seek profession help in the form of cognitive therapy.

People that do not take any medicines (Christian Scientists) have been known to die when they get treatable diseases. I hope that this is not the trend. I do not wish to sound bitter but if it is the new way we are dealing with the inundation of pharmaceutical advertisements at least we can cut down on pollution and a swelling population.

I also think pharmaceutical companies are vilified all to frequently. Don't people dislike them because of the costs of their medicine? This is because of intellectual property...within 10 years or so they stop making money because the patent expires and generic companies bid. They they need a new break through. Soon enough they will all be owned by the government.

I am a daughter of a pharmaceutical man...forgive my defense. My dad only went to the FDA to get drugs passed. Since I find him to be honorable I have trouble finding his profession incredibly dishonorable.