Lodoa06 Seminar Papers
From digmovements
Contents |
[edit] Week One
We the Media a book by Dan Gillmor is an interesting view of how Journalism and the internet have connected on a higher level of getting news to people. Mr. Gillmor uses an interesting way of using history of how people started by using Usenet as a method to get ideas from each other which lead to people using message boards to email now to what we now call blogs. His critique of CEO using blogs I found to be really interesting as it presents a means to get out ideas to the company while at the same time making the consumer feel more in touch with what’s going on. The biggest problem I have with Mr. Gillmor’s book is he is not critical of the internet enough in that the average person can start a blog and anyone can read it, I know many of people that use the internet and don’t have the ability to filter out rhetoric and slander. Furthermore I think the moral problem of people presenting themselves as experts to be scary. Although I think Mr. Gillmor’s argument to mine would be that the internet has a way of regulating itself by sheer size and people will be corrected. It’s not to say I don’t believe in the ability of people to manage them self’s, it’s just to me the internet sometimes feels like a very ambiguous place that really doesn’t have the same boarders that physical things do. Overall Mr Gillmor book has been very much a good start to understanding how our life’s have been changed by the internet.
[edit] Week Two
Charles Tilly’s book Social Movements, 1768-2004 was a rather profound and eye opening book for me. His writing style very much reminded me of Howard Zinn in that he had many sources. The thing that separated the two was Tilly’s use of in text citations. I found Tilly’s analysis of what it takes for a movement to be effective to be the most interesting to this class as a whole. In many of ways we still use these tenets to provoke change but I think in many of ways the way the internet has impacted movements is to be more accessible to more people in an instant. I also found that way he compared economic means and democracy to be rather interesting. He, ask a rather striking question that stands out in my mind “Do social movements equal democratization?” As someone in college and that has seen a lot of movements to get freedom abroad and what not, I found this question to be very hard to come to a good conclusion. I think the case could be made that nowadays there is more people that are involved in movements than ever before but at the same token what is there to be shown for progress around?
[edit] Week Three
I found the People’s Press to be a rather interesting look at how journalism has been used as a means to spread agendas that aren’t the mainstream ideas. Mr. Ostertag’s first chapter struck a chord with me in that he talked about two movements that I have yet to learn about in school in great detail. His telling of Williams Lloyds Garrison story of how he was the first to publish a paper about the anti slavery movement was quite interesting. I can see why he chose this story as a way to demonstrate how powerful one person can be despite being poor. In many of ways I could see the connection to the internet and its ability to spread words quickly and cheaply. Furthermore Mr. Ostertag goes on to talk about the women’s suffrage movement and how it was changed drastically by the journalism and pamphlets and how it gave the movement some credibility.His following chapter describes the gay and lesbian movements through of using identity and establishing that being gay really is not just a fad but really a real life style. He leads the reader to understand the plight of getting the movement started by just establishing that there are more people out there than people think. Without giving away the ending he goes on to talk about other movements that have taken place, and the precedent they have put in terms of growing numbers of active people in alternative movements. Overall I think Mr. Ostertag does a pretty good job in articulating the history of the movements in his book, although if there is something that is missing I feel as though his scope was a bit limited in that he didn’t talk about how music has changed culture. I think a chapter on zines and their impact on popular culture would have been a good starting point.
