Seminar Essays
From digmovements
Communication Revolution
As I read chapter 4 The Moment of Truth I found it interesting how the American public joined in on the media movement. What caused us to be so concerned as to act on the media issue? McChesney states “But what was a crucial in 2003 was that a light switch went on for millions of Americans. They did not have to accept all the problems with media as an unalterable given.” Why did the light switch go on for so many average Joe American citizens for them to take a stand against corporate media? McChesney does a program on PBS, which I think started the ball rolling. Both the show and the authors received overwhelming feedback. Another critical action they involved in the movement was to hold town meetings. This brought face-to-face contact with other people that were concerned with the way corporations were steering media in their favor. This also brought numbers, in person, to confront corporations and to show the government people weren’t happy with the course that was being taken. The internet played a big part in mobilizing the people. When the government set up a meeting with only a few days advanced notice, people were able to mobilize quickly through the internet. This gave them time to be able to attend the meetings or call their legislators (in this case they shut down the phone lines with the amount of calls that came in.) The internet also allowed this to happen in a cost effective way that wasn’t available in years past. For a social movement to happen it takes many forms of communications. In this case television, telephones, internet, and physical meetings all played an integral part, each in their own way to combine for a successful movement.
The Art of Protest T.V. Reed
The title of this book The Art of Protest isn’t what it seems. Instead of a manual on how to protest, it’s an account about how art, such as music, poetry, theater, and graphics have all played a part in social movements. To understand Reed’s intent you should have some prior knowledge of social movements. The first art discussed in the book is singing and how it played an immense part in the civil rights movement. In early times, slaves were allowed to form churches to keep them pacified with a message of deliverance in the afterlife. What the slaves found was they could turn the songs and sermons into coded messages that told about the routes to freedom. Songs and messages were used widely in the civil rights movements. “It was also the perfect tool for organizing communities that were for the most part deeply rooted in a oral cultural tradition.” (page 13) If you have ever been in a predominantly black church you would understand how this worked so well. A black church is emotionally charged. Songs are sung with a power, people are standing, clapping their hands. Bodies are swaying in time with the music. As the pastor is delivering the message people can be heard, almost shouting, “Praise God,” “Amen,” and ”Tell us how it is” It would be hard not to leave after such a gathering and not be excited. So as you can see, applying this same process to the Civil Right’s movement was an easy step. By using the church the church it reached people that couldn’t be reached any other way. It got them emotionally involved and kept them involved. Bernice Johnson Reagon puts it all in perspective. “Freedom songs are on of the best records we have of the transformation of consciousness in the ordinary people, the masses, who took part in the movement.”
The Art of Protest Second Essay
In my first essay, I discussed how music in the Black community played an enormous part in the civil rights movement. As I continued to read the rest of the book on the diverse art forms used in the different social movements, I found myself comparing each one to music and the advantage music had. In each of the other arts, the people had to get their art noticed and then acted upon by the populace. The Women’s Rights movement used poetry to make a statement, but how did they get into the hands of ordinary everyday woman? The same question could be asked about each and every one of the other art forms used. Music on the other hand had a captive audience. Music didn’t have to get its message out to the populace, the populace came to it. The church has played and important part of the African Americans life since back in the s
[edit] Ostertag, People's Movements, People's Press
Seminar Essay
Doug Richert
The Underground GI Press
As I read through the chapters of People’s Movements, People’s Press by Bob Ostertag, the section that peaked my interest was the selection about Jeff Sharlet and his paper called Vietnam GI. Sharlet served two tours in Vietnam where he learned Vietnamese and worked in army intelligence. Upon returning to the U.S. he enrolled in College and joined the Students for a Democratic Society where he soon became the chair. It didn’t take long for Sharlet to be come disenchanted with the group due to their “shallowness and snotty attitude.” Rather than staying at a place where he didn’t “fit in,” he returned to school for just one day, long enough to collect his scholarship check. Sharlet then used that check to launch his newspaper. The Vietnam GI immediately set itself above the rest of the underground newspapers. Instead of printing a newspaper for the populace in the U.S., Sharlet’s newspaper was printed for the GI’s still fighting in Vietnam. As I read through the different snippets of the newspaper that were included in the book, I found myself listening to an actual soldier talking about the war. Gone were the normal slogans you