[edit] Week Four
The two things that stuck out to me the most in T.V Reed’s book The Art of Protest is his connection of movements and how movements used popular culture as a means to spread ideas and such. His explaining of the how the church played a crucial role in bringing about change in the civil rights really open my eyes with the power of normal everyday people that go to place and incite great change. I agree with Reed completely when it comes to seeing movements as one thing or person as it is easier to remember that one person or thing than a larger group. I think a good modern example of this is Cindy Sheehan and the mothers against war movement that has recently taken place. Although I believe Sheehan’s stance is very valid to see her as the only mother that has lost a child to war is a bit flawed as there is many of mothers that protest the war that have son’s that have fought and died. Reed’s use of media in his book was something I have never seen in a book when talking about movements. I think a lot of historians like to talk about actions that happened in the street but sometimes forget about the pop culture of the time. In Reed’s book I think he covers this subject very well be it with the Civil Rights use of music and how the youth at the time related to a lot of the jazz and soul music that was out there. Overall Reed shows how a lot of the movements be it Chicano, Civil Rights, or feminist movements used media and music as a means to spread awareness. When it comes to saying if there is anything missing in Reed’s book I would say it’s hard to say because I think the perspective he takes is rather unique and refreshing. It would be easy to say that Reed could have more detail of events that took place but overall I think he gave a context of what happened in the movements.
[edit] Week Five
I found this time around in reading the second half of The Art of Protest to be a stark contrast to the first half. In the second half of the book Mr. Reed addresses less art and gets down to talking more about politics of social movements. The two most striking chapters to me were the chapters that had to do with the Battle in Seattle and we are not the World as both those events I remember well and had a pretty good understanding of them prior to reading this book. The battle of Seattle took place when I was in High school I lived very close to where the demonstrations took place. I can remember many of my friends in school going down to the protest and talking about why they were there. Although at the time my experience of why the people were protesting was a bit lacking. In terms of what the people accomplished at the protest it was huge I was to find out some years later. I think the fact that now there is so much more info on the Battle of Seattle is a true testament to the average person being more capable than ever before. In the book Mr. Reed talks about how each social group used their movement to connect with other movements and how it was a such a crucial point for all the movements that were their to gain steam. Which to the flipside of that is the chapter on we are not the world, where Mr. Reed is very critical of the artist and musicians that contributed to the two complications that benefited the people in Africa. His main gripe with both of them is the lack of diversity and the idea that the “west” way is the best way. I can see Mr. Reed’s points very succinctly that movements should be about the betterment of people. I guess where I sort of get lost is the fact that the main point was to raise the most money. Mr. Reed gets lost in this what I feel as a almost idealistic sense that he forgets that events like this aren’t exactly about being politically correct but rather making the most money of a certain cause. Overall Mr. Reed’s book does a excellent job of looking at movements but while at the same time he can get a bit lost in his own view of the world and how it ought to be.
[edit] Week Six
I found Mr. Mchesney book Communications Revolution to be rather interesting look at how society chooses and adapts to technology. He uses the book as a forum to express how we as a society need to be careful with how accept new technologies in our life’s, he warns of not letting big business ruin the idea of a free access to the internet. The second chapter in the book has to do with how Marxism and Mr. Mchesney own experience with how society see the economic side of Marxist theory. This chapter in many of ways can be described as analysis of theories that Marx used in his manifesto that some people seen as Pro socialist when in fact as Mr. Mchesney points out were actually more about wealth and accumulation of wealth. In the third chapter Mr Mchesney builds his argument towards how people resisted against forces to control the media. He explains his research of the 1920’s and 1930’s as prime examples of people that were against big corporation control, with this he demonstrates that in fact that’s where a lot of movements of anti corporation began. The forth and final chapter Mr Mchesney concludes that through people rallying under a same flag started a movement that would change how we look at the internet and corporations. He gives his four examples as the ways in which people were able to accomplish such unity. In the end Mr. Mchesney leaves with a sense of there is still more to be done and if we don’t continue to make progress we are to be doomed to have the internet ruled by only a few companies. I found his conclusion and the way he articulated his ideas to be rather interesting as I noticed through out the book he used his own personal story to lead the reader into what was going on at certain points during what he thought was important. It is really interesting that he points to his time at The Evergreen State College as one of the big moments that got him to think about the world in a different way. Being an Evergreen Student I can see that Mr. Mchesney sincerely does care about where we are going as a society while at the same get the interesting duality of Marxist theory and consumerism.