would expect to hear “Make love, not war” “Drop Acid, Not Bombs.” The Vietnam GI printed honest insights from people that were in the middle of the conflict. Sharlet, having gone through the same experiences knew how they felt and it showed in his editor comments. (Which you can check out on page 129) Jeff Sharlet passed away on June 16, 1969 and the Vietnam GI published the last issue in 1970. It makes you wonder, if Sharlet hadn’t passed away would the Iraqi GI be in print today. Side note: I did a search to see if I could find an old issue of the Vietnam GI to see what the whole newspaper looked like. The only thing I could find was some microfiche copies on the Oregon State University site. I was disappointed to say the least. But I did find some information about the movie “Sir, No Sir” which is about the underground GI movement in this era
[edit] Gillmore, We the Media Seminar Essay
Dig Movements
Doug Richert
Seminar Essay
We the Media
Introduction & Chapter 1
I can remember the first computer I ever played on. It was in the early 80’s, a Radio Shack brand that had a cassette player instead of a hard drive. I got to play a Star Trek game on it. Steve had typed a lot of the information in for the game, but once in a while you came across a play that hadn’t been entered in the computer yet. The computer would flash a code that you had to look up in a book, and then type in the information the computer needed to continue on from that point. Our first “personal computer” was a used IBM that we paid $1400 for. What a bunch of fun it was, we could run spreadsheets and play Tetris. The best part was, I would always get the C: and A: drives mixed up when I formatted a disk and would have to re-install DOS all over again. As the first sentence in the introduction states “We freeze some moments in time.” For some reason that first computer has always stuck in my mind. As I read through the introduction some of the things Gillmor talks about I can remember happening: Newspapers being bought out by the bigger corporations, cable TV coming into being, CNN just starting out, and talk radio, which we had to listen to when ever we rode in the car with Dad. But the most important point that he talks about in the introduction and chapter one is how the web has changed journalism from lecture to conversation. I can remember when Kennedy was shot. My parents gathered around the TV with the neighbors, watched the news, then sat around discussing what had happened and how it would affect our country. Today with the advent World Wide Web, when something of great magnitude happens, we make a few phone calls and then run to our computers to talk about it. We talk with people all over the world, not just the neighbors. We can hear actual stories from the people that were involved, not just the few the newspapers or TV feel are newsworthy. We have become a big part of the conversation throughout the world, not just our little neighborhood group.
[edit] Charles Tilly Seminar Essay
Doug Richert
Tilly starts out discussing the beginning of social movements. What I found interesting was the description on page forty about the Lyon silk weavers. Yesterday evening a band of about two hundred people came down from the Croix-Rousse into my quarter, led by an improvised master of ceremonies who carried a stave and who preceded four torch-bearers with sixteen-year-old carrying a red flag…Of these individuals, who seemed to range from fourteen to twenty five years of age, two-thirds were carrying staves. They sang the Marseillaise, the song of the Girondins, and then to the melody of the Lampions “Down with the Emperor! Long live the Republic!” On each side of the sidewalk, the band was followed by about thirty individuals thirty to forty-five years old who appeared to be workers and who seemed to be serving as protection. This demonstration takes place on April 29th 1870. If we were to change a few words such as band, stave, and Emperor, it could pass for a demonstration taking place in Olympia today. Tilly argues that the social movements have changed over the years, have they really? Or, as people have been given more rights, has it gotten easier to hold protests? The above such protest was held after an (approximately) fifteen year interruption due to the repression of the government. Today in the United States we are give the right to protest and as long as it stays peaceful, the protesters are not bothered. It would be interesting to find out how many protests are held on any given day here in the U.S. Other countries do not have the same right to protest as we have. Often they are risking their lives when they join a social movement representing something as simple as basic human rights. Many times have we seen violent protests on TV from other countries. These people have no other alternative to get their government’s attention. The sad thing is the protesters lives may not be worth much and the protest turns deadly. Technology has also changed the way social movements are mobilized. In class the term phone tree was used, Tilly used the same analogy, but instead of calling someone, they used text messages to get the information out. The internet has also changed the way social movements have grown. I did a Google search of “Green Movement” and there were 850,000 hits. The internet has made it much easier to get information out to the public. It has made it much easier for we the people to search out and obtain the information we are looking for. I don’t think the act of social movements have changed much over the last 150 years. It has just become much easier to make one happen.
